HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S. C. — With the wounds from last week’s election defeats still tender, Republican governors and political leaders met Monday in this robustly sunny resort to chart a suddenly clouded political future.
Calls for increased emphasis on education and the environment were squelched by other sounds: teeth-gnashing, backbiting and bemoaning of the turn of political events.
Just a year ago, in the flush of George Bush’s presidential victory, Republicans saw the 1990 elections as a historic opportunity to overthrow the Democrats and control the powerful reapportionment process stemming from the 1990 census.
Now, as they looked forward, mostly what they saw was the troubling issue of abortion, which is credited with breathing new life into the Democratic Party and is at least partly responsible for last week’s Democratic gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia.
“If you look at last Tuesday’s results, you are hard pressed not to say . . . that the pro-choice coalition has indeed, definitely, become a force,” Republican pollster Linda DiVall warned the governors.
“If we in the Republican Party don’t recognize that, we are setting ourselves up for some major defeats.”
The emergence of abortion as a potent tool to be wielded against anti-abortion Republicans has sent the party scrambling to regain the offensive for 1990.
Strategy for 1990
In plans outlined Monday, party leaders detailed a two-pronged approach to next year’s elections–playing down abortion while pressing issues that could overshadow that emotional topic.
Vice President Dan Quayle, in a speech here Monday, pointedly did not mention abortion but tried to rally support for a more activist 1990 program modeled after Bush’s 1988 race.
“We will continue to work and identify with issues beyond peace and opportunity,” he said, “and (will) relate to opportunity the importance of education, the importance of the environment, the importance of enhancing our competitiveness, renewing an attack on poverty.
“These will be Republican issues,” he said.
Also, Quayle underlined the firm break between the 1990s-version Republican Party with its Reagan-era predecessor. He touted the importance of government–a position precisely the opposite of that pronounced by Ronald Reagan at the turn of the last decade.
“We cannot adopt an idea that somehow all government or any government is simply evil,” Quayle said. “That’s not the case.”
In talking to reporters later, the vice president said that an emphasis on popular topics like education and the environment will help Republican candidates. And he argued that the party’s anti-abortion stance “is going to be a neutral issue.”
But other Republicans roll their eyes at such rosy predictions and worry nervously that abortion will prove the difference in 1990’s elections.
Next year, 34 Senate seats, 36 governorships and all 435 House seats will be on the ballot. More important, the elections will put into office governors and state legislators who can shape new boundaries for political districts, which will remain in force for 10 years. Whoever wins in 1990, in short, has a distinct advantage for the next decade.
Republicans are still smarting over the last reapportionment, in which Democrats controlled the process and came away with strong holds on many states, most particularly California.
Despite the success of the GOP in winning the presidency, Democrats currently hold 29 governor’s seats and control 28 legislatures. Among the 1990 battlegrounds will be California, Texas and Florida, which have gained in population and thus will gain congressional seats, and the Northeast and Great Lakes states, which are losing seats.
Major GOP Efforts
Republicans will be mounting major efforts as well in states where they are close to holding a majority of legislators in a legislative body–Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Florida among them, Republicans here said.
Republicans acknowledge that there are limits to their ability to force abortion onto the back burner. The Supreme Court, which unleashed a fury of political activity with its July decision permitting the states to place some restrictions on abortion, is due to consider the subject again next term. And abortion rights groups, which mobilized in the wake of the court decision, have vowed to exact revenge on anti-abortion legislators in 1990.
But, as they shift focus to newly embraced issues like education and the environment, the Republicans hope to take the edge off of the abortion issue by instructing party candidates to announce their position and stick to it. Many Republicans here castigated their losing gubernatorial candidates–J. Marshall Coleman of Virginia and James Courter of New Jersey–for waffling on the issue.
“You don’t shift positions,” said Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, who after the Supreme Court decision called a special session of the Florida Legislature to adopt new abortion restrictions–only to have the Legislature table the proposals.
“If you’re shifting around on quicksand based on the political winds, you’re gonna die,” he added.
Conservative South Carolina Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. spoke what is rapidly becoming the party line–that voters will accept an anti-abortion stance as long as it is consistent and expressed sensitively.
There has been no large-scale test of the theory since the Supreme Court’s decision was announced.
“The problem with Republicans is that they have not gone out in advance and told the public what they believed in,” Campbell said.
