PHOENIX, Arizona: Incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly defeated Republican Blake Masters on Friday to win a US Senate seat in Arizona, a contest that left Democrats one seat short in the battle for control of the chamber with two more races to be decided.
The win by Kelly, a former astronaut whose wife, Gabby Giffords, survived an assassination attempt when she was a US lawmaker, meant Democrats had battled to a 49-49 tie in the race for the Senate.
“I’m humbled by the trust our state has placed in me to continue this work,” Kelly said on Twitter.
Control of the Senate — and the shape of President Joe Biden’s next two years in office — will now hinge on contests in Nevada and Georgia. Biden’s party avoided historical trends by limiting their losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, shocking Republicans who had expected big gains.
Democrats needed one more seat for control, since Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tie-breaking vote.
In Nevada, incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto had closed to within about 800 votes of the Republican state attorney general, Adam Laxalt. Georgia’s outcome is weeks away as Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock will face Republican Herschel Walker in a Dec. 6 runoff.
In the Nevada governor’s race, Republican Joe Lombardo defeated Democrat Steve Sisolak, Edison Research projected. Sisolak conceded the race.
“Whether you voted for me or Sheriff Lombardo, it is important that we now come together to continue moving the state forward,” Sisolak said in a statement posted on Twitter. “That is why I reached out to the sheriff to wish him success.”
Political analysts anticipate a rush of campaign funds into Georgia as Republicans and Democrats gear up for the final battle of the 2022 midterm elections.
In Arizona, law enforcement officials remained on high alert for potential protests, with barricades and security fencing erected around the Maricopa County elections department, where dozens of officials are working 18-hour days to verify outstanding ballots and tabulate votes.
Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor, has criticized election officials in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, as “incompetent” and “despicable,” accusing them of deliberately delaying the vote counting.
Bill Gates, chairperson of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and a Republican, bristled at Lake’s comments. “Everybody needs to calm down a little bit and turn down the rhetoric. That’s the problem with what’s going on with our country right now,” he told reporters.
In the fight for control of the House of Representatives, Republicans were inching closer to becoming the majority and ending four years of rule by Democrats. That would give Republicans veto power over Democrat Biden’s legislative agenda and allow them to launch potentially damaging investigations into his administration.
Republicans had secured at least 211 of the 218 House seats they need for a majority, Edison Research projected late on Thursday, while Democrats had won 199. Many of the races where winners have not yet been determined are in Arizona, California and Washington state.
Despite the real possibility that they may lose the House, Democrats have still cheered their success in curbing their predicted losses after they galvanized voters angry over the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.
The Republican House leader, Kevin McCarthy, has already announced his intention to run for speaker if Republicans take over, an outcome he has described as inevitable.
It is unclear whether a challenger to McCarthy will emerge, but some of the most conservative House Republicans have expressed doubts that he has enough votes yet to become speaker, the most powerful official in the House.
Meanwhile, Republican infighting in the Senate broke into the open on Friday as senators urged the postponement of a Wednesday leadership election so that they have time to discuss why the party did not fare better on Tuesday.
Mitch McConnell is hoping to continue as Republican leader, despite sniping from former President Donald Trump and other conservatives.
Officials overseeing vote counting in the Arizona and Nevada Senate races, where Democratic incumbents are trying to fend off Republican challengers, have said it could take until next week to tally some 520,000 uncounted mail-in ballots. Most of those were in Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix.
Their work is slowed by the need to match signatures on mail-in ballots to voter registration signatures after high numbers of such votes were dropped off on Election Day.
Some of Trump’s most high-profile endorsed candidates lost pivotal races on Tuesday, marring his status as Republican kingmaker and leading several Republicans to blame his divisive brand for the party’s disappointing performance.
The outcome may increase the chances that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who routed his Democratic challenger on Tuesday, opts to challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination.
While Trump has not officially launched a third White House campaign, the former president has strongly suggested he will do so and is planning a “special announcement” at his Florida club on Tuesday.
US midterm elections: Kelly’s win in Arizona leaves Democrats one seat shy of Senate control
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US midterm elections: Kelly’s win in Arizona leaves Democrats one seat shy of Senate control
- Control of the Senate — and the shape of President Joe Biden’s next two years in office — will now hinge on contests in Nevada and Georgia
- Biden’s party avoided historical trends by limiting their losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, shocking Republicans who had expected big gains
A whirlwind 48 hours: How Trump’s Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement came together
WASHINGTON: In a 48-hour whirlwind, President Donald Trump veered from elated to indignant to triumphant as his fragile Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement came together, teetered toward collapse and ultimately coalesced.
Trump, as he worked to seal the deal, publicly harangued the Israelis and Iranians with a level of pique that’s notable even for a commander in chief who isn’t shy about letting the world know what he thinks.
