Sophos addressed several vulnerabilities affecting its Sophos Firewall version 19.5, including arbitrary code execution issues.

Sophos has released security patches to address seven vulnerabilities in Sophos Firewall version 19.5, including some arbitrary code execution bugs.

The most severe issue addressed by the security vendor is a critical code injection vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-3236.

“A code injection vulnerability allowing remote code execution was discovered in the User Portal and Webadmin.” reads the advisory.

In September Sophos warned of this critical code injection security vulnerability (CVE-2022-3236) affecting its Firewall product which is being exploited in the wild. Sophos confirmed that this vulnerability was being used to target a small set of specific organizations, primarily in the South Asia region.

The security vendor also addressed three vulnerabilities rated as ‘high’ severity, below is the list of these issues:

• CVE-2022-3226 – An OS command injection vulnerability allowing admins to execute code via SSL VPN configuration uploads was discovered by Sophos during internal security testing.
• CVE-2022-3713 – A code injection vulnerability allowing adjacent attackers to execute code in the Wifi controller was discovered by Sophos during internal security testing. It requires attackers to be connected to an interface with the Wireless Protection service enabled.
• CVE-2022-3696 – A post-auth code injection vulnerability allowing admins to execute code in Webadmin was discovered and responsibly disclosed to Sophos by an external security researcher. It was reported via the Sophos bug bounty program.

The company also fixed two flaws, rated as medium severity, respectively a stored XSS vulnerability (CVE-2022-3709) and a post-auth read-only SQL injection flaw (CVE-2022-3711).

The seventh issue addressed by the company is a post-auth read-only SQL injection vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-3710, rated as low severity.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, code execution flaws)

The post Sophos fixed a critical flaw in its Sophos Firewall version 19.5 appeared first on Security Affairs.

China said on Wednesday it would allow COVID patients with mild symptoms to isolate at home as part of a set of new measures that marked a major shift in a tough anti-virus policy that has battered its economy and sparked historic protests.

The relaxation of rules, which also include dropping a requirement for people to show negative tests when they travel between regions, came as top officials toned down warnings about the dangers posed by COVID-19.

That has raised prospects that Beijing may slowly look to align with the rest of the world and start re-opening its economy three years into a pandemic, which erupted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Investors were quick to cheer the prospect of a reprieve for the world’s second largest economy and the possibility of a shift towards a lifting of border controls next year.

“This change of policy is a big step forward,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“I expect China will fully reopen its border no later than mid 2023.”

China is due to hold a press conference at 3.00 pm (0700 GMT) on “optimising” its COVID control measures, state media reported, after President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Tuesday.

Cities across China were gripped by protests over tough COVID policies late last month, in what was the biggest show of public discontent since Xi came to power in 2012.

While those protests petered out in days amid a heavy police presence, cities and regions around the country started announcing a mish-mash of easing measures that fed expectations for Wednesday’s announcement.

Many of the steps taken by individual cities or regions were reflected in the list of policy changes issued by the National Health Authority on Wednesday.

But the looser curbs have set off a rush for preventative drugs as some residents, particularly the unvaccinated elderly, feel more vulnerable to the virus.

Authorities across the country have warned of tight supplies and price gouging from retailers in recent days.

“Please buy rationally, buy on demand, and do not blindly stock up,” the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in the state-owned Beijing Evening News.

In Beijing’s upmarket Chaoyang district, home to most foreign embassies as well entertainment venues and corporate headquarters, shops were fast running out of some those drugs, according to a resident.

“Last night the medicines were already in stock, and now many of them are out of stock,” said Zhang, a 33-year-old educationist, who only gave his surname.

“Epidemic preventions have been lifted…COVID-19 testing sites are mostly being dismantled… So, because right now in Chaoyang district cases are quite high, it is better to stock up on some medicines,” he said.

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Asia’s stock markets slipped on Wednesday as reality bit on hopes for a soft economic landing in the United States, curbing investors’ enthusiasm about China’s major shift in its tough zero-COVID policy.

Warnings from big U.S. banks about a likely recession next year pushed the S&P 500 (.SPX) lower for a fourth straight session on Tuesday and the brakes have come on a rally that has lasted almost two months.

Oil also fell sharply and, with Brent futures at $79.50 a barrel, is back where it began the year.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 0.2% and Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) fell 0.7%.

