Democrats lead Republicans in House vote choice as Trump's approval rating hits record low by ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, agencies USA   18 Oct. 2026   Just over two-weeks out from consequential midterm elections, a record share of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump, about 7 in 10 say gasoline is unaffordable and that the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.   Midterms   By an 8-percentage point margin, likely voters support the Democratic candidate in congressional district elections over the Republican candidate, 52% to 44%. That margin remains 8 points among registered voters overall, 50% to 42%, an improvement from a July Washington Post-Ipsos poll for Democrats, when just 3 points separated the Democrats from the Republicans.   Democrats are bolstering their lead among independent likely voters, who support Democratic candidates by a 21-point margin, 56% to 35%.   The economy   Half or more Americans call every household purchase category measured “unaffordable” in the latest poll, including 71% who now call gasoline unaffordable, up from 28% who said the same in February, before the war in Iran drove up fuel costs. The national average gas price has topped $4 a gallon for a record 158 days in 2026 so far.   An increasing share of Americans also call healthcare unaffordable (65%, up from 56% in February) along with home energy and utility costs (57%, up from 45%) and rent or mortgage (50%, up from 37%). And 60% call groceries unaffordable.   Growing shares of Americans call relative luxuries unaffordable, too. A 61% majority of Americans call going out to dinner unaffordable, up from 49% in February. Even more, 69%, say a weeklong vacation is unaffordable, up from 60%. And 80% call a new car unaffordable, up from 74% in February.   In all, 75% of Americans rate the nation’s economy negatively, including 35% who call it poor. Roughly half, 48%, say they are “not as well off” as they were when Trump became president, a high over both of his presidential terms.   Likely voters who rate the economy poorly support Democrats over Republicans in the generic ballot by 72 points. Likely voters who say they are not as well off support Democrats over Republicans by 60 points.   Beyond just the economy, Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is moving in: 72% say things in the country are headed in the wrong direction; just 26% say things are heading in the right direction.   President Trump   Trump’s weak approval ratings do not bode well for his party given that midterms are often a referendum vote on the president. And Trump’s approval rating has reached a record personal low of 33% percent in the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, lower even than after the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol when 38% approved. Today, 66% of Americans disapprove, a record high over both terms.   Just over half of Americans, 52%, strongly disapprove of Trump, matching his strong disapproval rating after the Jan. 6 attack, and a record high for his second term, according to the poll.   Over both of his terms, a record-low 22% of independents approve of Trump and a record-high 76% disapprove, including 58% who strongly disapprove – another record high over both of Trump’s terms.   Among Republicans, a record-low 39% strongly approve of Trump, down from 63% in February 2025. Today, 21% of Republicans disapprove, up from 12% in February 2025. That includes nearly half of non-MAGA Republicans (47%) who disapprove today.   Majorities of Americans also disapprove of how Trump is handling every issue measured, and for many issues, Trump is at or near record-low approvals.   His worst issue is handling the cost of living in the U.S. -- perhaps the defining issue for the 2026 midterms -- and his ratings are similarly low to what they were in the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll in April. Now, just 21% approve while 77% disapprove. Trump has similarly low ratings on handling inflation: 23% approve and 75% disapprove.   On the economy overall, 28% approve of how Trump is handling things and 70% disapprove, a record-low approval and a record-high disapproval over both of Trump’s terms.   On Iran, 27% approve of how Trump is handling the situation and 70% disapprove. A 65% majority of Americans say it was a mistake for the U.S. to use military force against Iran. On relations with U.S. allies, 30% approve of how Trump is handling things and 68% disapprove.   About two-thirds of Americans say since taking office, Trump has “gone beyond his authority as president. Majorities of Americans say Trump is “not committed” to respecting the authority of Congress (68%), protecting freedom of the press (67%), respecting the authority of the courts (66%), free and fair elections (61%) or protecting freedom of speech (61%).   A record-high 66% of Americans say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, up from 62% in February and 56% in September 2025. Majorities of Democrats (94%) and independents (73%) along with just over a quarter of Republicans (27%) say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself.   When it comes to the federal government paying for TV ads promoting Trump and his policies, 74% say it is inappropriate, including 55% who say it is totally inappropriate. A federal judge has ordered the government-funded ads to stop running.   Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to handle 10 out of 12 issues measured in this poll. U.S. adults trust Democrats over Republicans by 23 points to handle healthcare and by 14 points to handle education, the cost of living and inflation – all by wider margins than they have recently.   Americans trust Democrats over Republicans by 11 points to handle the situation with Iran, by 9 points to handle reducing corruption in the government. Americans trust Democrats by 9 points to better handle the economy, the largest margin they’ve had on the issue since 2022. More Americans call Trump and the Republican Party “too extreme” – 66% and 55%, respectively – than the Democratic Party (36%)..   