Middle East

NY Times -  Israel’s president on Saturday selected Gadi Eisenkot, the leading rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to form a new government, handing him the daunting task of forging a parliamentary coalition after an indecisive national election last month.

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, said he had held “in-depth talks” with both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Eisenkot before making his decision. He ultimately tapped Mr. Eisenkot, a center-right former Israeli military chief, after more members of Parliament supported Mr. Eisenkot than Mr. Netanyahu during consultations over the past week.

The announcement gives Mr. Eisenkot, 66, a long-awaited chance to fulfill his pledge to unseat Mr. Netanyahu, but he will have to navigate significant obstacles to form a government. He has up to six weeks to build a coalition before the president passes the opportunity to another candidate, most likely Mr. Netanyahu.

Workers union on the election

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America -The "blue tsunami" of Democratic wins in Tuesday's midterm elections was a stunning rebuke of division, war, and corruption, and of the corporate crime wave that Republican rule has enabled. However, the credit for these wins belongs not to the Democratic Party - whose leadership has offered at best tepid resistance to the Republican agenda over the past two years - but to the working people across the country who have spent the last two years organizing and fighting back in their communities and workplaces.

From bringing food to neighbors too terrified of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave their homes, to confronting ICE in the streets, to turning out in the largest demonstrations in our country's history, everyday working people created the momentum that led to this point. Trump's approval ratings began to fall after the working people of Minnesota demonstrated in January that it was possible not only to stand up to, but to defeat his authoritarian agenda. Tuesday was not just an electoral victory, but an organizing win.

Crucially, the margins of victory in this election were so large that Trump's pre-election threats not to recognize the results, based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud, were rendered irrelevant. They were "too big to rig," as a source within the Trump administration admitted to CNN....

While President Trump has promised to veto any legislation passed by the new Democratic Congress, Democrats must not use that as an excuse not to craft and pass legislation to constrain corporate power and put more money in working people's pockets. Let Trump clearly demonstrate which side he is on by vetoing legislation that would improve workers' lives.

At a minimum, the new Democratic Congress should:

Raise wages with an immediate boost to the federal minimum wage, which still stands at a paltry $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009. A number of the candidates elected on Tuesday campaigned on fighting for a $25 minimum wage.

Lower costs by both investigating corporate price-gouging, especially by oil and food companies, and addressing the biggest costs for working families: healthcare, housing, education, and childcare. Over the past four decades, costs for these four items have risen from one and a half to six times faster than inflation, driven largely by bad policy choices. Good federal policies can ensure that every American has healthcare, stable housing, quality public education, access to higher education, and the ability to raise a family comfortably.

Pass Medicare for All. With double-digit increases in healthcare costs on the horizon, now is the time to finally join the rest of the industrialized world by implementing a universal healthcare system which takes healthcare off the bargaining table and guarantees it to every American.

End attacks on higher education and ensure that our nation's universities have the funding they need to do research that benefits society, without political strings attached.

Expand and fully fund Social Security so that all Americans are guaranteed a decent retirement.

Tax the rich and corporations. In 2017 and again in 2025, President Trump and the Republicans gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. Those tax cuts should be immediately reversed, and the resources devoted to programs which benefit working people.

Dismantle the rogue ICE and Department of Homeland Security agencies and rebuild our immigration system. The Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement has been especially cruel, indiscriminately killing people, grabbing children off the streets, and detaining people in inhumane conditions. However, it is built on a fundamentally broken system, which through both Democratic and Republican administrations has separated families, punished hard-working people who have contributed to our society for generations, and been a drag on our economy. It is long past time to pass immigration reform legislation that includes a legalization program, prioritizes family reunification, and protects worker rights for both current and future immigrants.

Slash funding for war and end U.S. financial support for the Israeli military, and redirect those resources to meeting working people's needs.

Post election

Alternet  - When President Donald Trump's Republican Party lost the 2026 midterms in a landslide, the immediate GOP reactions varied, from Trump's surprising decision not to fight the results to conservative interest groups insisting their party would have won if Trump had listened to them. Now a new report indicates that Trump is literally in a state of dazed denial about the historic defeat he suffered on Tuesday.

"In the days since his defeat, he has sounded like a man in denial," reported The New York Times' Peter Baker on Sunday. "With his party still picking through the wreckage of a political earthquake, a seemingly oblivious President Trump signed a steel beam for his new White House ballroom and flew to Florida to give a speech on the space program. He seems flat these days, maybe a little dazed."

After describing how Trump dominated American politics from his surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election until last week, Baker points out that Trump has yet to openly accept that his heyday is behind him, something his predecessors did not struggle to do when faced with similar setbacks.

