Midterm storm clouds, praise for Jerome Powell, and a mysterious golden blob

An Aztec dancer takes part in a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Mariachi Plaza in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Keystone/Swissinfo

US scientists have been examining a strange golden blob, found 3,000 metres underwater, and recently revealed their conclusions. Also this week, more on Donald Trump.

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A voter from Missouri during the 2018 midterm elections. Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

With six months to go before the US midterm elections, Swiss public broadcaster SRF took the political temperature. Its conclusion? “Storm clouds are gathering for the Republicans.”

“It’s almost a law of nature in US politics: the president’s party loses seats in Congress in the midterm elections,” SRF wrote on Sunday. “They are also a referendum on the president, whose opponents are often especially motivated to vent their anger.”

Donald Trump experienced this in his first period in office: in the 2018 midterms the Republicans gained two seats in the Senate but lost 42 seats in the House of Representatives.

As for the elections on November 3, SRF says the signs point to stormy weather. “Trump has led the country into an armed conflict with Iran, on vague grounds and with no foreseeable end. As a consequence of the war, petrol prices in car‑dependent America have risen to well over $4 (CHF3.10) per gallon for the first time since 2022. Trump has not fulfilled his campaign promise to bring prices down quickly; inflation is picking up again.” In addition, it noted that, according to the respected non-partisan Cook Political Report, Trump’s approval ratings are currently at the lowest point of his second term in office at 40%.

“All of this – especially people’s economic dissatisfaction – is setting off shrill alarm bells for Republicans, who must fear a painful electoral defeat,” it said, adding that it now even seems possible that Democrats could also win a majority in the Senate, where only a third of the seats are up for election.

SRF explained that the Republicans are trying to stave off defeat by reshaping the playing field in their favour. “In Texas, and later in other states, they redrew electoral districts to create as many safe Republican constituencies as possible.” SRF noted that this “brazen gerrymandering” was met by Democrats responding “just as shamelessly” by redrawing district maps to their advantage in California and Virginia.

“Regardless of who wins this uninhibited arms race, the long‑term loser will be America’s already battered democracy if there are fewer and fewer districts where the outcome is not clear from the outset.”

SRF acknowledged that half a year is a very long time in US politics and the broader political climate could still shift in the Republicans’ favour by November. It also conceded that, according to The New York Times, Republicans currently have the upper hand when it comes to campaign funds.

“Even so, it’s likely that they will lose their majority in the House of Representatives,” it concluded. “Even a Congress only partially controlled by Democrats would be a brake – even for a president who largely governs by bypassing Congress. His legislative projects would face an uphill battle, and uncomfortable parliamentary investigations would follow. Even impeachment proceedings against Trump would be possible, although such a process would be unlikely to succeed in the Senate.”

• SRF analysisExternal link (German)

Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, at a press conference last week. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve prove that he understands less about economics than he claims to, says the NZZ am Sonntag. “Fortunately, one man is putting up a fierce fight – and showing the world what backbone means in politically uncertain times.” Stand up, Jerome Powell.

As many as 52% of Americans believe that the Democrats would do a better job on economic issues than the Republicans, according to a recent pollExternal link by Fox News.

“The fact that things have come to this has to do with rising petrol prices and Trump’s bullying of the guardian of price stability,” the NZZ am Sonntag wrote in an editorial with the headline “The only true hero of the US – or why Jerome Powell deserves a statue”.

The paper explained how, since taking office, Trump had been trying to undermine the independence of the US Federal Reserve and had “relentlessly attacked” Powell, its chairman – including launching an investigation into alleged cost overruns in a construction project.

“But Powell isn’t bowing to pressure,” it said. “He’s showing the world what it means to stand firm in the face of an autocrat.” Although Trump has installed his preferred candidate, Kevin Warsh [see previous press review], the NZZ am Sonntag noted that Powell intends to remain on the Fed’s board even after the handover in May. It pointed out that Trump is currently calling for interest rate cuts “almost daily”, with the upcoming mid-term elections firmly in his sights.

“To put it once again in the words of George Bernard Shaw: ‘Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.’” Whoever stops their misguided ways deserves a monument, the NZZ am Sonntag concluded. “Just like Jerome Powell, the true king of monetary policy.”

• The NZZ am Sonntag editorialExternal link (German paywall)

The golden blob. AFP / courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Seascape Alaska

Over two years ago a diving robot found a mysterious golden orb at a depth of more than 3,000 metres off the coast of Alaska. Last week the Tages-Anzeiger got excited by the results of a DNA analysis.

The golden-coloured blob, discovered in August 2023, was stuck to a rock at a depth of 3,250 metres in the Gulf of Alaska. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weren’t sure what they were looking at. Was it a sponge? An eggshell?

The scientists on board the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer managed not only to nudge the blob with the arm of the diving robot, but also to suck it in, bring it to the surface and take it to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich explained. It is now catalogued there as part of the zoological collection.

“Meanwhile, speculation ran wild that it might be an alien egg or – less outlandish – a new form of life from Earth,” the paper wrote.

Researchers at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, have now investigated the golden enigma in more detail. The Tages-Anzeiger reported that after more than two years of work, the scientists have concluded that it is the base of a large deep-sea anemone of the species Relicanthus daphneae. Normally, this part is covered by the rest of the animal – an arm and many small tentacles. The anemone belonging to the blob could have died or moved on, leaving behind the unusually shimmering base.

• Report in the Tages-AnzeigerExternal link (German, paywall)

• NOAA articleExternal link

The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, May 13. See you then!

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