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German Foreign Minister to Tour Middle East From Sunday

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
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German Foreign Minister to Tour Middle East From Sunday

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a joint press statement with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the end of a joint press statement at the foreign ministry in Berlin, Germany, 15 November 2022. (EPA)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will travel to Israel Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the Gaza war, a ministry spokesman said.

Baerbock will hold talks with Israel's new Foreign Minister Israel Katz, as well as President Isaac Herzog, foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told a regular press conference on Friday.

She will also meet with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Baerbock will subsequently travel to Egypt to meet with her counterpart Sameh Shoukry and also planned to visit Lebanon, according to AFP.

The talks would focus on the "dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the extremely volatile situation on the Israel-Lebanon border", as well as efforts to secure the release of more Hamas hostages, Fischer said.

Baerbock said at a Berlin press conference on Friday that the Israelis and Palestinians would "only be able to live side by side in peace if the security of the one means the security of the other".

"Our position on the so-called day after is very clear," she said, speaking alongside her counterpart from Luxembourg.

"There must be no occupation of the Gaza Strip, no expulsions and no reduction in the size of the territory. And at the same time there must be no more danger to Israel from the Gaza Strip," Baerbock said.

Fears have grown that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spread, after one of the militant group's leaders was assassinated in the Beirut suburbs.

In addition to the killing, widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, the Israeli army has for months traded tit-for-tat fire across the border with Hezbollah militants.

The risk of escalation was "very real", Fischer said. Germany on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.

Relentless Israeli bombardment and its ground invasion in Gaza after Hamas's October 7 attack have killed at least 22,438 people, most of them women and children.

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Republicans Seize Control of US Senate

A supporter watches results during an election night watch party for Sam Brown, Republican candidate for the US Senate, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP)
A supporter watches results during an election night watch party for Sam Brown, Republican candidate for the US Senate, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP)
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Republicans Seize Control of US Senate

A supporter watches results during an election night watch party for Sam Brown, Republican candidate for the US Senate, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP)
A supporter watches results during an election night watch party for Sam Brown, Republican candidate for the US Senate, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nev. (AP)

Republicans wrested the US Senate from Democratic control, US media projected early Wednesday, ending four years in the minority and providing a huge boost to the party in its quest to dominate every branch of government.

The victory means that the incoming president will get enormous support to enact their agenda and appoint justices to the powerful US Supreme Court if it's Donald Trump -- but legislative deadlock if it is his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.

The US Capitol is divided into the House of Representatives -- where all 435 seats are up for grabs -- and a 100-member Senate, which has 34 seats at stake this year. Congressional elections run alongside the White House race.

Jim Justice, the sitting Republican governor of West Virginia, delighted Republicans early in the night when he emerged as an easy victor in the Senate race to replace retiring moderate Joe Manchin, an independent who voted with the Democrats.

Ohio then moved into the Republican column after longstanding Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown was defeated by Bernie Moreno, a Trump-endorsed businessman and the son of a one-time high-ranking Colombian government official.

Fox News and ABC called the race for control of the upper house after Republican Senator Deb Fischer fended off an unexpectedly robust challenge from an independent in Nebraska.

"I look forward to working with President Trump and our new conservative majority to make America great again by making the Senate work again," Texas Senator John Cornyn, a contender to lead the Republican majority from January, said in a statement.

The Justice and Moreno victories reversed the Democrats' 51-49 Senate advantage, with Republicans looking to extend their lead even further with potential pick-ups in Montana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

- Huge power -

Democrats were looking to mitigate losses with gains in Texas and Florida, but conceded both as the sitting Republicans notched easy wins.

If Republicans win all of the toss-up races, they'll end the election with 55 of the 100 seats, giving them huge power to usher through Trump's domestic agenda and judicial appointments, should he prevail against Harris.

For the first time in history, two Black women will serve at the same time in the US Senate, following victories from Democrats Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester in Maryland and Delaware respectively.

Of the 2,000-plus Americans who have served in the upper chamber, only three have been Black women -- including Harris.

Nonpartisan political finance monitor OpenSecrets reports that $10 billion has been spent on candidates for Congress this cycle -- a touch less than in 2020 but almost twice as much as the $5.5 billion price tag for the 2024 White House race.

While the Senate approves treaties and certain presidential appointments, such as ambassadors and Supreme Court nominees, all bills that raise money must start in the House, where the majority could take days to be decided.

The Democrats are in the minority, but overall control looks like less of a steep climb in the lower chamber, where they only need to flip four seats.