Bhinneka News Online: Monday Morning Briefing: Can Democrats regain control of the House?

Monday, 1 October 2018

Monday Morning Briefing: Can Democrats regain control of the House?

Politics

More Republican than Democratic seats are at risk in this year’s midterms. As the November 6 U.S. congressional elections draw closer, Reuters looks at five metrics to gauge Democrats’ chances of regaining control of the House of Representatives.

Democrats believe they stand to benefit if Trump fires Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Justice Department official who oversees the Russia probe, before November’s elections. But they disagree about how much they should wield it as a weapon in their battle to take back Congress.

FBI probe is the next battle in war over Kavanaugh. Democratic senators expressed concern over reports the White House was working with Republicans to narrow the scope of an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

United States

The United States and Canada forged a last-gasp deal to salvage NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico, rescuing a three-country, $1.2 trillion open-trade zone that had been about to collapse after nearly a quarter century.

Breakingviews: Good intentions and realpolitik rarely mix. That may well be the case with proposals from a trio of international bodies that seek to address some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s gripes with the World Trade Organization while providing ways for other countries to liberalize commerce without his signoff, writes Swaha Pattanaik.

Reuters Top News

@Reuters

American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo win 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine https://reut.rs/2Ne1bIA

7:45 AM - Oct 1, 2018

World

Indonesian authorities scrambled to get help into quake-hit Sulawesi island as survivors streamed away from their ruined homes and accounts of devastation filtered out of remote areas, including the death of 34 children at a Christian camp.

Troops from North and South Korea began removing some landmines along their heavily fortified border, the South’s defense ministry said, in a pact to reduce tension and build trust on the divided peninsula.

Commentary: The British prime minister and the leader of Her Majesty’s opposition gave speeches on the same day this week, outlining their vision for their country’s economy – and by implication, its society. They had little in common, writes writes columnist John Lloyd. He reflects on the dramatically polarized politics of today’s Britain, which are increasingly mirrored across the globe. “The antagonistic visions of May and Corbyn indicate a great disruption in the politics of the world, where the forecasts of a convergence around free-market liberalism as history ends (Francis Fukuyama), and an end of ideology (Daniel Bell) have been exploded."

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