"Unlike other presidents who suffered midterm defeats, Mr. Trump has largely not acknowledged the setback," Baker wrote. "After Mr. Bush’s Republicans lost both houses in 2006, he admitted it was a “thumping.” After President Barack Obama’s Democrats lost the House in 2010, he admitted it was a “shellacking.” Mr. Trump, by contrast, has offered no expression of humility or much recognition of public discontent with him."

The Hill - After Democrats clinched majorities in both chambers of Congress, party leaders have already vowed to try and stop them through legislation.

“We need to stop the Trump tariffs that have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) told reporters on Wednesday. 

How Democrats can do this once they assume the majority in both chambers could take different forms, Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told The Hill.

“It could be really narrow and just say, ‘These particular tariffs that the president has imposed, we want to … overrule those or … remove those from the books,’” she said of potential legislation.

She added, “It could be more expansive and say, ‘This authority in general shouldn’t sit with the president, and so we want to bring that back to Congress and not let any president do any tariff under this type of authority.’”

Arun Venkataraman, an international trade lawyer with Covington & Burling LLP who previously served in senior roles at the Commerce Department, said he sees Democrats getting more support “for specific tariff actions than they are to do a broadside against underlying” authorities.

“I don’t think we’re going to see them out of the gate on day one completely try to revise all of the U.S. trade laws,” he said. “I think that perhaps the more focused and strategic approach is to address particular tariffs, and then be able to get Republican support for some of that.” Trump, however, still holds the veto power, a fact that he has repeated since Tuesday’s blue wave.

NBC News  -  Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, who flipped deep-red Kansas for Democrats, said that he hopes to prioritize lowering costs for his constituents and that he would be “deeply disappointed” to spend two years investigating members of the Trump administration.

“The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,’” Hamilton told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

Middle East

Epoch Times Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has responded to President Donald Trump’s recent announcement to end billions of dollars in aid to the country. “U.S. military aid to Israel has always been a cross-the-aisle agreement,” Netanyahu’s office wrote in a post on X. “Israel has used it both to defend itself and to confront enemies who threaten America and the West. Today, Israel has a strong and stable economy.”

Framing Trump’s announcement as a collaborative transition from “aid to partnership,” the office wrote that the decision “shows the strength and sophistication of our relationship, and its ability to adapt and stand strong over time.”

MS NOW -  The historic Republican losses in the midterm elections have left President Donald Trump with even fewer options for ending the war with Iran quickly, experts say.

Trump has said he would consider resuming strikes against Iran after the midterms. But U.S. airstrikes are unlikely to make the Iranian regime capitulate, and the country’s leaders are likely to stand by expansive demands they have made in negotiations.

“Iran has been very unwilling to have any reasonable discussions about peace,” said Leslie Shedd, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former senior aide to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Trump could launch U.S. airstrikes against Iran but the government there has already absorbed thousands of such strikes.

In the unlikely scenario that Trump takes the extraordinary step of dropping a tactical nuclear weapon on a nuclear storage site beneath Pickaxe Mountain, it would not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, which is deeply buried and also spans the country, experts said. The first attack since Nagasaki with a nuclear weapon of any size would create long-lasting radioactive fallout and threaten to destabilize existing weapons agreements among nuclear powers.

Meanwhile. . . .

People -   In his posthumous book Camelot’s Architect, John Carl “Jack” Warnecke details his two-year love affair with Jackie Kennedy. Warnecke writes that Jackie confided in him that marrying her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, was “the biggest mistake” she ever made. Camelot’s Architect will be published on Nov. 10

California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan to review death row commutations one case at a time by stapling every case together and reviewing it once, sources have confirmed.

Time  - About two-thirds of humanity now lives in countries with declining populations, raising concerns about limited resources, economic cliffs, and even civil wars.

Stephen Miller

Republican Informer -  The Wall Street Journal reported that Melania Trump complained to her husband after learning that people she knew personally had been deported. According to the account, summarized by multiple outlets on November 5, 2026, President Trump then told aides that Miller’s deportation push had gone “too far.” The report does not name the acquaintances or say when the conversation took place.

Axios -   Stephen Miller is no Susie Wiles: He believes in almost limitless presidential power, considers the Democratic Party an extremist organization, and dreams of ruthless crackdowns on immigration and foreign adversaries, Axios' Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt report.

Why it matters: Miller, who starts Monday as the new White House chief of staff, is unlike any of his five predecessors who have held the job during Trump's two terms — and unlike anyone who has held the powerful position in the modern era. Miller puts the hard in hard-liner, and understands how to pull the levers of power to get his way and make the U.S. government a MAGA machine.

