US Business

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won a landslide election victory over his Democratic rival, securing a second term, cementing his status as a Republican presidential contender, and confirming the one-time swing state’s tilt to the right.

Although neither he nor his erstwhile backer Donald Trump have announced their candidacy for the White House, the race for the 2024 Republican nomination may well have unofficially begun with Tuesday’s midterms.

“We’ve got so much more to do and I have only begun to fight,” the 44-year-old DeSantis — who emerged as perhaps the biggest winner of Election Day 2022 — said in his victory speech.

According to unofficial results, the man who ran an incendiary campaign against President Joe Biden’s administration and turned Florida into a laboratory for right-wing policies won nearly 60 percent of the vote against Democrat Charlie Crist.

“I believe the survival of the American experiment requires a revival of true American principles. Florida has proved that it can be done,” DeSantis said to cheers from his supporters.

He did not mention Trump, whose support gave DeSantis a boost in his first race for the governor’s mansion in 2018.

The former president seems both aware and visibly annoyed by the threat posed by the rise of Florida’s popular leader.

Trump gave a brief speech Tuesday night in which he congratulated himself on some Republican victories in the hotly contested midterm elections, but was careful not to mention the win by the politician who is already seen as his primary rival.

On Monday, Trump sought to discourage DeSantis from entering the race for the White House in 2024.

“I think he would be making a mistake, I think the base would not like it,” Fox News quoted Trump as saying. “I don’t think it would be good for the party.”

As he often does with his opponents, Trump has branded DeSantis with a derogatory moniker: Ron DeSanctimonious.

– Florida’s rightward tilt –

The resounding DeSantis victory also confirms a clear shift to the right in Florida, long considered a swing state that could go to either Democrats or Republicans.

The governor was not mistaken when he said on Tuesday that “we not only won election, we have rewritten the political map.”

“It’s clearly apparent that this election we will have garnered a significant number of votes from people who may not have voted for me four years ago,” DeSantis said.

In a result that would have been all but unthinkable a few years ago, DeSantis won the predominantly Hispanic county of Miami-Dade, which no Republican gubernatorial candidate had carried in two decades.

Democrats are concerned that while Hispanics have traditionally voted for their party, more and more are now being drawn to the other side, with many in the Cuban and Venezuelan communities especially sensitive to Republicans’ anti-socialist rhetoric.

DeSantis’ handling of the Covid-19 pandemic may have also boosted his appeal and contributed to his decisive victory.

The governor, who fiercely opposed mandatory vaccination and masks, allowed Florida businesses and schools to reopen well before many other areas of the country.

He also recently caused controversy — and delighted many Republicans — by sending dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in the Democratic-led state of Massachusetts.

And he is one of the loudest voices in the culture wars that divide the country, signing the so-called “Don’t say gay” bill, which prohibits discussing LGBTQ topics in classrooms, into law earlier this year.

In recent days, a video tweeted by his wife Casey has also garnered extensive attention: the short black-and-white clip presents the governor as being invested with a divine mission.

Joe Biden’s Democrats seem to have escaped a feared drubbing in Tuesday’s midterm elections, but it remains to be seen whether that will revive the US president’s flagging fortunes until 2024 — or beyond.

The 79-year-old, who framed the race as a clash between defenders of democracy and the “extremist” camp of Donald Trump, spent election night in back-to-back calls with Democrats savoring their wins in Senate, House and gubernatorial races around the country.

“Just got off the phone with some of tonight’s winners — including some folks I saw on the road this year,” Biden tweeted as the results came in — alongside a picture of himself in a turtle neck and baseball cap, seeming happy to take at least some of the credit.

White House staff, according to the former press secretary Jen Psaki, were “giddy and gleeful” as results came in.

The outcome taking shape was far from ideal for Democrats, who stand to lose the House of Representatives in what Biden has admitted will make his life much more “difficult” — likely hobbling parts of his agenda.

But if overnight predictions hold and the Democrats lose the House by a handful of seats, with the Senate still in play, Biden’s camp will have vastly outperformed expectations.

– Choppy waters –

The president’s party has traditionally lost seats in midterm elections and with Biden’s approval ratings stuck in the low 40s, and sky-high inflation topping voter concerns, Republicans had high hopes of seizing both chambers of Congress in a “red wave.”

Such a drubbing would have raised tough questions on whether America’s oldest-ever president, who turns 80 this month, should run again.

Instead Biden stands to emerge in much better shape than either of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, who both took a hammering at the midterms.

Nevertheless, Biden will be headed into choppy waters if the House flips.

In a country whose divisions run deeper than ever, even a longtime senator and moderate Democrat like Biden will likely struggle to find common ground with a Republican-led chamber.

Large parts of his legislative agenda could utterly stall as a result.

Another open question is whether a new Republican leadership would keep its promise to aggressively hold the president to account — which even a slim House majority gives it the power to do.

That could easily translate into endless congressional investigations targeting Biden, his record and his family.

One of the loudest voices, far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has already promised stepped-up scrutiny of Biden’s son Hunter, who Republicans accuse of exploiting his father’s connections to do business with Ukraine and China.