“The Democrats in this instance (last week’s races) went out and defined the issue (and) left the Republican candidates there with no clear message of what they stood for. And I’m going to tell you something: You’ll beat nothing with something every time.”
Thompson Disagrees
Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson, a moderate who has opted not to run again in 1990, split ranks with Campbell on the direction that party candidates must take in the future.
“At least at the state level, a candidate in any party who takes a strong pro-life stance is going to lose,” Thompson said.
“The old days when only the pro-life movement was political are gone,” he added. “The Republican Party is going to be pushed in the direction of the pro-choice movement.”
Most Republicans agree that all but the most rabid anti-abortion activists will have to silence in 1990 their once-public demands for a constitutional amendment banning abortion and for other highly restrictive measures.
“There’s room for an offensive–but the offensive is clearly in the middle,” Republican National Committee member Haley Barbour of Mississippi said.
Like others, Barbour suggested that moderate attempts at abortion restrictions–like advocating that parents be notified when a young girl seeks to have an abortion–will remain on the agenda, because polls show Americans to be more sympathetic to them than to more comprehensive barriers.
Opening day at Santa Anita might have been delayed by two days because of heavy rain, but it was worth the wait for no other reason than to watch the stretch run of the $200,000 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes.
And for trainer Bob Baffert, it was even better than that. Not only did Nysos and Nevada Beach run 1-2 for him Sunday in the thrilling Grade 2 Pincay, but he also captured the two Grade 1 races he entered, the La Brea with Usha and the Malibu with Goal Oriented.
It was the fourth time Baffert won three stakes on the same day at Santa Anita, including the same trio of races on opening day in 2022.
He was especially excited after the Pincay, and not just by what he saw on the track.
“You know what’s great?” Baffert said as he stood in the winner’s circle and motioned to the grandstand, which was crowded with an announced 41,962 fans, the largest opening day audience since 2016. “It’s great to see this place packed. Look, everybody came out. They’ll come out to see a good horse and everybody was on the apron for this one. And they saw a great horse race.
“It was actually fun watching.”
Particularly for Baffert, who knew as the field turned into the stretch he couldn’t lose. Nysos, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile champion ridden by Flavien Prat, was on the inside of Nevada Beach, the Goodwood Stakes winner ridden by Juan Hernandez.
Nysos was the heavy 1-5 favorite, having lost only one of his seven lifetime races, but for at least a moment it looked as if he might not get past Nevada Beach, at 3 a year younger than his stablemate.
But, in a virtual rerun of the Dirt Mile, when Prat and Nysos edged past Hernandez and another Baffert 3-year-old, Citizen Bull, the older horse once again prevailed, again by a head.
“I was close,” Hernandez said. “My horse ran really good. I was in front on the stretch for a couple of jumps and then it was just back and forth between Nysos and my horse. … He was giving me everything he had.”
The Grade 2 Pincay (formerly the San Antonio) was one of six stakes races on opening day, which is traditionally held the day after Christmas. It wasn’t one of the three Grade 1 races, but the presence of Nysos made it feel like the day’s main event.
Nysos returned $2.40 after running 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.36, the fastest since the Pincay was moved to that distance in 2017.
Baffert said in the leadup to the race that Nysos likely would start next in the $20-million Saudi Cup on Feb. 14 in Riyadh, while Nevada Beach was more apt to go to the $3-million Pegasus World Cup next month at Gulfstream Park. After the Pincay, he didn’t rule out sending both to Saudi Arabia.
The only downside to Baffert’s stakes day was having to scratch Barnes and Cornucopian, the two morning-line favorites, from the Malibu. Barnes suffered a “minor setback” Saturday while Cornucopian had an incident in the paddock minutes before the race, which forced his withdrawal (he was uninjured).
No matter, though; Goal Oriented ($4.20) took over favoritism and earned his first stakes win, defeating stablemate Midland Money by a length in 1:20.97, the fastest Malibu since 2016.
“I’m just happy it turned out that we won it because it was so upsetting for a little bit,” Baffert said.
Usha ($13.20) was starting in a Grade 1 race for the first time, but she won the La Brea like a filly who has more victories in her future. She finished seven furlongs in a rapid 1:21.68 to beat 2-1 favorite Formula Rossa by 5¼ lengths.
The first of the six stakes races was the $200,000 Mathis Mile for 3-year-olds on the turf. Tempus Volat, trained by Leonard Powell, led the race but was passed in the final yard by Hiding in Honduras ($21.40), a 9-1 long shot ridden by Antonio Fresu for Jonathan Thomas. Namaron, the 1-2 favorite ridden by Prat, finished third.