Miller's appointment sets the stage for two years of partisan warfare with the new Dem-led Congress, which is likely to launch investigations of Trump's administration, political committees and allies.

.... Despite his post-midterm comments about finding ways to work with Democrats, Trump's choice of Miller signals that the president isn't looking for truces. He's prepping for war, and sees Miller as a brass-knuckle general and tactical expert impervious to criticism or traditional restraints.

The 41-year-old Miller — Trump's MAGA brain for a decade — has detailed his Miller Doctrine in speeches, policies and press conferences:

Presidential power is "very substantial and will not be questioned." Miller said those words about Trump's Muslim travel ban in 2017 on CBS' "Face the Nation." But to him, they broadly apply to other areas of the executive's authority.

Court authority is limited. In May 2025, when courts blocked aspects of Trump's deportation policies, Miller said the rulings were the work of "radical rogue judges" who were "at war" with the executive and legislative branches.

The political opposition is a threat to America. "The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization," Miller told Sean Hannity in August 2025. Miller also warned that if Democrats won Congress, "it's game over." They just won it.

Homeland security is the nation's spine. A key architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policies, Miller said in a March speech: "Our national security, our homeland security, the safety and well-being of our people begins at home, begins in our neighborhood, begins in our home region."

America should use "hard power" in the Western Hemisphere. "The cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations," Miller said in the same speech, to foreign leaders at the Shield of the Americas conference.

Between the lines: Trump advisers see Miller's elevation as a way to reenergize the president's populist base, which failed to turn out in sufficient numbers for the midterms — and in some cases voted for Democrats.

Advisers point to Trump's handling of the Epstein files and his decision to attack Iran — which in turn escalated fuel prices — as reasons he lost support among those voters.

Without winning them back, Republicans say, they'll have no chance in the 2028 elections.

.... With Trump's legislative agenda effectively stalled, Miller's allies argue he is particularly well suited to a White House that will increasingly rely on executive orders and legal battles — areas in which Miller has extensive experience.

But some critics worry that Miller's elevation could mean Trump turns Miller's hard-line immigration agenda into a centerpiece of his final two years in office — something that could continue to alienate independent and moderate voters, as it appeared to do in the midterms.

The election

How Abdul El-Sayed swung young men from Trump by 55 points in Michigan

Alternet -   It was unfamiliar territory for an entertainment channel that typically reveres President Donald Trump, but Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” Saturday edition had no choice but to come to terms with Trump’s culpability in the recent Tuesday destruction that bowled Republicans out of their House and Senate majorities.

“[L]ook, I'm going to be blunt here: His demeanor, his focus on things that Americans were not talking about, like arches and ballrooms and, and reflecting pools certainly added to his problem,” said founder and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, John Zogby, speaking of the Republican rout, and the particularly dramatic flip of the state of Texas blue

Zogby added that as a growing state and a more affordable state than California, Texas had an influx of suburban creative class people who work in the knowledge sector, along with a lot of young people coming in and “making for a new Texas.”

“This was going to happen sooner or later. What it always needed was the right candidate, the right moment. This was the right moment,” said Zogby, but he insisted that “the Republican brand has been hurt all over and it was hurt in Texas.”

12 Amtrak tips

JD Vance

New Republic -  Where did things go wrong? That question is often top of mind after a humiliating failure, so it’s hardly a surprise that Vice President JD Vance is asking it after the Republican Party lost both chambers of Congress in the largest midterm defeat since Watergate. What’s surprising is how he’s answering the question.

In a lengthy post Wednesday on X, Vance spun the GOP’s massive defeat by blaming the administration he serves in—and the president he serves under, in particular—for launching a deeply unpopular war on Iran. The veep’s goal is barely concealed: He wants to succeed Donald Trump in two short years, and he doesn’t want the stink of Iran or the 2026 midterms on him. So he publicly threw his boss under the bus in an essay on Elon Musk’s hellsite. It has to be one of the boldest and most shameless things a vice president has ever done.

Donald Trump

The Hill - President Trump signed a proclamation Thursday making the Oval Office and Cabinet Room in the White House a national monument.  Trump noted Congress would have to ratify the proclamation, and that “no major modifications” would be able to be made to the rooms without approval from Congress.  “It’s a symbol of our country, and the greatness of our country,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Oval Office.

Meanwhile. . .

From 2010 to 2023, the number of minutes the average 15-19-year-old American boy spent outdoors on an average day dropped by roughly a third. That's according to a new paper published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gov. Gavin Newsom moves to spare lives of all 548 prisoners on California's death row

The outgoing governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate said he has started the process to change the sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If successful, the commutation would empty the nation’s largest death row.

