After helping Trump to victory in 2024, young voters swung decisively toward Democrats, helping deliver a wave of midterm victoriesThe 2026 blue tsunami owes a lot to the youth vote.According to data from Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (Circle), which monitors youth civic engagement, early estimates show the second-highest youth turnout in a midterm election in 30 years, second only to 2018, when an estimated 31% of young voters turned out during Donald Trump's first presidency. Continue reading...
Voters approved two measures to save the region's financially distressed public transit agenciesVoters in the San Francisco Bay Area overwhelmingly approved two transit measures this week that advocates hope will save the region's financially distressed public transit agencies from a potential death spiral that could have had massive repercussions for the area's residents and its economy.The Regional Transit Measure (RTM), a 0.5% sales tax across four Bay Area counties and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco, will generate approximately $1bn annually to fund the region's four largest transit operators. It received a strong 62.2% support across all five counties that voted on the measure, winning with a landslide of 78.6% in San Francisco. Continue reading...
Tech companies like the idea, as they largely eliminate community opposition, and could cut down on utility costsWhile Elon Musk has often touted putting datacenters in space, reports suggest that another geographic area may soon become a widespread target: our lakes and oceans.Two underwater datacenters are already in operation off the coast of China, and recent reports suggest that the Trump administration is considering plans for four proposed underwater, sealed-pod datacenters to be built off the shores of Maine and Alaska. Continue reading...
President spent weeks praising his favored candidates' physiques, from their jawlines to their shoulders - but most of his hot guys lostIt was either a last-ditch considered strategy to win votes, or the ramblings of an increasingly unhinged and increasingly amorous party leader.Either way, it didn't work. Continue reading...
The secretary of war' and his shameful history are facing bipartisan scrutinyCan you smell the schadenfreude in the air?Watching some of the worst people in the world get their comeuppance this week has been deeply satisfying. And the show isn't over yet. While the midterms have wrapped up, the blame game is only just getting started, with Republicans desperate to find scapegoats for their shellacking.Arwa Mahadwi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Architect of Trump's far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government - it suggests White House is moving to a war footingDonald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility - and perhaps even an obligation to work with the new opposition in Congress. Continue reading...
Dinch, an allegedly safe' alternative, used in the EU and US also found to cause fetal development complicationsExposure to a new generation of allegedly safe" plasticizers is linked to lower birth weight and fetal development complications, which could cause serious health problems later in life, a new peer-reviewed study found.As the health risks in exposure to common phthalate plasticizers became clear over the last few decades, industry began switching to a new type of chemical, called Dinch, that it claimed was a high safety", nontoxic alternative. It is widely used in soft plastic food packaging in the United States and European Union, and is found in children's toys, medical devices, some textiles, flooring and other consumer goods. Continue reading...
Maga's regret voters were all-in for Trump's racism. Then they found out they couldn't afford itFor the first time in a decade, election predictions far exceeded public expectations. What pollsters anticipated as a blue wave billowed into a blue tsunami. Wins that held ground for already blue seats eased nerves, and the flips of swing states like Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio energized the blue base. But red-belt-busting wins in Republican strongholds like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas alongside pending races in Alaska and Mississippi left mouths agape. The explanation was that Democrats turned out far more supporters than their regulars, and that the regret voter" (both swing voters and partisan Republicans) expanded the wave across districts Trump previously won. Elation and sighs of relief rolled over consistently Democratic voters who suffered multiple sucker punches from recent years of Republican upsets. Regret voters, who run the gamut from gen Z men to Latinos, farmers and the white working class, hope a different party can deliver on the economy Trump promised them.Blue voters look at the dismantling of democracy, multiple wars, mass deportations and Trump's unchecked power in these last two years and see how it all could have been avoided. Regret voters, however, either co-signed or conceded to Trump's naked racism and brutish bullying of marginalized people, but switched their votes as soon as the consequences hit their pockets. While some of the president's backers may have been turned away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gunning down American citizens, the final straw for most wasn't ICE's brutality, but rather the price of eggs. Some may have been upset by the Tomahawk missile assault that killed 120 schoolgirls in Iran, but most fumed at the rocketing costs at the gas pump that followed. Few demanded answers for the nearly 60 deaths of innocent people detained in DHS detention centers since the start of 2024, but many felt scorned by lost immigrant labor that cut into owners' profit margins. Maga's regret voters were all-in for Trump's racism. Then they found out they couldn't afford it. Continue reading...
