Republicans on track Austria failed to act over jihadist warning to win Senate majority
WASHINGTON: Republicans appeared poised to retain control of the US Senate yesterday, after Senator Susan Collins defied political odds to win reelection in Maine and other Republican incumbents led Democrats in a handful of undecided races.
Democrats, who had been favoured to win the Senate majority heading into the election, had a net gain of only one seat to show by yesterday afternoon as their options for further increases dwindled, despite a huge Democratic money advantage going into the final weeks of the campaign.
At present, Republicans hold a 5347 seat Senate majority. To win control, Democrats would need to net three Republicanheld seats if Democrat Joe Biden wins the White House and Senator Kamala Harris becomes vicepresident with the tiebreaking Senate vote.
If Biden loses to Republican President Donald Trump, Democrats would need four seats.
Four Senate races remained undecided by yesterday. Republican incumbents led in three late yesterday: Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina.
Democratic Senator
Gary
Peters defeated Republican John James in Michigan, according to projections from television networks and Edison Research.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress who won reelection on Wednesday, discussed the possibility of retaining his leadership role at an event in Kentucky, describing his position as ‘‘offensive coordinator’’.
‘‘If we win in North Carolina . . . I’m still the offensive coordinator,’’ McConnell said. ‘‘I don’t know whether I’m going to be the defensive coordinator or the offensive coordinator as I speak,’’ he said.
One Senate contest in Georgia was headed for a January 5 runoff between Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock. McConnell said a second Senate race on the Georgia ballot, between Republican Senator David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, could face the same fate.
The best news for Republicans came from Maine, where Collins, a Republican moderate once seen as imperiled, pulled off a surprise victory over Democrat Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine State House of Representatives. — Reuters
VIENNA: Crossreferenced cellphone footage from several sources has confirmed the jihadist who killed four people in a rampage in Vienna on Monday was the only gunman, but Austria fumbled an intelligence warning on him, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said yesterday.
Austria arrested 14 people aged 18 to 28 on Wednesday in connection with the attack and is investigating them on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organisation, but it would also have to investigate its own actions, he said.
‘‘Before
the
terror
attack began, according to the information currently available, some things also went wrong,’’ Nehammer told a news conference.
In July, neighbouring Slovakia’s intelligence service had handed over information suggesting the attacker had tried and failed to buy ammunition there, Nehammer and a top ministry official,
Directorgeneral for security Franz Ruf, said.
‘‘In the next steps evidently something went wrong here with communications,’’ said Nehammer, who called for the formation of an independent commission to examine the errors made.
The gunman, who was shot dead by police within minutes of opening fire, was a 20yearold with dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship. Born and raised in Vienna, he had already been convicted of trying to reach Syria to join Islamic State and had spent time in jail.
All of those arrested in Austria
public had a ‘‘migration background’’, Nehammer said.
Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl said some were dual citizens of Bangladesh, North Macedonia, Turkey or Russia.
Nehammer repeated criticism of a deradicalisation programme, saying the gunman had ‘‘perfectly’’ fooled the programme to reintegrate jihadists into society.
But Moussa AlHassan Diaw, a cofounder of Derad, the organisation that runs the programme, rejected Nehammer’s assertion, saying: ‘‘It was always clear that this person was in no way deradicalised.’’ — Reuters