The White House has denied rumours that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio might leave their jobs in a post-election shakeup of the Trump administration. US media have reported there are calls to replace Hegseth - in particular over his handling of the Iran war, which is being blamed for heavy Republican election losses.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that he says will prevent future presidents from making certain changes to the White House Oval Office. Trump, a former real estate mogul, has altered the president's official office during his second term, most notably by adding many gold features to its walls. "So we're making it a national monument, and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody, destroyed, ripped down by stupid people, in order to build something in a slightly different shape," Trump told reporters on Thursday.
Russia arranged to supply Iran with 90 launchers for advanced guided missiles, according to leaked defence industry documents that shed light on the depth of military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. The documents, obtained by Dallas Analytics, a Ukrainian private intelligence firm, and shared with the Guardian, detail plans to supply Iran with launchers for the LMUR, a guided missile fired from attack helicopters which Russian forces have used extensively against Ukrainian targets since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Elon Musk spent nearly half a billion dollars on the US midterm elections, but the record expenditure yielded little for the world's richest man and leader of SpaceX and Tesla.
Here's a list of Trump-endorsed Republicans who lost on Tuesday (see first comment(s)) ...
The new award, the administration's latest show of support for the Afrikaner cause, comes after it cut human rights funding to nations in crisis. One former diplomat called the move "offensive."
But the midterm rout, which none of these folks seemed to see coming, has cranked the stakes up to eleven. That's partially because right-wing media figures are worried about their future.
If no one wants to be a Republican anymore, who's going to watch their podcasts and buy their brain pills?
But it's also because there's a genuine belief that the fate of their ideological projects is at stake.
The state thrice denied the Satanic Temple's application for a family friendly holiday event featuring satanic carols, arts and crafts and a Krampus costume contest, arguing it would be harmful to minors.
Following the inconclusive election results in Israel, the key to ousting ICC-indicted war criminal PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) from power lies with the Israeli Communist Party (AKA the "Makis") and the "Joint List," an alliance of three parties: Hadash, Ta'al, and Balad. Hadash is a Jewish-Arab coalition led by the Makis. This bloc has long fought for an end to the brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, a Palestinian state alongside Israel based on the 1967 borders, and full equality for all Arab citizens (one-fifth of Israel's population). The Joint List is headed by Yousef Jabareen, a Hadash leader and law professor, a man educated in Israel and the US. The Joint List includes Member of Knesset (MK) Ofer Cassif, a communist. To govern Israel, any ruling coalition must include this progressive bloc as neither Benjamin Netanyahu (who won 53 seats) nor Gadi Eisenkot " "Likud Lite" " (who won 48 seats) have a majority of 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump faced pressure from Republicans on Wednesday to change course after a midterm election rout handed Democrats control of Congress and voters rejected his handpicked candidates in key races.
Republican allies and strategists called for Trump to shake up his White House personnel, restore discipline and scrap policies they blamed for the losses, including the Iran war and tariffs, as his presidency enters its final years.
Veteran Republican strategist John Feehery called the results a "huge disaster" for Trump.
"He needs to clean house," Feehery said. "Every day from this point forward, he's becoming more and more lame."
But Trump showed little indication that he viewed the election outcome as a reason to change direction.
"I don't view it as a hit on me," he told Fox News late on Tuesday.
The Nasdaq Composite plummeted on Thursday, erasing the sharp gains from the previous session, as investors continued to rotate away from technology stocks and into more defensive areas of the market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 4.2% and dipped into correction territory, while the S&P 500 was down 2.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 780 points, or 1.5%, as gains in stocks such as Chevron and Johnson & Johnson were not enough to spare the 30-stock index from the tech selling spree. The Dow erased around half of its advance from Wednesday's massive rally.
West Hollywood has become the latest city to create a domestic partnership registry for polyamorous relationships, with the city's five-person City Council unanimously approving the legal protections for alternative family structures.
Poland's Internal Security Agency rendered ineffective a Russian espionage ring, detaining five Polish citizens and a Russian woman suspected of spying for the Kremlin and illegally supplying materials, ammunition, and weapons to Russia. Elsewhere, Lithuania expelled three Ukrainian citizens accused of carrying out tasks for "hostile" foreign intelligence services in exchange for money. Estonia deported Russian citizen Leonid Karabeshkin and banned him from entering the Schengen Area over his alleged links to Russian secret services. The German polizei arrested a Ukrainian citizen on suspicion of spying for the Kremlin.
Background
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made NFL history by being the first team since 1974 to win a game without completing a single QB completion. Playing more rugby than football in soggy and rainy conditions in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers defeated the Atlanta Falcons 16-0 last Sunday. The Buccaneers became the first team since the 1974 Buffalo Bills and the third team ever to win while completing zero passes. Of course, the NFL and the MMA are the "bread and circuses" of today's Amerikkka, distractions like Bill Maher and Joe Rogaine, all designed to deflect away from economic hardships by entertaining the hoi polloi; however, an occasional break from reading about the hated Axis of Evil (Dummkopf Trumpf, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Vladimir Putin), for some of us can be a welcome respite.
NE Patriots QB Doug Flutie made history 20 years ago
Prospective speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday hailed the "American tsunami" of Democratic victories in US congressional elections that handed the party control of both chambers of Congress.
"It wasn't simply a blue wave. It was an American tsunami," Jeffries, who is poised to become the first Black person to lead the House when the new Congress convenes in January, told a news conference.
"We're humbled by the outcome," Jeffries said, vowing to "fight hard for every single American, wherever you may reside."
NBC News, with a group of other news organizations, conducted exit polling across the country in 45 key states.
The poll includes in-person interviews on Election Day, and it combines the in-person poll with other methods"mail, phone and online"to account for in-person early and mail-in voters.
The exit polls are not vote results, but instead a look at the thinking and motives of voters across the country.
Exit polls help the public better understand the makeup and motivations of the electorate.
