Democrats recaptured both chambers of Congress in a result that blew past even optimistic forecasts, flipping GOP-held Senate seats in Maine, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina while defending open seats in Michigan and New Hampshire. As of early Wednesday, Democrats led the House 228 to 139 with 68 races still outstanding, and Mississippi and Alaska remained too close to call. Chuck Schumer called it "a stunning rebuke," saying voters "reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks."
The President posted an image of a red hat reading "Veto" to Truth Social late Tuesday and told Fox News he was surprised by the GOP's performance but confident he can still cut deals. "They'll send over things that are insane and I'll veto them," he said. "And after a couple of months of vetoes, they'll go out and they'll say, how do we get this stuff done?" He told CBS News flatly: "I have the ultimate power — it's called veto."
Republican commentators spent the night sorting through what one called a "catastrophic" blue tsunami, with the Iran conflict and the gas prices that came with it drawing most of the fire. Trump himself conceded the fuel surge likely cost Republicans, while also faulting candidates he said failed to energize his base — including some he endorsed who had previously opposed him. He insisted the war itself was necessary regardless of the political cost.
West Texas Intermediate fell 7.8 percent to $95.96 a barrel and Brent slid 8.1 percent to $104.24 after Washington and Tehran both signaled openness to talks. Regular gas averaged $4.17 a gallon, down from $4.40 a month ago but still way up from $3.04 a year earlier, and wholesale prices dropped 18 to 24 cents in a single session. The broader squeeze is still real: inflation ran 3.7 percent through September and mortgage rates sit above 7 percent, even with the S&P 500 up more than 26 percent this term.
With the election behind him, the President said Washington is satisfied with the current state of its confrontation with Tehran and has no imminent strikes queued up, though he remains prepared to act. That comes despite Israeli warnings that fighting could intensify post-midterms. Indirect US-Iran talks continued in Qatar over the weekend, even as Iran's military said it had expanded its target list and promised "an immediate, effective response without geographical limitations" to any new attack.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government removed the president of Poland's highest court, a move the judges themselves are calling a coup d'état. President Karol Nawrocki scrapped a planned trip to Senegal and headed back to Warsaw as his allies escalated the language. It is the sharpest flare-up yet in a long-running constitutional fight between Poland's presidency and its governing coalition over control of the judiciary.
Protests that erupted two weeks ago have spread from Paris to Lyon and Marseille, with investigators now working to identify who is financing and organizing the most violent elements. Authorities have struggled to re-establish control in several urban districts. Note that this account comes from an opinion column rather than a straight news report, so treat the framing accordingly.
Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile have flagged an object designated 2026 ED138 that may measure up to 930 miles across, potentially among the largest dwarf planets in the solar system. It sits roughly 4.3 billion miles from the sun, well beyond Pluto's average orbit of about 3.7 billion miles. It stayed hidden this long because it sat in a star-choked patch of sky near the Milky Way that older telescopes simply could not resolve.
The agency announced three new lunar missions as it races toward a permanent human foothold on the Moon. Among them, Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science payload to study lunar swirls — bright surface formations researchers believe may be tied to magnetic fields buried beneath the regolith. The expanded schedule lands against the backdrop of China's own accelerating lunar program.
A hobbyist with a metal detector unearthed an Anglo-Saxon gold pendant near Highclere Castle, better known to television audiences as Downton Abbey. Experts date it to the ninth or tenth century and believe its imagery depicts the "Hand of God," likely worn around the neck of someone wealthy or high-status. Not a bad afternoon for a guy with a shovel and a beeping stick.
