World

WASHINGTON — Republicans appeared poised on Wednesday to carve out a slim majority in the US House of Representatives but their hopes of a "red wave" in midterm elections were dashed as President Joe Biden's Democrats defied expectations.

With four key races yet to be called after Tuesday's vote, the Senate remained in play but it was leaning Democratic and control may hinge on a runoff election in the southern state of Georgia in early December.

Republicans seemed on track to reclaim the House for the first time since 2018, but the midterms delivered a mixed bag for Donald Trump, who was widely expected to announce another White House run next week.

While the night saw wins by more than 100 Republicans embracing Trump's "Big Lie" that Biden stole the 2020 election, several high-profile acolytes of the former president came up short.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a likely challenger to Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, scored a resounding victory in his reelection bid.

Among other races, Maura Healey of Massachusetts will make history as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States, and in New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul fended off a Republican challenge.

In ballot initiatives in five states, preliminary results indicated that voters supported abortion rights in a pushback to the anti-abortion movement which won a crucial Supreme Court decision in June.

Aiming to deliver a rebuke of Biden's presidency against a backdrop of sky-high inflation and bitter culture wars, Republicans needed just one extra seat to wrest control of the evenly divided Senate.

But by early Wednesday the only seat to change party hands went to the Democrats, with John Fetterman, a burly champion of progressive economic policies, triumphing in Pennsylvania over Trump-endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.

In the 435-member House, results suggested Republicans were on track for a majority — but only by a handful of seats, a far cry from their predictions.

‘Never underestimate’ 

“Never underestimate how much Team Biden is underestimated,” White House chief of staff Ronald Klain tweeted.

Top Republican Kevin McCarthy — who hopes to be the lower chamber’s next speaker — struck an upbeat note, telling supporters in the early hours: “It is clear that we are going to take the House back.”

But Senator Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, bluntly conceded to NBC that the election is “definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure”.

A Republican-controlled House could still derail Biden’s agenda, launching aggressive investigations, scuttling his ambitions on climate change and scrutinising the billions of US dollars to help Ukraine fight Russia.

The president’s party has traditionally lost seats in midterm elections, and with Biden’s ratings stuck in the low 40s and Republicans pounding him over inflation and crime, pundits had predicted a drubbing.

That would have raised tough questions on whether America’s oldest-ever commander in chief, who turns 80 this month, should run again.

Instead Biden stands to emerge in much better shape than either of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, who both took a hammering at the midterms.

Democrats need two more wins to successfully hold the Senate, while Republicans need three to flip it.

In Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin, counting the remaining votes for Senate could take days.

And Georgia may well go to a runoff on December 6 if neither candidate crosses the 50 per cent threshold.

DeSantis romps 

to victory 

On a night of close contests, one of the most decisive wins was for DeSantis, who won the gubernatorial race overwhelmingly in Florida, cementing his status as a top potential White House candidate in 2024.

DeSantis, who has railed against COVID-19 mitigation measures and transgender rights, won by nearly 20 points against a former Democratic governor in what used to be a swing state.

“We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis told a victory party, using a derisive term for social justice campaigners.

But if the 44-year-old views his victory as a presidential mandate, he will likely face a stiff challenge from another Florida resident — Trump, who has teased an “exciting” announcement on November 15.

Trump, who faces criminal probes over taking top secret documents from the White House and trying to overturn the 2020 election, returned on Tuesday to his playbook of airing unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

In Arizona, Trump and his chosen candidate for governor, Kari Lake, alleged irregularities after problems with voting machines.

Officials in the most populous county of Maricopa said about 20 per cent of the 223 polling stations experienced difficulties related to scanners but that no one was denied the right to vote.

Biden has warned that Republicans pose a dire threat to democracy, calling out their growing embrace of voter conspiracy theories that fueled last year’s storming of the Capitol.

In the run-up to the election, an intruder espousing far-right beliefs broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer.

SEOUL — North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest launch from Pyongyang following a record-breaking testing blitz earlier this month.

The launch comes as the United States counted votes in the midterm elections for the House and Senate, which Seoul's spy agency had previously warned would be a possible moment for Kim Jong -un to conduct a long-expected nuclear test.

Seoul's military said it had "detected a short-range ballistic missile launched by North Korea into the East Sea from Sukchon, South Pyongan Province, at around 15:31 [06:31 GMT]", referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

"Strengthening surveillance and vigilance, the South Korean military maintains full preparedness while closely cooperating with the United States," it added.

The missile's "flight distance was detected at about 290 kilometres, an altitude of about 30 kilometres, and a speed of about Mach 6", according to Seoul's military.

Japan also confirmed the launch, with the government tweeting that Pyongyang "has launched a suspected ballistic missile".

