[🇺🇸] USA News/Views

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https://www.newagebd.net/post/north-america/316708/trump-faces-midterm-test-as-democrats-close-in-on-congress

Trump faces midterm test as Democrats close in on Congress
Agence France-Presse . Washington 06 October, 2026, 00:00

US president Donald Trump speaks on stage at the Butler-Vandalia Student Activity Center during a campaign rally on October 03, 2026 in Vandalia, Ohio. | AFP photo.


A month before the US midterms, Democrats are eyeing control of Congress — and the power to put president Donald Trump on the defensive for the rest of his term by investigating his administration and stalling his agenda.

The November 3 vote is shaping up as a verdict on one of the most turbulent presidencies in US history — and, by several measures, Trump goes into it less popular than any predecessor facing midterms in modern polling.

Americans will elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 senators, alongside governors in 36 states. The election decides who controls the legislature — which passes laws, sets the budget and polices the White House.

Forecaster Decision Desk HQ gives Democrats a 75 per cent chance of winning the House, projecting a 234-201 majority. It rates the Senate a near coin flip, with Democrats narrowly favoured to take it 51-49.

Control of the House alone would hand Democrats powerful committees and subpoena authority.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has vowed to ‘hold the crooks accountable’ and says that, in the majority, his party would move to reverse Trump’s tariffs, end US involvement in the Iran war and restore health insurance subsidies.

He has left the door open to a third Trump impeachment.

A Senate win would go further, letting Democrats block Trump’s judicial and cabinet nominees.

Trump has chosen to make the election about his record — a risky bet given polling showing his approval rating in the mid-to-low 30s, the lowest of his political career, with just 17 per cent backing his handling of the cost of living.

A Wall Street Journal survey found no president heading into the midterms had polled worse in its surveys dating to 1990.

Trump returned to power promising to tame inflation, which now stands at 3.4 per cent — higher than when he took office.

The conflict in the Middle East, now in its eighth month, has pushed gasoline above $4 a gallon. Only around a third of Americans approve of the strikes on Iran.

Republican Senate candidates in Iowa, Michigan and Ohio have publicly urged Trump to end the war.

And a sitting Republican senator called for investigations after the president’s eldest son received a lavish wedding gift from a Kremlin-linked Russian businessman — one of a string of Trump ethics controversies Democrats have folded into their pitch on affordability.

‘The midterms could go down as one of the greatest self-inflicted political wounds in history,’ said political analyst and former Senate aide Andrew Koneschusky.

‘From the impact of tariffs to the Iran war, so much of the economic pain the American people are feeling, and the political pain Donald Trump’s party will likely feel in November, was entirely avoidable.’

Yet the formidable cash advantage held by Republicans means a Democratic sweep is not certain.

Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC entered September with $416 million in the bank, and Republican groups are outspending Democrats on the airwaves in several key Senate races.

House speaker Mike Johnson is touring more than 40 districts in the final stretch, offering voters what he calls ‘a clear choice between common sense and Democrats’ crazy.’

Congressional maps redrawn to protect incumbents have sharply cut the number of competitive seats, capping how far a historic wave of discontent can translate into seats.

A gain of around 19 House seats would fall short of the 27-seat average midterm loss for a president’s party over the past 90 years. It would be less than half the 40 seats Republicans lost in 2018, during Trump’s first term.

Still, the battlefield has widened since the summer. Democrats are now competitive in Senate races in Texas, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska — states Trump won by double digits in 2024.

For Trump, barred from seeking a third term, the midterms come just as the fight over his legacy, and over who inherits his movement in 2028, begins in earnest.

‘A strong Republican showing would reinforce the argument that Trump permanently reshaped American politics,’ political analyst Michael Fahey told AFP.

‘Significant Republican losses would raise a very different historical question: Was Trump building a lasting political movement, or was Trump himself the movement?’​

 

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https://www.newagebd.net/post/north-america/317562/us-lethal-injection-survivor-returns-to-prison

US lethal injection survivor returns to prison

Agence France-Presse, Washington

Convicted murderer Christa Pike, who survived a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee last week, has been discharged from hospital and returned to prison, her lawyers said Saturday.

Pike, 50, was given two doses of the drug pentobarbital on September 30 — a usually fatal dose that nevertheless failed to kill her.

She was transported to hospital in critical condition but later regained consciousness, with her lawyers saying this week that she was walking around but in a ‘foggy’ mental state.

Pike is the only inmate to ever survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

‘Christa Pike was discharged from a local hospital and is now at Deborah K Johnson Rehabilitation Centre where she has been housed for more than 30 years,’ her lawyers said in a statement Saturday.

‘She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances,’ the statement went on.

Pike ‘is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,’ the lawyers said. Pike was sentenced to death in Tennessee after she and her boyfriend beat and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp. Pike was 18 at the time of the murder.

The attempted execution came after days of legal wrangling that ultimately reached the Supreme Court.

Pike’s legal team had previously objected to the execution IV protocol, saying it would have caused needless suffering due to her small veins and a blood condition.

Since the botched execution, her lawyers have repeatedly called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison.

Lee, who is a Republican, has suspended executions in Tennessee pending an independent investigation.

Pike’s stunning survival renewed focus on the ethical debate surrounding capital punishment in the United States.

That debate has intensified following the Pentagon’s announcement that it intends to livestream a military execution by firing squad later this year.

Nidal Hasan, a onetime US Army psychiatrist, is scheduled to be put to death on December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas, where he gunned down 13 people in 2009.

The decision to livestream the execution has prompted outrage from a broad array of public figures in the United States, including many Republicans who support the death penalty.