Post election changes

Newsweek  - Petitions calling for Senate Democrats to choose a new majority leader, opposed to current Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have surpassed 100,000 signatures on Thursday. The petitions, both created on Wednesday, come on the heels of sweeping Democratic wins this midterm cycle that saw the House and Senate flip in their favor. President Donald Trump attempted to distance himself from the blue wave, saying he wasn't on the ballot, but if he were, "we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!"

One petition ... has 43,446 verified signatures and says, "We believe Democratic leadership should represent Democratic voters, not just the Democratic establishment," and that Schumer is not the right choice. Newly elected Democratic senators like South Carolina's Annie Andrews and Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed have been asked if they'd support Schumer as majority leader.

Andrews told Fox News' Bret Baier, "I believe it's time for a generational change on both sides of the aisle," when questioned about Schumer on Thursday. 

NY Times -  The stunning wave of Republican defeats is already having an effect in Texas.  Mayor John Whitmire of Houston said he was directing city police officers on Friday to limit their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement during traffic stops, bucking a policy imposed on Texas’s largest city by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Under an executive order from the mayor, Houston police officers will no longer alert ICE agents when they encounter an unauthorized migrant during routine traffic stops or in connection with other low level infractions.

Instead, officers will only alert ICE in cases where a person has been arrested and is being brought to, or has already arrived at, a county jail.

NBC News -   The Donald Trump appointee who headed the office running a so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation looking into federal law enforcement officials who were involved in prior investigations of Trump has resigned.

Attorney General Todd Blanche made the announcement on X Friday that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Reding Quiñones had submitted his resignation, part of a slate of high-profile resignation at the Justice Department this week following massive midterm losses by Republicans.

Supreme Court

Alternet - Three of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices could be forced off the bench all at once under a plan suddenly back in play now that Democrats have seized Congress.

One of the proposals for a constitutional amendment put forward by Maryland Democratic Rep. Johnny Olszewski would require sitting justices who have been on the court for more than 18 years to retire. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, and Justice Clarence Thomas have all been on the court for over 18 years.

According to CBS, Democrats are expected to have at least 54 seats in the Senate and at least 250 in the House, giving them the opportunity to take up any legislation which would have been completely out of the question in the GOP-led Congress.

New jobs jump

NBC News -    The U.S. added 165,000 jobs in October, a bright spot for the economy The U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs in October, in a surprise that far outpaced expectations by economists and analysts. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.1%, extending a near-historically low streak. “Through September 2026, the US labor market had kept unemployment below 5% for 61 straight months,” Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok wrote.

The Election

Center for American Progress - There are 10 statewide offices in the state of Georgia. Eight of them—eight!—were won by Black Democratic women. In addition to the governor’s office, which will be held by Keisha Lance Bottoms, the offices include attorney general, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, agriculture commissioner, and more. The other two statewide offices were won by white men—and they’re Democrats, too.

Action Network - there are two still outstanding Senate races where no winner has been called, Alaska and Mississippi. In both cases, Democratic chances look pretty good, but legal wrangling could drag on for weeks. There may even be an attempt by Donald Trump and Republicans to either not certify, or not seat, Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska should she emerge as the eventual winner.

NBC News - Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has won Georgia’s race for governor, NBC News projects, defeating Republican Rick Jackson and flipping control of the battleground state office for the first time in 24 years.

Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta and a former Biden administration official, overcame an enormous spending disadvantage against Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive who pumped more than $100 million of his own money into his campaign.

Bottoms is the first woman and the first Black person to be elected governor of Georgia. She is also the first Black female governor in the country’s history.

Like many Democrats across the country, Bottoms leaned heavily into a message focusing on affordability and economic issues. Down the late fall stretch, she also ran ads that hit Jackson over previous comments supporting the construction of data centers and linked him to President Donald Trump, who faced low approval ratings in the state.

Equality PAC - Chris Pappas just defeated Trump’s handpicked MAGA Republican to keep New Hampshire’s Senate seat blue. This January, Chris will be sworn in as the fIrst openly gay man to win election to the U.S. Senate.

MS  NOW - As Democrats swept control of Congress on election night, Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, had a warning: “Lawyer up.” Some of America’s biggest companies already have. After two years spent courting President Donald Trump, they are bracing for Garcia, who is in line to chair the committee, and the other Democrats who will wield subpoena power come January. Some that expect to land near the top of the target lists have quietly opened back channels to the party, according to lawyers and congressional investigators familiar with the matter — a hedge against the reckoning Democrats have spent the year previewing.

