Whether Democrats or Republicans will control the U.S. Congress is still not decided.
Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story is just ahead, but first, making headlines.
South Korea’s military on Wednesday unveiled debris from a North Korean missile salvaged from South Korean waters. It was identified as parts of a Soviet-era surface-to-air missile. The launch is the latest in a record year of missile testing by the North.
Beijing accounts for 80 of the more than 8,000 new COVID-19 infections reported in China on Tuesday. In an effort to combat the rebound in cases, mandatory testing will increase in frequency from 72 to 24 hours for most capital city residents.
A Hong Kong court upheld the decision on Wednesday to let a veteran British lawyer defend pro-democracy newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai at his upcoming national security trial. Lai founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, and was arrested in 2019 and under the city's sweeping Beijing-imposed National Security Law.
U.S. President Joe Biden is attending the Association of Southeast Nations summit in Cambodia which comes as Washington and Beijing are increasingly jockeying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
During a meeting with a visiting British minister on Wednesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan hopes to sign a trade deal with Britain and deepen its cooperation.
In the U.S. midterm elections, Democrats gained a Senate seat in the state of Pennsylvania, with Democrat John Fetterman defeating Republican Mehmet Oz, and are leading the Senate race in Arizona.
With vote counting still ongoing, many races are still too close to call and it is still not clear if Democrats will retain their narrow majorities in the House and Senate – or if Republicans will take control. VOA’s Katherine Gypson reports from the U.S. state of Georgia, where the Senate race is headed to a runoff.
Americans voting on the direction the country will take for the next two years, choosing if it is time for Republican leadership – or if President Joe Biden will continue to have the support of a Democratic Congress….
More than a third of the U.S. Senate was up for re-election this year. Republicans needed to win just one additional seat to overcome Democrats’ narrow majority. A handful of Senate races still too close to call will determine which party has the majority
In Georgia, the vote count is narrowly split between Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, who reminded supporters of the stakes of this election…..
“Women and their right to choose is on the ballot.”
An argument that resonated with many female and independent voters in the suburbs.
“I am voting for things to stay Democrat, to be honest, just because of all the abortion rights issues. That's really important to me that a woman still have the right to choose. And so that swayed my opinion strongly.”
Historically, the party in power loses midterm elections. For some Georgia voters, this election is an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with Biden.
“I don't think he's made many of his own decisions. I think he's more of a spokes piece [spokesperson] for this far left and special interests.”
All 435 U.S. House seats were also up for re-election, with Democrats securing some key early wins in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. There were isolated reports of delays in casting and counting ballots, some due to machine malfunction. But overall, the voting around the country ran smoothly. Officials may not be able to finalize results for several more days.
Katherine Gypson, VOA News, Atlanta, Georgia
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If Republicans take control of the U.S. House, their presumptive leader might be the next high-level U.S. politician to visit Taiwan.
“Kevin McCarthy, who would be the speaker in a Republican majority, has already said that he would want to travel to Taiwan if he were the majority leader.”
China reacted strongly to current U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan over the summer, firing missiles around the island country it claims as its own and conducting a series of aggressive military drills.
That’s all the time we have here on VOA Asia Weekly.
Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Chris Casquejo. Please be sure to tune in again next week.