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Mexico races to rescue trapped coal miners

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

Rescuers battled Wednesday to free about 10 workers believed to be trapped in a coal mine in northern Mexico, while three others were found alive, authorities said.

Military personnel and rescue dogs were deployed to the scene of the accident in the state of Coahuila, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

“A coal mine collapsed in the municipality of Sabinas, Coahuila, which caused a tunnel to flood” and trapped the workers, he tweeted.

“We hope to find them safe,” he added.

Lopez Obrador had said nine miners were missing, but the security ministry said later that three had been rescued and taken to hospital while 10 were still believed to be inside.

“The work will not stop until they are found,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The Mexican government guarantees all the necessary resources to carry out the search and rescue operations,” it said.

Anxious relatives gathered at the site waiting for news, with some crying and comforting each other.

One woman at the scene said, through tears, that two of her children worked in the mine, though one of them had managed to escape after the accident.

Coahuila’s state government said that the miners had been carrying out excavation work when they hit an adjoining area full of water, causing the shaft to collapse and flood.

“The mine began operating in January of this year and until now there have been no reports of any type of anomaly,” it said in a statement.

Coahuila, the country’s main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining accidents over the years.

The worst was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.

Last year seven miners died after they were trapped in another accident in Coahuila.

Directors 'shocked' by axing of $90m 'Batgirl' film

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

The directors of “Batgirl” said Wednesday they were “shocked” that the $90 million superhero film had been axed by the studio and will now not be released in any format.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced they were shelving the movie adaptation of the DC Comics character, which was to star Leslie Grace in the title role, alongside Michael Keaton as Batman, preventing it from being seen in either theaters or on streaming platform HBO Max.

“We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can’t believe it,” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah wrote on Instagram.

“As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves.”

The movie had completed principal photography and much of the post-production work — where special effects, sound and graphics are added — was also done.

Star Grace (“In the Heights”) released an upbeat statement on her Instagram account Wednesday night, saying she was “proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland.

“I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process!”

Her efforts were applauded by El Arbi and Fallah, who described themselves as “huge fans of Batman since we were little kids.”

“It was a dream to work with such fantastic actors like Michael Keaton, J.K. Simmons, Brendan Fraser… and especially the great Leslie Grace, who portrayed Batgirl with so much passion, dedication and humanity,” the “Bad Boys for Life” directing duo added.

The move sent shockwaves through Hollywood, where industry veterans said it was unprecedented for a movie to be so close to completion — and with so much money already spent — and not be released.

– Streaming platforms’ belt-tightening –

“Batgirl” appears to have fallen victim to a change in corporate strategy after a merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery.

Warner Bros. had committed to making movies that could go straight to HBO Max as part of an effort to boost subscribers in the increasingly crowded streaming sector.

The decision, which was driven partially by a need to bypass Covid-hit theaters in 2021, was not popular among creatives and appears to have been rolled back after the tie-up with Discovery.

Trade title Variety quoted industry insiders as saying “Batgirl” had fallen between two stools — not big and glitzy enough for a theatrical release, with its expensive marketing requirements, but too big to make economic sense in the belt-tightening streaming landscape.

Variety said the $90 million hole this would leave in the studio’s balance sheet would probably be dealt with via a tax write-down — a process where companies reduce their exposure to tax by subtracting losses from their profits.

Asian markets rally on healthy US data, post-Pelosi relief

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

Asian markets on Thursday tracked a Wall Street rally fuelled by healthy economic and earnings data, while there was some relief that Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip did not elicit a harsher response from China despite grave warnings from Beijing.

Oil managed to clock up some gains following another sell-off that came on the back of fresh signs of weakening demand in the United States, which came as major producers announced an increase in output, albeit a small one.

New York’s three main indexes surged after a report on the crucial US services sector showed surprise improvement, soothing worries about a possible recession in the world’s top economy.

That came as several companies — including Electronic Arts, Starbucks and Moderna — posted strong earnings, extending a broadly positive reporting season in the face of surging inflation and rising interest rates.

