unsparing night against the hawks. close to zero zero zero zero al-jazeera selects express yourself. this is al-jazeera. the whole rahman you're watching the arabs there in news our life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes results are beginning to come in from crucial midterm elections in the united states at stake every seat in the house of representatives one third of the senate and possibly donald trump's political future. and how did you know castro in tucson arizona now we're all lousy in a tight senate race is crucial to which party controls congress. and another new

source of stars are the saudi arabia is ready to pay so-called blood money to murder journalist jamal khashoggi family. welcome to the news democrats of claim their first upset solve the u.s. midterm elections as they seek to regain control of the house of representatives from the republicans the two early victories came for democratic candidates in just six within the states of virginia and florida a number of other results in battleground areas are proving to be neck and neck voter turnout has been much higher than normal for the term elections with early numbers indicating that it could be the highest turnout in a generation or polls have closed in more states counting has just got underway and more than a dozen others ones will have to keep our eye on include senate races and arizona

and texas plus there's what's promising to be some close races for the governorship in kansas and wisconsin here's a reminder of what we'll be watching as the day unfolds all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives for grabs two hundred eighteen are needed for total control the democrats need a net gain of twenty three seats to take control of the chamber. in the senate remember only thirty five seats just over a third of the one hundred are for grabs out of the remaining seats the democrats have twenty three and the republicans forty two can they retain their hold on the senate will come the democrats take control or we have correspondents tracking those results closely across the u.s. how did your castro is live for us in tucson arizona where the voting has just closed john hendren is live in indiana the home state of vice president mike pence and dee gallagher is live in florida where there are two very close races for the

governorship and for several tauriel seats kristen salumi is live for us in mars in pennsylvania a state with several key house races and alan fischer joins me from washington d.c. and capitol hill let's go straight over to hi joe castro joins me now live from tucson in arizona a hugely important state when it comes to the various issues that republicans have been drumming home to the electorate not just in the state where you are but across the country. that's right here in the u.s. southwest we are in border states here in arizona and also next door in texas and us president donald trump has been canvassing these states in recent months campaigning for the republican candidates here and really turning to his signature issue of immigration and really the results here in arizona as well as texas will be a test of how effective that strategy of using divisive rhetoric when it comes to immigration is to to polarize the electorate in order to win republicans. has said

things like that caravan full of central american migrants who are crawling on their way north toward the u.s. border and he's called them invaders he promoted a very controversial political ad that has seen a backlash across the board in the u.s. to try to equate those that caravan full of women and children with would be murderers once they arrive in the united states and while similar rhetoric indeed was effective in helping trump win the white house two years ago it's a big question whether the president has now gone too far in speaking with voters in arizona many have said that they are disgusted by this type of type of racially laced talk so while trying to made motivate his base of white conservatives here as well as in taxes this may be a double edged sword that that discussed enough moderates to win them over to the democrat side or offends enough latinos to drive them to the polls and that is the

crucial question here is how many latinos make up that has to work early voting turnout that we've seen in both of these states they tend to lean democrat and as the results expect to be coming in more as the night draws on we'll see whether latinos may be able to flip these two senate senate seats in the democrats favor so indeed about you don't say which side to take us through that in tucson arizona of course the voting results. all the key contested races coming in from kentucky it's between republican candidate and democratic candidate amy mcgrath is also a former marine fighter pilot as you can see on your screen the current percentages are fifty point nine amy mcgrath forty seven point nine votes in kentucky's sixth congressional district let's get more on base from john hendren he's in indianapolis in the neighboring states of indiana the home state of the vice president mike pence

a great deal of interest in those states in the midwest they were crucial during the presidential election and they are just as crucial now. that's right so how the midwest is where john trump's won a lot of his votes in twenty six teen in we were looking for a blue wave in over and over again we have not found it here at a democratic wave that had been widely predicted at least not in the midwest that race you just talked about the kentucky sixth district that was one that people considered perhaps a bellwether if that one went from having voted fifteen percent in favor of trump then went democratic after that that might have suggested that we would have a democratic wave it does not appear to be happening here i am at the headquarters for joe donnelly the democrat who is the sitting senator in indiana another very republican state and he is well behind mike bron

a conservative businessman last i looked at forty nine percent of the vote and it was fifty four percent for braun forty two percent for john only that is an awfully big gap for him to make up in in north dakota heidi heitkamp is another vulnerable democrat in a solidly republican state most polls showed that she was fifteen percentage points behind before the voting ever started here so. of the three really vulnerable democratic senators claire mccaskill in missouri still has a shot here donnelly in indiana has a very uphill battle and the democrats already had trouble in this election there were thirty five she tapped twenty six of them were held by incumbent democrats nine by republicans so the republicans had a lot more targets to try to flip and if the democrats in fact lose a couple of seats as looks possible then the republicans could actually end up

