Platner out, US-Iran strikes, Air Force One and quantum leap
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Hi, I'm Kim Vennell in Whanganui, New Zealand. It's Thursday, July 9th. Today, Maine's Graham Plattner bows out and Democrats scramble to save a Senate seat they can't afford to lose. The US hits Iran again after Trump declares the peace deal over. And the crypto world is on edge over advancements in quantum computing.
Why did Maine Democrat Graham Plattner withdraw from the Senate race?
This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.
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Democratic Senate candidate Graham Plattner of Maine formally withdrawing from the race. It follows a string of controversies, including an accusation of sexual assault, which Plattner denies, adding that his withdrawal is not an admission of guilt. It plunges one of the most competitive midterm elections into turmoil and complicates Democrats' chances of taking control of the Senate. Reuters' Andy Sullivan has more.
This is a huge deal. This is one of the races that the Democrats really need to win if they're going to win control of the Senate in the November congressional elections. The state of Maine has been voting consistently Democratic for the whole 21st century, but Susan Collins, who is a moderate Republican, has consistently held onto the seat. Democrats keep trying to dislodge her every six years. They can't do so. They thought they had a really exciting candidate in Graham Plattner. an oysterman, a Marine veteran who had run against the party establishment and had whipped up a ton of grassroots enthusiasm. But he also had a lot of skeletons in his closet and they kept tumbling out of that closet.
For the Democrats, time is of the essence.
The main state Democratic Party has until July 27th. That's about two and a half weeks from now. They're going to have a big convention of as many people as possible to figure out who the replacement should be. They have a lot of candidates to choose from. One of them is Troy Jackson. He's not an oysterman. He's a lumberman. He's from northern part of the state, right on the Canadian border. He's been a longtime state legislator, a progressive endorsed by sort of progressive kingmaker Bernie Sanders. So he has a lot of chips in his corner. Another one could be Nirav Shah, who is the state legislator. health leader during the COVID crisis who has a bit of a following, but a lot of other people are coming for it as well.
We're in for a really crazy time over the next few weeks in this tiny, crucial state that's really become the focus of American politics.
The U.S. military is carrying out fresh strikes on Iran after President Donald Trump declared an interim deal to end the conflict over. U.S. Central Command says the attacks are aimed at degrading Iran's ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes follow what Washington says were Iranian attacks on at least three commercial vessels in the waterway. Meanwhile, Iran escalates as well, launching attacks on targets in Kuwait and Bahrain. So is this all a U.S. negotiating tactic? Here's foreign policy editor Don Durfee.
So this is the second time that Iran has struck ships in the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran signed this memorandum of understanding that established a ceasefire. And for Iran, the Strait is an incredibly valuable source of leverage. It is basically what allowed them to force the United States military, which is the world's biggest and most powerful military, into a stalemate. And we don't know exactly why it is that they choose to strike ships when they do, But the assumption is that it is a reminder to the US and to others of the kind of leverage that they have.
As for the US response, Don says the goal is not to reignite war, but to send a message.
As far as we understand it, the U.S. has been hitting mostly military and defensive installations, so air defense, missile launchers, things like that, not civilian targets. And so for the U.S., obviously, it is to send a message back to Iran that they're not ready to tolerate interference with shipping in the Strait.
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