Five global stories to watch as the US waits for midterm election results:
1. A ‘deep state’ in turmoil
The impeachment of Donald Trump and the ongoing investigations into the US president will dominate the news agenda for most of the month.
The impeachment process, which began when Trump asked a foreign leader to investigate his 2020 rival, now reaches a climax on Friday when Trump is due to give a televised news conference.
If the US Senate grants Trump the two articles of impeachment, he will be removed from office, which – if he loses the popular vote and wins the electoral college – will make him the first-ever democratically elected president removed from office by voters. But it will also leave the president’s Republican allies in shock.
While Trump’s aides have not yet set out how they will respond to the Senate’s decision, some analysts fear they may decide to turn on him.
“He’s going to be furious,” said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who warned that the political damage from the impeachment proceedings could be “significant”.
“This is a deeply divisive process, and no US president in my experience has ever been faced with this kind of public political peril,” he told The Guardian.
The political turmoil will be closely followed by the US midterm elections on November 6. If the US loses that election, Trump will be more vulnerable to impeachment once the 2020 election is held. The House of Representatives would then need to impeach Trump to hold him accountable. Trump could then be removed from office by impeachment in the Senate.
However, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is facing fierce opposition from the progressive party in her own party.
She has a fight on her hands not only because of her own decision to impeach Trump, but because of the threat of a so-called “
