Bedugul Coffee: Monday Morning Briefing: Trump says he is 'comfortable' as president despite political battles

U.S. Elections

“It was a little surreal to say I’m the president of the United States, but I think that’s true with everybody,” Trump told the CBS television news program “60 Minutes.” In an interview broadcast, he said he was “comfortable” in the White House after almost two years in office, despite political storms over immigration, tariffs and his nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

For most of this year, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has run what has been viewed widely as one of the best races in the nation. But with less than a month to go to Election Day, there are doubts whether she can make it across the finish line. Her matchup with Republican Martha McSally appears to be tightening at the same time that some voters are casting their ballots with the start of early voting in the state.

Just weeks ago, Tennessee’s Phil Bredesen was a bright light for a Democratic Party hoping to make inroads into conservative “Trump country” and secure a path to retake majority control of the U.S. Senate in November’s elections. But momentum appears to have shifted against Bredesen in this closely-watched Senate battle despite the endorsement of pop star Taylor Swift and the rumblings of a Democratic wave.

World

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered an internal probe into the unexplained disappearance of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a joint Turkish-Saudi team was set to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was last seen on Oct. 2. JP Morgan & Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and Ford Motor Chairman Bill Ford canceled plans to attend a Saudi investor conference, the companies said on Sunday, the latest such high-profile announcements after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

At least 13 people have been killed in southwestern France by some of the worst flash floods in a century, local authorities said. Television pictures showed raging, muddy rivers - swollen by torrential rain - that had uprooted trees, knocked over concrete power pylons and swept away cars in the southern region of Aude, near the medieval hilltop city of Carcassonne.

North and South Korea agreed to begin reconnecting rail and road links, another step in an improving relationship that has raised U.S. concern about the possible undermining of its bid to press the North to give up its nuclear program.

Commentary: In recent Brazilian and Bosnian elections, far-right candidates rallied popular support by fanning the flames of long-dormant hostilities. Brazilian presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro, and Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik, both “have a stake not in compromise, but in confrontation,” columnist John Lloyd writes. “Branding liberals and peacemakers as ineffectual, rousing popular support to right old wrongs, real or imaginary, putting their part of the people first, last and always, means that the elections of this week are bad news for a strained world.”

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