Mid-term elections 2018: US Democrats win House in blow to Trump
The US Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections, dealing a serious blow to President Donald Trump.
Taking control of the lower chamber of Congress for the first time in eight years will enable Democrats to thwart the president's agenda.
But Mr Trump's Republicans are set to strengthen their grip on the Senate.
Tuesday's vote was seen as a referendum on a polarising president, even though he is not up for re-election till 2020.
Female candidates stole the spotlight in the House in an election cycle that had been billed as the Year of the Woman.
Showdown looms in Yemen port as Saudi-led coalition advances
Hundreds of airstrikes have hit civilian areas in Hodeidah despite calls for ceasefire
Instead of bringing calm to the besieged Yemeni city, calls for a ceasefire in Hodeidah have brought some of the worst violence the vital port has yet faced in the three-year war.
Baseem al-Janani, who lives in the city, said: “The clashes are absolutely crazy right now. I have a headache from the shelling and bombing in the east. People are trapped in their houses for hours at a time because of shrapnel and gunfire. But their houses are not safe either.”
In the past few days, more than 100 airstrikes have hit civilian neighbourhoods – five times as many as in the whole of the first week of October, according to Save the Children staff in Hodeidah.
Armistice 1918 centenary: Augustin Trébuchon, France's last fallen soldier
On November 11, 1918, Augustin Trébuchon fell in a hail of German fire minutes before the armistice. He was the last French soldier killed on home soil in World War I. Trébuchon’s story inspired “Augustin”, a new novel in French by Alexandre Duyck.
It was around 10:50am, on November 11, a century ago. The rat-a-tat of machine gun fire splinters the air at Vrigne-Meuse, in the French Ardennes. “Augustin collapses,” journalist Alexandre Duyck writes. “With 10 minutes to go after more than 1,560 days of fighting, Augustin would miss the rejoicing, the armistice, the singing of the Marseillaise, the embraces, the joy of the victors, the hero’s welcome in [his native] Lozère.”
With his first novel, soberly entitled “Augustin”, Duyck lends new life to one “Poilu” – as France’s WWI infantrymen are affectionately known -- a century after his death. Trébuchon is officially the last soldier to die in combat on French soil, just moments before the guns fell silent to end the Great War.
Islamic State left more than 200 mass graves in Iraq, UN says
7 November 2018
More than 200 mass graves holding as many as 12,000 bodies have been found in areas of Iraq that were once controlled by Islamic State, UN investigators have said.
The 202 graves verified by investigators are concentrated in northern and western Iraq, areas that Islamic State controlled from 2014 to 2017. A joint report by the UN mission to Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called the sites the militants' “legacy of terror”.
The deaths occurred in what the United Nations has labelled systematic and widespread violence, a campaign that “may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide”.
Tokyo Medical Univ to accept some applicants denied by exam rigging
Tokyo Medical University will admit applicants who were rejected in 2017 and 2018 due to a rigged admission process, if they still wish to attend the school, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
An independent committee's report said in October that 69 applicants who took the general entrance exams and a common admission test used by most universities this year and last would have qualified for admission if the process had been fair.
The number of such students could be as high as 100, according to the sources, who added the university will hold a press conference Wednesday to announce the action to be taken.
How did women candidates do in the 2018 midterms?
85 women have won seats in the House as of Wednesday morning, breaking the current session's record of 84 women.
By Jane C. Timm
A record number of women were elected to the House of Representatives on Tuesday; as of early Wednesday morning, 85 women had won seats, breaking the current session's record of 84 women.
It is the latest in a year of record-breaking for women, who filed to run for Congress in historic numbers and won their primaries in historic numbers, too. More than 100 women won their races.
And it's not just in the numbers: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman elected to the House, while Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to the House. Sharice Davids, a lesbian, lawyer and former mixed martial arts fighter, defeated a Republican incumbent in Kansas and will join Debra Haaland of New Mexico, another winning Democrat on Tuesday, as the first Native American women elected to Congress.
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