having a stronger hand in the senate even if the democrats win control of the house as predicted and that is still not a foregone conclusion so for them i will leave it there of course come back to those results come trickling in let's go further south from where you want to florida and to gallup has live for us in orlando a little while ago there's a lot of cheering shouting and screaming behind you and what was going on. while i was looking like the democratic candidates for a bill nelson site which is i was pulling ahead but i can tell you those cheers have been replaced with nail biting his nerves become fright is this night goes on these two races that we're following very closely the one for the governorship of florida and one for the senate seen by just so incredibly close that if florida really is that state that reflects the nation it is doing so right now with these two races so you've got bill nelson the incumbent democrat versus rick scott

florida's current governor and there are literally thousands of votes between those two candidates and it's the same story between ron dishonest and andrew guillen the republican in the democrat candidates for governor thousands of votes only separating these two candidates so this could be a very very long and biting and nerve racking night here in florida as both republicans and democrats have so much at stake here. the reason that we follow our race is so closely in this state is because the demographics tend to reflect the entire nation you have to think of florida or in many ways as america in micro cause and so the mood of voters is reflected across the entire country in the last six presidential elections florida voters of iowa picked the winning candidate three times democratic three times republicans so that's why the state has watched so closely and that's why these races in particular are being watched so closely and once again i can tell you in the race for senate between bill nelson

and rick scott too close to call in the race for governor between ronda santas and under just too close to call literally thousands of votes separate these four candidates so we'll be continuing to watch this very closely but again a long and nerve racking night here in the state of florida yes indeed it is no course i'm sure it will be just the same for kristen salumi and miles in pennsylvania we go to her now because even though unlike florida kristen a big name races in the state of pennsylvania still a very important state the president now really won the state in twenty sixteen with promises of job creation and more empowerment for for women as well those were promises that people there wanted him to make good on and those are the issues that have been at the heart of the election in the state where you are.

the street near his. mom really doesn't. leave the house a piece that you know you think. that. what this race is workers are just. how inspiring democrats. this impact. if you want a special mention earlier in the year running on a particular bipartisanship. issue it was the district doc was overwhelmingly supportive of president trying to change causes sixty not just to vote rich not letting herself over and over until. now they're hoping that even that miter again tonight now he's running against a retired republican to run this whole thing with their seat incumbents

running against each other that is because you voting districts here and so be it but it gets too close to call here to early to call in many of these contested races but that is certainly up to the turnout has been strong in this state and there's not a lot of cheers as you can yourselves also from other places cloud the north east bernie sanders presidential candidate two thousand and sixteen. run his reelection into mox i also was a bit boring senator from massachusetts oscar contender for the presidency and. senator likes to spar with us on every occasion possible also winning her way for the moment krista will even follow vince with you let's cross over to the capitol washington d.c. let's see a senior democratic leader speaking let's listen to what she has to say we do are

you not going to text you says every conversation you have had made the difference between winning and losing in this election thanks to your own we have own the ground these volunteers and you are attracted inspired by incredible generation new generation of democratic candidates who have connected their daily vision and their values with those of the american people their constituents. yes when democrats win and we will win tonight. we'll have a congress that is that is open transparent and accountable to the american people we will strive for bipartisanship seeking time and ground as we are responsible to do but when we can't find that common ground standing our ground will work for the poultice family and nominee who are bald boulders come in that denominator

and so. this evening we strive for a moment when we will strive for unity because we must honor the guidance of our founders they did so much in our declaration life liberty and the pursuit of happiness but they gave the science sword bassoon from many one they didn't know how many we would be. well how different we be from each other but they knew we had to strive for one is for unity and that's what we intend to do in a nonpartisan way republicans have their joint money and their direct measure message of division but again we have an extraordinary action seven extraordinary general generation that dynamic can aside here in america can surprise. the energy of the grass yes yes. but suppose you there has been

a democratic minority in the house leaders speaking in washington d.c. of course are infusing all the supporters there that have certainly backed the democrats here's where we are and what we're watching as the hours unfold there all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives are up for grabs democrats got forty eight of those republicans have got fifty seven two hundred eighteen are needed for control the democrats need a net gain of twenty three to take control of the chainbearer and in the senate let's have a look at the democrats that's how they stand at the moment at thirty four and forty four respectively they have won eight of the thirty five seats up for grabs this time out of the remaining six the democrats have thirty four and publicans forty four kelly retain the whole the senate or can the democrats take called troll island fisher is live for us in capitol hill allan the one thing that's been very clear is that politicians across the board are keeping very tight lipped about