– Eyes on 2024 –

With control of the House, Republicans would also be able to apply considerable budgetary pressure on the president — with the potential to cut funding to the federal government.

As for the Senate — which confers greater powers — its fate still hangs in the balance.

But beyond, the big question facing Biden — and his Democrats — is who will carry the party’s colors into the 2024 White House race.

Until now the US president has consistently said he intends to seek a second term, and any suggestion to the contrary would have immediately undermined his authority.

But there is little appetite among the US public — or within his own party — for a second White House run by an octogenarian commander in chief.

Biden leaves Friday on a diplomatic marathon taking him from the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, to Cambodia for an ASEAN summit, and on to Indonesia for the G20 gathering. 

The veteran Democrat may keep America guessing some time yet about his intentions for 2024.

But with the president far from US shores, his rival Trump will be pressing ahead — promising a big reveal, widely expected to be a new White House run, next Tuesday in Florida.

Russia is moving US basketball star Brittney Griner to a penal colony after she lost an appeal against a drug conviction, her lawyers said Wednesday, drawing a sharp rebuke from the White House.

Griner, who has been jailed for nine years for possession of a small quantity of cannabis oil, was transferred out of a detention centre on November 4, her legal team said.

She “is now on her way to a penal colony,” lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement.

“We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination,” they added.

Russia generally notifies of a prisoner’s transfer to a different address by mail, taking up to two weeks, the lawyers said.

Griner’s case has drawn outrage in the United States, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken seeking a deal with Russia to free her despite soaring tensions over Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the United States had put forward a “substantial offer” to Russia to resolve her case.

– ‘Wrongful detention’ –

“Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long,” Jean-Pierre said.

“As the administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the president has directed the administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony.”

Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women’s NBA champion, had been in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury Women’s National Basketball Association side.

She said the cannabis in vape cartridges was to treat pain from her sporting injuries, but Russia does not allow medical marijuana use.

Observers have suggested that Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan — a retired US Marine arrested in December 2018 and accused of spying — could be traded for Viktor Bout, a famed Russian arms trafficker serving 25 years in prison on a 2012 conviction.

– ‘Totalitarian system’ – 

Prisoners’ rights activist Vladimir Osechkin said conditions in penal colonies are much harsher than in detention centres. 

“It is a more totalitarian system with Gulag uniforms and 100 people per room in barracks,” Osechkin, who founded the Gulagu.net rights group, told AFP, warning that prison officials routinely orchestrate conflicts and fights between inmates. 

“If the Kremlin decides not to torture the basketball player and creates VIP conditions for her, she will be allowed to eat separately, play sports and keep fit,” said Osechkin.

“But if a decision is made and the federal prison service receives an order to put pressure on her then of course her life and health will be in danger.”

Activists say abuse and torture are frequent in Russia’s vast network of prisons run by the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), a successor to the notorious Gulag system of the Stalin era.

Penal colonies are the most common type of prisons and are known for their harsh treatment of inmates, unsanitary conditions and lack of access to proper healthcare.

Prison officials also often limit inmates’ contact with lawyers and family. Harassment of prisoners sometimes leads to prison riots.

A number of US citizens including Whelan are currently behind bars in Russia. 

Whelan’s brother David regularly describes Paul’s life in the IK-17 colony in the central region of Mordovia, saying he has undergone sleep deprivation and that suicides are common in prisons.

The treatment of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny has also highlighted abuses in prisons, activists say.

The 46-year-old has been repeatedly placed in solitary confinement, which his supporters say amounts to torture.

Anti-torture project Gulagu.net has drawn attention to what it calls systemic abuse and sexual violence towards prisoners.

Last year it released harrowing video footage of a naked man being raped with what appeared to be a broom stick at a prison hospital.

Fractured relations between the United States and China have cast further doubt on whether Beijing will sign up to more climate promises, with pressure mounting on the world’s biggest emitter.

US President Joe Biden is expected to be among the leaders to show up at the COP27 summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, but his newly reanointed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will be conspicuous by his absence.

Cooperation between the world’s two largest economies and carbon polluters has been central to rare breakthroughs in the nearly 30-year saga of UN climate talks, including the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

However, relations have sunk to a 40-year low after a visit to Taiwan by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a US ban on the sale of high-level chip technology to China, leaving the outcome of COP27 in doubt.

The rival nations have already been thrust under the spotlight at the talks in Egypt, with French President Emmanuel Macron telling campaigners on Monday both needed to “step up”.

– Low expectations –

Beijing was a central player in the French capital seven years ago and is also considered crucial to this year’s talks in Egypt, given the outsized impacts of its huge population, massive energy-guzzling economy and status as the planet’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Xi has already pledged that China will peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reduce them to net zero by 2060, moves seen as essential for meeting the Paris goal of keeping global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius.

However, with humanity poised to blow past the 2 degrees Celsius limit under current commitments, pressure has grown on major polluters to go even further in their efforts to cut emissions.

