00:00We start with the U.S. midterm elections next Tuesday.
00:03U.S. President Donald Trump isn't even on the ballot,
00:06but the vote could reshape his presidency and his ability to deliver his agenda,
00:11with consequences well beyond America.
00:14Joining me is our correspondent Kaylee Liu to understand what's at stake in these elections.
00:19Kaylee, let's start with what Americans are voting for.
00:22How many seats are up for grabs?
00:24So nearly 210 million Americans are expected to vote for the members of Congress,
00:30which has two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
00:34So as you can see, 435 House seats are up for grabs.
00:41And in the Senate, 35 out of 100 Senate seats are up for contacts next week.
00:47Currently, Trump's Republican Party controls both chambers very narrowly, though.
00:52So as you can see, currently the Republicans control 219 with one independent joining them in their votes.
01:02As for the Senate, it would be 53 out of 51.
01:07So in order for Democrats to have the advantage and flip for the House of Representatives,
01:13they would need to gain a net three seats.
01:16And as for the Senate, they would need to gain four seats, which means they could potentially...
01:26Gain both chambers.
01:27Yes.
01:28So what are the, I would say, implications?
01:33Are we looking at anybody probably taking control of the House?
01:37So if Democrats win both or even just one chamber, they could make it harder for him to pass legislation
01:45or pass laws or approve spending.
01:49A Democrat-led House could launch investigations into Trump's administration and decisions.
01:55And if Democrats take the Senate, they could block or delay his appointments even.
01:59Our colleague actually spoke to a political science professor at Boston College, Dr. David Hopkins,
02:08who shared his thoughts about Democrats' chances in the Congress next week.
02:13Representatives, it's a fairly straightforward picture because the Republicans currently have majority control,
02:19but it's a very, very narrow majority.
02:21And they only need to lose basically three seats out of 435 on net to lose the majority.
02:33And basically all of the evidence we have suggests they're going to lose many more than that.
02:39And we're going to have certainly a Democratic majority after Tuesday's election.
02:45Really, the only question is how big of a majority, how many seats swing in favor of the Democratic Party.
02:51The Senate is a tougher picture because the Senate is elected differently from the House.
02:58Only one-third of Senate seats are up for election every two years.
03:04And the states, the individual states, are equally represented in the Senate, regardless of their population.
03:12And so the advantage the Republicans have had in the Senate is not only do they already have a majority
03:18now going into the election,
03:19but the seats that are actually up for election this year are mostly seats in Republican-leaning states.
03:28Hopkins points to Iowa as a state to watch.
03:31Democrats are mounting a strong challenge for three Republican-held House seats and a Senate seat,
03:36in a state Trump has won three times.
03:38United States, it used to be a pretty evenly divided state between the two parties,
03:45but in the Trump era, it's become much more solidly Republican.
03:49And Trump has won the state easily all three elections that he's run in.
03:53And Republican candidates have generally done well in congressional elections there.
03:59But Iowa is a state now where three of the four House districts within the state
04:05seem to be vulnerable to flipping from the Republicans to the Democrats,
04:09plus the Senate race there.
04:11There's also a Senate race which, going into this year,
04:15most people would have assumed, well, the Republicans are probably the heavy favorites there.
04:20The polls suggest it's actually very close and the Democrats are sort of back in the game in Iowa
04:25in a way that they really haven't been in years.
04:28He says a similar shift is taking shape in Ohio,
04:31where Democrat Sherrod Brown is seeking a return to the Senate
04:34just two years after losing his seat as Trump won the state.
04:37Ohio is another good example of a state that used to be pretty competitive.
04:43Barack Obama actually carried that when he won both times.
04:46It has a long tradition of electing Democrats.
04:49But it was a very heavy state for Trump, a very positive state for Trump.
04:55And it, in fact, defeated its longtime Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown,
05:00years ago when Trump got re-elected.
05:02Well, now Sherrod Brown is running again for the Senate.
05:05Two years later, trying to get back in the Senate as the Democratic challenger to a Republican senator.
05:11And most of the polls show him ahead in that race.
05:15So Ohio is another state that kind of demonstrates the changes we've seen over the past few years,
05:21the swing in Trump's favor in middle America,
05:24and then the swing back to the Democrats that we're seeing this year.
05:29So Kelly, that's basically the political contestation.
05:33But what does it mean actually for all the voters there?
05:36And what are the implications beyond America?
05:38So midterm elections in America are often seen as a report card on the president, essentially.
05:45So in this case, top of mind for most Americans are, when we got to the midterms, are rising living
05:51costs.
05:51And of course, there's also concerns about food security, housing and health care.
05:57And so the results can be seen as an overview of how Americans feel about Trump himself.
06:02As for how it matters to us close, not in America voting, for example, trade.
06:10Trump's tariff policies have already affected lots of countries across Asia, Malaysia included,
06:17which has to negotiate specific trade deals with the U.S.
06:21If a Congress is controlled by Democrats, they could put more pressure on Trump over his trade policies.
06:28It doesn't mean the tariffs would go away, but the president would still have significant powers.
06:35However, it just means it's easier to have, not easier per se, it's...
06:41Easier to impose his agenda.
06:43Exactly.
06:44And so another thing is how Trump affects the sort of rising costs in gas, for example.
06:53So if you take a look at the graphic here, as you can see, oil prices have shot up quite
07:02a lot for Americans domestically.
07:05And it also affects Malaysia because of how businesses trickle down, essentially.
07:13And so the higher global energy costs essentially affects businesses and cost of living and government spending.
07:21So a different Congress could question Trump more aggressively about what's been happening in Iran
07:27and may even challenge his spending priorities.
07:31So even though only Americans get to vote, the outcome could be felt well beyond America.
07:37Yeah, definitely, Kaylee.
07:38We'll keep a close eye on what's happening there next week, essentially.
07:43Thanks, Kaylee Lu, for sharing that for Awani International.
07:47Yeah.
07:48Love you.
07:48Okay.