In a reversal of longstanding assumptions, strong criticism of Israel's actions may have helped put candidates over the topYou took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates," Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit crowd on Wednesday, declaring victory in Michigan's hard-fought, often ugly, Senate race. In what was predicted to be a squeaker, the Democrat beat his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, by a healthy seven points.In some ways, El-Sayed was an unlikely candidate. At 34, in his first run for elected office, he set his sights almost cockily on a US Senate seat. He ran on what has become an uncontroversial affordability platform but also championed the socialist-adjacent Medicare for All. Continue reading...
From North Carolina to Arizona, Democrats with almost no public profile were stunned at their election triumphsOne candidate had dropped out in September. One had no campaign staff. One was a 19-year-old and halfway through the fall college semester.Across the US, Democratic candidates with almost no public profile and long odds of winning their midterm races were stunned to find they had outperformed their opponents on Tuesday. They were swept into Congress and statehouses in the blue wave that knocked out Republicans from seats considered untouchable in deep-red districts. Continue reading...
The GOP tried to dilute their power, but Black voters helped Democrats get elected in Alabama, Texas and FloridaBlack voter turnout surged across US southern states where Republicans were accused of redrawing electoral maps to diminish Black political power" in the wake of a seismic supreme court ruling.Democrats flipped or held seats in Alabama, Texas and Florida with the support of this voting bloc, building on a decades-long, dedicated movement to protect and build Black political power in the region. Continue reading...
Senior British politicians and officials highlight potential to end Iran war but warn US president is not yet a spent force'Andy Burnham was having dinner at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua when the results of the US midterm elections started rolling in.UK government officials in the Caribbean with the prime minister scrolled through their phones with growing incredulity as the scale of the Republicans' defeat became clear. Continue reading...
US voters repudiated mass deportation campaign, but choice of new chief of staff is an ominous signal that Trump is driving ahead at full speedOn Tuesday, US midterm voters resoundingly rebuked Donald Trump and his brutal mass deportation campaign that sent military tanks and masked agents though residential streets.But on Friday, the president doubled down. He named Stephen Miller - the architect of the administration's most aggressive immigration policies - as his chief of staff. Continue reading...
Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos arrested by secret service after telling officers voices told him to kill Donald TrumpThe US secret service said a suspect has been taken into custody and charged after officers found him in a vehicle near the White House with multiple guns, claiming he heard voices in his head telling him to kill Donald Trump.The arrest Thursday night happened after secret service officers approached a man acting suspicious" in a parked car, according to a Homeland Security statement. US officials said the suspect - Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos - went on to describe voices in his head that were telling him to come to the nation's capital and kill the Republican president. Continue reading...
Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry's political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoningThis week's midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world's richest man, ElonMusk, lost $113bn in two days.While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures - from Goldman Sachs' research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemolu. AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Faculty senate passed resolution expressing deep discontent with school's response to alleged fraternity rapeCornell University's faculty senate approved a resolution on Friday declaring no confidence" in the school's top leaders, a symbolic gesture reflecting deep discontent on campus in the wake of a former student's lawsuit saying she was gang-raped at a fraternity party in 2024.The resolution passed 75-50, with five faculty senators abstaining and five others not voting, according to an email sent to members of the faculty senate on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...
by David Smith, Laure Boulinier, Naomi Schanen, Karif on (#79K44)
Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, breaking a 38-year drought for his party in the Republican stronghold and delivering a stunning blow to Donald Trump. The race became one of the most expensive Senate contests in US history, with advertising spending topping $500m, according to estimates. GOP-aligned groups poured hundreds of millions of dollars into efforts to elect Ken Paxton, including substantial funding linked to multibillionaire Elon Musk, whom Talarico accused of trying to buy a Senate seat.
Jason Reding Quinones led investigation into whether Trump's rights were violated during 2020 election inquiryA US attorney overseeing the so-called grand conspiracy" investigation into Donald Trump's rivals announced on Friday he is leaving the Department of Justice, one of several officials to leave the department in recent days after sweeping Democratic wins in the midterm elections.Jason Reding Quinones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida, and John Eisenberg, who led the justice department's national security division, are both leaving. Democrats have pledged to use their majorities in the US House and Senate to conduct aggressive oversight of the justice department, among other agencies. Continue reading...
Severe storms brought heavy rain across the border between Georgia and Tennessee on 4 November, flooding communities and forcing dozens of rescues Continue reading...
by Presented by Lucy Hough with Richard Partington ; on (#79JWH)
Global tech stocks have plunged after the Democrats' victory in the US midterm elections, with fears of a slowdown in AI development. Major tech corporations including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia shed about $1tn in a single trading session. Is this stock market jitters, or a sign the AI bubble might be about to burst? Lucy Hough speaks to senior economics correspondent Richard Partington Continue reading...