“Some of the optimism that had driven the rally is being put to the test,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at Australia’s AMP.

“We might be transitioning from a situation of worrying about inflation and interest rates, to one where the negatives become weakening growth and falling profits.”

S&P 500 futures were flat by mid-afternoon in Asia, while European futures rose 0.1%.

China’s national health authority said on Wednesday that asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and those with mild symptoms can self-treat while in quarantine at home.

While some of the changes announced echoed similar easing moves made by other countries many months ago, the announcement was the strongest sign so far that China is preparing its people to live with the disease after nearly three years of crippling restrictions that have battered the economy.

Market reaction, however, was muted as the focus shifts to how well China can execute its policy shift, especially if new COVID cases surge over winter. Analysts say the path to fully reopening the economy will be long and bumpy, and not without risk.

The Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) fell 0.6%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (.HSI) fell 1% and the yuan was broadly steady, giving up early gains.

“The reality on the ground is still one of continued pressure, even as the outlook is improving somewhat,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of emerging markets’ strategy at TD Securities in Singapore.

Adding to the darkening demand outlook globally, China earlier in the day reported grim trade data for November, with both imports and exports suffering their biggest monthly falls since 2020 – auguring badly for recovery prospects. read more

India on Wednesday was the latest central bank to start slowing the pace of rate increases, with a hike of its key lending rate by 35 basis points to 6.25%, smaller than the three 50 bp hikes it delivered previously. Canada is the next cab off the rank with a rates decision expected at 1500 GMT.

In the United States, big banks are bracing for a worsening economy next year as inflation and rate rises threaten consumer demand, with top executives at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Bank of America all sounding downbeat in remarks on Tuesday.

“Economic growth is slowing,” said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. “When I talk to our clients, they sound extremely cautious.”

The growth fears rallied longer-dated bonds and helped the safe-haven U.S. dollar to pause its recent retreat.

The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell 8.6 basis points to 3.513% overnight and was last at 3.5460%. That is more than 80 bps below the two-year yield as investors reckon on high rates hurting growth.

Oil prices have also been sliding with declining demand expectations and now sit more than 40% below a high of nearly $140 a barrel made shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was seeking to steady after excitement about a slowdown in U.S. rate hikes recently knocked it from the year’s highs.

It was firm at 137.28 yen in Asia on Wednesday and traded at $1.0467 per euro . The Australian dollar was broadly steady at $0.6680 despite Australian third-quarter growth coming in a bit below forecasts.

The Canadian dollar hovered at 1.3644 per dollar ahead of an expected rate hike from the Bank of Canada later on Wednesday. The U.S. dollar index sat at 105.5.

Spot gold was steady at $1,773 an ounce and bitcoin , at $17,000, was going nowhere with cryptocurrency sentiment fragile as the fallout from the collapse of FTX ripples through the sector.

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Two people were killed and eight wounded in the Indonesian city of Bandung on Wednesday when a suspected Islamic militant who may have been angered by the country’s new criminal code blew himself up at a police station, authorities said.

Ahmad Ramadhan, head of the public information bureau for the National Police, said authorities were coordinating with the counter-terrorism unit to investigate the incident, which killed the suspected attacker and one police officer.

The Islamic State-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group may have been behind the attack, Ibnu Suhendra of Indonesia’s counterterrorism agency (BNPT) told Metro TV. He said JAD had carried out similar attacks in Indonesia.

West Java police chief Suntana told Metro TV that authorities were investigating a blue motorbike found at the scene, which they believed was used by the attacker. Attached to the bike was a note carrying a message rejecting Indonesia’s new criminal code, which parliament ratified on Tuesday.

“There was a note on the motorbike saying the criminal code is an infidel product, let’s eradicate the law enforcers,” Suntana said.

Some religious extremists reject the laws of the state, perceiving Islam as the only legitimate authority, analysts say.

The attacker brought two bombs to the scene, Suntana said, but only had time to detonate one.

Footage from the scene on Wednesay showed damage to the police station, with some debris from the building on the ground and smoke rising from the area.

Islamic militants have in recent years carried out attacks in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, including at churches, police stations and venues frequented by foreigners.