Earlier this month, North Korea conducted a flurry of launches, including an intercontinental ballistic missile, which Seoul said appeared to have failed.

Pyongyang also fired a short-range ballistic missile that crossed the de facto maritime border and landed near the South's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said at the time that it was "effectively a territorial invasion".

Both launches were part of a Wednesday November 2 barrage, when Pyongyang fired 23 missiles — more than it launched during the whole of 2017, the year of "fire and fury" when Kim traded barbs with then-US president Donald Trump on Twitter and in state media.

"If you look at North Korea's behaviour since September 25, they have used a lot of money to consistently escalate tensions, so they need to maintain it," Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul's Ewha University, told AFP.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on September 25, which kicked off a spate of launches, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile which overflew Japan. Pyongyang later claimed these were “tactical nuclear drills”.

“At the end, there will be a seventh nuclear test. Even though the joint drills are done for now, it’s unlikely that North Korea will lower tensions,” Park said.

Drills, predictions 

November’s flurry of launches came as hundreds of US and South Korean warplanes were participating in large-scale joint air drills, called Vigilant Storm, which Pyongyang has described as “aggressive and provocative”.

Pyongyang ramped up missile launches in response to the drills. Such exercises have long provoked strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

On Monday, the South’s military kicked off its four-day computer-simulated Taegeuk drills.

“North Korea seems to have sufficiently achieved its political and diplomatic purposes by its massive missile launches earlier this month,” North Korean studies scholar Ahn Chan-il told AFP.

“It seems to be in the process of testing where to deploy strategic military units to mount tactical nuclear weapons for its next nuclear test.”

Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that the North is ready to conduct another nuclear test — which would be the country’s seventh — at any time.

But analysts questioned the utility of trying to predict exactly when it was to come.

“I really don’t get the fascination with trying to predict when #NorthKorea’s next nuclear test will be,” Korea specialist Jenny Town wrote on Twitter.

“How has this been going on for so many months now? The reality is #DPRK does need to do additional testing to achieve the goals that they set. Not just one, but a few,” she wrote, referring to North Korea by its official name.

PITTSBURGH — Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday in midterm elections in which Republicans are chasing a congressional majority that would hobble Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda and serve as a springboard for another White House run by Donald Trump.

"It's Election Day, America," the 79-year-old Biden tweeted as polling stations opened on the East Coast. "Make your voice heard today. Vote."

At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate and a slew of state and local positions. Five states are holding referendums on abortion — California, Vermont, Kentucky, Montana and Michigan.

First results will begin trickling in after 7:00 pm (00:00 GMT) but with razor-thin margins in some key congressional races a full picture may not be available for days or even weeks, setting the stage for likely acrimonious challenges.

"I want to get to work but I also want to make sure that I vote," Robin Ghirdar, a 61-year-old doctor, said at a polling station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "There's so much polarisation and misinformation that I'd like to make sure that my voice is heard."

Biden’s Democrats are facing a gargantuan struggle to hang on to Congress, after a race the president has cast as a “defining” moment for US democracy — while Trump’s Republicans campaigned hard on kitchen-table issues like inflation and crime.

Trump — who has all but announced he will seek the White House again in 2024 — grabbed the election eve spotlight to flag “a big announcement” on November 15, while Biden made a final appeal to Democrats to turn out en masse.

“The power’s in your hands,” Biden told a rally near the capital. “We know in our bones that our democracy is at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it.”

Polls show Republicans in line to seize the House, which would allow them to snarl the rest of Biden’s first term in aggressive investigations and opposition to spending plans.

‘Giant red wave’ 

Returning to the White House Monday night, Biden told reporters he believed Democrats would hold on to the Senate but it would be “tough” to retain the House and his life in Washington may become “more difficult”.

If both the House and Senate flip, Biden would be left as little more than a lame duck and his legislative agenda would be paralysed.

That would raise questions over everything from climate crisis policies, which the president will be laying out at the COP27 conference in Egypt this week, to Ukraine, where Republicans are reluctant to maintain the current rate of US financial and military support.

An influx of far-right Trump backers in Congress would also accelerate the shift that has been taking place inside the Republican Party since the former real-estate tycoon stunned the world by defeating Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2016.

Despite facing criminal probes over taking top secret documents from the White House and trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump has been using the midterms to cement his status as the de facto Republican leader and presumptive presidential nominee.

In a typically dark, rambling speech to supporters in Dayton, Ohio, the 76-year-old Trump said, “if you support the decline and fall of America, then you must, you absolutely must vote for the radical left, crazy people.”

“If you want to stop the destruction of our country, then tomorrow you must vote Republican in a giant red wave,” he said — before teasing his 2024 announcement.

Across the country voters called on their fellow citizens to cast their ballot in the midterms, which historically have low turnout.