All eyes are now on the release of US jobs data Friday, which will provide the latest snapshot of the economy and could help guide the Federal Reserve in its debate on monetary policy.

Markets have swung this week after a number of Fed officials lined up to suggest there were still some big rate hikes likely and talk of cuts next year might be overdone.

That came after comments last week from bank chief Jerome Powell indicated that the policy board could start easing up on its tightening campaign.

“Following last week’s Fed meeting that opened up the possibility of a slower hiking pace, markets are still running ‘risk-on’ despite the recent push back from Fed officials,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“But for stock investors, lower oil prices are a pleasure to behold as not only did the US 10-year yields drop but sliding oil prices also downshifted inflation expectations, supporting that slower hiking pace thesis.”

Both main oil contracts edged up Thursday, a day after prices tumbled to a six-month low as a spike in US inventories showed demand waning, while figures showed Americans driving less than summer 2022 when travel was smashed by Covid-19.

Crude has now given up all the gains seen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though the 100,000 barrel output increase by OPEC+ was brushed off by investors as too little to make an impact.

The mood in Asia was also a lot more settled after the upheaval of this week’s visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Pelosi, which sparked outrage in China with warnings of stern military and economic responses.

While Beijing suspended a limited amount of cross-strait imports and exports and embarked on its largest-ever military exercises encircling Taiwan, Asian investors felt a sense of relief it did not go further.

Hong Kong led gains, adding more than two percent, while there were also advances in Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Jakarta and Wellington.

However, Taipei fell again on worries that the Chinese manoeuvres would hit shipping lanes and flights into Taiwan.

Singapore and Manila also dipped.

Pelosi’s trip managed to further strain already-fraught China-US relations, and markets strategist Louis Navellier said “it will be interesting if China retaliates against any US companies or restricts trade in any manner”.

– Key figures at around 0230 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 27,892.68 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.1 percent at 20,182.31

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,188.86

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 133.70 yen from 133.92 yen Wednesday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0166 from $1.0172

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2151 from $1.2149

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.67 pence from 83.71 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $91.19 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.5 percent at $97.29 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 1.3 percent at 32,812.50 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,445.68 (close)

Asian markets rally on healthy US data, post-Pelosi relief

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

New York’s three main indexes surged after a report on the crucial US services sector showed surprise improvement, soothing worries about a possible recession in the world’s top economy.

All eyes are now on the release of US jobs data Friday, which will provide the latest snapshot of the economy and could help guide the Federal Reserve in its debate on monetary policy.

Markets have swung this week after a number of Fed officials lined up to suggest there were still some big rate hikes likely and talk of cuts next year might be overdone.

That came after comments last week from bank chief Jerome Powell indicated that the policy board could start easing up on its tightening campaign.

Hong Kong led gains, adding more than two percent, while there were also advances in Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Jakarta and Wellington.

However, Taipei fell again on worries that the Chinese manoeuvres would hit shipping lanes and flights into Taiwan.

Singapore and Manila also dipped.

– Key figures at around 0230 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 percent at 27,892.68 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 2.1 percent at 20,182.31

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,188.86

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 133.70 yen from 133.92 yen Wednesday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0166 from $1.0172

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2151 from $1.2149

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.67 pence from 83.71 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $91.19 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.5 percent at $97.29 per barrel

New York – Dow: UP 1.3 percent at 32,812.50 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,445.68 (close)

400-year-old Ecuadoran beer resurrected from yeast

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

Inside an old oak barrel, Ecuadoran bioengineer Javier Carvajal found the fungus of fortune: a 400-year-old yeast specimen that he has since managed to resurrect and use to reproduce what is believed to be Latin America’s oldest beer.

That single-cell microorganism, taken from just a splinter of wood, was the key to recovering the formula for an elixir first brewed in Quito in 1566 by friar Jodoco Ricke, a Franciscan of Flemish origin who historians believe introduced wheat and barley to what is now the Ecuadoran capital.

“Not only have we recovered a biological treasure but also the 400-year-old work of silent domestication of a yeast that probably came from a chicha and that had been collected from the local environment,” Carvajal told AFP.

