Happy Thursday and welcome to your morning wrap of the key political and business headlines from around the world.
First up, Democrats swept a trio of races yesterday in the first major elections since Donald Trump regained the White House, giving hope to the beleaguered party for a possible playbook for the future, Reuters reported.
New York City elected a 34-year-old democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, as its next mayor, capping a meteoric and unlikely rise from an anonymous state lawmaker to one of the country’s most visible political figures. Meanwhile, Virginia and New Jersey moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill won their respective races for governor convincingly.
Mamdani has proposed raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for ambitious policies such as frozen rents, free childcare and free city buses. Republicans have already begun portraying Mamdani as the new face of the Democratic Party. "His election is proof that the Democrat Party has abandoned common sense and tied themselves to extremism," Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement.
As Associated Press reported, Trump was largely absent from the campaign trail, and GOP candidates who closely aligned themselves with the president – betting big that his win last year could provide a path to victory – were wrong.
They were mainly focused on immigration, crime and conservative cultural issues. But according to an expansive poll by AP, voters who decided the top elections were more concerned about the economy, jobs and the cost of living.
While Democrats are hoping Tuesday’s (local time) victory offers a playbook for the future, they were limited to a handful of states that traditionally lean blue, and the White House typically struggles in off-year elections.
US President Donald Trump was absent on the campaign trail.
Staying in the US, Supreme Court Justices have expressed scepticism about the legality of reciprocal tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on most of the country’s trading partners, CNBC reported.
US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Solicitor General D John Sauer faced tough questions from both conservative and liberal justices on the Trump administration’s method for enacting tariffs, which critics say infringes on the power of Congress to tax.
He said: “These are regulatory tariffs. They are not revenue-raising tariffs.” The fact that they raise revenue was incidental, he said.
One of the court’s three liberal members, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said taxes are exactly what they are. “They’re generating money from American citizens; revenue.”
The conservatives on the court pressed Sauer on the fact that Trump had unilaterally imposed tariffs without Congress authorising them.
“It’s a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said.
Sauer was questioned for an hour before Neal Katyal, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, began his argument. It is not clear when the Supreme Court will issue its decision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a court filing in September that the US might have to refund US$750b if the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs illegal.
To the Philippines now, where the death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi has risen to at least 85, while hundreds of thousands fled their homes as the powerful storm ripped through the country, the BBC reported.
Entire towns are flooded on the most populated central island of Cebu, where at least 48 deaths occurred.
The official death toll, which is likely to rise, includes six crew members of a military helicopter that crashed on Mindanao island, south of Cebu, after it was deployed to assist in relief efforts.
The typhoon is forecast to move on to Vietnam, which is already seeing record-breaking rainfall.
In business news, the French government has said it will suspend the fast-fashion shopping website Shein amid controversy over its sale of childlike sex dolls, The Guardian reported.
It comes as the company opened its first brick-and-mortar store in the world in Paris amid a heavy police presence.
“On the instructions of the prime minister, the Government is initiating the procedure to suspend Shein for the time necessary for the platform to demonstrate to the public authorities that all of its content is finally in compliance with our laws and regulations,” the office of the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said.
A Shein spokesperson told Reuters the company was seeking urgent consultations with authorities.
The discovery of sex dolls resembling children on Shein’s website triggered a political outcry in the country. The company, which was founded in China in 2012 but is now based in Singapore, has pledged to cooperate with French authorities and has said it is banning all sex dolls on its platform.
Since launching in 2012, Shein has quickly become a global fast-fashion giant.
Finally, Japan has deployed troops to the country’s mountainous north to help trap local bears after local authorities and communities struggled to cope with an unprecedented wave of attacks, the ABC reported.
The operation started in the small town of Kazuno, which has a population of around 30,000 people.
For weeks, residents have been urged to avoid thick woods and stay indoors after dark to keep clear of bears foraging near their homes for food. There have been more than 100 bear attacks, with a record 12 people killed across Japan since April.
Authorities have previously relied on local hunters to control population sizes, but many of them are now ageing and unable to keep hunting. Additionally, climate change-driven shifts in natural food sources are also contributing to the attacks.
"Last year there was an abundance of food in the mountains, and many cubs were born. This year, the food supply has run out," said Yasuhiro Kitakata, who oversees Kazuno’s bear department.