In an efforts to crack down on militants, Indonesia created a tough new anti-terrorism law after suicide bombings linked to JAD.

Members of the extremist group were responsible for a series of suicide church bombings in the city of Surabaya in 2018. Those attacks were perpetrated by three families, including young children, and killed at least 30 people.

In 2021, a pair of JAD newlyweds carried out a suicide bomb attack at a cathedral in Makassar, killing only themselves.

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Asia’s stockmarkets wobbled lower on Wednesday as reality bit on hopes for a soft economic landing in the United States, and investors curbed further enthusiasm about China’s reopening.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) had dropped for a fourth straight session on Tuesday and the brakes have come on a rally that has lasted almost two months. Oil also fell sharply and, with Brent futures at $79.50 a barrel, is back where it began the year.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) fell 0.7%.

“Some of the optimism that had driven the rally is being put to the test,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at Australia’s AMP.

“We might be transitioning from a situation of worrying about inflation and interest rates, to one where the negatives become weakening growth and falling profits.”

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%. European futures rose 0.3%. China posted far weaker than expected trade data, with both imports and exports suffering their biggest monthly falls since 2020 – auguring badly for recovery prospects.

India on Wednesday was the latest central bank to start slowing the pace of rate increases, with a hike of its key lending rate by 35 basis points to 6.25%, smaller than the three 50 bp hikes it delivered previously. Canada is the next cab off the rank with a rates decision expected at 1500 GMT.

In the United States, big banks are bracing for a worsening economy next year as inflation and rate rises threaten consumer demand, with top executives at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Bank of America all sounding downbeat in remarks on Tuesday.

“Economic growth is slowing,” said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. “When I talk to our clients, they sound extremely cautious.”

The growth fears rallied longer-dated bonds and helped the safe-haven U.S. dollar to pause its recent retreat.

The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell 8.6 basis points to 3.513% overnight and was last at 3.5460%. That is more than 80 bps below the two-year yield as investors reckon on high rates hurting growth.

Traders in Asia are intently weighing prospects for loosening in China’s COVID-19 controls and what that means for the world’s second-biggest economy and regional demand.

Beijing on Tuesday allowed residents into parks, supermarkets, offices and airports without tests.

“This alone will start to make a difference to consumption figures if replicated across the country,” said BNY Mellon strategist Geoff Yu.

“But execution matters,” he added.

“And there are very few precedents for what the country is looking to achieve … the world will need to be braced for the inflation implications, which have accompanied every major re-opening.”

Oil prices have been sliding with declining demand expectations and now sit more than 40% below a high of nearly $140 a barrel made shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In foreign exchange markets the dollar was seeking to steady after excitement about a slowdown in U.S. rate hikes have knocked it from the year’s highs.

It was firm at 137.28 yen in Asia on Wednesday and traded at $1.0467 per euro . The Australian dollar was broadly steady at $0.6696 despite Australian third-quarter growth coming in a bit below forecasts.

The Canadian dollar hovered at 1.3644 per dollar ahead of an expected rate hike from the Bank of Canada later on Wednesday. The U.S. dollar index sat at 105.5.

Spot gold was steady at $1,773 an ounce and bitcoin , at $17,000, was going nowhere with cryptocurrency sentiment fragile as the fallout from the collapse of FTX ripples through the sector.

A third Russian airfield was set ablaze by a drone strike a day after Ukraine demonstrated an apparent new ability to penetrate hundreds of kilometres into Russia with attacks on two air bases.

Officials in the Russian city of Kursk, about 90 km (60 miles) north of the Ukraine border, released pictures of black smoke above an airfield after the latest strike on Tuesday. The governor said an oil storage tank had gone up in flames but there were no casualties.

On Monday, Russia said it had been hit hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine by what it said were Soviet-era drones – at Engels air base, home to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, and in Ryazan, a few hours’ drive from Moscow.

Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the strikes but nonetheless celebrated them.

Late on Tuesday, sirens sounded at the airfield in Engels, Russian state-run news agencies reported, citing the first deputy of the district administration.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated his country’s determination to provide Ukraine with equipment it needs to defend itself while saying it had neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside Russia.

U.S. lawmakers agreed to provide Ukraine at least $800 million in additional security aid next year.