Historians and political scientists say that framing the wins as Ohio's working class has come home' is too simpleAt its peak, the Mahoning valley was once the beating heart of the US's steel economy - a hardscrabble, heavily unionized Democratic bastion in north-eastern Ohio. But de-industrialization, sparked by the mass closure of steel mills in the late 1970s, transformed the region.Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappeared. Populations declined. And support for Democrats slowly, but surely, faded. In 2020, Mahoning county voted for its first Republican presidential candidate - Donald Trump - in a generation. Continue reading...
After two titles won as the lowest seed in the playoffs, the New Jersey club sought consistency in 2026. It's arrived, but what's next?By the time Gotham FC had won their second NWSL Championship in three seasons, Yael Averbuch West had already determined what was going to change.Some of that is the nature of her job; the general manager of a perennial contender can't rest on laurels. Before every postseason, Gotham finalize tough looming personnel decisions, assessing the roster and staff alike with clear eyes. Continue reading...
by Presented by Jonathan Freedland , produced by Dani on (#79JSH)
Jonathan Freedland hosts a live panel to look at what happens next -for Donald Trump, the Republicans who might want to succeed him, and for Democrats looking ahead to 2028. He is joined by the Guardian's Washington bureau chief, David Smith; Tara Setmayer, a co-founder and CEO of the Seneca project; the Guardian's global editor, Devika Bhat; Adam Smith, a professor of US politics and political history at the University of Oxford; and the clinical psychologist, author and political commentator Mary Trump Continue reading...
The Warriors' freshman has spent his first weeks in the NBA antagonizing superstars, speaking his mind and emerging as one of the league's most compelling personalitiesIf a screen-addled pickup basketball player teleported into the body of a high-level athlete, they might resemble Yaxel Lendeborg. The most commonly cited fact about Lendeborg is that he used to spend 12 to 14 hours a day gaming, and didn't debut on his high school basketball team until he was an upperclassman. Professional athletes often have origin stories that resemble the superhero more than the mortal, but Lendeborg really was just like us at one point. Lendeborg has also said that prior to entering the NBA, he didn't really watch it, either. The Puerto Rican forward racked up more than enough accolades in college to qualify for the NBA, including helming Michigan to their first national championship in 37 years, but still. Any of you reading this could smoke the man who may be this season's rookie of the year in trivia about his profession.The 24-year-old Lendeborg is a forward on the Golden State Warriors, a team caught between the ancient, gleaming remnants of the most fearsome dynasty of the 2010s and its future. The balance didn't work out last season, as the Warriors produced flashes of old greatness to win one play-in game before flaming out in the next. Such results are a frustrating waste of Stephen Curry's wonderful form even at 38 years old. Lendeborg is the best hope in a while to help maximize it. But even more importantly, Lendeborg is the character of the season so far. He's spent its first two weeks antagonizing superstars, firing off unselfconscious takes in the press and vacuuming up the spotlight from his blander peers. What a joy to bear witness to an athlete who probably didn't even hear the words media training" until college. Continue reading...
Low-hire, low-fire' labor market shows sluggish growth but few layoffs, with an interest rate hike expected in DecemberThe US added 165,000 jobs to the economy in October, a sign of resilience in the labor market amid ongoing war in the Middle East and inflation, according to new data released on Friday.Economists had said the labor market has been stuck in a low-hire, low-fire" state, in which job growth is sluggish but layoffs also remain low, but October's data surpassed economist expectations. The unemployment rate went down slightly to 4.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. Continue reading...
A decade of political misery does terrible things to the mind. Tuesday's wins came with a sense of unrealityLate on Tuesday night, the comedian Alex Edelman asked a poignant question on social media: I know we've never had to ask this before tonight, but what's the opposite of doomscrolling?"I don't have a definitive answer to that, though I did offer the term boomscrolling", accompanied by a gif of the social media sensation and Costco enthusiast Big Boom AJ. Continue reading...
The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by RepublicansAbdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be a main character of this midterms", but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party.By October he told the Associated Press he was not shying away" from those rightwing fixations. What are you implying?" El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange. Continue reading...
Wildlife advocates incensed as documents show state paid out $2,000 per kill in effort to shrink state's wolf populationIdaho officials paid hunters thousands of dollars for killing a dozen newborn wolf pups this spring, including what appears to be at least one full litter killed in or near its den, according to state records shared with the Guardian and Public Domain.The wolf pup killings have incensed wildlife advocates in Idaho, where state wildlife officials have been ordered to take extraordinary measures to shrink the state's re-introduced wolf population amid complaints from the livestock industry and big game hunting outfitters. Continue reading...
