Republicans oppose social spending – will it cost them in the midterms?

In Mississippi, poverty is high and water problems blight the state. But Republicans seem adamantly against spending to help their constituents

In his four decades as mayor of Glendora, a Mississippi Delta town surrounded by creeks, fields and not much else, Johnnie B Thomas has gotten used to bad news.

He's seen the town's main drag grow desolate as its few businesses closed down, and the sole clinic follow suit. He's watched storms drop trees on to houses - including his own, mortally wounding his wife. He pleaded for help as the seemingly unstoppable force that was Covid infected and killed his neighbors, a younger brother among them.