“There are some really important matters on the ballot,” said Alexandra Ashley, a 30-year-old lawyer as she cast her vote in Pittsburgh. “Abortion is probably the biggest issue for me. I want to make sure it’s available for everybody and safe.”

“Vote, vote, vote”, Luke Osuagwu, a 24-year-old student, told AFP in Atlanta, Georgia.

44 million early votes 

More than 44 million ballots were cast through early voting options, meaning the outcome had already begun to take shape before election day.

Senate races in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Ohio have narrowed to projected photo finishes, and any one of them could swing the balance of power in the chamber.

Trump has already claimed — baselessly — that swing state Pennsylvania “rigged” the midterms — reprising his playbook from the 2020 election which he falsely asserted was stolen by Biden.

Citing growing support for voter conspiracy theories among Trump and his Republicans, as well as their push to curb abortion access, Biden has warned that democracy and basic rights are at stake on Tuesday.

Republicans have countered that a vote for Democrats means more soaring inflation and rising violent crime, seeking to make the midterms a referendum on the president.

The outcome will likely determine whether Biden, who turns 80 this month and is the oldest president ever, will seek a second term in 2024 — or step aside.

ISTANBUL — Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was due to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday, in a bid to persuade Turkey to drop its opposition to Sweden joining NATO.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned their long-held policy of non-alignment and applied to join the military alliance.

But Turkey has stalled ratification of their bids, accusing them of harbouring outlawed Kurdish militants.

Erdogan — who is seeking reelection next year — is in a position of strength, having persuaded Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop blockading Ukraine's grain exports.

He and Kristersson were due to meet at the presidential palace at 14:15 GMT and then give a press conference.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Ankara last week to press the countries' case.

"Their accession will make our alliance stronger and our people safer," he said, adding that bringing Sweden and Finland into NATO would "send a clear message to Russia".

Stoltenberg stressed the two had agreed in June to concessions to Turkey, including addressing its request for "terror suspects" to be deported or extradited.

'Cautious optimism' 

Writing in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on Monday, Erdogan's advisor Fahrettin Altun voiced "cautious optimism" that the new right-wing government in Stockholm would take "concrete measures" to meet Ankara's concerns.

Turkey accuses Sweden in particularly of leniency towards the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara says it provided Sweden and Finland in June with a list of people it wanted extradited.

Since then, Stockholm has authorised one extradition for fraud. Both Sweden and Helsinki say that extradition decisions are made by the courts.

The PKK is blacklisted by Ankara and most of its Western allies. But the YPG has been a key player in the US-led military alliance combatting the Daesh group in Syria.

While Sweden has in the past voiced support for the YPG and its political wing, Kristersson's government appears to be distancing itself.

“There is too close a link between these organisations and the PKK, which is a terrorist organisation listed by the EU,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Saturday.

Cashing the NATO enlargement card 

Billstrom told AFP in October he was convinced Sweden could satisfy Turkey’s demands. And Finnish President Sauli Niinisto told journalists on Monday he expected joining NATO would “happen in reasonable time”.

Some analysts nevertheless believe Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2023 could delay the Nordic bids.

“The Turkish side will ratify their membership when it feels it is the best moment to cash that card,” said Ilke Toygur, professor of European geopolitics at the University Carlos III in Madrid.

“I sense that many countries in NATO already assume that enlargement will be next year, maybe even in the second half of next year,” she told AFP.

“It is widely assumed that Turkey is also trying to negotiate for other things. It could be the F16s. It could be about its overall relationship with Russia.”

Leading US senators have threatened to block the sale to Ankara of US F16 fighter jets unless Turkey ends a maritime border dispute with Greece.

Turkey, which seeks to maintain good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, has not joined Western sanctions on Moscow and has acquired a Russian missile defence system while also supplying Kyiv with combat drones.

“It remains to be seen if Erdogan thinks he’s got enough signs of goodwill from Sweden and it’s therefore in his political and military interest to declare victory, or if he thinks sticking to the current line will serve his reelection campaign,” said a European diplomatic source.

There was still a “reasonable chance” Turkey would ratify the NATO bids before the 2023 elections, the source said.

CATANIA, Italy — Nearly 90 migrants were allowed to disembark on Tuesday from a charity ship in a southern Italian port even as hundreds of others aboard three other vessels awaited safe harbour.

The ship Rise Above, operated by German humanitarian group Mission Lifeline, docked early Tuesday in Reggio Calabria at the toe of Italy, the non-profit said.

“We were able to disembark all 89 survivors”, the charity said — all migrants rescued in the Mediterranean after setting off from North Africa on overcrowded boats bound for Europe.

But around 250 other migrants still languished aboard two other rescue ships about 100 kilometres away in Sicily, after being refused permission to leave by Italian authorities.

