Later today, Donald Trump will be in the state of Nebraska to rev up supporters as he kicks off a campaign blitz of rallies ahead of the midterm elections on 3 November. If his early speeches are anything to go by, cornhuskers can anticipate poll denial, accusations of veganism and an expletive ratio that my nine-year-old would love. And Nebraskans may love it, too: aside from one “blue dot” district in Omaha, Republicans argue their support is steady in the state that has easily backed Trump three times.
This campaign is set against the president’s plummeting approval ratings, the unravelling of his Maga movement and an affordability crisis escalated by his unpopular war on Iran. But Trump supporters are also among the most motivated to vote, and Republicans have far deeper coffers to mobilise their base. I asked First Edition readers what you really want to know about the US midterms.
Today, in a happy exercise in newsletter cross-pollination, I put your questions to our Washington editor Ankita Rao, who runs our US elections newsletter The Stakes. UK politics | The Greens in England and Wales have formally adopted a policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state. Schools | Lawyers and campaigners have condemned the “horrifying” scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools after a Guardian investigation revealed thousands of sexual offences against under-13s are reported to police each year.
Brazil | Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff. Environment | A study of Europe’s summer paints a grim picture for the future, with doctors and climate scientists calling on governments to stop burning fossil fuels, shade buildings, green cities, and install air conditioning in hospitals, schools and care homes. US military | The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base.
You’d be forgiven, readers, if the state of US politics is perplexing you. On the one hand, there are voters who have little faith in the president’s war in the Middle East and are increasingly angry about his inability to make daily life more affordable at home. On the other, Trump has promised a “big surprise” come 3 November – and polls have predicted the wrong results for previous elections.
As Ankita Rao set out in The Stakes in September, her team of reporters across the US are hearing the same things in almost every community they’ve spent time in: Americans feel their lives are dictated by an elite class that goes beyond political parties – best summed up by Democratic senator Jon Ossoff’s use of the term “Epstein class”. People are exhausted by an ongoing crisis in affordability of childcare, healthcare, food and gas. Many have lost trust in institutions, from hospitals to schools.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