The effort was helped along as his aides and Qatari allies sensed an opening after what they saw as a half-hearted, face-saving measure by Tehran on Monday to retaliate against the US for strikes against three key nuclear sites. And it didn’t hurt that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after 12 days of bombing, could tell the Israeli public that Iran’s nuclear program had been diminished.
“This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!” Trump declared in a social media post announcing the ceasefire.
Netanyahu is less than enthusiastic about Trump’s message
The agreement began taking shape early Sunday morning, soon after the US military carried out blistering strikes on Iranian nuclear sites that US defense officials said have set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump directed his team to get Netanyahu on the phone.
The president told Netanyahu not to expect further US offensive military action, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive diplomatic talks.
The US president made the case that it was time to stop the war and return to diplomatic negotiations with Iran. Trump also noted that the US had removed any imminent threat posed by Iran, according to the official.
For his part, Netanyahu listened to Trump’s argument as Israel was nearing its own objectives with Iran, the official said. Netanyahu did not enthusiastically agree, but understood Trump’s stance that the US had no desire for additional military involvement.
Around the same time, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff spoke directly with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, telling him to come back to the bargaining table because Iran had seen what the US military could do and that it was capable of doing much more, the official said.
Witkoff stressed that the US wanted peace — and Iran should, too.
The president’s envoy said Tuesday in an appearance on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that Trump now wants to land “a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire.”
“We’re already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors,” Witkoff said. “I think that the conversations are promising.”
Trump ebullient about Israel-Iran deal prospects
Less than 48 hours later, Trump took to his social media platform to announce that a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” had been achieved.
The ceasefire was based solely on the end of military hostilities, rather than on additional conditions about Iran’s nuclear program or its economic interests. Trump was acting on the belief that Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons had been crippled.
But as Trump spoke with confidence about the coming ceasefire, the Israelis and Iranians were notably quiet — neither side publicly commented on what Trump described as a deal that would be phased in over the coming hours.
Araghchi spoke out first, acknowledging the wheels were in motion for a deal, but stopping short of saying Iran had signed off.
“As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations,” Araghchi posted on X. “However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.”
Commitment from Iran and Israel to Trump’s ceasefire remained murky
Not long before Trump’s announcement, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took to social media to declare that Iran wouldn’t surrender. It was unclear what role Khamenei, the ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic’s theocracy, had in the deal.
And Netanyahu was silent. He would wait more than eight hours after Trump’s announcement to confirm that Israel had accepted the ceasefire and that it had achieved its war goals against Iran.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said ceasefire efforts gained steam after Iran’s retaliatory attack on a major US base in the emirate on Monday evening.
The Iranians fired 14 missiles at the base — with US and Qatari defense systems knocking down 13. One of the missiles, according to Trump, was “‘set free’ because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction.” Trump also claimed the Iranians gave the US and Qatar a heads up, allowing the troops to take shelter and the Qataris to clear their typically busy airspace.
Qatar plays a key role in the ceasefire talks
Iran’s restrained direct response to the US bombardment suggested to Trump administration officials that Iran — battered by Israel’s 12-day assault — and its degraded proxy groups, including Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Yemen-based Houthis, didn’t have the wherewithal to expand the fight.
Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, had a “long call” with Trump soon after the Iranian attack on the Al-Ubeid military installation, according to the Qatari prime minister.
“There was an opportunity during this communication to announce a full ceasefire on all fronts, and US authorities asked Qatar to contact Iranian authorities to know how prepared they are for a ceasefire,” the prime minister said.
Trump saw the moment as a clear opening
The president soon got back in touch with Netanyahu to secure his commitment to end the hostilities, officials said. The prime minister agreed to the ceasefire, as long as there were no further attacks by Iran, the officials said.
From there, things moved quickly.
Vice President JD Vance was making an appearance on Fox News’ “Special Report” on Monday evening when Trump took to social media to announce the ceasefire deal had been reached and would go into effect over the coming day. The vice president appeared surprised when host Bret Baier told him that Trump had announced a deal had been reached.
“We were actually working on that just as I left the White House to come over here,” Vance said. “So that’s good news that the president was able to get that across the finish line.”
But after Trump’s announcement, the attacks kept coming. Iran launched a series of strikes on Israel after 4 a.m. local time Tuesday in Tehran, the time that Iran’s foreign minister had said Iran would cease its attacks if Israel ended their airstrikes.
And the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed that Israel launched a major assault hours ahead of the ceasefire’s start, hitting central Tehran. “We attacked forcefully in the heart of Tehran, hitting regime targets and killing hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces,” the statement read.