Chicha is a fermented corn drink brewed by the Indigenous people of the Americas before Spanish colonization.

Carvajal, who already had experience recovering other yeasts, found out about the ancient Franciscan brewery in Quito while reading specialist beer magazines.

It took him a year to do so, but he finally managed to find a barrel from the old brewery in 2008.

It was stored in Quito’s San Francisco Convent, an imposing three-hectare complex built between 1537 and 1680, which is now a museum.

After extracting a splinter, Carvajal used a microscope to find a tiny yeast specimen, which after a long period of cultivation he was able to resurrect.

In his laboratory at the Catholic University of Ecuador, Carvajal takes a small vial containing a variety of the Saccharomyces cerevisiaerescatada yeast.

“It lives here in a little container. It’s very humble, but it is the star” of the laboratory, said the 59-year-old.

– Filling the holes –

Carvajal, who comes from a brewing family, found an article in an industry magazine that vaguely described the formula for the Franciscans’ 16th century drink.

Little by little, he pieced together bits of information to revive the brew with cinnamon, fig, clove and sugarcane flavors.

“There were a massive number of holes in the recipe and my job was to fill those holes,” said Carvajal.

“It is a work of beer archeology within the microbial archeology” he had to carry out to rescue the yeast, which generates the majority of the drink’s flavor.

After a decade of investigation and testing, Carvajal in 2018 began producing the beer at his home — but the pandemic frustrated his attempts to commercialize it.

He still has not come up with a launch date for his product, nor a price.

Carvajal compares his work, centuries after the Franciscans domesticated the yeast, to intensive care on a molecular scale.

“It is as if they were dormant, like dried seeds but having deteriorated over the years. So you have to reconstruct them, fluidize them, hydrate them and see if their vital signs return.”

Historian Javier Gomezjurado, who wrote a book on Quito beverages, told AFP that the brewery in the San Francisco Convent was the first brewery in hispanic America.

It began operations in 1566, but there were just eight friars in the convent at that time and production was minimal, said Gomezjurado.

With the introduction of machinery into the brewing industry, ancient formulas began to disappear. The brewery closed in 1970.

For Carvajal, resurrecting the yeast and the age-old methods used to make the ancient recipe was simply a labor of love for “the value of the intangible.”

Mexico races to rescue nine trapped miners

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

Rescuers battled Wednesday to free around nine workers believed to be trapped in a coal mine in northern Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

Military personnel and rescue dogs were deployed to the scene of the accident in the state of Coahuila, Lopez Obrador said.

“A coal mine collapsed in the municipality of Sabinas, Coahuila, which caused a tunnel to flood and apparently trapped nine miners,” he tweeted.

“We hope to find them safe,” he added.

Anxious relatives gathered at the site waiting for news, some crying and comforting each other.

One woman said through tears that two of her children worked in the mine, although one of them had managed to escape after the accident.

Coahuila’s state government said that the miners had been carrying out excavation work when they hit an adjoining area full of water, causing the shaft to collapse and flood.

“The mine began operating in January of this year and until now there have been no reports of any type of anomaly,” it said in a statement.

Coahuila, the country’s main coal-producing region, has seen a series of fatal mining accidents over the years.

The worst was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.

Last year seven miners died after they were trapped in another accident in Coahuila.

Climate, poverty collude to torment Central America

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

Every time it rains, Blanca Arias in El Salvador and Sandra Ramos in Honduras fear that flooding will raze their precarious homes and leave their families destitute. Again.

It is a fate that strikes all too often in parts of Central America and, experts say, ever more frequently and severely due to climate change.

Corruption, crumbling infrastructure, uncontrolled urbanization and poverty — which afflicts 60 percent of Central America’s 50 million inhabitants — all combine to leave more and more people exposed to natural disasters.

And the region has many: from volcanic eruptions, drought and heat waves to regular flooding brought on by tropical storms and hurricanes.

In July this year, Tropical Storm Bonnie unleashed a downpour on San Salvador, flooding Arias’s humble dwelling and many others built in a ravine in the capital’s southeast.

