While Donald Trump was telling world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that the US was now economically “the hottest country anywhere in the world”, his fellow Republicans were poring over some of the grimmest polling data ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The data was revealing. Put simply, their prospects of keeping control of the House of Representatives – and possibly even the Senate – appears doomed.
Trump’s war on Iran is proving to be a bottomless drag on the Republican Party’s fortunes, with just 26 per cent of those surveyed telling pollsters they approve of the President’s handling of the crisis.
How middle-aged men are turning to weight-loss drugs
The new military squadron to protect UK satellites
How middle-aged men are turning to weight-loss drugs
Slimming jabs have so far been used by overwhelmingly more women than men. However, according to sales figures from online pharmacy Phlo Clinic, men are now using the drugs in growing numbers as they are available in tablet form.
The stats behind the change
- Before the Wegovy pills were introduced, 23 per cent of customers were men. Now. it is 34 per cent.
- The average age of men previously buying the injection was 51. Now, due to the pills, it’s 56.
- A study of over 5,000 people by University College London in 2025 found that over twice as many women were using weight-loss jabs compared to men.
- The same study also found that middle-aged people were most likely to use the jabs.
Why are men less likely to use weight-loss medication?
Phlo chief pharmacist Alistair Murray said: “There’s persistent stigma around men asking for help with their health, and an injection can feel like one more reason to put it off. A tablet is a lot easier, it fits into daily life, and so it doesn’t feel like such a leap.”
- Dr Ehtasham Ahmad, a diabetes and obesity specialist at the University Hospitals of Leicester, also pointed out that women have traditionally faced more societal pressure to stay slim.
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The new military squadron to protect UK satellites
The UK is launching a new military unit tasked with defending satellites, protecting vital services on Earth and potentially supporting offensive operations.
Protecting everyday services
The new No III Space Effects Squadron will protect satellites used to detect incoming missile threats, maintain communications and help navigate ships, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
- The unit will bring together specialists from across the Armed Forces to respond to hostile activity in space and safeguard satellites that are relied on for everyday services.
How will it combat adversaries?
The MoD said the new unit would combat threats in space using advanced technology, including electronic warfare, “to disrupt, degrade and deny hostile actions”.
It is intended to support offensive and defensive space operations and will grow over time as new capabilities enter service.
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The context
The scheme is announced as other nations continue to build up their military capabilities in space.
- The UK Space Command warned last year that Russia was attempting to jam UK military satellites regularly.
- Earlier this month, the US said that it had deployed weapons in space for the first time.
- Responding to the US announcement, the Chinese foreign ministry said Washington was “preparing for war in outer space”, and cautioned against turning space “into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there”.
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Meanwhile, the soaring price of petrol in the US, now averaging $4.47 (£3.38) a gallon nationwide, is putting paid to any hopes of a last-minute turnaround for them.
Such is the nature of Republican gallows humour that when the network TV pool downed tools on Monday, following Trump’s decision to ban CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House, some of his fellow party members breathed a sigh of relief.
“The media not manning the audio and video for Trump… is the best thing that the media has ever done for Republicans,” one party operative told Politico, suggesting that the less voters hear from the President, the better the party might perform in November.
Some of Trump’s allies are going even further by articulating views on the campaign trail that would have been considered heresy just weeks ago.
Mike Rogers, a former US Congressman battling to become the next Republican Senator from Michigan, is now openly calling for Trump to abandon his war with Iran.
It needs to end, and end quickly, he said in a video published on Monday. “Michigan families can’t afford to wait,” he added, while calling for the introduction of a temporary embargo on exports of American diesel, in order to preserve stocks for US consumers.
Rogers, an influential foreign policy voice within Republican circles, has previously backed Trump to the hilt, winning his endorsement as a result. In April, he described the Iran war as “the right thing to do” and, as recently as July, was backing the idea of giving Trump Congressional authority to commit force to the effort.
Ashley Hinson, a vulnerable Republican Congresswoman seeking re-election in Iowa, has also abandoned her support for the war, despite voting six times to keep the conflict going.
“Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” she wrote on X this week. “Actions to lower costs are needed ASAP, and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end.”
Senator Jon Husted, seeking re-election in the battleground state of Ohio, has also clambered aboard the bandwagon. “The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” he said. “I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want the war to come to an end.”
Democrats in Ohio scoffed at his about-face, observing that he had voted 13 times to support what they described as “the war that Ohioans are paying for”.
Iran is not the only issue that Republicans, once largely prostrate before Trump, are abandoning him on.
In Texas, two of the President’s most slavish Maga supporters have broken with him over AI, as voters increasingly sour on the hundreds of data centres that are cropping up all over the Lone Star State.
On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott – engulfed in a fiercely competitive race for re-election – ordered the state’s regulator to pause issuing any further environmental permits for data centre construction. This was after he previously said he wanted Texas to become America’s “epicentre of AI development”.
Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General trying to become the state’s next Republican Senator, has also found himself on the back foot over AI. His Democrat opponent, James Talarico, is making major inroads by accusing Paxton of being “bought and paid for by the data centre industry”.
Even in the reliably Republican state of Florida, Trump’s colleagues are running scared. Byron Donalds, looking to succeed Ron DeSantis as Governor, has revamped his campaign website and removed all prominent references to the President, as well as some pictures of him.
Where the site previously proclaimed Trump’s endorsement, those references have been excised. Donalds is also no longer promising that his primary task in office will be to “Enact the Trump Agenda” but instead says that fostering “Affordability” is now his number one issue.
In New York this week, Trump did nothing to assist Republicans who have turned against him in the closing stages of the midterm campaign. On AI, he insisted “whoever wins super intelligence” – as he is now calling AI – “that’s the group that wins”.
When it came to Iran, Trump simply predicted that a peace agreement would be signed “right after the election”. Even if true, which is looking unlikely, this will be little comfort to Republicans fearing a wipeout in 40 days’ time.