Center for American Progress - In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom’s lead is up to 1,138 votes from the 43 of election night. The New York Times reports that "nearly all the votes have been counted in the race," but results won’t be known until next Tuesday at the earliest. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola leads by 637 votes. Determining a winner there will take longer—the deadline for tabulating ballots is November 18, and that’s also when ranked-choice tabulation begins....

They were saying on Morning Joe this morning that Democrats are on pace for 254 House seats. That would be a 40-seat pickup. NBC News estimates that it’s going to be 259. Potentially, that’s a durable majority that can last a decade or more. On the other hand, a little perspective: After the 2008 elections, Democrats controlled 256 House seats. That majority was wiped out four years later.  

Resignations

The Hill - The U.S. attorney whose Miami office is leading the troubled conspiracy investigation into several of President Donald Trump’s political foes resigned Friday, making him the latest high-profile official to depart the Justice Department following Tuesday’s midterms rout.

Jason Reding Quiñones, who Trump appointed to lead the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida, is leaving his post 15 months after he was confirmed by the Senate, Attorney General Todd Blanche said on social media. Blanche also said that John Eisenberg, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, had resigned.

His departure comes less than two months after the Trump administration’s picks to spearhead the “grand conspiracy” probe under Reding Quiñones’s supervision abruptly resigned.

At the time, Justice Department officials said the investigation would continue under Reding Quiñones’s leadership. His resignation Friday, with little explanation, threw the future of that high-profile probe into doubt.

Federal judge teporarily blocks Trump arch

The Hill - A federal judge late Thursday ordered a pause on the construction of President Trump’s triumphal arch for 14 days. The temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan came shortly after the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) voted to approve the administration’s plans to build the arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The motion passed by an 8-4 vote on Thursday after more than 100 public remarks, mostly against the project, in a nine-hour meeting.  

In a memorandum opinion filed with the order, Chutkan wrote that D.C. and Virginia — which sued the administration over the project last month — “have shown that construction of the Arch will cause harm by ‘clogging traffic, impeding disaster preparedness, and harming the environment,’ which will also ‘require both jurisdictions to expend resources to monitor and mitigate those impacts.’”

“First, the harm is certain,” the judge continued. “Second, the District and Virginia will incur significant unrecoverable costs.”

Donald Trump

Alternet -   President Donald Trump's legal battles over the next two years have already begun, Politico reported Friday morning. It appears that the president intends to block subpoenas using a presidential protection he'll try to extend to everyone.

Courts and justice reporters Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein explained that a legal dispute over Trump’s Kennedy Center "renovation" is becoming a test of how far presidents can use executive privilege to shield their communications. The outcome could influence congressional investigations into Trump’s administration and establish rules that outlast his presidency.

Last week, Justice Department lawyers clashed in court over who decided to violate a judge's order to be informed about major work on the East Potomac Golf Course. Trump's lawyers claimed that his Truth Social posts were protected by "executive privilege."

Now there's another dispute, this time over the Kennedy Center, where the White House is trying to conceal information through executive privilege. It centers on a three-month exchange of approximately 180 messages between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Kennedy Center operator Matt Floca.

The conversation began the day after a federal judge ordered the center’s board to remove Trump’s name from the building. Preservation groups challenging the redesign sought details about the communications, but that's when the White House lawyers asserted privilege. According to them, the messages reflected presidential advice or deliberations among close advisers.  That may not work out in court.

The Nation -  One of the mysteries of the 2026 midterms will always be why Donald Trump thought he could charm voters by repeatedly and lasciviously celebrating the human buttocks.

On October 12, Trump astonished a rally in Ohio with his lurid leering at Senator Jon Husted. “I started examining his body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete,” Trump said, alluding to Husted’s history as a college football player. “And I looked—I watched up, and down, I looked at his ass, and I looked at the whole…” Tributes to Husted’s rear would remain a staple until the end of the campaign.

But Trump wasn’t content to ogle just Husted. Speaking in Michigan on October 25, Trump made similar comments about both the singer Nicki Minaj (credited with “one hell of a beautiful ass”) and senatorial candidate Mike Rogers. Trump added, “I’d say that about your ass too, Mike, if it gets you a guaranteed victory.”

The degree to which Trump talks about other people’s bums really is bizarre and arguably without precedent in American political history. Abraham Lincoln did enjoy making scatological jokes about bodily functions, but that was in keeping with his persona as a son of the soil born in a log cabin.

NBC News - A federal judge in Florida has permanently dismissed a revised version of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal over a story about about a birthday card he allegedly sent Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago.

Health

The Guardian - Amid a surge in early onset cancer, the Trump administration has taken more than 500 actions to systematically dismantle protections against carcinogens once in place across the federal government, an October report alleges.

