Jaffa, Israel — Outside of Ahva Elementary School in Ajami, a historic Palestinian neighborhood just south of central Tel Aviv, the mood was defiant on October 27, the day of Israel’s national elections. “We fear that if we do not get this government out of power, we will lose everything,” one Palestinian voter told me after casting her ballot. It came as no surprise that she…
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s prospects for the 2028 Republican nomination may have risen as Democrats wrenched control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections and voters punished the GOP for high gas prices and the Iran war.
Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, said Rubio was the ultimate victor of the GOP’s disappointing night.
“There’s one winner tonight on the Republican side, and that is Marco Rubio,” Gowdy said on Fox News early Wednesday.
While President Donald Trump won’t ever be on the ballot again, his allies will be, Gowdy said. Republican strategists are beginning to debate who from Trump’s camp will be able to mount a successful bid for the 2028 Republican nomination.
The field is likely to be broad. Outgoing Florida governor Ron DeSantis has hinted that he is open to running for president again, as he did in 2024 before being overshadowed by Trump in the Republican primary. So has Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who said in August that it was “no secret” he wanted to be president.
Inside Trump’s administration, speculation about who can carry Trump’s mantle forward centers on Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
Rubio’s chief rival, Vance has already publicly blamed the war with Iran for the massive midterms rout, in what appears to be an early effort to put distance between himself and one of his boss’ most unpopular policies. From the start of the war, Vance had privately voiced opposition to it, and later led U.S. negotiations to end it.
Rubio, who was hawkish on Iran as a senator, is likely to be grouped into the pro-war camp as various GOP factions
US President Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters on Tuesday that his illegal war of choice in Iran will end “whenever I want it to” as the conflict’s official price tag reportedly jumped to $47 billion — a figure that independent analysts believe to be a dramatic underestimate. “It can be over whenever I want it to be over,” Trump said of the historically unpopular war during a rally…
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LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates Thursday for the first time in over three years in order to tackle the inflation shock caused by the Iran war.
With inflation predicted to rise further over the coming months, economists reckon the nine policymakers on the Monetary Policy Committee have little option but to increase the bank’s key rate to 4% from 3.75%. The anticipated increase would be the first since August 2023.
The pressure on rate-setters has grown steadily over recent months, but the rise in inflation to an 11-month high of 3.5% in September — above their target of 2% — cemented market expectations of a rate hike this month and potentially more in 2027.
The main cause behind the spike in inflation this year has been the sharp rise in fuel costs as a result of the Iran war and the ensuing bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz, which have squeezed global oil and gas supplies.
“We imagine that many committee members’ patience with the recent rise in inflation has worn thin,” said Ellie Henderson, an economist at Investec. “The longer energy prices remain elevated, the greater the risk that a temporary price shock becomes more permanent.”
Accompanying the expected rate hike will be the bank’s quarterly economic projections, notably those for inflation and growth. Higher interest rates cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow, thereby bearing down on spending and inflation, but growth too.
Other central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, have raised rates recently in response to rising prices.
Interest rates in the U.K. had been trending downward
Right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe is facing charges in Minnesota relating to his attempts to illegally register to vote as part of an online stunt that attempted but failed to expose flaws in the state’s registration process. There are numerous methods of registering to vote in Minnesota. One process, called “vouching,” is used by people who don’t yet have proof of residence in the state.
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