Her house was left “in ruins,” Arias told AFP, and she lost everything she needs for her artisanal ice cream business.

“We have nowhere to go,” the 58-year-old said.

In neighboring Honduras, 22-year-old Ramos lives in a state of constant nervousness on the banks of the Ulua River.

“A little while ago, a fortnight ago, we were scared because they announced a very strong hurricane. We went to look at the river, the river filled up … some of it drained into the valley.

“All of this alarms us, because we are in a risk zone and we cannot be at ease,” she said.

– Vicious cycle –

When both Hurricane Eta and Iota hit in October 2020, Ramos said her entire settlement became flooded.

“All the houses were lost, we lost everything.”

The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean estimates that the hurricane duo caused damage exceeding $2 billion in Honduras alone.

In 2021, according to a World Food Programme report, more than 8.4 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua were in a food “crisis” due to conflict, economic shocks resulting from the coronavirus epidemic, and extreme weather events.

It is a vicious cycle.

“Poverty makes the same people look for the cheapest areas to live in and those are usually the most vulnerable zones,” Ricardo Navarro, president of the CESTA environmental NGO told AFP.

The areas of Central America most exposed to tropical cyclones are on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, both stretching almost 3,000 kilometers (some 1,800 miles) in length, and heavily populated.

Experts regularly warn of the danger of high-density settlements in high-risk areas.

In some areas of Nicaragua, for example, “there was a time when rivers shrunk and people built (homes) in their beds or very close to the rivers which, of course, returned to their normal flow,” said Janett Castillo, of the Nicaraguan National Risk Management Board (MNGR).

“Nature reclaims the space that humans invade,” added Magdalena Cortez of the Salvadoran risk-management NGO MPGR, who said that to minimize risk, “we must respect nature.”

Despite the many disasters afflicting the region, “civil protection systems have been weakened” by government neglect, said Guido Calderon of the Cociger risk management NGO in Guatemala.

Every time there is an event, the systems mobilize for a rapid response, “and then leave those affected abandoned,” he said.

– ‘Uncontrolled exploitation’ –

Back in Honduras, Jose Ramon Avila of the NGO coalition ASONOG said the vulnerability exposed by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 — which was the country’s worst-ever natural disaster with more than 5,000 deaths — has only become worse with “uncontrolled exploitation of forests” ever since.

Flooding has worsened due to a changing climate, said Avila, with “abundant rainfall in shorter periods, which in turn saturates the soil” that would normally absorb the excess water.

According to a 2021 report of the Inter-American Development Bank, a total of 81 weather disasters killed 26,887 people in Honduras between 1970 and 2019.

In some areas, the country has sought to deal with the threat by building stone-and-soil dikes.

But when Hurricane Eta hit, even those barriers were overwhelmed, remembered Ramos.

After the water receded, she and her neighbors returned and settled in makeshift huts, slowly rebuilding their lives, but with no faith left in the dikes.

Now, every time a storm is forecast, they get ready to leave.

“We can lose the little we have collected — the animals, even our lives,” Ramos said.

Inflation-fighting BoE poised to unleash big rate hike

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

The Bank of England is expected Thursday to follow other major central banks with an aggressive interest rate hike to tackle surging inflation.

The BoE is tipped to lift its main rate by 0.50 percentage points — the biggest amount in more than a quarter of a century.

British inflation jumped to a four-decade high of 9.4 percent in June, worsening a cost-of-living crisis as workers’ wages fail to keep pace.

With inflation spiking globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank sprang large hikes last month of 0.75 and 0.50 percentage points respectively.

– ‘Up the ante’ –

“After the ECB and the Fed delivered oversized hikes at their July meetings, the Bank of England is likely to feel similar pressure to up the ante at its August meeting,” said BNP Paribas economist Amarjot Sidhu in a note to clients.

“We expect the Monetary Policy Committee… to deliver the first 50 basis point hike since its independence and to signal its determination to prevent inflation from becoming entrenched.”

The BoE, granted operational independence from the government over monetary policy in 1997, will reveal its latest rate decision at 1100 GMT on Thursday alongside its latest outlook.