The Natural Resources Defense Council report, and comments from current and former officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, bring into focus how myriad changes in federal rules or protocol will dramatically increase the public’s exposure to carcinogens. These are taking effect at a time when some forms of early onset cancer are spiking by about 30% per decade.

Middle East

The Hill - The Democratic sweep that stunned much of Washington on Tuesday night could drastically shorten President Trump's runway to end the war in Iran, which even he conceded was a driving force in the election blowout.

When Democrats take control of the House and Senate in January, they will have new leverage over Pentagon spending, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) made clear that his party intends to use it.

"We are going to end the war," Schumer said at a press conference.

"We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people," he continued.

The Trump administration has asked Congress for a $1.5 trillion defense budget for next year, including additional Pentagon spending through reconciliation. It has separately requested emergency funding to cover costs tied to the Iran war.

Some Republican lawmakers have reportedly begun talking about a year-end reconciliation bill that could include funding for the Iran war and several other GOP priorities.

That process could allow Republicans to approve the money without Democratic votes, but they have only a few weeks in session to agree on a package and get it through both chambers. They also have to address the Dec. 11 government funding deadline.

It's unclear how many Republican lawmakers are willing to vote for more war funding after Tuesday's losses. Both Trump and Vice President Vance said the war hurt their party at the polls.

Homeland Security warned to preserve documents

Alternet - Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Markwayne Mullin, Trump's Homeland Security secretary, instructing him to preserve documents.

"I demand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) comply with all document preservation requirements, in accordance with applicable Federal laws, and respond to all outstanding requests from the Committee," Thompson said. He also said that he wants confirmation "in writing" that records and data are being preserved by Nov. 11.

Thompson made it clear that the previously ignored requests by the Department of Homeland Security are about to come back to haunt Mullin. "The Department’s repeated refusal to cooperate with the Committee’s oversight requests — which are essential to effectuating the separation of powers established by the U.S. Thompson wrote.

"In the 120th Congress, the Committee intends to address the Trump administration’s assault on the rule of law and hold those responsible accountable. I therefore renew all requests made during the 119th Congress and expect all requested information and documents to be produced without further delay, and in no case later than December 2, 2026," the letter ends.

10 Iconic brands that have faded away

The Election

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has won re-election against Republican Rep. Mike Collins, NBC News projects, prevailing in Georgia after a nationally watched race that was defined, at times, by heated personal attacks.

Presidential Hill -  Amid warning shots from the courts and a hostile Congress, President Trump is readying lawful executive actions to keep his agenda moving on borders, costs, and national strength.

White House lawyers mapped actions on immigration, tariffs, housing, and spending to bypass gridlock. Recent Supreme Court rulings shifted power toward the presidency while sketching limits. 

Democrats vow courtroom fights, claiming agency overhauls need Congress.Targeted steps could lower housing and energy costs and tighten the border if crafted within statutes 

NY Times - Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, was elected governor of Georgia, The Associated Press said, as a state shaped by the legacies of slavery, segregation and the fight for civil rights became the first to choose a Black woman as its chief executive.

Ms. Bottoms, 56, also became the first Democrat elected governor in Georgia in more than 25 years. Her victory against Rick Jackson, the Republican in the race and a billionaire entrepreneur, affirms Georgia's transformation over the past decade from reliably Republican to a swing state.

From the start of the race, Ms. Bottoms positioned herself as an unrelenting foil to President Trump in a state that he had won two years ago but where he had considerable baggage. Those include a criminal indictment stemming from his schemes to overturn his defeat in 2020 and a long list of statewide candidates who had his blessing but were rejected by voters.

Like Democrats elsewhere, she sought to harness the frustrations of voters who blamed Mr. Trump for inflation, rising fuel prices, challenges accessing affordable health care and an unpopular war with Iran.

Robert Hubbell - On November 3, 2026, democracy held. The struggle is not over, but we have gained purchase on the high ground. From that vantage, we can see the path forward to fully redeeming the rule of law and restoring the Constitution as our governing charter. Most importantly, the people have reminded those in power that they govern by the grace of our consent, which was withdrawn on Election Day, 2026.

The most important story of the 2026 midterms is that we held an election. The election unfolded peacefully and in an orderly manner. As the Constitution prescribes, state and local officials managed the elections with professionalism and dedication. There was no national emergency; no martial law; no troops at the polls; and no seizure of ballots. Americans exercised their right to vote. That alone is enough. It is an unqualified victory for democracy and a cause for unbridled celebration.