http://abcnews.com/Politics/democrats-lead-republicans-house-vote-choice-trumps-approval/story?id=137322849 http://abcnews.com/alerts/Elections http://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/house-charts-analysis/2026-house-open-seat-tracker http://www.cookpolitical.com/survey-research/cpr-polltracker/trump-trendlines-in-the-us-midterm-elections-294713 http://theconversation.com/what-recent-polling-suggests-will-happen-in-the-us-midterm-elections-294713 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/02/midterm-races-control-congress-charts-visuals   http://theconversation.com/how-gas-prices-became-a-lightning-rod-for-voter-anger-ahead-of-the-us-midterms-294663 http://theconversation.com/how-trumps-disaster-aid-delays-and-fema-cuts-could-galvanize-the-movable-middle-in-the-2026-elections-294236 http://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/wholesale-inflation-running-rampant-highest-increase-in-four-years-due-to-iran-war/ http://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/opinion/editorials/inflation-war-corruption-trump-editorial.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/10/26/opinion/midterms-pollsters-pundits-scorecard-october.html http://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/opinion/midterms-trump-america.html http://www.brennancenter.org/midterms-2026 http://www.newyorker.com/a-guide-to-the-2026-us-midterm-elections http://www.ms.now/elections   http://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/20/poll-voters-see-republicans-as-the-party-of-big-tech-tax-breaks-01127726 http://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-2025/ http://democrats.org/new-data-wages-drop-to-the-lowest-point-in-more-than-two-years/ http://www.c-span.org/program/us-senate/sen-schatz-on-rising-costs/683759 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/former-gop-governor-david-beasley-says-trumps-demeaning-rhetoric-pushed-him-from-party http://theconversation.com/why-the-26-secretary-of-state-races-this-november-matter-more-than-they-did-before-trumps-drive-to-assert-federal-authority-over-elections-293751   http://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-sons-investments-won-billions-pentagon-contracts-election/story?id=137049598 http://apnorc.org/projects/more-americans-say-trump-has-prioritized-his-personal-business-interests-than-the-country-as-a-whole/ http://notabovethelawcoalition.org/let-them-eat-cake-new-report-finds-trump-family-pocketed-nearly-3-billion-while-millions-of-americans-lost-food-assistance/ http://notabovethelawcoalition.org/sen-whitehouse-rep-raskin-and-constitutional-law-experts-mark-constitution-day-by-detailing-trump-administrations-assault-on-the-rule-of-law   http://electionlawblog.org/2026/trumps-attacks-on-voting-raise-fears-he-will-try-to-challenge-midterm-results/ http://electionlawblog.org/2026/citing-preamble-to-nvra-doj-sues-to-enjoin-certification-of-alaskas-senate-race-it-wont-go-anywhere/ http://www.justsecurity.org/153971/boots-off-ballots-troops-elections-in-practice/ http://www.justsecurity.org/159538/no-emergency-exception-ban-troops-polls/ http://www.justsecurity.org/159524/collection-just-security-2026-midterm-election/ http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preventing-voter-intimidation-federal-agents-polls http://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/federal-agents-at-the-polls http://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/vote   http://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/wealth-inequality-has-grown-during-the-trump-administration/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/trump-congressional-republican-agenda-has-harmed-rural-communities http://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/new-census-data-underscore-importance-of-food-assistance-and-health-coverage http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-tracker-people-are-losing-food-assistance-as-the-harmful-2025 http://www.americanprogress.org/article/on-the-first-anniversary-of-the-obbba-millions-of-americans-have-been-left-behind/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/lowering-the-cost-of-living-for-american-families/   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/26/billionaires-wealth-soars-as-workers-struggle http://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/07/cost-of-living-poll-groceries-gas http://www.protectourcare.org/hospital-crisis-watch-900-hospitals-clinics-and-nursing-homes-at-risk-or-closing-as-communities-reel-from-republican-health-care-cuts/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/26/us-medicaid-work-requirements-risk-coverage-loss-for-millions-of-people http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-tracker-people-are-losing-food-assistance-as-the-republican-megabill http://rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/one-year-later-how-obbbas-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-have-weakened-democracy/ Visit the related web page
	Human Rights organizations reject UAE’s Candidate for Secretary-General by Pass Blue, Avaaz, Just Security, agencies   27 Oct. 2026   United Nations Secretary-General Election 2026   Rights Groups Scorn UAE’s Candidate as she faces the UN General Assembly, by Damilola Banjo for Pass Blue   Just hours before Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates was scheduled to defend her candidacy for the post of United Nations secretary-general before the General Assembly, human rights experts held a media briefing to assert why she is not fit to be the world’s top diplomat.   At a virtual gathering organized by the advocacy group Avaaz, held on the morning of Oct. 27, rights experts said that Nusseibeh’s repeated denials of Emirati military support for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, raised questions about her suitability to lead the UN.   The militia has been fighting the government’s army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, in a war that started in April 2023 and has killed and displaced untold numbers of Sudanese, including millions of civilians.   