calling this election calling the races that they're involved in because they've all been burned from twenty sixteen. and there are only poles between no and twenty sixteen as well because the democrats have some good news winning a seat in northern virginia was a big win for them they flipped three saw far but this isn't quite the blue weave that they had talked certainly we're seeing signs that me improve but the mean not get as many seats as they were hoping to do the me not be able to flip there was twenty three districts though it's early yet we're still on these course there's polling still going on in the midwest and of course the democrats are hoping to do well in the states the call the sun belt nevada arizona they still think there are some wins that they can pick up so it could be the l.e.o.'s of the morning here on the east coast before we get a clearer picture of whoa the house is shaking don't but they'll be some

disappointment because just looking at the trends we can see that democrats are doing better in some areas that the eggs that they didn't expect to do well and we're looking at the senate race in texas for example but also republicans are doing much better in years where they didn't think they would do so well so where does that leave us it leaves us with the republicans almost certainly no with that when in indiana going to keep control of the senate it would take a huge thunder own in some other races for that not to be the case and saw the democrats know will be hoping that the house is their best hope of salvation for want of a better word and so they will be looking to pick up the other twenty seats that they need to flip to take control of the house and that is by no means certain at the moment what we do know is that the end of the night when the house of representatives in the united states will be younger and more diverse and will have

more female members of congress than we've had before some people would say that begins to reflect america as a whole and interestingly enough one important result from michigan and. one lady by the name of the she did it was a palestinian american has one hundred congressional seat that makes her the first muslim woman ever to be elected to congress here in the united states but some together make big news across the u.s. for the moment alan thank you. republican held house seat in the virginia suburbs of washington d.c. has gone decisively to the democrats jennifer has defeated two time congresswoman barbara comstock fifty four point four percent to forty five point six percent. so what makes these polls so important well republican party is bracing for like the loss of seats in the house of representatives rivals the democrats need to going to into three seats as a correspondence of to take control of the chamber of commerce and if this happens

it could allow the democrats to launch several committee investigations of the troubled ministration and possibly even impeach the president himself as for the senate several democrats are fighting to keep their seats in states the trouble in twenty sixteen so the republicans believe they can retain control of this chamber thirty six of the fifty us states are electing governments some of which are considered tossups republicans control twenty nine governorships the democrats have twenty one just the sage which is assistant professor in residence at northwestern university here in qatar where she teaches american government politics she's been following events with me throughout the night obviously the blue wave that alan was referring to was about the democratic wave of seats that could be one that would perhaps be a national indication that there is change on the way hasn't quite happened yet too early to tell yes i think what we're starting to see here is that there may still

be able to wave in the house and as the polls also had indicated previous to the results beginning to be counted there is not going to be a blue wave in the senate in fact these two these two trajectories seem to be divergent quite obviously now we we haven't seen a strong blue wave in the house because for example kentucky six with the challenger amy mcgrath she has lost that race so the incumbent republican remains but keep in mind she lost that by about three points and that republican incumbent had won his election in two thousand and sixteen by twenty two points in that district so we were seeing a quite a willingness on the part of kentucky voters republican voters to switch parties so we may be able to still see many house re. switching but if you look on the opposite side with the senate it does not bode well for the democrats never mind even trying to take the majority they may lose seats by the end of this night

because of the the sen joe donnelly in indiana very very tough numbers coming out for him it looks as though he is going to lose his his seat there whereas joe mansion another democratic senator in another republican state west virginia looks like he is cruising to victory and the difference here is that donnelly voted against kavanaugh in the confirmation hearings for the supreme court mansion was the only democrat to vote for him and he might end up being one of the only democrats in these red states and i will also count heidi heitkamp in that to survive this this senate senate race right now what do that is quite clear of all the results that are coming through is that the percentage points between the two candidates who have a they all is so very small and that seems to be reflected from florida as we're hearing right through up to to virginia to massachusetts yes especially with

florida it's very close right now as our correspondents had said maybe eighty five percent have now been counted and it is very close all the there was a slight republican lead the last time i looked but keep in mind that the miami dade and broward counties those are historically very strong democratic pickup vote opportunities they are also very historically late in reporting their total so we're always waiting for those counties so we'll see what ends up happening in florida but for sure some of these are coming down nail biters too close to call in terms of the way the politicians and politics. parties like to spin a win or a loss both sides will want to take positive. and if donald trump doesn't lose that many senate seats all doesn't lose that many house seats he's going to call this a victory for his policies and the way that he sees the the vision of america

moving forward i think that president trump has successfully nationalized at least the senate races to the point where he can take credit for the fact that it looks like the republicans may be keeping their majority in the senate maybe even adding to their majority in the senate because of the rhetoric that he used expression during the cavanagh confirmation hearings he was able to activate his base and come out and vote for those important senate seats but the house if the house does go with it with the democrats they can also say a victory of sorts having the house is important because then it makes both parties work together we will now have instead of full party controlled by the republicans of both houses of the of the congress as well as the presidency now in order to pass any laws the republican senate and the democratic house if it turns democratic will have to work together and that might be a very helpful and healthy thing for our democracy understory briefly for