Governor Andrew Bailey has already stated that a half-point hike — which would be the biggest since 1995 — will be “among the choices on the table” this time around.

That would take borrowing costs to 1.75 percent, a level last seen in December 2008.

Consumer prices have soared as energy costs spike on key gas and oil producer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Inflation has also raced higher on supply-chain woes, including labour market shortages in the wake of Brexit, and strong demand for goods and services as the Covid pandemic recedes.

– Inflation ‘spooks’ central banks –

Yet the bank predicts UK inflation will spike to 11 percent later this year — and it was expected to lift this guidance on Thursday.

Added to the picture, state energy regulator Ofgem is due to ramp up domestic electricity and gas prices again in October.

That could take the average UK household energy bill above £3,000 ($3,600) per year.

“Surging energy prices… will force the BoE to revise up its inflation forecast yet again,” said Barclays analyst Fabrice Montagne.

“Higher inflation for even longer is the kind of scenario that spooks central banks.”

The BoE’s key task is to keep inflation close to a 2.0-percent target.

Economists meanwhile argue that a large rate hike damages the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic — and risks the prospect of recession.

Rising rates inflict more misery for businesses and consumers via rising loan repayments.

“The… anticipated hike would be harmful to the economy and pile on the pain for people across the country,” said Nigel Green, boss of financial consultants deVere.

The BoE has increased its key rate five times since December, lifting it to 1.25 percent from a record-low 0.1 percent.

Until now, the BoE has not hiked its rates by more than 0.25 percentage points each time.

The soaring cost of living has dominated the race to become Britain’s next prime minister.

Liz Truss is currently ahead in the polls against fellow Conservative and former finance minister Rishi Sunak.

Scholz opens door to extend nuclear as Russia squeezes gas supply

4 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday raised the possibility of keeping nuclear plants going as he accused Russia of blocking the delivery of a key turbine to throttle gas supplies to Europe.

The continent’s biggest economy has been scrambling for energy sources to fill a gap left by a reduction in gas supplies from Moscow.

Standing next to the turbine, Scholz said that extending the lifetime of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants “can make sense”.

The power stations, which are set to be taken off the grid at the end of the year, were “relevant exclusively for electricity production, and only for a small part of it”, Scholz said.

In total, the nuclear fleet accounts for six percent of Germany’s electricity output.

The government has said it will await the outcome of a new “stress test” of the national electric grid before determining whether to stick with the long-planned phase-out.

– Nuclear switch –

Former chancellor Angela Merkel spectacularly decided to ditch atomic energy in 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Extending the lifetime of the plants has set off a heated debate in Germany, where nuclear power has been a source of controversy stretching back before Merkel’s decision.

Germany has already moved to restart mothballed coal power plants to guard against an energy shortfall.

The squeeze comes as Russia dwindles supplies of gas, which Germany has long relied on to power industry and heat homes.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has chalked up limited supplies to technical issues.

The delayed return of a turbine from Canada, where the unit was being serviced, was behind the initial reduction in deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in June, according to Gazprom.

Supplies via the energy link were further reduced to around 20 percent of capacity in late July, after Gazprom halted the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the “technical condition of the engine”.

– Turbine trouble –

Berlin has dismissed Gazprom’s justifications for the reduction to supply, seeing instead a “political” move in response to the West’s support for Ukraine.

The turbine which was transferred from Canada to Germany was “available and working”, Scholz said Wednesday.

“There is no reason why this delivery cannot happen,” he said, adding that it had received “all the approvals” needed for export from Germany to Russia.

Pipeline operators only had to say “they want to have the turbine and provide the necessary customs information for transport to Russia”, Scholz said.

Gazprom however insisted it was unable to take delivery of the turbine.

“Sanctions regimes in Canada, in the European Union and in Britain, as well as the inconsistencies in the current situation concerning the contractual obligations of (turbine maker) Siemens make the delivery impossible,” it said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Gazprom was still waiting for documents confirming the unit was “not affected by sanctions”.

It was however “technologically possible” in the opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue deliveries via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Peskov said.