Alden Meyer, a senior associate at climate change think tank E3G, said cooperation between China and the United States on key issues such as methane and deforestation was essential.

“If they’re pushing against each other on how to deal with those issues it’s never helpful,” Meyer told AFP.

“China and the US are both going to act based on what they think is in their national self-interest, but when it comes to international collaboration it’s been important for the US and China to be aligned at key moments.”

Still, there are scant hopes that China will significantly ramp up its climate commitments at COP27.

A report published by the environment ministry last month stressed the need to deliver existing pledges instead of promising anything new.

China’s climate change chief underscored the point, calling on developed countries to cough up long-promised cash for poorer nations instead of falling back on “empty slogans”.

– Methane fears –

China is under pressure to firm up plans to cut emissions of methane, an atmospheric pollutant present in much lower quantities than carbon dioxide but with far greater heat-trapping potential.

Methane accounts for around 10 percent of China’s total emissions, mainly from the mining, agriculture and waste sectors.

Beijing and Washington jointly declared last year that they would work together to control methane emissions.

But while the US has already laid out plans to cut its emissions to 30 percent below 2020 levels by the end of the decade, China has not yet announced its own roadmap.

“Methane is an area that has been neglected by China’s climate action … (but) can no longer stay as an afterthought,” said Li Shuo, senior global policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia.

Whether Beijing releases an action plan at COP27, and what that plan entails, “will tell us a lot about China’s willingness to honour promises and its desire to engage with other partners”, Li told AFP.

– Belt and Road impact –

The environmental impact of Xi’s flagship Belt and Road initiative has also come under scrutiny.

The sprawling plan envisions a continent-spanning web of infrastructure projects to link China with markets in Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond.

Campaigners have criticised the projects for damaging fragile ecosystems and including new coal-fired power plants overseas, even as Beijing pivots towards renewables at home.

China was funding over a quarter of all new coal plants outside its borders by 2019, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a US think tank.

Authorities have since called a halt to overseas coal funding and pledged to pursue “green” projects that help to reduce emissions, cut pollution and protect biodiversity.

Concerns linger over China’s dependence on coal — which still makes up most of its energy supply — especially after it burned through even more this summer to meet increased air-conditioning demand and make up for shrunken hydropower dams.

Despite this, Xi can point to a suite of policies that have helped position China as an emerging environmental force, including ramping up support for renewables, bringing swaths of the countryside under state protection and booting smog-spewing factories out of large cities to improve air quality.

An American woman who had publically accused her Saudi ex-husband of trapping their daughter in the kingdom under so-called guardianship laws said she was released Wednesday following a brief detention over social media posts.

Carly Morris was taken into custody on Monday and the whereabouts of her daughter, eight-year-old Tala, was unknown, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative, which describes itself as advocating on behalf of people wrongfully detained in the Middle East and North Africa. 

But when contacted by AFP on Wednesday, Morris said she had been released overnight.

“I was released from jail late last night,” she told AFP.

“They detained me for two days… over my tweets,” she said.

In a voice note sent to AFP via Whatsapp, Morris said that her daughter was safe but accused her ex-husband of taking all their belongings from their hotel apartment. 

“I just went to the school today to take her… she is with me now but we have absolutely no clothes, shoes,” she said.

“He took everything.” 

Morris flew to Saudi Arabia with her daughter in the summer of 2019, hoping to spend a few weeks of quality time with the girl’s father. 

But soon after they landed in Riyadh, he seized their travel documents and arranged for the girl to become a Saudi citizen, ensuring he could bar her from leaving. 

In September, she received a summons from Saudi prosecutors indicating she was under investigation for “disturbing public order”, a development Morris believed was linked to social media posts about her case. 

She was then informed that she had been placed under a travel ban, according to an electronic notice seen by AFP. 

The family of Morris’s ex-husband has not responded to AFP’s requests for comment. 

– Limited reforms –

Advocacy groups said the case highlights the power that men continue to wield over women under the kingdom’s notorious guardianship laws. 

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, has earned plaudits for easing laws in Saudi Arabia which in the past have greatly restricted women’s ability to travel and work. 

Yet human rights groups note that women still require a male guardian’s permission to marry, and face discrimination when it comes to divorce and custody disputes. 

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a press conference Tuesday that Washington was “aware of the reports that Ms Morris has been detained”. 

“Our embassy in Riyadh is very engaged on this case; they’re following the situation very closely.” 

Morris’s detention comes amid heightened tensions between Riyadh and Washington, which has strongly objected to the OPEC+ cartel’s decision to cut oil production, saying it amounts to siding with Russia in the Ukraine war. 

In July, several months before those cuts were approved, US President Joe Biden came under heavy criticism from human rights organisations for travelling to Jeddah and meeting with Prince Mohammed, reversing an earlier pledge to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah”. 

Morris’s case is “yet another sign that Saudi simply does not value the US as an ally,” said Allison McManus, the Freedom Initiative’s director of research. 

“Before we hear any more reference to Saudi’s strategic partnership, we need to see an end to the abuse of American citizens. We need to see an end to the abuse of women and children whose only crime is their gender.”