international viewers we have to make it very clear that what the house can pass as legislation is very different to what the senate does the house can pass legislation. help the president or hinder the president the senate has very specific roles in sort of the things that the president wants yes it's good to make that clear so both the house and the senate must ultimately agreed together on any bills that are passed into law but according to the constitution they also have some separate. powers and for the senate in particular it's very important powers for the president because the senate confirms all of his appointments whether that's for the cabinet whether it's for the supreme court so in the federal courts as well so. so you know it is a win for the republicans to keep control of the senate if that is the case but as we've heard it was a very difficult very republican heavy set of states that were up for election this

night indeed which is the what happened certainly in the coming hours thanks very much as. well but he sent us spoke a short time ago after holding on to his senate seat this is what he had to say we have a president of the united states who is a powerful logical lawyer. and is doing something that no president in my lifetime has ever done and that is instead of bringing the american people to get off he is trying to divide us up based on the color of our skin based phone where we come from based on our religion based on our agenda based on our sexual identity. our job is that this president. we will not tolerate policies which are racist and sexist and homophobic bernie sanders speaking let's take you

to the new jersey result which is just coming in robert menendez the democrat forty nine percent bob. so forty nine percent of the republicans forty eight a narrow victory there robert menendez a win that the democrats will certainly take great heart in let's see who has taken great heart in exactly what's been going on across the u.s. when it comes to social media produce and they are hard to. it's clearly trending across the u.s. these elections also negating the mental interest and excitement it is we have tens of millions of tweets about this in the internet really is the new campaign battleground and it's a race really to get young voters out to the polls people are posting on instagram twitter and facebook sharing pictures of themselves with their famed i voted stickers we're seeing tens of millions of tweets with hashtags like vote today

mid-term twenty eight teen and hash tag vote something simple as that and i even posted and i voted picture voting all the way from here in qatar there it is celebrities are also using their platform to support candidates and it really is working last month singer taylor swift she declared her support for a democrat running for senate it was significant because she's always avoided politics. good morning america it's taylor i just want to put her endorsement and push to get people to vote is a big deal because she is really big deal she is one hundred twelve million followers on instagram alone not to mention her facebook and twitter accounts just to put that into perspective the white house twitter account all me has four million followers and according to a polling site called target smart there's been a seven hundred sixty seven percent increase in young voters compared to two thousand and fourteen many are calling this the swift effect so what is today would tuesday like what was it that everyone is supposed to do today. oh yeah

go vote today and again once you voted take a picture of the tag me in your photo hashtag just voted and i'll be looking for you help you voting you guys social media is pivotal in this election and twitter and facebook know it twitter has made it easier to find candidates online and they now have twitter tags so you know who's who take for example the gillum he's running for governor of florida and you can see it here under his name he has a special title governor candidate florida so you'll see that for all the house of representative senate and governor candidates now twitter and facebook are also under pressure this election to try to ban so-called fake news twitter blocked over ten thousand accounts that were being used to discourage voting facebook says it's blocked thirty and instagram have blocked eighty five that's hardly anything though compared to the millions of accounts deleted for spreading misinformation in the twenty sixteen u.s. presidential election now we also want to hear from you if you're voting in this

election since the video telling us why it's so important to you my twitter name is leah harding and we may feature you right here during our election coverage will continue to monitor the conversation online and we'll have updates for you shortly so. thanks they alter other news now new developments in murder case just over a month after he was killed inside saudi arabia's consulate in istanbul turkish sources have told al jazeera that the kingdom is willing to pay blood money to show she's family and his fiance it comes as the director of the cia gina housefull has reportedly seen all the evidence related to his death after she was dispatched to turkey last month meanwhile turkey's president reza earlier one is insisting the killing was ordered by the highest levels of the saudi government has more for us

from istanbul more than a month since he was killed just body has yet to be found and there are more questions about his murder but turkish authorities have increased the pressure on the saga government by slowly leaking vital information according to turkish sources cia director general hospital was briefed on the murder and had access to crucial evidence suggesting the order came from the highest levels of the saga government riyadh insists no member of the ruling royal family had a role in his death but during his visit to istanbul last month sunday chief prosecutor said i would. reportedly told turkish authorities that the king was willing to pay blood money to hush up his family and fiance he also said he had

no idea about the whereabouts of the slain journalist body. and as the investigation continues turkey's foreign minister. says his country has more information wants to give a name and nobody can stop him to do that so really emphasize in the article that the instruction didn't come from king solomon but it is also always that those fifteen people. didn't come to stumble to murder. themselves so they got instructions from somebody so we have to find out who gave these instructions this is the. simple question that we have put according to the turkish daily newspaper staff of the saadi consulate try to tamper with security camera outside the consulate but turkish police managed to retrieve