Iranian media confirmed nine casualties in the northern Gilan province. “Four residential buildings were completely destroyed and several neighboring houses were damaged in the blasts.” Fars News Agency reported.
A frustrated Trump lashes out
Trump, who was scheduled to depart the White House early Tuesday to fly to the Netherlands for the NATO summit, was livid. His frustration was palpable as he spoke to reporters on the White House South Lawn.
“I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran, either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning,” Trump said. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— — they’re doing.”
Minutes later, he took to his Truth Social platform to send a warning to Israel.
“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION,” Trump posted. “BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!”
Trump climbed aboard Air Force One and was soon on the phone with Netanyahu. He did not mince words with the Israeli leader, according to one of the White House officials. Trump was “exceptionally firm and direct” with Netanyahu “about what needed to happen to sustain the ceasefire.” Netanyahu got the message.
His office confirmed that the Israeli leader held off tougher action after the appeal from Trump and “refrained from additional attacks.”
After the call, Trump once again took to social media to declare the ceasefire was “in effect. ”
“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran,” Trump declared. “All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran, Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
The president went on to spend a considerable chunk of his flight celebrating what his administration is calling a signal achievement.
“It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!”
Trump rattles NATO allies as he descends on summit
- The alliance hopes to keep Trump bound to its mutual defense vow by meeting his demand for a headline figure of five percent of GDP on defense spending
THE HAGUE: US President Donald Trump swept into NATO’s Hague summit Tuesday, with allies hoping a pledge to ramp up defense spending will keep the mercurial leader of the military superpower committed to protecting them.
Trump joined leaders from NATO’s 31 other members to kick off the two-day gathering with a dinner hosted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander in the ornate Orange Hall at his royal residence.
The alliance hopes to keep Trump bound to its mutual defense vow by meeting his demand for a headline figure of five percent of GDP on defense spending.
But Trump refused to say he was committed to NATO’s Article Five clause and protecting Europe in comments that will likely rattle his counterparts on the continent.
“Depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article Five,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One. “I’m committed to being their friend.”
To keep Trump on board, NATO members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
NATO says the military build-up is crucial to deter Russia, which officials warn is rapidly rebuilding its forces depleted by the war in Ukraine and could be ready to attack the alliance in five years.
But it is just as important for keeping Trump engaged as Washington warns it may shift forces from Europe to face the threat from China.
“They’re going to be lifting it to five percent, that’s good,” Trump said. “It gives them much more power.”
But while the promise of more spending could win Trump over, deep divisions remain over the approach to Europe’s key security issue: Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump said he would probably meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky while in The Hague, with Kyiv hoping it can avoid a repeat of the pair’s infamous Oval Office bust-up.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told an audience in The Hague that NATO’s “historic” spending pledge showed that “the Europe of defense has finally awakened.”
Alliance leaders meanwhile — many of whom are struggling to find the money that will be required — lined up to argue that the threats facing the continent required bold steps.
“We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in announcing the UK’s commitment to meet the target.
Starmer on Wednesday will formally announce that his country is buying a dozen F-35A fighters, capable of carrying atomic weapons to support NATO’s nuclear mission.
The purchase marks an expansion of Britain’s nuclear deterrence, which is currently limited to submarine-launched missiles.
A statement late Tuesday from Starmer’s office quoted Rutte as saying: “I strongly welcome today’s announcement,” calling it “yet another robust British contribution to NATO.”
Separately, powerhouse Germany announced plans to hit the 3.5-percent figure for core defense needs by 2029 — six years before the timeline.
At the other end of the scale, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has risked Trump’s ire by insisting his country doesn’t have to meet the five percent target.
For its part, the Kremlin attacked NATO for its “rampant militarization,” with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: “This is the reality that surrounds us.”
Since storming back to power, Trump has upended the West’s approach to the three-year conflict by turning his back on Kyiv and opening the door to closer ties with Moscow.
Zelensky was set to play less of a central role than at recent NATO gatherings and will not attend the main working session.
But Ukraine’s president said he would discuss with Trump buying a package of weapons made up mainly of air defenses.
Zelensky would also push Trump on imposing new sanctions on Russia as Moscow has stalled peace efforts being pressed by Washington, Kyiv said.
“There are no signs that Putin wants to stop this war. Russia rejects all peace proposals including those from the US. Putin only thinks about war,” the Ukrainian leader told a defense forum held alongside the summit.
Trump did briefly meet on the sidelines of the summit late Tuesday with Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who urged “close dialogue” to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Rutte said allies would send the message that support for Kyiv was “unwavering and will persist.”
But despite his insistence that Ukraine’s bid for membership remains “irreversible,” NATO will avoid any mention of Kyiv’s push to join after Trump ruled it out.
