PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, September 10: US papers react to the first night of the Republicans' midterm convention in Dallas. Also: five baby orangutans from Southeast Asia have been found in a forest in India. Then some dystopian science news. Finally, perhaps we don't need to do as much sport as we think we do.
The Wall Street Journal reports that during the keynote speech, US president Donald Trump asked voters to pretend that he is on the ballot. There was also a “desperate election shocker”, says The HuffPost – Trump said he’ll bribe each citizen with a $5,000 payment if the Republicans win the Midterms. But The HuffPost recalls that Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to issue checks to everyone in the US, among other issues. The Atlantic asks whether "Trump really wants Republicans to win the Midterms"? The periodical says that it is currently impossible for the party to distance itself from the unpopular president. His approach “nicely illustrates the drawbacks of handing total control of a political party to an egomaniac”. But The Washington Post says that for many attending the convention, dubbed by some “Trumpapalooza”, “the main draw is Trump”. Many in the crowd are Trump loyalists and they are “mainly here to see their man”, writes the paper. Democrats believe that this will only help their midterm prospects, though, since the president’s approval ratings have dropped to a historic low. And The Daily Beast writes that the convention actually kicked off to empty chairs. The news site says that those who attended “struggled to stay energized” and the speakers “smiled as they looked out into a largely empty arena”.
