First Thing: Rift in Trump’s inner circle over 2024 campaign announcement | US

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Donald Trump’s top political staffers at Mar-a-Lago are pressing him to move forward with his planned 2024 presidential campaign announcement next week, but a chorus of allies are suggesting he delay until after the Senate runoff in Georgia in December, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The former US president has been forced to reckon with Republican blame for underwhelming performances by rightwing candidates he endorsed in the midterm elections, with the defeat of the Republican candidate Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania contributing to uncertainty over which party will control the Senate.

Trump has suggested publicly that he intends to announce his 2024 presidential campaign next week as planned. Behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago, in a sign of concern about his standing after the midterm results, he remains undecided on how to proceed. However, some initial invitations for the “special announcement” event have been sent.

Trump’s top staffers have firmly pressed him to announce his latest White House campaign as planned on Tuesday, the sources said, suggesting he would appear weak and wounded by the results were he to cave to demands that he hold off until the Senate runoff.

• Is there an upside to waiting until next month? His handpicked Republican candidate, Herschel Walker, trails Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock. His staffers are said to have told him: if Walker wins, you can take credit, and if Walker loses, your position will be no different to now.

Nothing final in House or Senate as midterm elections count continues

All eyes in the political world were trained on Arizona and Nevada on Friday, where hundreds of thousands of uncounted votes held the key to control of the US Senate, three days after Americans cast their final ballots in midterm elections.

Democrats or Republicans can capture a Senate majority by sweeping the contests in both states. A split, however, would transform a 6 December Senate runoff election in Georgia into a proxy battle for the chamber, which, among other powers, holds sway over President Joe Biden’s judicial appointments.

Meanwhile, Republicans were slowly inching closer to wresting control of the House of Representatives from Biden’s Democrats, which would in effect give them veto power over his legislative agenda and allow them to launch investigations into his administration.

Republicans had secured at least 211 of the 218 House seats they need for a majority, Edison Research projected late on Thursday, while Democrats had won 197. That left 27 races yet to be determined, including a number of close contests.

‘More than 50 poor countries in danger of bankruptcy,’ says UN official

More than 50 of the poorest developing countries are in danger of defaulting on their debt and becoming in effect bankrupt unless the rich world offers…