Lawsuit challenges billions of dollars in Trump administration funding cuts
- The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants
BOSTON: Attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging billions of dollars in funding cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund everything from crime prevention to food security to scientific research.
The lawsuit filed in Boston is asking a judge to limit the Trump administration from relying on an obscure clause in the federal regulation to cut grants that don’t align with its priorities. Since January, the lawsuit argues that the administration has used that clause to cancel entire programs and thousands of grants that had been previously awarded to states and grantees.
“Defendants’ decision to invoke the Clause to terminate grants based on changed agency priorities is unlawful several times over,” the plaintiffs argued. “The rulemaking history of the Clause makes plain that the (Office of Management and Budget) intended for the Clause to permit terminations in only limited circumstances and provides no support for a broad power to terminate grants on a whim based on newly identified agency priorities.”
The lawsuit argues the Trump administration has used the clause for the basis of a “slash-and-burn campaign” to cut federal grants.
“Defendants have terminated thousands of grant awards made to Plaintiffs, pulling the rug out from under the States, and taking away critical federal funding on which States and their residents rely for essential programs,” the lawsuit added.
Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha said this lawsuit was just one of several the coalition of mostly Democratic states have filed over funding cuts. For the most part, they have largely succeeded in a string of legal victories to temporarily halt cuts.
This one, though, may be the broadest challenge to those funding cuts.
“It’s no secret that this President has gone to great lengths to intercept federal funding to the states, but what may be lesser known is how the Trump Administration is attempting to justify their unlawful actions,” Neronha said in a statement. “Nearly every lawsuit this coalition of Democratic attorneys general has filed against the Administration is related to its unlawful and flagrant attempts to rob Americans of basic programs and services upon which they rely. Most often, this comes in the form of illegal federal funding cuts, which the Administration attempts to justify via a so-called ‘agency priorities clause.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the lawsuit aimed to stop funding cuts he described as indiscriminate and illegal.
“There is no ‘because I don’t like you’ or ‘because I don’t feel like it anymore’ defunding clause in federal law that allows the President to bypass Congress on a whim,” Tong said in a statement. “Since his first minutes in office, Trump has unilaterally defunded our police, our schools, our health care, and more. He can’t do that, and that’s why over and over again we have blocked him in court and won back our funding.”
In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the US Department of Agriculture terminated a $11 million agreement with the state Department of Agricultural Resources connecting hundreds of farmers to hundreds of food distribution sites while the US Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $1 million grant to the state Department of Public Health to reduce asthma triggers in low-income communities.
“We cannot stand idly by while this President continues to launch unprecedented, unlawful attacks on Massachusetts’ residents, institutions, and economy,” Campbell said in a statement.
The lawsuit argues that the OMB promulgated the use of the clause in question to justify the cuts. The clause in question, according to the lawsuit, refers to five words that say federal agents can terminate grants if the award “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
“The Trump Administration has claimed that five words in this Clause— ‘no longer effectuates . . . agency priorities’— provide federal agencies with virtually unfettered authority to withhold federal funding any time they no longer wish to support the programs for which Congress has appropriated funding,” the lawsuit said.
US intel says strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program
- White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was “flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked”
- Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran’s nuclear efforts
WASHINGTON: A classified preliminary US intelligence report has concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months — rather than destroying it as claimed by President Donald Trump.
US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.
The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.
White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt confirmed the authenticity of the assessment but said it was “flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked.”
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt posted on X.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” she added.
US B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and said they had “obliterated” the nuclear sites, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington’s forces had “devastated the Iranian nuclear program.”
General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, has struck a more cautious tone, saying the strikes caused “extremely severe damage” to the Iranian facilities.
Iran’s government said Tuesday that it had “taken the necessary measures” to ensure the continuation of its nuclear program.
“Plans for restarting (the facilities) have been prepared in advance, and our strategy is to ensure that production and services are not disrupted,” the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said in a statement aired on state television.
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile said his country still had stocks of enriched uranium and that “the game is not over.”
Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to set back Tehran’s nuclear efforts.
Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action.
The US operation was massive, with Caine saying it involved more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters, aerial refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
US puts up reward for American detained in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday offered a $5 million reward for information to find a US citizen who it said was abducted in Afghanistan in 2022.
Mahmood Shah Habibi, who worked for a telecommunications firm and holds dual nationality, was abducted along with his driver in Kabul and detained by the Taliban government’s intelligence service, the State Department said.
“Since that time, the so-called Taliban government has not yet provided any information about Mr. Habibi’s whereabouts or condition,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
In January, the Taliban government released two other Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, for an Afghan detained in the United States in an exchange mediated by Qatar.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of the US military.
