Democrats scent victory over Trump's Republicans in Congress

WASHINGTON, United States — Democrats began to scent a big night in the US midterm elections Tuesday with early results pointing to them seizing the House of Representatives from the Republicans in what would be a dramatic rebuke to President Donald Trump.

With polls yet to close in swaths of the country, it was still far too early to know who will control the House and Senate, which for the first two years of Trump's presidency have been held by his Republican allies.

However, initial results -- like the flipping by Jennifer Wexton of a previously solidly Republican Virginia seat in the House -- signalled that pre-election predictions of Democrats taking over the lower chamber may be confirmed.


Democrats were also heartened by heavy turnout after a bitter campaign which at Trump's own insistence was widely seen as an unofficial referendum on his polarizing presidency. From New York to California and from Missouri to Georgia there were long lines from early morning at polling stations.

Although Republicans remained forecast to keep control of the Senate, a Democratic House would upend the current Washington power balance.


Trump has spent months ahead of the midterms deriding the Democrats as bent on destroying the US economy and allowing criminals to run riot.

But with the party leading the House, Trump would be forced to compromise more -- or risk presiding over an ever more divided country. Democrats, still smarting from Trump's extraordinary upset win against Hillary Clinton in 2016, would likely use their ascendancy to exact payback.

Democratic leadership of the House's powerful investigative committees would breathe new wind into probes of Trump's opaque personal finances, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and even calls for his impeachment.

Confident Democratic leaders
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate and 36 governorships were up for grabs.

Polls indicated that Democrats have a good chance of winning the 23 seats they need to seize the House, while Republicans could slightly increase their razor-thin Senate majority of 51-49.

Pollsters, gun shy after getting their 2016 predictions wrong, urged caution. Several dozen midterm races where candidates from the two sides were barely separated will decide the day.

Even so, Democrats were confident, with Nancy Pelosi, the party's top leader in the House, saying "it's just a question of the size of the victory."

Former vice president Joe Biden, often touted as a possible Democratic candidate to take on Trump in 2020, said he'd be "dumbfounded" not to win the House.

The first polling stations closed at 6:00 pm Eastern time (2300 GMT) in parts of Kentucky and Indiana, with the last to close seven hours later in Alaska, and results trickling in through the evening.

Big turnout
Voters often sit out the midterms. This time, they're sitting up.

According to Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project, 38.4 million Americans cast their ballots early ahead of this election, compared with 27.4 million in the 2014 midterm.

And on the streets there was a palpable buzz.

"We have already seen huge turnout, people out and about knocking on doors, making sure everybody gets out there, but I think turnout will be very, very high," Democratic candidate Katie Porter, who is running in Irvine, California, against two-term Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, told AFP.

On the other side of the country, in Atlanta, Georgia, voters waited in line for nearly two hours to cast ballots, according to local media reports.

At a polling station in Arlington, Virginia, head election officer William Harkins said "it's a very good turnout."

Trump himself noted the energy as he wrapped up a punishing schedule of rallies around the country that were intended to boost Republican candidates -- and his own brand heading towards reelection in 2020.

"The midterm elections used to be, like, boring," Trump told a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday. "Now it's like the hottest thing."

Immigration fears
Trump was watching the results alongside friends and family at the White House, his spokeswoman said.

The president so dominates politics across the country that despite not being on any ballot he has made the election largely about him.

Voting in Chicago, James Gerlock, 27, a Republican, said he wanted to see more of the soaring economic growth that Trump says is the fruit of his business-friendly policies.

"I am extremely happy with the economy," Gerlock said. "I just want to keep everything moving, because I'm loving it."

But Democrats have been fired up by anger at Trump's extraordinary attacks over the last few weeks against immigrants, claiming that his opponents seek to throw open the borders to "drug dealers, predators and bloodthirsty MS-13 killers."

Trump has sent soldiers to the Mexican border, threatened to have illegal immigrants shot if they throw stones at the border, and vowed to restrict citizenship rights.

Beto O'Rourke, a charismatic Democrat in a closely watched bid to dethrone Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, told voters that Trump was wrong, describing his state as built from "immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees."

The result in Texas will say much about which way argument has worked best in these polarized times. Other tight Senate races are in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

source: philstar.com

Facebook blocks 115 accounts on eve of US election

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Facebook said Monday it blocked some 30 accounts on its platform and 85 more on Instagram after police warned they may be linked to "foreign entities" trying to interfere in the US midterm election.