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Democrats won over rural voters from Maga in the midterms by focusing more on working people and less on culture warsLong before Jamie Ager entered politics, he was making a name for himself in a very different place: the meat counter of a grocery store in Boone, North Carolina.It was the early 2000s, and Ager owned and operated Hickory Nut Gap, a regenerative farm near Asheville. Over the next 20 years, he helped build a regional food system that delivered healthier food to thousands of people, improved land stewardship and made farming a bit more profitable. Continue reading...
Anticipation that Democrats' blue wave' will lead to tighter rules on AI and datacenters sends tech stock plunging. Plus a big eight-legged surprise for customs officials in Peru
Yes, the Republicans suffered humiliating defeat. But the fact that a Trump presidency was even possible means something like it could happen againHe's down, but not quite out. Barring divine or other intervention, Donald Trump will remain in the Oval Office for a further two years and 10 weeks. Or, as the White House put it in a plaintive social media post brimming with neediness: PSA [Public Service Announcement]: Trump is still your president." But that's not the only reason why the global celebrations that greeted the Democratic tidal wave that swept Republicans out of even their deepest heartlands should be tempered, if only a tad.Don't get me wrong, the results of Tuesday's midterm elections are cause for genuine international jubilation. The defeats of Trump allies in Serbia and Brazil were delicious appetisers, but this was the feast. No mere electoral setback in line with midterm tradition, this was a thorough repudiation of the second Trump presidency and of Trumpism. The 16% swing to Democrats in the popular vote for the House of Representatives was greater even than the 11.2% swing recorded in the Watergate midterms of November 1974, following the resignation in disgrace of Richard Nixon. Trump had worked hard for many months to undermine these elections, either by gerrymandering districts in his favour or preparing the ground for a later claim the vote was rigged, but to no avail: the democratic system proved too resilient, and the American public too determined to have their say. And have it they did, in a voice loud and clear.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Fred Wellman, host of the progressive podcast On Democracy, defeated longtime incumbent Republican Ann WagnerFred Wellman's victory in Missouri's second congressional district on Tuesday was such a surprise that NBC News's star data analyst Steve Kornacki didn't even have a graphic prepared, he told supporters on election night.Longtime Republican incumbent Ann Wagner, who had been widely expected to hold her seat, was swept aside as part of a broader wave of Democratic victories across the country. Continue reading...
Even Donald Trump has acknowledged that support for Israel is increasingly a political liability in US politics. Will the Democratic leadership listen?Abdul El-Sayed's victorious path to the US Senate must become a wake-up call to the Democratic party. It shows us, yet again, that Democratic voters care about Gaza, that Palestinian demands for freedom are increasingly connected to American demands for freedom, and that the old smears and accusations against Palestinians and their supporters are fast losing potency.Even Donald Trump has acknowledged that support for Israel is increasingly a political liability in American politics. Will Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democratic leadership listen? Continue reading...
Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday that he says will prevent future administrations from changing his design of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, spaces he declared to be national monuments that should be preserved. Since returning to office, the US president has transformed the Oval Office with gold accents and statuettes, portraits of famous Americans pulled from storage and a copy of the Declaration of Independence that hangs on the wall.The redesign has drawn criticism, including from the former president Barack Obama, who recently joked that 'he's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.'
A shared joy of the sport has united Canada for much of its history. But it's becoming increasingly difficult - and expensive - to watch games on televisionThe Oilers lost to the Detroit Red Wings on 26 October, but Edmonton captain Connor McDavid got an assist anyway. He's been doing that a lot lately. Just 16 games into the year, McDavid has 31 assists. It's the fastest anyone has ever hit that milestone in any NHL season. But on that night in late October, many fans in Edmonton were unable to see McDavid's feats - including patrons of a local bar - because it was one of nine Oilers games this season that are only available via a subscription to a premium streaming service.It's the same story in every Canadian NHL city, thanks to changes to broadcasts that have meant that a handful of games for each team are now only available with a $12.99 per month subscription to Sportsnet+, a streaming channel owned by Canadian telecom juggernaut - and owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs - Rogers Communications Inc. But it's not just Sportsnet+. The NHL also expanded its broadcast deal with Amazon, so when, two nights after the game against Detroit, the Oilers played their provincial rival, the Calgary Flames, only Amazon Prime subscribers could watch (true to form, McDavid got two assists in that one). Continue reading...
Gavin Newsom's decision to empty California's death row saves hundreds of lives and signals a national shiftGavin Newsom's decision to empty his state's death row is a truly remarkable moment in the US's death penalty history.Not only will it free hundreds of people from the threat of execution, but coming from a politician seemingly looking to run for the presidency, it sends an important signal that America's attachment to capital punishment is weakening, and opposing the death penalty is no longer a third rail in US politics. Continue reading...
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