The NY Times figured which groups voted more Democratic than in 2024. Here are some of the major switches:

• Males 17%
• Hispanics 28%
• 18 to 29 year old 32%
• Non white and non college 23%
• High school only 18%
• Some college 23%

Washington Post - In the closing days of the midterm elections, Elon Musk, the largest individual political donor in modern American history, lobbed increasingly alarmist barbs about Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.

Musk, a Texas resident, said the Democrat sought to “open the borders” and “abolish democracy.” Talarico, he said, “will vote to trans your kids.”

But Texas voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected that messaging, electing to send Talarico to the U.S. Senate.

“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas,” Talarico declared in a victory speech, singling out Musk. “We just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor — every trillionaire megadonor.”

NBC News  - Democrats clinched a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years in Tuesday’s elections, further punctuating the party’s success across the map.

Seizing on a broadly toxic political climate for Republicans, Democrats flipped control of five governor’s mansions in states President Donald Trump carried in 2024, while maintaining power in several other battleground states. Democratic candidates wrested control of governor’s mansions in Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Ohio and Nevada. 

Washington Post -   Vice President JD Vance didn’t mince words on Wednesday about why his party suffered a stunning defeat at the ballot box: It was the war that President Donald Trump launched.

Vance, a potential 2028 presidential contender, broke sharply with Trump in owning the failures of the administration’s policies.

While Trump and his top White House advisers blamed Republican candidates and tried to wash their hands of any responsibility for the GOP’s massive losses, Vance pinned the blame on the Trump administration’s decisions.

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a lengthy post on social media, noting that Trump himself admitted Iran was a part of the reason voters rejected Republicans — though Trump on Tuesday insisted the war was the correct decision and that he would do it again.

Vance’s response signaled an awareness of the deep distrust from some of the voters who put him and Trump in office — and whose support he will need should he choose to run for president.

The Nation - On Tuesday night, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim ever elected to the United States Senate—delivering the most direct and profound of the many rebukes that Republican President Donald Trump suffered as the American people thunderously transformed the country’s electoral and political landscape.

Yes, voters handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, creating a vital check on Trump’s presidency that substantially disempowers him in the last two years of his second term.

Yes, Republicans experienced substantial setbacks in states such as Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas, where Trump won with ease just two years ago—confirming the American public’s fundamental break with a historically unpopular, and now unmistakably lame-duck, president.

The Nation -  On Tuesday night, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim ever elected to the United States Senate—delivering the most direct and profound of the many rebukes that Republican President Donald Trump suffered as the American people thunderously transformed the country’s electoral and political landscape.

Yes, voters handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, creating a vital check on Trump’s presidency that substantially disempowers him in the last two years of his second term.

Yes, Republicans experienced substantial setbacks in states such as Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas, where Trump won with ease just two years ago—confirming the American public’s fundamental break with a historically unpopular, and now unmistakably lame-duck, president.

Washington Post -   Before Democrats started bagging win after win on election night, President Donald Trump was already laying into Fox News, taking to task a perceived ally and a constant fixation in the news media. By the end of the night, Trump blamed the network outright, before calling in for an extended interview in the first hour of Wednesday morning.

The critiques started hours earlier when he launched a personal attack on Jessica Tarlov, known as the liberal co-host on the Fox News panel show “The Five.”

“Watching the Pre-Election Results on FoxNews, but I can’t stand Jessica Tarlov’s voice — DUMB AS A ROCK, but it’s the voice that gets me,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Have to go somewhere else until that LOSER is off the air — I’ll be back later!”

Shortly after, co-host Greg Gutfeld read aloud a text message he said he received from Trump, detailing additional critiques of Tarlov’s comments on high gas prices. 

Tarlov later wrote on X: “I realize my comments highlighting the highest gas prices on any Election Day aggravated the president, but reality is a tricky thing and he should get better at dealing with it.”

Soon after, Trump posted another Truth Social post about Fox. “The FoxNews Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask,” Trump wrote, who has criticized Fox polling over the years when it has showed Democratic strength. “Every question is a hit job, and every answer is “BULLSHIT!” This has been going on for years.”

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How to not waste time

Sam Smith -  I went to sleep last night around 10 pm because I’ve learned that endless incomplete voting data doesn’t necessarily make a wise prediction.  Turns out I got a good night’s sleep and a happy breakfast.

Poll: Half of military wants to leave because of Trump and his staff

Alternet - On Monday, a shocking new report revealed that half of U.S. armed forces service members want to quit because of the policies and poor leadership of President Donald Trump and his officials. Experts warn that the situation has become a full-blown “readiness crisis” that reduces the country’s military capabilities.