The announcement came shortly after US law enforcement and intelligence agencies said that Americans should be wary of Russian attempts to spread fake news. The election is Tuesday.

A study published last week found that misinformation on social media was spreading at a greater rate than during the run-up to the 2016 presidential vote, which Russia is accused of manipulating through a vast propaganda campaign in favor of Donald Trump, the eventual winner.


"On Sunday evening, US law enforcement contacted us about online activity that they recently discovered and which they believe may be linked to foreign entities," Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a blog post.

"We immediately blocked these accounts and are now investigating them in more detail."

The investigation so far identified around 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts that appeared to be engaged in "coordinated inauthentic behavior," Gleicher said.

He added that all the Facebook pages associated with the accounts appeared to be in French or Russian.

The Instagram accounts were mostly in English, with some "focused on celebrities, others political debate."

"Typically, we would be further along with our analysis before announcing anything publicly," Gleicher said.

"But given that we are only one day away from important elections in the US, we wanted to let people know about the action we’ve taken and the facts as we know them today."

'Junk News' 
Despite an aggressive crackdown by social media firms, so-called "junk news" is spreading at a greater rate than in 2016 on social media ahead of Tuesday's US congressional election, Oxford Internet Institute researchers said in a study published Thursday.

Twitter said Saturday it deleted a "series of accounts" that attempted to share disinformation. It gave no number.

Facebook last month said it took down accounts linked to an Iranian effort to influence US and British politics with messages about charged topics such as immigration and race relations.

The social network identified 82 pages, groups and accounts that originated in Iran and violated policy on coordinated "inauthentic" behavior.

Gleicher said at the time there was overlap with accounts taken down earlier this year and linked to Iranian state media, but the identity of the culprits has yet to be determined.

Posts on the accounts or pages, which included some hosted by Facebook-owned Instagram, focused mostly on "sowing discord" via strongly divisive issues rather than on particular candidates or campaigns.

Sample posts shared included inflammatory commentary about US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May and the controversy around freshly appointed US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

War room 
Major online social platforms have been under intense pressure to avoid being used by "bad actors" out to sway outcomes by publishing misinformation and enraging voters.

Facebook weeks ago opened a "war room" at its Menlo Park headquarters in California to be a nerve center for the fight against misinformation and manipulation of the largest social network by foreign actors trying to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere.

The shutdown of thousands of Russian-controlled accounts by Twitter and Facebook -- plus the indictments of 14 people from Russia's notorious troll farm the Internet Research Agency -- have blunted but by no means halted their efforts to influence US politics.

Facebook, which has been blamed for doing too little to prevent misinformation efforts by Russia and others in the 2016 US election, now wants the world to know it is taking aggressive steps with initiatives like the war room.

The war room is part of stepped up security announced by Facebook, which will be adding some 20,000 employees.

source: philstar.com

Canada's Trudeau topples PM Harper in stunning election win

MONTREAL/CALGARY - Canada's Liberal leader Justin Trudeau rode a late campaign surge to a stunning election victory on Monday, toppling Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives with a promise of change and returning a touch of glamor, youth, and charisma to Ottawa.

The Liberals seized a Parliamentary majority, an unprecedented turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next. The Liberals had been a distant third place party in Parliament before this election.

Harper conceded defeat, ending his government's nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old's brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism.

Trudeau, 43, the photogenic son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, pledged to run a C$10 billion annual budget deficit for three years to invest in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada's anemic economic growth.

This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.

Trudeau has said he will repair Canada's cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against Islamic State militants in favor of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.

Trudeau vaulted from third place to lead the polls in the final days of the campaign, overcoming Conservative attacks that he is too inexperienced to govern to return to the Prime Minister's residence in Ottawa where he grew up as a child.

"When the time for change strikes, it's lethal," former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in a television interview. "I ran and was successful because I wasn't Pierre Trudeau. Justin is successful because he isn't Stephen Harper."

The Conservatives were projected to become the official opposition in Parliament, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party in third.

Liberal supporters at the party's campaign headquarters broke into cheers and whistles when television projected that Trudeau would be the next prime minister.

Top Trudeau advisor Gerald Butts tweeted "Amazing work #TeamTrudeau. Breathtaking really."

The Conservatives weren't the only party that appeared headed for a crushing defeat. The third place left-leaning New Democratic Party's fall was highlighted in Quebec, where it had the majority of its seats.