Russia’s defence ministry said three service members were killed in the attack at Ryazan. Although the attacks struck military targets, it characterised them as terrorism and said the aim was to disable its long-range aircraft.

Ukraine never publicly acknowledges responsibility for attacks inside Russia. Asked about the strikes, Defence Minister Oleskiy Reznikov repeated a longstanding joke blaming carelessness with cigarettes. “Very often Russians smoke in places where it’s forbidden to smoke,” he said.

Neighbouring Belarus, a close Russian ally, plans to move military equipment and forces on Wednesday and Thursday to check its response to terrorism, the BelTA state news agency reported, adding that imitation weapons would be used for training.

Ukraine has for months voiced fears that Belarus and Russia could be planning a joint incursion across Ukraine’s northern border, although Belarus has said it will not enter the war.

At least 20 oil tankers queuing off Turkey face more delays to cross from Russia’s Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean as operators race to adhere to new Turkish insurance rules added ahead of a G7 price cap on Russian oil, industry sources said.

The disruption in tanker traffic was not the result of the price cap on Russian oil agreed by a coalition of G7 countries and Australia, a group official said.

The price cap of $60 a barrel was imposed on Monday at a level above the current price for Urals crude from Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter.

G7 countries and Australia would be busy in coming weeks determining two more price cap levels on Russian refined oil products slated to be in place by Feb. 5, a U.S. Treasury official told Reuters.

“I think the point is that we have all the leverage and all the control now that we’ve been able to set the ceiling at $60,” the official said. “Any adjustments will be in the interest of the G7 and will be in the interest of Ukraine, it will be in the interest of the world economy and will not be in the interest of Russia.”

On the battlefields of eastern, northeastern and southern Ukraine, Russian forces kept up their shelling of towns and villages, the Ukrainian military said late on Tuesday.

Six people were killed as Donetsk came under rocket and artillery fire, the Russian-installed city mayor, Alexander Kulemzin, reported in his Telegram channel.

“Look what they have done,” said a resident named Irina, gesturing towards the building where her flat had been destroyed. “There are people living over there … Go in the fields and fight each other over there, not here.”

Dmytro Zhyvytsky, the governor of Sumy region on the Russian border, said several people were wounded when Russian forces fired 226 shells on seven communities during the day.

War crimes investigators are looking into the deaths of hundreds of civilians since the beginning of the near 10-month conflict. Russia denies targeting civilians during what it calls a special operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops close to front lines in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

Addressing servicemen later in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he had spent the day with troops in Donbas, theatre of the heaviest battles, and in Kharkiv region, where Ukrainians have retaken swaths of territory from Russian forces.

“Thousands of Ukrainians have given their lives so that the day might come when not a single occupying soldier will remain in our land and when all our people will be free,” Zelenskiy, clad in his trademark khaki green, told the gathering.

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Taiwan’s economy minister said on Wednesday that the island remains chipmaker TSMC’s most important production base after the company announced it would more than triple planned investment at its new Arizona plant to $40 billion.

TSMC’s Arizona factory has sparked concerns in Taiwan, where semiconductor manufacturing is the backbone of the economy, about a “goodbye to Taiwan” trend among chip firms. TSMC, which makes most its chips in Taiwan, is also building a factory in Japan.

The first Arizona chip fabrication facility, or fab, will be operational by 2024 while the second facility nearby will make the most advanced chips currently in production, called “3 nanometre,” by 2026.

Speaking on the sidelines of parliament, Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said the island’s position as a major semiconductor producer and maker of the most advanced chips was secure.

“TSMC’s research and development centre is in Taiwan, the complete supply chain is here,” she said. “Taiwan has a complete supply chain, a complete system, and the backing of the government. It is definitely TSMC’s most important production base.”

The production of 3nm chips is already happening in Taiwan, and the even more advanced 2nm and 1nm development and production in Taiwan are also on track, Wang added.

Kung Ming-hsin, head of Taiwan’s National Development Council who attended Tuesday’s “tool-in” ceremony for the Arizona plant in Phoenix, decried what he called a wrong theory about chip makers abandoning the island.

“Some people domestically are now deliberately manipulating the good things of this kind of cooperation as ‘the semiconductor industry chain is leaving Taiwan’, which is an incorrect statement,” his office cited him as saying.

