Category World News

Americans will cast ballots to fill other important positions besides the presidency on November 5. Many of those races&nbsp, will determine who controls Congress, an important lever of power.

One-third of the US Senate is up for grabs, as well as the entire House of Representatives. That amounts to 34 seats in Congress’s upper chamber and 435 in the lower one.

But why do senators get their votes every six years and representatives get theirs every two years? And why aren’t all 100 seats in the Senate contested at once, like in the House?

Staggered races in the Senate

The answer goes back to the country’s founding, when the men who wrote the US Constitution decided to base Senate elections on a “three-class system”.

Senate members were assigned to distinct groups at the start of the first session of Congress in 1789, according to a Senate factsheet.

The first group’s terms came to an end in two years, the second four, and the third six.

“Subsequent elections to all classes were for a full six-year Senate term”, the factsheet explains.

The idea was to give stability to US politics. As a result of the Senate’s staggered voting system, two-thirds of the senators remain in their posts every time a national election happens, once every two years.

How does this compare to the House of Representatives?

The lower chamber of Congress, which has 435 members who serve for two years and are elected at the end of every vote, has a different structure.

Members of the House&nbsp are more prone to losing their seats because they must run for re-election every two years.

Nevertheless, some representatives have been in the House for decades: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, has served for 37 years.

On November 5, what might happen?

The Senate is currently under the control of the Democratic Party. The party and allied independents hold 51 seats, compared with 49 seats held by Republicans.

If Trump defeats Harris in the presidential election, Republicans must secure a net gain of one Senate seat for the party to win control of the chamber.

That’s because the vice president acts as the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. If Republicans win the White House, Trump’s running-mate JD Vance would fill that role and vote with Republicans.

If Harris wins — giving her vice president, Tim Walz, that tie-breaking power — then Republicans would need a net gain of two Senate seats to gain control.

Of the 34 Senate seats being contested next month, 23 are held by Democrats or independents.

According to recent polls, it will likely come down to a few Senate races that appear to be neck-and-neck, including in the swing state of Michigan.

However, Vance has continued to ignore the situation, most recently when he was interviewed by The New York Times on a podcast.

In excerpts released on Friday, Vance ducked questions about Trump’s 2020 defeat no less than five times, according to the newspaper.

“There’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020”, Vance told the podcast, The Interview, slated to air on Saturday. “I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide-open border, groceries that are unaffordable”.

When asked about the election results in 2020, Vance claimed that Trump’s censorship may have resulted in millions of votes lost.

“I’m talking about something very secret,” Vance said, “I do believe there will be censorship issues in this country in 2020.”

He accused, for example, social media companies of blocking negative stories about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

The podcast’s host, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, pointed out there was “no proof” election fraud had occurred, a reality Vance brushed off as a “slogan”.

Trump himself has repeatedly claimed that the election was a fraud, but Vance’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 results speaks for itself.

Trump, the incumbent at the time, lost that race to Biden, a Democrat and former vice president. Biden earned 306 Electoral College votes, out of a total of 538, earning him the presidency. Trump only managed 232 votes.

In the aftermath of the results, Trump blasted the election as “stolen”. On January 6, 2021, he held a rally in Washington, DC, to encourage his followers to “stop the steal” and demonstrate in front of the US Capitol.

The Capitol building, where the Electoral College votes were being certified by Congress, was the site of a violent outburst that thousands of people experienced.

Trump has also been accused of pressuring his then-vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify the votes, as mandated by the Constitution. On January 6, Penne oversaw the result count in a ceremonial manner.

When Pence refused to heed Trump’s call to circumvent the vote, Trump slammed his second-in-command as lacking “courage”.

According to CEO Kelly Ortberg, Boeing will cut 17, 000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce, and will postpone the first year’s delivery of its 777X jet. Additionally, it will announce significant new losses in its defense business as a monthlong strike batters company finances.

On Friday, in a message to employees, Ortberg said the company must reset its workforce levels “to align with our financial reality” after a strike by 33, 000 US West Coast workers shuttered production of its 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets.

We adjust the workforce’s levels to reflect our financial situation and prioritize things more carefully. We intend to reduce the size of our workforce by roughly 10% over the upcoming months. These reductions will include executives, managers and employees”, Ortberg’s message said.

Boeing shares fell 2.3 percent in after-market trading.

Ortberg added that because of the difficulties the company has had with development, the pause in testing, and the ongoing work stoppage, Boeing has informed customers.

The 777X certification issue, which had significantly delayed the launch of the aircraft, was already a problem for Boeing.

Boeing, which reports its third-quarter earnings on October 23, said in a separate release it now expects revenue of $17.8bn, a loss per share of $9.97, and negative operating cash flow of $1.3bn.

We are making important strategic decisions for our future while our business is facing near-term challenges, Ortberg continued in a statement.

When the remaining 29 planes are finished and delivered by Boeing, the 767-freight program will end in 2027, according to Boeing, which stated that KC-46A tanker production will continue.

Ratings concern

Boeing is incredibly important to arrive at a resolution to put an end to the work stoppage. According to ratings agency S&amp, P, the strike is expected to cost it $1 billion per month and pose a risk of losing its coveted investment-grade credit rating. After two days of negotiations, Boeing abruptly withdrew its pay offer to about 33, 000 US factory workers, claiming that the union did not take its proposals seriously.

In light of the job cuts, the company announced in September that it would end its furlough program for salaried employees.

The company had been burning cash as a result of a midair panel blowout on a new plane in January that exposed weak safety protocols and sparked US regulators to halt production even before the strike started on September 13.

Boeing is reportedly considering options to sell shares and equity-like securities in order to raise billions of dollars.

The business posted operating cash flow losses of more than $7 billion for the first half of 2024 and has about $60 billion in debt.

Both sides have issued threats and warnings, and Israel is expected to react in response to Iran’s earlier this month’s ballistic missile attacks.

Iran has promised to attack again, and Israel has made it abundantly clear that it will respond.

The next step for the Israeli war cabinet has been discussed.

But what are the options? How far will it advance?

Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra

Guests:

Professor of American studies at Tehran University, Mohammad Marandi

Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz newspaper