Radio Canada projected it would end up with just seven seats, down from 54 in the last Parliament.

The Liberals' win marks a swing toward a more multilateral approach in global politics by the Canadian government, which has distanced itself from the United Nations in recent years.

The former teacher took charge of the party just two years ago and guided it out of the political wilderness with a pledge of economic stimulus and stirring appeals for a return to social liberalism.

Trudeaumania again?

Born to a sitting prime minister who came to power in 1968 on a wave of popular support dubbed "Trudeaumania," Trudeau will become the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history and brings an appeal more common in movie stars than statesmen.

Pierre once jumped from a trampoline into the crowd. With boyish good looks, Justin thrusts himself into throngs and puts his hand to his heart when listening to someone.

Selfie requests are so common he happily takes the camera and snaps the photo himself, often cheek to cheek. He is the married father of three young children.

Criticized for being more style than substance, Trudeau has used attacks on his good looks and privileged upbringing to win over voters, who recalled his father's rock-star presence and an era when Canada had some sizzle on the world stage.

Pierre Trudeau, who died in 2000, was in power for 15 years - with a brief interruption - and remains one of the few Canadian leaders to be known abroad.

Single when he took power, the elder Trudeau dated movie stars and models before marrying. He had three boys while prime minister, the eldest of whom now succeeds him in the nation's top office.

Financial market players had praised the Conservative government for its steady hand in economic management, which had spared Canada the worst of the global financial malaise. Trudeau has also promised to raise taxes on high-income Canadians and reduce them for the middle class.

Political pundits have already began to speculate on the makeup of a Trudeau government while pondering what caused the downfall of Harper, 56, who has been criticized for his aloof personality but won credit for economic management in a decade of global fiscal uncertainty.

(Writing by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Amran Abocar and Alan Crosby)

Republicans seize control of US Senate in midterm polls

WASHINGTON -- Republicans rode a wave of voter discontent to sweeping midterm election wins on Tuesday, seizing control of the US Senate in a punishing blow to President Barack Obama that will limit his political influence and curb his legislative agenda in his last two years in office.

Republicans won in places where Democrats were favored, like a Senate race in North Carolina, pulled out victories where the going was tough, like a Senate battle in Kansas, and swept a number of governors' races in states where Democrats were favored, like Obama's home state of Illinois.

They also strengthened their grip on the House of Representatives and when the new Congress takes power in January, will be in charge of both chambers of Congress for the first time since elections in 2006.

Obama, first elected in 2008 and again in 2012, called Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to the White House on Friday to take stock of the new political landscape. He watched election returns from the White House, and saw little to warm his spirits.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who won a tough reelection battle against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, will replace Democrat Harry Reid as Senate majority leader.

“Some things don’t change after tonight. I don’t expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke up this morning. He knows I won’t either. But we do have an obligation to work together on issues where we can agree," McConnell said in his victory speech in Louisville.

Republicans needed six seats to win control of the 100-member Senate, and by late evening they had seven.

The winning margin came when Iowa Republican Joni Ernst was declared the winner over Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Thom Tillis defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in North Carolina.

Republican Senate candidates also picked up Democratic seats in Montana, Colorado, West Virginia, South Dakota and Arkansas.

The Republican surge will force Obama to scale back his legislative agenda and limit his ambitions to either executive actions that do not require legislative approval, or items that might gain bipartisan support, such as trade agreements and tax reform.

It will also test his ability to compromise with newly empowered political opponents who have been resisting his legislative agenda since he was first elected.

'Terrific night'

But Republicans, hoping to win the White House in 2016, will also be under pressure to show Americans they are capable of governing after drawing scorn a year ago for shutting down the government in a budget fight.

“Tonight was a terrific night for Republicans. It was a powerful repudiation of the Obama agenda, and the Obama economy, which isn’t working," Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative firebrand, told CNN.

"The American people, they’re frustrated with what’s happening in Washington, but now the responsibility falls on us to lead," he said.

Partisan battles could erupt over immigration reform, with Obama poised to issue executive actions by year's end to defer deportations of some undocumented immigrants, and over energy policy, as Republican press the president to approve the Keystone XL pipeline carrying oil from Canada.

The Republican victory had been widely predicted ahead of Tuesday's voting to elect 36 senators, 36 state governors and all 435 members of the House of Representatives.

Election Day polling by Reuters/Ipsos found a dour mood among the electorate with less than one-third of voters believing the country is headed in the right direction.