Kung sits on TSMC’s board as a representative of its largest shareholder, the government’s National Development Fund.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (2330.TW), , as it is formally called, has repeatedly said that the bulk of its manufacturing will remain in Taiwan.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed down 0.6% on Wednesday, in line with the broader index (.TWII).

The company is the world’s largest contract chip maker and a major supplier to global tech firms including Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to boost semiconductor production at home after the COVID-19 pandemic caused supply chain problems that led to shortages of chips for vehicles and many other items.

Taiwan has been keen to show the United States, its most important international supporter and arms seller in the face of mounting Chinese military pressure, that as a “like-minded democracy” it is a reliable semiconductor partner and supplier and has supported the Arizona plans.

But the government is also rolling out more support for the chip industry at home, including proposing larger tax breaks for technology companies’ research and development to retain its competitive edge.

It is also encouraging more foreign tech firms in the chip supply chain to invest in Taiwan.

Premier Su Tseng-chang said late on Tuesday that his deputy Shen Jong-chin was leading a task force to promote such investments.

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia won reelection on Tuesday in a grueling runoff, capping off a tumultuous 2022 election season, one that saw Republicans win a bare majority in the House and Democrats hold their control of the Senate. Warnock’s victory over Republican Herschel Walker expands Democrats’ majority by one seat, to 51, padding that will prove critical over the next two years.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

But the real story coming out of Atlanta Tuesday night may be the one it reveals about 2024, and not just for former President Donald Trump, whose handpicked nominee fumbled the ball as many Republicans had warned Trump he was likely to do. No, the real significance of Democrats scoring another notch in the victory column in these midterms is how it shifts the fight for the Senate two years from now.

In the short term, Warnock’s win means the Senate will no longer be evenly divided. With 51 members in their caucus, Democrats will be able to afford to lose one of their contrarian lawmakers—namely Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—on some votes and still send legislation forward that could help their hopes for 2024. For the last two years, lawmakers have had to constantly keep those two fellow Democrats in the back of their minds as they weighed legislation that could jam through procedural loopholes or nominees they could consider, knowing either Manchin or Sinema—or both—held effective veto power. Warnock’s re-election win, following Democrats’ pick-up in Pennsylvania, means maybe the White House might consider more progressive contenders here and there without fear of the Manchin-Sinema swipe left. In their wildest dreams, Democrats might even once again imagine revisiting the filibuster.

(The win also frees up Vice President Kamala Harris to travel more freely, given she won’t have to spend so much time at the Capitol breaking 50-50 ties in the Senate in her role as the Senate’s president.)

And, while nominees and even some legislation tied to spending bills are important, the real impact of a 51-seat Democratic Senate is the slight buffer it provides heading into 2024, when the party is facing a tough map. Sinema is expected to draw her own primary challenger, and Arizona is hardly a slam-dunk for Democrats regardless of the nominee; the Democratic nominee for Governor prevailed this year by a scant 0.6 percentage points. Manchin, too, could be a tricky race to watch for Democrats, who recognize he’s probably the last of their own to have a shot in a state that voted for Trump by 39 points. Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election bid in Montana and Sen. Jackie Rosen’s in Nevada look difficult at best, and Democrats are skittish about Sens. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, and Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.

Put another way: Warnock may be an insurance policy against a hellish map that requires almost everything to go right for Democrats to hold their majority. If nothing else, it helps Majority Leader Chuck Schumer more easily raise boatloads of cash owing to his ownership of the gavel for two more years.

As macabre as it sounds, there’s a corollary insurance policy here, too: 11 incumbent Democrats hail from states where they would be replaced by a Republican Governor should any of them vacate this mortal coil before their term is up.

Republicans, meanwhile, were rightly glum about the outcome Tuesday night. They had spent heavily to help Herschel Walker, a standout University of Georgia football star who went onto the NFL. The Heisman Trophy winner proved an uneven candidate, at best. Republicans buried their head in the sand when he started running, rationalized that he could still emerge victorious despite story after story after story that slagged his hopes, and then looked the other way as he veered erratically from the party’s well-honed and tested messages. Walker is merely the coda to a campaign season in which they watched candidates—all backed by Trump—tank the party’s Senate hopes in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and now Georgia. In races where Trump’s super PAC spent money, he went 1-for-6.