Italy’s new government, led by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who land on its shores every year.

At the weekend, some 500 migrants were allowed to come to shore at Sicily’s eastern port of Catania from the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 charity ships, but about half that number were refused.

They remain in a state of limbo, with rights groups challenging an Italian decree that permitted the Humanity 1 to dock only for the time it took to help emergency cases, calling it illegal.

As NGOs warned the remaining migrants were under severe psychological strain, two Syrians who on Monday jumped from the Geo Barents slept overnight at the dock.

“From the time they dove into the sea to protest the decision of the Italian authorities, they spent the entire night in the open on the pier refusing water and food this morning,” said Doctors Without Borders (MSF), operator of the Geo Barents.

Members of the Red Cross performed a medical exam on the men Tuesday and one was subsequently taken away in an ambulance with a high fever, the group said.

MSF’s chief of mission, Juan Matias Gil, said the worst for the migrants was the uncertainty, not knowing what will happen next.

“No one can deal with this, at any level,” Gil said. “They can really feel it and their anxiety grows every day.”

Migrants allowed to disembark from the Rise Above on Tuesday were suffering from seasickness and exhaustion, Mission Lifeline said, while six people had been evacuated earlier after being deemed medical emergencies.

Meanwhile, a fourth charity rescue ship, the Ocean Viking, remains off the coast of Sicily, waiting for permission to dock.

Some 234 migrants are aboard that vessel, run by European charity SOS Mediterranee under a Norwegian flag.

Ships chartered by non-government organisations regularly pick up migrants from overcrowded boats seeking to cross from North Africa to Europe.

However, their passengers accounted for only 14 per cent of the more than 87,000 people who have landed in Italy so far this year, according to the interior ministry.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Monday the government is acting “with humanity but firmly based on our principles”.

Piantedosi said he was working at a national and European Union level to reduce the burden on Italy after years of complaints from Rome that the European Union was not doing enough.

SEOUL — The North Korean military said its response to US-South Korean war drills would be "resolute and overwhelming", state media reported on Monday.

The warning came after a spate of North Korean weapons tests last week — including an intercontinental ballistic missile — as the United States and South Korea conducted their biggest-ever air force exercise.

The United States and South Korea have warned that such missile launches could culminate in a nuclear test by North Korea.

The North Korean military, formally known as the Korean People’s Army (KPA), said it was responding to Vigilant Storm — the US-South Korean exercise — describing it as “an open provocation”, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Vigilant Storm was “aimed at intentionally escalating the tension in the region and a dangerous war drill of very high aggressive nature directly targeting” North Korea, the KPA said.

North Korea will respond to all “anti-DPRK war drills” with “sustained, resolute and overwhelming” measures, it said.

The United States has dismissed criticism of the exercise as North Korean propaganda, saying it posed no threat to other nations.

The KPA said it conducted operations, including the launch of tactical ballistic missiles that simulated attacks on air force bases, and practised shooting down enemy aircraft.

One ballistic missile was launched to test “a special functional warhead paralysing the operation command system of the enemy”, the KPA said, without providing any further details about that weapon.

The North Korean air force also conducted a “large-scale all-out combat sortie operation”, involving 500 planes, according to KCNA.

That mobilisation prompted South Korea to scramble fighter jets on Friday.

Images of North Korean military operations released on Monday by KCNA showed missiles being fired from various undisclosed locations, including some from mobile launchers.

Weak air force 

Experts say Pyongyang is particularly sensitive about drills such as Vigilant Storm because its air force is one of the weakest links in its military, lacking high-tech jets and properly trained pilots.

The details of North Korea’s operations last week indicate the importance it places on destroying air bases in the South, said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.

“North Korea considers it important to strike and neutralise air bases first because their air power is weak,” Cheong told AFP.

Compared with North Korea’s ageing fleet, Vigilant Storm saw some of the most advanced US and South Korean warplanes in action, including F-35 stealth fighters.

The exercise was meant to run from Monday to Friday last week, but Washington and Seoul extended it by a day in response to the flurry of North Korean missile launches.

Two US Air Force B-1Bs — long-range heavy bombers — joined the drills in a show of force.

US-South Korea joint drills have long sparked strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

Pyongyang has especially condemned past deployments of US strategic weapons such as long-range bombers and aircraft carrier strike groups.

Parts of the KPA statement, including the claim that it could counter the “theory of superiority” of US and South Korean air forces, were domestic propaganda, said Park Won-gon, a professor at the Ewha University in Seoul.

“It is saying that North Korea responded sufficiently against the largest joint drills between Seoul and Washington and that they prevailed.”

South Korea began its annual Taegeuk computer-simulated military exercise on Monday, which aims to improve its ability to respond to various North Korean threats.