Roughly 40 percent of voters said they approved of the job Obama is doing as president, though they were split over whether they expected the economy to improve or worsen in the coming year.

In a consolation win for Democrats, Jeanne Shaheen won re-election over Republican Scott Brown in New Hampshire in what polls had forecast as a tight race.

In Virginia, heavily favored Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Warner found himself in a surprisingly close fight against Republican challenger Ed Gillespie, with much of the vote counted. By late evening, he claimed victory but Gillespie had not yet conceded.

In the most closely watched governors' races, Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott edged out Democrat Charlie Crist, and Republican Scott Walker survived a challenge from Democrat Mary Burke in Wisconsin.

The White House tried to play down the prospect of sharp changes in strategy after the election, saying Obama would seek common ground with Congress on areas like trade and infrastructure.

On other issues, like climate change and immigration reform, Obama is likely to continue to take actions on his own. By the end of the year, he is expected to announce executive action to defer deportations for some undocumented immigrants.

Jay Carney, Obama's former spokesman, said he expects Obama to make an "all-out push" on his priorities regardless of the makeup of Congress.

Whatever the case, Obama will face pressure to make changes at the White House. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 75 percent of respondents believe the administration needs to "rethink" how it approaches major issues facing the United States.

Sixty-four percent said Obama should replace some of his senior staff after the election.

source: interaksyon.com

Merkel wins absolute majority in Germany

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel clinched a surprise absolute majority in her winning bid for a third term in German elections Sunday, estimates on public television indicated.

Voters turned out in droves to reward Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman, with another four years at the helm for steering them unscathed through the debt turmoil that engulfed the eurozone's southern flank.

But in one of the tightest races in German history, they punished her pro-business partner, the Free Democrats, kicking them out of parliament for the first time since 1949, according to preliminary results on two public television networks.

Merkel's stunning 42.5 percent score -- the conservatives' highest result since national reunification in 1990 -- means that she may become the only chancellor to govern without a junior partner since Germany's first post-war leader, Konrad Adenauer.

"Together we will do everything in the next four years to again make them successful years for Germany," Merkel told cheering members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin.

"The party leadership will discuss everything when we have a final result but we can already celebrate tonight," a beaming Merkel told supporters, including her chemist husband Joachim Sauer, a music fan who so rarely appears in public he is nicknamed "The Phantom of the Opera".

An upstart anti-euro party, AfD, appeared to fall just short of the five-percent hurdle to representation with their bid to tap into anger over German contributions to bailout packages for stricken eurozone partners.

Exit polls had initially pointed to an awkward left-right "grand coalition" between Merkel's Christian Democrats and their traditional opponents, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), which scored around 26 percent.

Merkel led a fractious grand coalition during her first term in 2005-2009, with the SPD's chancellor candidate this time around, Peer Steinbrueck, as her finance minister.

Political scientist Nils Diederich said Merkel had a tendency to bleed her coalition partners dry.

"You can compare Ms Merkel to a spider that feeds on the flies it captures," he told AFP.

"That is what she did to the Social Democrats in 2009 and that is what she is doing now with the FDP."

A physicist by training, Merkel is only the third person to win a third term in Germany after Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, the father of German unity.

If she serves at least until 2017, she will become Europe's longest serving female leader, besting Margaret Thatcher who was Britain's prime minister for 11 years.

While Merkel became Germany's most popular post-war chancellor, the eurozone crisis laid waste to the careers of leaders in hard-hit countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and France.

In contrast to Merkel's austerity-driven response to the eurozone crisis, the SPD called for a bit more generosity and patience with nations as they pay back their debts.

But voters handed Merkel a landslide, fully endorsing her strategy of demanding biting reforms in exchange for funding bailouts.

The near success of the AfD, which advocates ditching the single currency and an "orderly dissolution" of the 17-member eurozone, sent a jolt through German politics, where a eurosceptic party has never gained a foothold.

In a last-minute appeal for votes at a Berlin rally Saturday, Merkel had urged voters not to succumb to the AfD's siren call.

"The stabilisation of the euro is not just a good thing for Europe but it is also in Germany's fundamental interest," she said.

Nearly 62 million people were called to the polls after a campaign many voters complained was largely superficial and personality-based.

Economic growth is steady, unemployment at below seven percent -- its lowest level in two decades -- and the political culture is dominated by a long post-war tradition of consensus rather than red-blooded jousting.

