Domestic:
Havoc in the House – Following the ousting of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, voting for the next Speaker of the House continued in the Capitol. House Democrats are united behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the same person they nominated against McCarthy. Jeffries continues to receive all 212 votes from Democrats, but it is not enough to satisfy the majority required to win. It is highly improbable that any Republicans defect and vote for a Democratic candidate, so it’s up to the Republican nominees to secure all of those Republican majority votes. Representative Jim Jordan currently has the most Republican backing, amassing 200 total votes after the first official vote on Tuesday. This is following the withdrawal of Steve Scalise, the former premier candidate, after he realized through hours of meetings that he would not be able to unite the 20 Republican defectors who refused to vote for him. The House has been without a speaker since Oct. 3, and so far it looks like it will stay that way for a while longer.
Trump Trial(s) – This week, former President Donald Trump made a voluntary appearance at his New York civil fraud trial. In the lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that Trump made hundreds of millions of dollars by overstating the value of his properties. Trump has denied the accusations and defended the value of his properties, whilst attacking James and the judge overseeing the case. If found guilty, James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban on Trump and his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five year commercial real estate ban on Trump and the Trump Organisation. Trump is not required to attend the trial, but at his appearance on Tuesday he took the opportunity to criticize a gag order from a separate Washington trial he is involved in. “My speech has been taken away from me. I’m a candidate that’s running for office, and I’m not allowed to speak. This is a railroading,” Trump said.
International:
A Hopeful Spark in Ecuador – On Sunday, 35-year old Daniel Noboa won Ecuador’s presidential election. He defeated Luisa González, a leftist who was supported by Ecuador’s former impeached president Rafael Correa. This election comes after the controversial tenure of former President Guillermo Lasso. In May 2023, impeachment hearings started for Lasso after accusations of embezzlement and corruption. Lasso avoided impeachment by dissolving the National Assembly, invoking a constitutional measure in Ecuador called muerte cruzada. This measure invokes new legislative and presidential elections, which led to this run-off in July. Noboa’s main goal, like many Ecuadorian politicians before him, is to fight corruption, crime, and violence. Ecuador has become a major hub for the global drug trade, and violence from international criminal groups and local gangs have forced some Ecuadorians to flee to the U.S.-Mexico border. Under former President Lasso’s watch, violent deaths rose up to 4,600 in 2022, the highest they have ever been and double the previous year’s statistic. With the next presidential election coming in May 2025, Noboa has 18 months to make a considerable change in Ecuador if he seeks re-election. In these 18 months, he will have to reckon with international groups, local gangs and the drug industry, all of which are interconnected. With Noboa having little governing experience, analysts say this will be a challenge for him. However, Noboa carries with him the faith of many Ecuadorians who are hopeful for any measure of positive change in the country.
LGBTQ Rights in India – On Tuesday, the five member bench of India’s Supreme Court decided to reject a plea to legalize same-sex marriage. In their released opinions, some judges supported that the right to choose one’s partner must be observed, but appealed to the idea that this is a legal issue, not a judiciary one. Although they chose to reject same-sex marriage, they did accept some appeals that favor the LGBTQ+ community. They ruled that transgender people can marry other transgender people, and also expanded the definition of discrimination. India is a socially conservative country, and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has argued that they have a legitimate interest in preserving marriage as a union between a man and a woman, saying it is part of the foundation of the state. Support for same-sex marriage in India has never been higher however, with a poll from the Pew Research Center finding that 53 percent of Indians favored the legalization, up 14 percent from 2014. This ruling also comes five years after the Court’s groundbreaking decision in 2018 to overturn laws criminalizing homosexuality.