There was no such drama in the second turf stakes, the $100,000 San Gabriel, in which Cabo Spirit ($14.80), trained by George Papaprodromou, took the lead shortly after the start under Mike Smith and rolled to a 1¼-length victory over Astronomer. Stay Hot, the 2-1 favorite, lost a photo for third to Mondego.
The final race of the day was the other Grade 1 event, the $300,000 American Oaks, won by another Thomas trainee, Ambaya, a 12-1 long shot. The daughter of Ghostzapper was ridden by Kazushi Kimura, who picked up the mount when Fresu injured his ankle earlier in the day.
Etc.
The two cards that were rained out over the weekend will be made up Monday and Wednesday, with free parking and admission. Both days will offer two stakes races; Monday’s highlight is the $200,000 Joe Hernandez, which includes Motorious and Sumter, who were 1-2 in the race last year, and Imagination, last month’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up who will be racing on turf for the first time.
Rain is forecast beginning Wednesday, with track officials saying they will monitor the situation before deciding on how it will affect the racing, if at all. The schedule calls for racing Thursday through Sunday before Santa Anita begins its normal schedule of Fridays through Sundays on Jan. 9.
Citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) will vote on Sunday in highly controversial presidential and legislative elections expected to extend President Faustin-Archange Touadera’s tenure beyond two terms for the first time in the country’s history.
Touadera, who helped put his country on the map when he adopted Bitcoin as one of its legal tenders in 2022, had earlier pushed through a referendum abolishing presidential term limits. That, as well as significant delays that almost upturned the confirmation of two major challengers, has led some opposition groups to boycott the vote, calling it a “sham”.
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CAR will also hold local elections for the first time in 40 years, after a long period of destabilising political conflict, including an ongoing civil war between the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebel movement and the largely Christian Anti-balaka armed groups, which has led to the displacement of one million people. There are fears that the country’s electoral body is not equipped to handle an election on this scale.
The landlocked nation is sandwiched between several larger neighbours, including Chad to the north and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the south. It has an ethnically and religiously diverse population of about 5.5 million, with French and Sango being the national languages.
Although rich in resources like crude oil, gold and uranium, persistent political instability since independence from France in 1960, and the ongoing civil war (2013-present) have kept CAR one of Africa’s poorest nations. For security, CAR is increasingly reliant on Russian assistance to guard major cities against rebels.
Citizens of CAR are referred to as Central Africans. The country’s largest city and capital is Bangui, named after the Ubangi River, which forms a natural border between CAR and the DRC. The country exports mainly diamonds, timber and gold, but much of the population depends on subsistence agriculture, and economic activity is limited.
Supporters of presidential candidate Faustin-Archange Touadera react during a campaign before Sunday’s second round election against longtime opposition candidate Anicet-Georges Dologuele, in Bangui, Central African Republic, February 12, 2016 [File: Siegfried Modola/Reuters]
Here’s what we know about Sunday’s election:
Who can vote and how does it work?
About 2.3 million Central Africans over the age of 18 are registered to vote for the country’s next president. Of these, 749,000 registrations are new since the previous election in 2020.
They’ll also be voting for national lawmakers, regional and, for the first time in about 40 years, municipal administrators. Average turnout in past years has been about 62 percent, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). There are about 6,700 polling units across the country.
The National Elections Authority initially planned to hold the municipal government elections at the end of August, but moved the polls to December at the last minute, blaming insufficient funds as well as technical and organisational challenges. The decision has added to concerns among election observers and opposition politicians about how prepared the electoral body is.
Campaigning began on December 13, but opposition groups claim that delays in including Touadera’s biggest challengers in the process have favoured the president’s rallies.
The presidential candidate with an absolute majority is declared the winner, but if there is no outright winner in the first round, a second run-off vote will determine the victor.
Although presidents were previously limited to two, five-year terms, a controversial 2023 referendum introduced a new constitution which removed term limits and increased each term to seven years.
Who is running for president?
The country’s constitutional court approved Touadera’s candidacy alongside prominent opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, ex-Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra, and five others.
However, delays in approving the two major opponents and concerns around the readiness of the electoral body have led an opposition coalition, the Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution (BRDC), to boycott the election. The group has, therefore, not presented a candidate.