That left few issues to separate the main candidates.

"I think we have a good standard of living in Europe, and for me, this must remain stable. So, to me, voting for the extremes, on the left or the right, isn't an answer," Sister Elisabeth Bauer, a nun, told AFP as she cast her vote in Berlin.

The ecologist Greens party, the SPD's preferred coalition partner, scored around a disappointing eight percent in Sunday's poll.

And the far-left Die Linke, which has roots in former East Germany's ruling communist party, also tallied about eight percent but the SPD has repeatedly ruled out forming a coalition with it at the national level.

The brash, gaffe-prone Steinbrueck stumbled again in the home-stretch of the campaign with a front-page magazine photo of him making a surly middle-finger reply to a question on his limping candidacy.

He had zeroed in on a growing low-wage sector, but it was not enough to dislodge Merkel from the top job.

"The SPD did not lead a campaign devoid of content," Steinbrueck said late Sunday in a jab aimed at Merkel.

"But we did not achieve the result we wanted."

source: interaksyon.com

Unseated Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez can still run, says Brillantes

MANILA, Philippines – Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez can still run for the fourth congressional seat of Leyte even if she was unseated by the Supreme Court on a ruling that her substitution as a candidate in place of her husband, Richard Gomez, in the 2010 elections was invalid, Comelec said Wednesday.

Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr., explained that Gomez is not officially unseated (and disqualified to run) until the decision is final and executory, unlike the case of unseated Imus Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi, which is immediate and executory.

"She is not disqualified, the disqualification was the substitution. The one disqualified there was her husband, and she merely subbed for him.”

Gomez was disqualified on the basis of residence, not technically disqualification but more because of the cancellation of the CoC (Certificate of Candidacy) (of the husband), Brillantes said.

Voting 7-4-4 last Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that her substitution as a candidate in place of her husband in the 2010 elections was invalid.

But since there was a motion for reconsideration from the congresswoman’s camp, “you cannot implement it,” Brillantes explained.

Grounds for disqualification

Brillantes said grounds for disqualification are listed in Section 12 and 68 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) and Section 40 of the Local Government Code. “These are grounds for disqualification and in the case of Lucy, [it’s the residence issue.] It is not a ground for disqualification under Section 68 of the Omnibus Election Code.”

He, however, said cases of disqualification may still be filed against any candidate even after the election, but before the actual proclamation of winning bets.

"Until after the election, when you commit fraud during Election Day, you will be disqualified and prevented for being proclaimed. Those are our rules, that you can file a disqualification case (even) before the proclamation,” Brillantes explained.

Brillantes said the Commission is drafting another set of rules on the disqualification process in order to make it easier for the protestant and the respondent, and to save time and money. 

"We would like to change the entire process of electoral process and revision of ballots. We will come out with it before the elections,” Brillantes said, adding that he is starting to read decisions from the Supreme Court regarding disqualification cases.

source: interaksyon.com

Obama inches toward victory

WASHINGTON -- US President Barack Obama was inching towards victory on Tuesday as results poured in from the US presidential election, as Mitt Romney struggled to win vital swing states.

While the most important trio of battlegrounds -- Ohio, Florida and Virginia -- remained too close to call, Obama grabbed Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, dramatically shrinking the Republican's chances.

At 10:30 p.m. (0330 GMT), US news network voting projections had Obama leading Romney by 173 to 163 electoral college votes, and the Democratic incumbent appeared to have a far clearer route to victory ahead of him.

As expected, Obama polled strongly in New England and the industrial northeast, grabbing densely populated states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to news network projections.

His rival Romney did predictably well in the southern Bible Belt and western prairie states, winning the major prize of Texas and taking back Indiana, which Obama won in 2008, for the Republicans.

But Romney failed to win Michigan, his home state where his father served as governor, and the key battleground states of Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio remained too close to call.

Obama also won New Hampshire, which had been considered a swing state, and Wisconsin, the home state of Romney's running mate Paul Ryan.

Polling was due to have ended in the east of the country, but there were long lines in many areas and officials kept polling centers open late, as the campaigns pleaded with their supporters to stay the course.

The final opinion polls published before voting began showed the two candidates in a dead heat nationwide, but gave Obama a slight advantage in the handful of swing states like Virginia and Ohio that will decide the race.

Each state has a quota of electoral college votes based on its population, and the eventual victor will be the candidate who secures the most.

source: interaksyon.com