Indeed, the first question from a civil society group participating in the Assembly’s dialogue with Nusseibeh on Tuesday afternoon focused on her past response as a UAE official to separate findings by the UN panel of experts on Sudan and the fact-finding mission for Sudan that the Emirati government has “provided weapons and support instrumental to sustaining RSF atrocities.”   Yonah Diamond, the legal adviser of the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, then asked Nusseibeh: “Given this conflict of interest, how can you assure the international community that you will not continue to reject the findings of the very organization you seek to lead?”   Replying to the question in what could be her first public response to the allegations about the UAE and the RSF since she stepped into the UN race barely a week ago, Nusseibeh said: “I think the horrific conflict in Sudan will be the litmus test of the success of an incoming secretary-general.” She added that “stopping that conflict will be the litmus test of success.”   Nusseibeh also addressed the potential conflict of interest by saying: “In order to run for this office and be mindful of the obligations of independence that this office entails, I have taken a leave of absence from my post as a minister of the UAE, and I refer any questions about the UAE to the UAE representation.”   She repeated the same response when the deputy permanent representative from Sudan, Ammar Mohammed, asked a similar question during the Assembly dialogue, noting that some of the atrocities carried out by the RSF included “mass raping of women and girls.”   Nusseibeh said to Mohammed that “I have left my office as minister in my own government and will refer any questions regarding that to my own government.”   Most recently, in September, independent UN human rights investigators said external support is fueling the conflict in Sudan and that military equipment transferred to the RSF is consistent with equipment previously exported to the UAE.   Nusseibeh has repeatedly rejected accusations that her country has its hands in the war. In an April 2024 letter to the UN Security Council, as a UAE official, she dismissed allegations of military, logistical, financial or political support for “any Sudanese faction as spurious, unfounded.”   Human rights experts said that dismissing the UN’s reports and other similar findings makes her unsuitable to lead the organization.   Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in the media briefing that Nusseibeh shielded Abu Dhabi from accountability through her continued denials of support for the RSF.   “We cannot afford to have the UN led by somebody who is a genocide denier,” Roth said.   Similarly, Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, said that the war in Sudan has persisted because of the assistance given to the RSF by the Emirati government.   “The Rapid Support Forces military could not have taken El Fasher without the support of the United Arab Emirates,” Raymond said, referring to the major Sudanese city that fell to the RSF a year ago and is still suffering from the consequences. “These people died for one reason, because their lives mattered less than the diplomatic, economic, and security relationships between the US and the UK with the UAE.”   Nonetheless, Nusseibeh pledged on Tuesday to defend human rights without double standards and to protect the independence of the UN secretary-general’s office. Nusseibeh is scheduled to meet with the UN Security Council privately on Wednesday.   24 Oct. 2026   UAE’s role in Sudan. (AP. Extract)   Lana Nusseibeh could face what some believe is a conflict of interest over Sudan. The war and the UAE’s alleged role in it has been explored by various arms of the U.N.   Rights groups and others have for years documented evidence of UAE backing for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that have been fighting Sudan’s military in the civil war that erupted in April 2023.   The RSF has been accused of atrocities including the attack on the city of el-Fasher in October 2025 in which the U.N. said at least 6,000 people were killed.   “The U.N. has concluded, in part based on the evidence of our lab at Yale, that the massacre has the hallmarks of genocide,” Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, told the AP.   He said the el-Fasher massacre could not have happened without the UAE’s provision of drones, mercenaries to operate them and artillery and mortars used in the siege of the city.   “An official of the government that did this cannot be allowed to lead the United Nations, especially when this conduct is under investigation by the ICC, a U.N. body,” Raymond said.   Last year, Sudan filed a case at the top U.N. court accusing the United Arab Emirates of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the RSF. The UAE rejected the charge.   Nusseibeh was the UAE’s point person on Sudan, according to Justin Lynch, managing director of the Conflict Insights Group research organization. “Throughout this war, she assured other governments that the UAE was not backing the RSF, even as Washington and other capitals knew internally that it was,” he told the AP.   The U.N. secretary-general’s role is to protect civilians from horrors like el-Fasher, Lynch said. “Handing the job over to the diplomat who ran cover for it would be an insult to the survivors.”   http://passblue.com/2026/10/27/rights-groups-scorn-uaes-candidate-as-she-faces-the-un-general-assembly/ http://www.justsecurity.org/159762/darfur-arms-embargo-united-nations/ http://www.raoulwallenbergcentre.org/en/press-releases/2026-02-19 http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session61/advance-version/a-hrc-61-77-auv-en.pdf http://internationalpolicy.org/publications/cip-statement-on-the-selection-of-the-next-un-secretary-general-opposition-to-nusseibeh-candidacy/ http://responsiblestatecraft.org/sudan-civil-war-massacre/ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/26/uae-sudan-lana-nusseibeh-un-secretary-general http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/call-to-action-for-the-united-nations-general-assembly-during-its-81st-session-from-the-international-coalition-for-the-responsibility-to-protect/
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