The US midterm elections will determine whether Donald Trump’s Republicans retain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A continued majority could allow the president to pursue his agenda through the end of his term. If Republicans lose control of both chambers, Trump could face greater obstacles to passing major legislation and might rely more heavily on executive orders, according to the report.
The CDU’s district chairpersons are also concluding a private conference in Berlin. Chancellor and party leader Friedrich Merz attended for two hours, and participants raised concerns about party policy, including the proposed sugar tax. One attendee questioned the value of a party conference decision opposing the measure if Merz went on to support it with the SPD. Another said his local party would rather leave the CDU logo off campaign posters because it could hurt their chances of being elected.
Merz responded to the criticism, and some participants may return to their districts feeling they had been able to challenge the chancellor directly. The chairpersons were due to meet parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei before heading home.
In a separate case, Leon Kruse, the defence lawyer for former BND chief August Hanning, says that possessing classified intelligence documents is not in itself a crime. Hanning is in pretrial detention and is accused by federal prosecutors of espionage amounting to treason. Kruse argues that the documents would need to contain state secrets for the allegation to apply, and says Hanning had no intention of disclosing any such information.
The lawyer also said Hanning may simply have been personally interested in the documents and described a meeting with a retired Chinese military intelligence officer as a conversation between two pensioners. Prosecutors allege that Hanning took money after leaving office in exchange for revealing state secrets. The matter will ultimately be decided by a court.
Sources: Der Spiegel.