Here is what we know about the candidates who are standing:
Faustin-Archange Touadera
Touadera, 68, is a mathematician and former vice chancellor of the University of Bangui. He is running under the ruling United Hearts Movement (MCU).
He served as the country’s prime minister from 2013 to 2015 under President Francois Bozize. He was elected as president in 2016 and again in 2020, although opposition groups contested the vote.
Touadera, who is the favourite to win in these polls, has campaigned on promises of peace, security and new infrastructural development in the country.
After 10 years in office, the president’s legacy is mixed. His administration has been dogged by accusations of suppressing the opposition and rigging elections.
Indeed, Touadera would not be eligible to run had he not forced the 2023 referendum through. He sacked a chief judge of the constitutional court in October 2022, after she ruled that his referendum project was illegal.
Opposition members boycotted the referendum, but that only gave the Touadera camp more “yes” votes. Although a civil society group launched a legal challenge against his candidacy before the polls, the constitutional court threw out the suit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central African Republic’s President Faustin-Archange Touadera shake hands as they meet in Moscow, Russia, January 16, 2025 [File: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters]
Touadera is credited with spearheading some economic development, compared with his predecessors. New roads and highways have been built where there were previously none, but the World Bank still ranks CAR’s economy as “stagnant”.
Touadera has also been praised for achieving relative stability in the conflict-affected country where armed groups hold swaths of territory, especially in the areas bordering Sudan.
Support from a United Nations peacekeeping force, Rwandan troops and Russian Wagner mercenaries has helped to reduce violence in recent years.
CAR was the first country to invite the Russian mercenary group to the continent in 2018 in a security-for-minerals deal, before other countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, also secured security contracts.
CAR was historically closer to former colonial power France, but Paris suspended its military alliances and reduced aid budgets to the country in 2021 following the Russia cooperation.
At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023, Touadera praised Russia for saving CAR’s democracy. The two met again in January 2025.
In advance of the elections, Touadera has also signed a series of peace accords with some armed groups active in the country, although there are fears that the agreements will only hold until after the polls.
The president launched Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2022, making CAR the second country to do so after El Salvador. The idea drew scepticism, as less than 10 percent of Central Africans can access the internet, and was ultimately abandoned after a year.
In February 2025, CAR launched the $CAR meme coin, which the government said is an experiment.
This week, Touadera’s government signed a new contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink to expand internet services to rural and remote regions.
Henri-Marie Dondra
The 59-year-old is a career banker and former finance minister. He is running under his Republican Unity party (UNIR), which has positioned itself as a reformist party and is not part of the opposition coalition. He served as prime minister under Touadera between 2021 and 2022 but was fired, likely because of his strong pro-France tendencies at a time when the administration was turning towards Russia, according to reporting by French radio, RFI.
Dondra’s candidacy was not approved until November 14, after Touadera accused him of holding Congolese citizenship, which he denied. The accusations raised fears that he would be barred from the vote. Two of his brothers were reportedly arrested and detained without charge before the vote, Dondra told Human Rights Watch in late November.
A campaign billboard of presidential candidate Anicet-Georges Dologuele, of the Union for Central African Renewal (URCA), stands before the presidential election scheduled for December 28, in Bangui, Central African Republic, December 24, 2025 [Leger Serge Kokpakpa/Reuters]
Anicet-Georges Dologuele
The main opposition leader of the Union for Central African Renewal (URCA) party broke from the boycotting opposition coalition in order to run in these elections. Dologuele’s candidacy has prompted what some analysts say are xenophobic statements from Touadera’s supporters.
The 68-year-old dual citizen French-CAR politician first ran for the top job back in 2015 and was the runner-up in the 2020 presidential race. His third bid has faced challenges over his citizenship status. The 2023 referendum limited candidates to CAR citizenship only, and derisive comments from some in the governing camp have suggested some opposition candidates are not “real Central Africans”.
In September, Dologuele said he had given up his French citizenship; however, in October, a Central African court stripped him of his CAR citizenship, citing a clause in the old constitution disallowing dual citizenship. Dologuele reported the issue as a violation of his human rights to the UN human rights agency. It’s unclear what, if any, action the agency took, but Dologuele’s name on the final candidates list suggests his citizenship was reinstated.
Dologuele served as prime minister in the 1990s, under President Ange-Felix Patasse, before joining the Bank of Central African States and later heading the Development Bank of Central African States.
