Election results, new measures to deny asylum to a migrant caravan, US discussions with North Korea and the Taliban, exports being slowed by tariffs, and a new surveillance tool by Chinese authorities.

Here are the top newsworthy items from this past week as shared on our Facebook page.

• Democrats picked up the House, winning at least 26 seats after needing a net gain of 23 for control — and Republicans expanded their grip on the Senate, flipping Democratic seats in North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri. In the states, Democrats flipped seven governors’ seats, including key races in Wisconsin and Kansas. But Republicans managed to hold on in Florida and Ohio, prime battlegrounds for 2020.

From Axios

• In Florida voters decided to restore voting rights to an estimated 1.4 million people with felony records.

From The Wall Street Journal

• Some Senate and House seats remain unclaimed as vote counting from the midterm elections continues. For races in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, California and elsewhere, it may be days or even weeks before election officials provide a final tally.

From The Wall Street Journal

• The White House suspended CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press credential after he and President Trump again clashed during a news conference. Despite the White House accusing Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern” when she was taking a microphone from him at the presser, the video clearly shows Acosta didn’t do anything physically threatening to the intern.

From Axios

• The Trump administration introduced new measures to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally, invoking national security powers to curb long-standing humanitarian protections for foreigners arriving on American soil.

From Washington Post

• President Trump dismissed his own government’s findings which unequivocally state that global warming is nearly entirely caused by humans.

From Axios

• North Korea called off planned nuclear talks in New York with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It dealt a setback to a rocky diplomatic process and lowered hopes for progress on denuclearization.

From The Wall Street Journal

• The U.S. has suggested a phased withdrawal as Afghanistan stabilizes, while the Taliban wants a deadline for a pullout. The Taliban now have control or influence over about half of Afghanistan’s territory.

From The Wall Street Journal

• The Food and Drug Administration plans to sharply restrict the sale of most flavored pod-style e-cigarettes, effectively pulling them from most convenience stores and gas stations and requiring strict age verification controls for online sales. New York would become the first state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, under plans by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to be announced as early as next week.

From The Wall Street Journal

• Tariffs have slowed U.S. timber and grain exports, raised the cost of imported clothes hangers and heavy-equipment materials, and compressed profit margins for computer-chip and tool makers, among other effects. U.S. companies are attempting to blunt the effects of tariffs through price increases and changes to their supply chain, but warn the picture could worsen next year.

From The Wall Street Journal

• Amazon plans to split its second headquarters evenly between two locations rather than picking one city. The surprise decision will spread the impact of a massive new office across two communities.

From The Wall Street Journal

• Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool: “gait recognition” software that uses people’s body shapes and how they walk to identify them, even when their faces are hidden from cameras.

From AP

 

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