According to Military.com, a poll conducted by Common Defense “found that 53 percent of active-duty service members want to separate from service sooner because they said the military is becoming more politicized.” The survey revealed that 45 percent of service members are considering quitting specifically because of policy changes and uncertainty under the Trump administration, and that “67 percent agree that decisions affecting service members are being made for political gain, not mission readiness, compared to 25 percent who disagreed.” These findings come amid Trump’s ongoing conflict with Iran, and as the president considers resuming an all-out war following this week’s midterm elections.

Health

The Guardian -   In 2024, people in the United States owed at least $220bn in medical debt, according to KFF, a nonprofit health research group. About 14 million owed more than $1,000, and 3 million people owed more than $10,000.

“Costs are very high, and some people have no health insurance, so when they get sick or injured or need healthcare, they have no way to pay the extremely high charges,” said Emma Wager, KFF senior police analyst.

Even people with insurance often have high deductibles or high cost-sharing provisions in their plans, which means they could still find the bills unaffordable, Wager said.

Patients often fall behind in their payments. In 2024, 21% of US households had a past-due medical bill, according to the journal Health Affairs Scholar. In 2021, more than half of the bills sent to collectors were for medical care, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Washington Post -   When Sen. Chris Murphy, 53, was hospitalized after a stroke Saturday, he became a high-profile example of what may be a troubling trend: Strokes seem to be more common in younger adults than they were in the past.

Over almost three decades, a team of researchers has been tracking cases in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. This area is not random — it’s demographically similar to the United States overall in terms of age, race, education and income, said Emily Fisher, a neurologist at the University of Cincinnati and one of the researchers. “That allows us, if we see a signal in our region, to say, ‘Hey, does this need to be looked at on a greater scale because it could be reflective of what’s going on in the United States overall?’”

The results of this effort, published in September in Neurology, showed that stroke rates among 20- to 54-year-olds in the region almost doubled from 1993-94 to 2020, while declining among older people. The increase was largely driven by the ischemic type, caused by a blockage in a blood vessel — often a clot — supplying the brain.

Still, strokes remain much less common in younger adults. Their annual rate rose from about 34 to 62 cases per 100,000 people. In the older group (those 55 and older), it fell from about 619 to 453.

Job cuts at Disney

Bloomberg - Walt Disney is said to be preparing thousands of job cuts, asking some managers to find annual savings of 20%. Earnings may be holding up, but the entertainment giant is still grappling with a shift in consumer attention to social media and online video. Netflix, Sony and others face similar pressures and have also cut jobs.

Voting

USA Facts - When the House of Representatives flips, it’s usually during midterm elections. Of the 19 House majority shifts since the modern two-party system started, 15 were in midterm years. This includes four of the last five midterms.  

Roll Call -  Residents of D.C. observe election night like some other cities observe major sporting events. And after the Nationals failed to advance to the postseason this year and with the first playoff game for the Washington Spirit still a few days away, the midterms will be the main ticket in town.

“It’s usually standing room only every time. I don’t think it matters whether it’s presidential or midterms,” said Matt Weiss, who owns Capitol Hill’s Union Pub.

While the pub will also be showing the Washington Capitals play the Dallas Stars at 7 p.m., Weiss said the sound will be on for election results rather than hockey. He expects around 50 percent more business than a regular Tuesday, which is already a busy night with weekly trivia.   

Center for American Voting -   It’s finally Election Day, but it’s worth remembering that nearly 58 million people have voted already—that’s compared to 46 million in 2022, and it’s a midterm record.

New Republic- President Donald Trump’s attempt to mess with California’s elections has been shot down by the Supreme Court. In a one-sentence rejection with no explanation, the court ruled on Monday evening against the Trump administration’s emergency request that California separate 20,000 ballots that the White House claims were cast by noncitizens. There do not appear to have been any dissents.

Election officials in California and Los Angeles County said that the administration’s list was unreliable, pointing to their own findings that many on the list were actually U.S.-born citizens. The Trump administration even admitted that the list contained inaccuracies but still insisted that California comply with its demands. Late last month, the DOJ sued to force California to separate those 20,000 ballots. Last week, U.S. District Judge David Carter issued a blistering ruling castigating the White House for acting like a monarchy.

District Line Daily - The FBI has “directed all employees stationed in D.C. to avoid polling locations,” according to the Washington Sun. “Agent personnel were advised that the only exception to that prohibition is if there is an active shooter at a particular polling location,” per the FBI’s statement. But across the country, the Department of Justice plans to send about 1,000 election monitors to polls, which Axios says is “far more than in previous elections.” Expect monitors in Prince George’s County and Fairfax County. [Washington Sun, Axios]