At long last, the balance of power in Washington is set for the coming 118th Congress: Democratic President Joe Biden will hold the White House for the next two years, Republicans will hold a majority in the House and wrestle with a new Democratic regime, and the Senate stays, more or less, with the status quo. Welcome to a potentially never-ending gridlock where the loudest and most partisan voices can command attention but direct very little governing. And, from afar, Trump continues to complicate his fellow Republicans’ hopes for an even-keeled agenda.

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U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election that fortified Democrats’ Senate majority and handed the Republican Party another bitter loss to cap a disappointing midterm election season.

Here are some takeaways from Warnock’s victory:

Walker’s loss won’t mute the building criticism in Republican circles that former President Donald Trump cost the party dearly in the midterm elections by backing unelectable candidates.

At the beginning of the cycle, Republicans entertained hopes that they could take control of both chambers of Congress, as they only needed to add gain one seat to break the 50-50 Senate deadlock.

Instead, they watched as Trump-endorsed candidates Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Blake Masters in Arizona and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire went down to defeat. All were ostensibly winnable races.

After Warnock’s win, Democrats now will have 51 seats in the new Senate. Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives, albeit far narrower than the “red wave” some in the party had hoped for.

“One of the reasons that (Republican) candidates this cycle were bad was because they couldn’t appeal to the suburbs, much as Trump couldn’t appeal to the suburbs,” said Jacob Rubashkin, an analyst with Inside Elections in Washington.

Warnock won the critical suburban counties outside Atlanta on Tuesday.

Walker was one of Trump’s earliest endorsements. The former Georgia college football star’s campaign was plagued from the outset by questions about his personal life, his fitness for office, and whether he actually resides in Texas.

Trump held two rallies for Walker in Georgia, but did not come to the state for the runoff, only phoning in to boost supporters on Monday night. He spent much of Monday instead sending out statements demanding that the 2020 election be overturned due to his phantom claims of election fraud.

Other Republican luminaries such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, widely expected to enter the 2024 presidential race along with Trump, also kept their distance from Walker.

At a gathering of Republican donors in Las Vegas last month, Trump came under fire from several major donors and potential 2024 candidates who argued that he was alienating independent and moderate Republican voters. Walker’s loss is likely to intensify that criticism and further weaken Trump’s standing in the party.

Even though Trump never traveled to Georgia to campaign for Walker in the final weeks, he made news in other ways that were likely to alienate centrist voters.

He announced his new 2024 presidential campaign a week after the Nov. 8 midterm vote. Almost immediately, the Justice Department declared that it was appointing a special counsel to further probe Trump’s actions regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged removal of classified documents from the White House.

Trump then was caught having dinner at his Florida resort home with an avowed white nationalist, Nick Fuentes, along with hip-hop artist Kanye West, who has of late trafficked in anti-Semitic remarks. Trump denied that he knew who Fuentes was.

More recently, Trump has renewed his calls to have the 2020 election vacated in online remarks in which he appeared to be suggesting that tenets of the U.S. Constitution be subverted.

That forced uncomfortable congressional Republicans to respond to Trump’s statements in the days before the runoff election, pulling the focus from Walker’s candidacy.

In the end, the primary reason Herschel Walker lost was Herschel Walker.

Walker was a troubled candidate from the start. His tumultuous personal life, which included allegations of domestic abuse and encouraging former girlfriends to get abortions, made for easy fodder for Democratic attack ads. Walker denied the abortion allegations.

Clearly overwhelmed by the demands of a Senate campaign, he rarely ventured from friendly areas and mostly cut himself off from the media. In a state that had recently re-elected a Republican governor, Brian Kemp, Walker seemed unable to connect with voters beyond the rural base.

That stayed true even when conservative heavyweights such as Kemp, former U.N ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Ted Cruz rushed to his aid in the closing weeks. A political action committee run by the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, tried to bail him out as well.

At one rally prior to the runoff, Walker publicly mused about whether a werewolf could kill a vampire. That inspired a Warnock attack ad as voters began to go to the polls.

At Warnock’s victory party on Tuesday, Alma Hill, a Warnock supporter, said she was worried that Walker had been able to force a runoff.

“I don’t know why we are still dealing with a werewolf,” Hill said.

Warnock was announced as the winner soon thereafter.

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