the footage providing the now famous image of hotshots you walking into the building on the day he was killed and we're finding out more about the teams that were sent to turkey from saudi arabia al jazeera learnt from his sources there were three teams involved in the killing of. a surveillance team the death squads and the cleanup team sent later to cover up the murder for turkish officials this confirms their belief the case was premeditated and ordered by someone senior in the saudi government. is the board still ahead here on al jazeera more u.s. midterm elections on diplomatic editor explains the implications of the results on foreign policy. from the cave blue sky of the doha morning. to the fresh autumn breeze in the

city of love. hello the rain is back with a vengeance but i think it is probably the winter front you see the clouds coming off of it and clattering going in that direction which suggests it's got cold a within of toadies to the north and we're not talking really cold yet it's cold enough to snow quite a long way north of one hundred for the yangtze valley across the shanghai sporadic rain now the rain is trying to kick lower income further south but even once it's gone through hanna is enjoying the sunshine same as junkers has not really wintry weather but he's certainly a spell of last with little late rain to be honest doesn't get as far south as hong kong and china southeast asia largely fine and dry that's true for the philippines too but as you can see there's a line of fairly obvious showers a big white top class going west and for a time being i think they've got to concentrate not just in peninsula malaysia where it's been particularly wet recently nor indeed as far south as jakarta which has been shared recently but it's going to policy of up through the gulf of

thailand and make a sudden off a talent in possibly in bangkok where it is a little late in the year for that and the prospects that bali are not good either share a strat indonesia and went spout there are now in north east monsoon is in most of india is dry and fine but flows far south and sri lanka it remains of course a pretty wet time. the weather sponsored by qatar and greece. wish the world innovation summit for health one community of two thousand health care experts in of ages and policy makers from one hundred countries. one experience sharing best practices and innovative ideas. one goal to hopefully a world through global collaboration. apply now to attend the twenty eighteen wish summit. eradicating leprosy in cambodia

relied on education and treatment in equal measure on them all in him but he early you know disability yet jail the live evades until three year old four year more he'll have this ability. to get and then no wait for the next generation of antibiotics may just be way taking at the bottom of the ocean maybe this could have it this hope so put your revisited on al-jazeera. hold back your watching on because there is news hour i'm still running the reminder of our top stories democrats have claimed their first upsets on the u.s. midterm elections as they seek to regain control of the house of representatives

from the republicans be to early victories came for democrats in districts within the state self to judea and florida a number of the results in battleground areas are proving to be neck and neck. voter turnout has been much higher than normal for midterm elections with early numbers indicate it could be the highest turnout in a generation but it all comes despite some having to queue for hours in parts of the country. in other news a turkish source of told al jazeera that saudi arabia is willing to pay blood money to jamal khashoggi family and his fiance the sources also reveal that cia do it you know hospital has seen all the evidence related to his murder. or more of our top story now of course the u.s. midterm elections is a reminder of what we'll be watching as the night unfolds all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives are up for grabs democrats have got twenty democrats have seventy two republicans have seventy five so far two hundred

eighteen are needed for control the democrats need a net gain of twenty three seats to take control of the chamber and in the senate. there democrats have sixty eight seats republicans have seventy so it's a very close scenario and out of those remaining seats the democrats really did try and turn some of those republican seats a third of them that are up for a vote. and we're just getting results now in from indiana on the republican line brawl has beaten john donnelly by fifty three percent to forty two percent of the vote that's been counted so far things that confer results john hendren is all correspondent he's in indianapolis not so much of a tight race the sudden in fact to victory for the republicans.

as right joe donnelly just conceded much of the vote remains to be counted but he could see that he was so far behind that there was no way he was going to be able to make up that vote considering a lot of the urban voters who generally will vote for democrats had already been counted this was one of those races that democrats pointed to as one that they could hold in hostile republican territory joe donnelly was called the accidental senator when he was elected because he came from a republican state and democrats it really hoped to reelect him and pick up on that perhaps add a couple will now they are one more vote behind where they were just yesterday and what we're not seeing here in the midwest is this wave that people have been talking about many forecasters are still suggesting that democrats will win enough seats that they can take over control of the house but we're not seeing that kind

of huge change at least here in the midwest at this stage that we could have another example that is in kentucky this six district that was one that was being closely watched because trump and won it by fifteen percentage points and they had a very attractive candidate in an f. eighteen i lit a woman named amy mcgrath who was up against the incumbent republican andy barr and she was giving him a race but she is is now so far behind she's just a few percentage points behind but there is so little of. vote left to be counted she will not be able to make that up so there is hope for democrats in other places in illinois they picked up a governor's seat j.p. pritzker picked that one up over the sitting governor bruce browner but here in joe donnelly headquarters tonight there is a lot of disappointment so so they're going to have to make up this senate seat the democrats will if they're going to have any hope of recapturing the senate and they've still got work to do in order to capture the house indeed for the moment to