Although he is seen by some as an experienced hand, others associate him with past government failures. Dologuele is promising stronger democratic institutions and better international alliances.
Other notable candidates
Aristide Briand Reboas – leader of the Christian Democratic Party, the 46-year-old was a former intelligence official and the sports minister until 2024. He is running on promises of better amenities, including electricity and water. He previously ran in 2020.
Serge Djorie – a former government spokesperson until 2024, the 49-year-old is running under his Collective for Political Change for the new Central African Republic party. The medical doctor and published researcher has campaigned on public health reforms, poverty reduction and more pan-Africanism. Djorie ran in the 2020 elections.
Eddy Symphorien Kparekouti – The civil engineer helped draft the new constitution that was controversially adopted in 2023. In his campaigns, the independent candidate has emphasised poverty reduction in order to solve political insecurity and other developmental challenges.
What are the key issues for this election?
Armed groups
Protracted political conflict in CAR has continued for more than a decade, with many Central Africans saying they want a leadership that can bring peace.
Trouble began following a coup in March 2013 by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel alliance that overthrew President Francois Bozize. In retaliation, Bozize assembled Christian and animist rebel armed groups, known as the Anti-balaka. Both sides attacked civilians and have been accused of war crimes by rights groups. Bozize, who continues to lead a rebel coalition, is now in exile in Guinea-Bissau. His attempted attacks in 2020 were fended off by Touadera’s Russian mercenaries.
However, killings, kidnappings and displacement continue in many rural communities in the country’s northwest, northeast and southeast regions, despite recent peace deals signed with some groups. Russian mercenaries have proven pivotal in securing major areas, but are also accused of human rights violations, such as mass killings, while opposition politicians have criticised the reliance on foreign fighters.
A 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, MINUSCA, has been extended until November 2026, although the move faced resistance from the US, which wants CAR to handle its own security going forward. The force has suffered at least three deaths in deadly attacks this year alone. There are also fears about the security of voters in rural areas; about 800 voting units were forced to close in the last elections due to rebel violence.
Poverty
CAR remains one of the poorest nations in the world, with more than 60 percent of the population living in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Most people live in rural areas and survive on subsistence farming in the absence of any state-propelled industry.
Economic growth rate is slow, averaging 1.5 percent yearly. Only 16 percent of citizens have access to electricity, and only 7.5 percent have access to the internet.
Persistent fuel shortages make economic activity more difficult.
The country ranked 191st of 193 countries in the 2022 Human Development Index.
Divisive politics
The country’s turbulent political history and the present landscape of deeply divided political groups have failed to deliver a unified opposition coalition that can challenge Touadera and enshrine a functioning democracy.
Fears around whether Touadera intends to run for life following the 2023 referendum are high, with opposition and rights groups already calling for reforms to the new constitution. There are also fears around vote rigging in the elections in favour of Touadera’s governing party.
BP announced Wednesday that it’s selling its majority ownership of Castrol to pay debts. File Photo by Neil Hall/EPA
Dec. 24 (UPI) — BP is selling its majority stake in Castrol to U.S. investment company Stonepeak in an effort to pay down its debt.
The company is selling its $10 billion, 65% ownership in the lubricants business to the investment firm. It will keep a 35% stake in the business through a joint venture.
The deal is expected to close at the end of 2026, the company said.
BP will use the $6 billion in proceeds to pay down some of its $26 billion in debt, the company said.
“We concluded a thorough strategic review of Castrol that generated extensive interest and resulted in the sale of a majority interest to Stonepeak,” said Interim CEO Carol Howle in a statement. “And with this, we have now completed or announced over half of our targeted $20 billion divestment program, with proceeds to significantly strengthen BP’s balance sheet. The sale marks an important milestone in the ongoing delivery of our reset strategy. We are reducing complexity, focusing the downstream on our leading integrated businesses and accelerating delivery of our plan. And we are doing so with increasing intensity – with a continued focus on growing cash flow and returns, and delivering value for our shareholders”
BP announced last week that Meg O’Neill would become CEO of BP in April. Murray Auchincloss stepped down as CEO and board director. Howle is interim CEO until O’Neill takes over.
O’Neill, an American raised in Boulder, Colo., is CEO of Woodside Energy.
Maurizio Carulli, analyst at the investment company Quilter Cheviot, called the Castrol deal “a positive step forward for BP, reinforcing its ongoing strategy reset and the aim to reduce its net debt and refocus its downstream business,” The Guardian reported.