US president Donald Trump indicated Saturday he could still decide against the livestreaming.

‘There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,’ Trump told reporters at the White House.

‘Because you know by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision ultimately.’

Pope Leo, the first American pontiff, posted Saturday on X that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.’

‘The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,’ he said.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

The federal government instituted a moratorium under president Joe Biden, but Trump’s administration lifted it when he returned to office in 2025.​

 

[Saif]

US holds more secret talks with Myanmar's military-backed rulers in Tokyo, sources say

The US and Myanmar's military-backed government held talks in Tokyo last week, people familiar with the matter said, their second meeting in a month as Washington steps up re-engagement with the generals it shunned after their 2021 coup.

en.prothomalo.com

US holds more secret talks with Myanmar's military-backed rulers in Tokyo, sources say

Reuters
Washington/Tokyo

Soldiers of the Shan State Army (SSA) stand guard during the celebrations for the 79th Shan State National Day at Loi Tai Leng, the Restoration Council of Shan State's (RCSS) headquarters, in Shan State, Myanmar, 7 February 2026. Reuters

The US and Myanmar's military-backed government held talks in Tokyo last week, people familiar with the matter said, their second meeting in a month as Washington steps up re-engagement with the generals it shunned after their 2021 coup.

Earlier talks in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw in mid-September focused on securing the release of an American businessman and shutting down scam centers that target Americans, but could pave the way for broader discussions, including on Myanmar’s rare-earth mineral deposits, Reuters previously reported.

It was not immediately clear exactly what the two sides discussed at last week's talks, disclosed to Reuters by three people with knowledge of the engagement. The people, including one US official, all requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Michael Vance again led the Tokyo talks, which involved more than a dozen US officials, one of the people said. Reuters could not establish who represented Myanmar.

A US official disputed that Vance is leading US policy toward Myanmar. "In coordination with other agencies, the State Department has a wide range of officials that lead on Burma policy," the US official said, using the country's former name.

The Trump administration says it engages with all ⁠groups in Myanmar on issues affecting US interests. A spokesperson for Myanmar's military-backed government did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked about its role in hosting the talks, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in an emailed statement it had been "communicating as necessary" with both sides but declined to comment on specific diplomatic exchanges.

Last month's meeting in Naypyitaw between Vance and Myanmar's coup leader-turned-president, Min Aung Hlaing, provided an opening for broader discussions, people familiar with those talks previously told Reuters. The quick return to the negotiating table in Tokyo suggests both sides are keen to keep the dialogue going.

A major focus of the US push is securing Myanmar's help in shutting down scam hubs that run romance and other frauds and have swindled Americans out of billions of dollars, the people said.

Researchers say many scam operations are based in areas controlled by army-backed militia, with some proceeds flowing to the military, raising doubts about whether Myanmar's leaders are serious about enforcement. Myanmar's military-backed government has said it is participating in a multinational effort to curb scam centres.

US officials have also discussed access to Myanmar's large deposits of heavy rare earths, which are used in products ranging from electric vehicles to wind turbines. US officials acknowledge significant obstacles: the deposits are largely located in territory controlled by ethnic armed groups fighting the military, while China, the main buyer of Myanmar rare earths, could balk at any US role.

The US last week lifted sanctions on the daughter of a Myanmar businessman accused of supporting the country's military, saying the move was part of a new approach to the country.

"This approach highlights the importance of pursuing dialogue with all groups involved in Burma’s civil war and commits to re-examining the range of tools the United States has historically leveraged to promote core interests in the country," the State Department said of the sanctions move.

Min Aung Hlaing remains under US sanctions for human rights abuses, including for his role in the coup and crushing a subsequent popular uprising, and the 2016-2017 mass killings and expulsions of Rohingya Muslims that Washington declared a genocide. The armed forces have killed thousands of people in airstrikes since the putsch, which sparked widespread civil war, the United Nations says.

The latest engagements in Japan show the Trump administration views Myanmar through a "purely transactionalist lens," said Hunter Marston, Southeast Asia director at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank.

"The critical minerals and rare earths that Myanmar holds are viewed as probably the chief strategic asset that Washington is interested in within Myanmar," Marston said.

Japan's role unclear

It is unclear whether Japan has any stake in the US-Myanmar talks beyond playing host, including for earlier talks in the Japanese capital in June, but there are signs that Tokyo is also moving to re-engage with Myanmar.

Japan's acting envoy to Myanmar met with the foreign minister of Myanmar's military-backed government earlier this month in their first known public engagement. Tokyo does not formally recognise the administration.

That meeting followed a September visit by Japanese ruling party lawmaker Hiromichi Watanabe to Naypyitaw, which he said was aimed at restarting bilateral cooperation and resuming development aid to Myanmar, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said the acting envoy raised issues such as protection for Japanese nationals and support for Japanese companies, while Watanabe's trip was in his capacity as an individual member of parliament and "does not in any way prejudge" the position of the government.

Watanabe told Reuters his trip was aimed at preparing the environment to normalise relations, though he acknowledged that barriers remained.

Japan condemned the military's 2021 overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government but stopped short of joining the US and other Western governments in imposing sanctions on junta leaders and military-linked entities.

Tokyo was one of Myanmar's largest foreign investors, seeking to counter China's influence in one of Asia's last frontier markets. Unlike numerous Western firms, many Japanese companies remained despite the turmoil that followed the 2021 coup.

Around 300 Japanese companies still operate in Myanmar, down from more than 400 in 2020, according to Japan's trade promotion agency, JETRO.​