john hundred will leave it all the disappointed democratic headquarters there in indianapolis let's go over to patsy cline washington to discuss how the election is going from the point of view of all of the contributors she has that sitting waiting to comment on the results that are coming in interesting times patty very interesting time so it seems like we've been talking about this election for days on and just today it feels like we've been talking about it for days on end and now is when we start to find out what's really going on and i have an excellent panel here with me just to boil it all down first i want to introduce allan lichtman he's a professor of history at american university and i might point out the only person who predicted donald trump would be president then we have a right rigor she is a professor of public policy at a little university known as harvard and we have brian darlins a former senior communications director for senator rand paul for our international audience that means he is a republican i think you're going to. like i want to start with alan we're looking

at these results what's your just initial take it's kind of a you know it may be a disappointment for both sides is certainly no blue wave there's no red wave as donald trump predicted still early to know but what it looks like is the republicans will certainly keep the senate. democrats likely but not necessarily will take the house and pick up some governorships if the democrats don't take the house which i think is unlikely this would be a crushing disappointment for democrats because then republicans will control everything the house the senate the presidency in the supreme court and there will be no check on this president who has forty three forty four percent approval from the american people the american people will not have registered their discontent in this election but it's early and i still think you're going to get a split verdict the republicans holding the senate the democrats holding the house

which means the democrats could do all the investigations they want of donald trump including what i wrote about in my book an impeachment investigation we'll get to that but that was a good luck and they have a you know what do you what's your takeaway what do you see here right so i think that since you know so far saying on this is absolutely right we're not seeing a blue we might see a blue puddle we might see a blue wash out it's not really. clear yet the night is still young we know that we still have polls early open in florida and georgia across the united states california california so we still have things going on what we do know so far though is that we have a very divided country a country that is divided based. on states rein differences between west and south north east whatever what have you but also differences that are emerging very clearly along the same urban versus rural gender differences age differences it's

racial differences and that this polarization is actually getting worse as opposed to getting better brian what you wanted to say do you have a president who has the lowest approval rating. at this point in the midterms if you look at history as a guide this should have been a washout what does this say to you or tells me that this is a victory for president paul. i think the american people like having a job they like the four percent job growth in the last quarter and they like the very low unemployment rates and the fact that unemployment is lower among every demographic group i think that the fact the economy is doing well resonates with the american people and they vote with the pocketbook and you know the old saying goes it's the economy stupid well we're seeing that happen right now if you put this in perspective you look back to brock obama's first midterms he lost sixty three seats in the house he lost six seats in the senate tonight we're not looking at anything like that and i think that the trump team will pitch this is a big victory for for them going to two thousand and twenty and just for our

audience he was actually calling me stupid that's a thing from a past election to james carville i think it was said it's all about the economy stupid so he was in college you stupid just want to clarify that. this country is. more to fear his story by treaty i keep thinking in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight was the country more divided than the now it just feels as if this country if you look at these vote totals they're so close is it worse than sixteen or is it i sure if it's different although it's turning to look a lot like sixty eight and also remember that nine hundred sixty used at the beginning one thousand sixty's through then can sixty eight are still passing the civil rights laws including the voting rights act so who could actually vote in this country looks very different but in two thousand and eighteen we're actually seeing something very similar in terms of who can vote in this country who is allowed to vote in this country that is also breaking down along partisan lines that we didn't used to break down along partisan lines per se but actually what's

coming out right now and i think this is incredibly concerning particularly in the you know in the since we've seen kind of the end of the voting rights act as we know it is that we're voting right democrats right now are working to expand the franchise for the american public or as republicans particularly in these deep deep south states have taken a. on themselves to try and restrict the franchise for voting populations so we should be really concerned about that that we are starting to look a lot like the one nine hundred sixty s. both in terms of you know who is allowed to vote but also the kind of restrictive policies in attitudes that we are saying emerge in the splits from the general public but i wanted to ask you about this because long term if you look at the demographic trends of this country it is not going to become less feed now is not going to become less brown it's actually going the other way and if you look at these exit polls if you look at all of the polling republicans are losing because of the trend presidency my anyone who's hispanic african-americans you're losing