The second pipeline, which runs parallel to Nord Stream 1, stands completed but was blocked by the German government in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine.

Former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who signed off on the pipeline while in office, told German magazine Stern it was “the easiest solution” to use Nord Stream 2 instead.

But Scholz has rejected the call, saying Nord Stream 1 provided sufficient capacity for gas flows.

Moscow’s move to limit supplies sent a “difficult message” to the world by creating doubt over Russia’s commitment to its agreements, he added.

Kansas abortion vote rocks US midterms outlook

3 Aug 2022 4 Aug 2022

The surprise vote in Republican-heavy Kansas to repudiate a push for abortion bans fired shockwaves through the US political landscape ahead of November’s midterm elections, with President Joe Biden’s Democrats now seeing a glimmer of hope that they may avoid their predicted drubbing.

Ever since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy in June, US conservatives have been nervously asking whether their triumphant push to severely restrict access to the procedure — a decades-long dream — has gone too far in the run-up to the midterms.

In Kansas, they got an answer.

The state is a Republican stronghold, but in Tuesday’s referendum, a bid to remove abortion rights from the Kansas constitution was rejected by 59 to 41 percent, with unusually heavy turnout.

Given this was the first time Americans had an opportunity to vote on the issue since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court ruled to overturn the half-century-old Roe v. Wade decision enshrining abortion rights, Democrats are celebrating the result — and say a major backlash is only beginning.

“The court practically dared women in this country to go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose that the court had just ripped away after 50 years,” Biden said at the White House where he signed an executive order that aims to help Americans who travel to get an abortion when their own state makes it impossible.

“They don’t have a clue about the power of American women. Last night in Kansas, they found out.”

Later, he predicted that outrage over the issue would drive “record numbers” of voters.

Planned Parenthood, which lobbies for abortion access, called the Kansas vote “a clear warning to anti-abortion politicians.” The organization’s president, Alexis McGill Johnson, also called on voters to keep up the momentum into the midterms.

“We have the opportunity to protect abortion access at the ballot box in November. We know that Kansas will not be our last fight or our last victory.”

– Trump card –

The November midterms, which will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Biden’s first term, are shaping up as rough for Democrats who even now only control the legislature by a few votes.

Blamed by voters for soaring inflation — at a four-decade high — and widespread pessimism in the messy aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, Democrats are forecast to lose at least the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate.

This would likely make Biden a lame duck, turning Washington into an even uglier political battlefield than it is today.

And abortion is not the only reason the midterms campaign will bring ideological tensions to a boil.

Donald Trump is pushing hardline right-wing candidates to boost his brand and possibly set the stage for his own attempted White House comeback in 2024.

Several candidates endorsed by Trump won primary votes held around the United States on Tuesday at the same time as the Kansas referendum, signaling that the disgraced ex-president remains a force.

In Michigan, one of the handful of House Republicans who dared join Democrats in impeaching Trump as president was tossed out, replaced by a former Trump administration official.

Trump’s candidate for the Senate, Blake Masters, won the Republican primary in the swing state of Arizona.

And Trump’s candidate for the sensitive post of Arizona secretary of state, a key figure in running elections, also won. Mark Finchem, a supporter of Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, has ties to a far-right militia.

– ‘Extremists’ –

Increasingly, Democrats are seeking to link that Trump surge and the abortion dispute, arguing that the midterms will be a battle not just between two parties but generally between political moderates and growing extremism.

Across the country, Democrats have even gone so far as to pay for advertising boosting Trump’s primary candidates — the theory being that they will be easier to beat in November than more moderate Republicans.

For example, according to The New York Times, the Democratic side spent about $627,000 on advertising in Maryland to help Trump-endorsed candidate Dan Cox — another 2020 election lie supporter — win his Republican gubernatorial primary.

In a speech to the Democratic National Committee late Wednesday, Biden homed in on the emerging campaign message.

Referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, Biden told Democratic organizers that democracy itself is “at risk from extremists in the MAGA Republican Party.”

“We need to make clear to this country this year just how critical and fundamental choices between us and the MAGA Republicans (are),” he said.