young people you're lose in suburban women you're losing women at the college education long term is this is a good bet for the republican party well tonight it looks like republicans are going to win seats in the senate well the democrats did the demographics didn't actually change today it's not like a day and the heavily favored republicans in the senate small good and red states is where they're winning in the long term going into the election there was a talk about these swing states of and governorships in florida in georgia and in wisconsin being very tough in close races and it looks like republicans are doing better than expected in those races so again i will fall back to me idea that the american people care about the economy and they care about jobs and they're going to vote on their pocketbook and they're not going to be distracted by issues that aren't as important to them when you talk about not being allowed to vote we have laws in this country where you can file a provisional ballot if you can you can go to

a judge within twenty four hours and try to have your book vote counted like i did it was everybody always knows that provisional ballots will get counted in close elections as happened in a couple circumstance many of them no not a vast majority then you know don't you know and how does the they don't matter al and we're going to well know because every vote matters come on this is the republican attitude only certain people should be voting you can be. if you don't have a very specific kind of idea which guess what minorities poor people do not have you can vote if you haven't voted a few years and you don't return some junk looking postcard in some states you can vote if your form a felon by the way it looks like florida is going to end in franchise more than a million former felons because of a constitutional amendment i should explain to our audience in this country if you've been convicted of a serious crime in most states as you can lose the right to vote florida has just changed that but ellen i want to go to you about the economy obviously it is very

strong but as you keep talking about wages and we heard the tramp administration say look wage goes up three percent it doesn't factor into inflation it doesn't factor into the fact that because of these tariffs everything from pampers to shampoo is getting to be much more expensive so if you look at actual wage growth it's less than one percent so and everyone basically says every economist by twenty nineteen this economy is going to tank the tax cut stimulus is going to fade is that the future that you see and does that do the trends in twenty two and if i knew where the economy was going to be be much richer than i have right now i kind of agree that right no the economy is a big plus for the republicans because the unemployment rate is so low but what that doesn't take into account is the most negative trend in our economy and that is the vast disparities in income and wealth we are now. as an equal in the distribution of income and wealth as we were in one thousand nine hundred twenty

nine on the eve of the great depression all the gains of the new deal and subsequently have been wiped out the great majority of the wage and wealth growth has gone to the top ten percent and the bottom ninety percent has missed out the other point i want to make is why i agree with you the economy is right now a plus for republicans with this kind of economy donald trump's approval rating should be sixty five percent not forty three percent so you had a tug of war between two things the economy which i think was a plus for republicans and donald trump a very strong negative for republicans and i think those two forces came close to kind of equalizing but i do think in the end what's really important is the democrats taking the house i don't care if they take it by two seats or five seats if you control the house you have all the house committees you have all the subpoena power you can investigate trump from now till the end of look at these

look like aired just haven't just talking about that and love it i wrote the book are you ready if i'm going out of the it's the president i should explain that when if the democrats you take the house then every committee chairman gets subpoena power and they can haul every cabinet secretary when asked president and every official and they can subpoena his tax returns and we saw under obama when they republicans controlled the house in the senate they couldn't make life a really difficult for a sitting president because they have the power to compel testimony and evidence but i want to ask you what's next let's just assume that the trend continues democrats take the house without the majority republicans keep the senate. how does that impact trump's domestic agenda let's start with domestic so it means that they can be a chuck on trump's domestic agenda i don't know that it actually does anything for donald trump though who is going to take this you know who's going to take the midterms however he sees fit so he's going to claim it as a victory for trom because that's what donald trump dies it doesn't matter if he's won or if he's lost i mean we can look at the numbers from his inauguration for

example right is as proof that donald trump is going to see what he wants to see when has he ever let you know actual reality or facts get in the way of his truth so does that mean that puts a hold or stop in front of what donald trump wants to do no he's going to continue to do that he's going to continue to put executive orders in plays but instead what happens is that there is a check of some sort of very real check on those options on those policies on those you know on those actual you know action on the actual agenda of donald trump and may not be a strong stopgap but it's something. let me ask you this what is how does the president react to this how does what's your worst case scenario dems in charge of the house what is your biggest fear that goes to the trump agenda. i think it will stall out any further tax cuts that he has talked about further cutting middle class taxes and about won't happen obviously though he said it was going to have in

the first week in november when congress was in session i mean there are things you can do through executive orders and through executive actions but it's going to be very hard to do which can be very hard to get any sort of a tax bill through the house and senate. democrats control the house and you know i think his agenda will clearly be stalled but it's interesting divided government has hasn't always been bad it has led to a lot of restrain spending and maybe some good things will come up but there are very handful of issues probably that the democrats and republicans can work on maybe criminal justice reform where the president has. made some strong statements in favor of criminal justice reform maybe a handful of other issues but i think rules we will see a lot of fighting and we'll see a lot of subpoenas and it'll be interesting to see you know how it all plays out interesting that's that's exactly the word i was going to go with so what you wanted to say real quick real quick there are two good things for trump in this one if the economy does go down the tubes he can blame it on the democratic house right

maybe and to member trump has no ideology so it's quite possible he could move on things like infrastructure in a way that he can work with democrats and so all he cares about is getting wins all right well so the bottom thank you all very much this is a very good discussion so the bottom line is we don't know we just don't know yet and anyone who tells you we know how this is going to turn out they're just they don't know because we don't know because the votes are still being counted but you can see both sides are looking at it seeing the worst seen the best so we'll have to see what happens in the coming hours but that's going to be for you to handle so because we're going home yes but we will be back and i do that we'll be getting back to washington for analysis through the day for the moment patsy and doug essary washington d.c. thank you well many of president trump signature of foreign policies all still in development and the outcome of these elections could have an impact on how he proceeds on the international stage on diplomatic and to james bays has multi tells . the world is watching these elections very closely and they'll be watching in

iran there were fresh sanctions in the last twenty four hours most of those that were lifted under the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal they're now firmly back in place iran's already suffering a great deal of economic damage it's going to get worse they'll need now to make a political decision in tehran and in part it will depend on these elections perhaps they'll get an early indication if trump is going to be a one term or a two term president and whether they can wait him out the investigation into the death of jamal khashoggi may also be affected by the elections saudi arabia's not cooperating on handing over the suspects or on helping to find the journalist body so they could now be other legal steps if turkey requests it that could perhaps even be an international u.n. led investigation in congress watch for efforts to take action against saudi arabia under the magnitsky act or the possibility of new congressional investigations next

yemen with saudi arabia under pressure look for congress to take renewed interest in the devastating war there's already a new push for a ceasefire by the trumpet ministration and i can tell you at the u.n. in new york the u.k. is starting efforts to draw up a security council resolution on the ceasefire the plan is all of this would lead to peace talks in sweden at the end of the month highly awaited too is the trump administration's middle east peace plan the u.n. has recently been warning of fresh conflict particularly in gaza but the palestinians have already written off the still to be unveiled plan being devised by trump's son in law jared cushion and i'm also hearing whispers that the international criminal court may soon make a ruling on whether to pursue investigations into israeli actions in syria there could be a final military push by the assad regime and its russian allies efforts by the u.n. to get talks going on a new constitution have been making very little progress as a new u.n. special envoy pederson from norway prepares to. start work afghanistan is another

key priority for the administration and for the new congress after seventeen years of war the taliban has been gaining ground on the battlefield there's a new effort by the u.s. to talk to the taliban being led by top diplomats are made. but there's very little immediate prospect of progress because of afghanistan's own political calendar with presidential elections due in april next year. more on our top story the u.s. midterm elections here's a reminder of what we'll be watching as the night unfolds all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives are up for grabs and as you can see the democrats at the moment have eighty four the republicans have ninety five but the general belief city by pollsters and analysts is are the democrats may win the house of representatives and indeed therefore put a halt on president trump's certainly legislative policies that he'd like to

run through. moving on to the senate which is a much more tightly controlled race there at the moment you can see that thirty eight seats have been declared for the democrats forty five for the senate of course that was a much tougher gig for the democrats they needed to try and told need to try and turn about twenty three seats over to make that a fifty one seat majority some of the results that have been coming in bernie sanders a former democratic presidential candidate has won his senate seat up in the north of the country tim kaine the former running mate with hillary clinton has also won his senate seat and of course president trump is at the white house at the moment watching those results come in the canvassed the midwest heavily hoping that his vision of america will be the vision that people voted for it it will have more

with all of the other side of the break we'll be watching the news thanks for your time and your company. and a historic day for the heat every weekend brings a series of breaking stories told through the eyes of the world's journalists these two reuters journalists were one of the few journalists that were actually doing investigative work listening post as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how they report on the stories that matter them and see the rest of those stories but then he never publishes their stories they're listening post on al-jazeera. they call this bleeding the tree. first substance the world is addicted to now at the center of a global trade war. it's latex in its purest form found in tires phones

toothbrushes satellites or mattresses it is an essential element to daily life and so deep in the ivorian forest. well you had a book goes from tree to tree scarring them for the precious liquid trump is imposing two hundred billion dollars in tariffs on china the world's largest manufacturer of rubber goods china in response imposes tariffs on synthetic rubber the west produces while in the short term this is bad for african producers in the long run some hope the continent could benefit from this trade war unaware of the global trade war and despite falling prices at the open calls rubber white gold at least for now. history has called it the great war in the second at this and the declining autumn an empire forges its alliance with germany and the central powers as the war gives birth to three nationalist movements the will determine the future world war one through. all knowledge is either.

i than or a car with all special extended coverage of the results of the us elections this hour we expect to see a number of results coming in. voting ends and latest eastern states in the race decide who will control the u.s. congress. at stake every seat in the house of representatives one of the senate and possibly donald trump's political legacy.