Theme: North America

Democrats won a majority of governorships in the United States for the first time in two decades, scoring victories in states long controlled by Republicans, including Texas and Georgia. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa was elected the state’s first Latina governor. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown flipped a Senate seat, and Democrats also took the Senate seat in Texas, with James Talarico.

Democrats clinched 54 seats in the Senate and 225 in the House and took control of both chambers of the US Congress, according to the Guardian's count. The swing came with a string of wins in Republican districts across North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Jersey that took the party past the 218-seat threshold needed for a majority in the 435-member House. A tally by Al Jazeera put Democrats at 53 Senate seats, with leads in three others, and credited the Associated Press (AP) with calling the House majority — the first time since Barack Obama's second term that a sitting president has neither chamber on his side. The Democratic majority does not take control of the Senate until January 3. In his victory speech for Georgia, Jon Ossoff called Trump a “failed lame-duck president”. Democrats also won a majority of state governorships for the first time in 20 years, according to Opera Mundi.

Republican Representative Mike Lawler called Democrat Cait Conley and conceded the race for New York's 17th Congressional District on Tuesday night. “When all of the votes are counted tomorrow in Westchester, it's going to be pretty clear we're going to be short,” he told supporters. With 61% counted, Conley had 133,219 votes (52.2%) to Lawler's 121,881 (47.7%). Up to 250,000 ballots from Westchester County, a Democratic stronghold that accounts for about 40% of the district's electorate, were still being counted after a balloting machine failure; the Associated Press had not yet called the race, and counting of the remaining ballots was expected on Wednesday under a court-approved agreement.

In a stunning upset, Democrat Gina Hinojosa was elected governor of Texas, the first Democratic governor there in more than 30 years, defeating Republican Greg Abbott on Tuesday. According to US media projections, Abbott, a three-term governor, lost his reelection bid to the state representative, a result that ends three decades of Republican control of the Texas governor's office.

Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton and became the first Democrat to win a US Senate seat in Texas since 1988, in the most expensive US Senate race in history, with more than half a billion dollars spent and $158 million from Elon Musk to a pro-Paxton super PAC. The 37-year-old Talarico is a state legislator, former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, while Paxton was the subject of a federal corruption investigation that brought no charges and an impeachment by the Texas House over accusations of abusing his office to help a political donor, and was later acquitted in the state Senate.

The Associated Press called Democrat Rob Sand the winner of the Iowa governor’s race over Republican Zach Lahn, flipping a seat Republicans had held for nearly two decades; Republican Kim Reynolds decided not to run again. Sand, the state auditor, will be the first Democrat elected to the office in 20 years.

The Associated Press called Xavier Becerra the winner of the California governor’s race as polls closed, defeating Republican Steve Hilton; Romualdo Pacheco, the only Latino to have held the office since statehood, became governor in 1875 when Newton Booth resigned and served for about 10 months. Becerra will become the first Latino to hold the office in more than 150 years, defeating Hilton, who was born in the United Kingdom and was a Fox News political commentator.

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s race for governor on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of a US state, according to US media projections in a Reuters text republished by The Spokesman-Review, defeating Republican businessman Rick Jackson to become Georgia’s first female governor. The same evening, Stacey Plaskett was elected governor of the US Virgin Islands, the first Black woman elected governor of a US jurisdiction, and Adam Hamilton won in Kansas to become the state’s first Democrat elected to the Senate since 1932.

Democrat David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, defeated Republican congressman Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin’s governor race and will become the state’s first Black governor. With 74% of the votes counted, Crowley had 53.8% against Tiffany’s 46.2%, according to Associated Press estimates. The contest cost more than US$195 million, the most expensive in state history, and more than 60% of the total went to boosting Tiffany.

Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican governor Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth term, The Guardian reported. Hinojosa, a five-term state representative from Austin, will be the state’s first-ever Latina governor. A Democrat has not won the Texas governor’s mansion since 1990, when voters elected Ann Richards.

Democrats won a majority in the U.S. Senate, according to a tally of race calls by The Associated Press, with Josh Turek’s defeat of Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa sealing control of the chamber. Democrats flipped six Republican seats — North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and Iowa — and reached the 51 seats required for control. They needed to net at least four seats to win back the majority, which Republicans held.

Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the United States is close to making a trade deal with Canada, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said work remained and that Washington had dropped some demands. Carney said progress had been made but the deal was not done — “they’re asking less and they’re offering more, but we’re not quite there.” According to Carney, the U.S. withdrew earlier demands, including one that would have given Washington final say over trade deals Canada might sign with other nations.

In the NBC News exit poll, 43% of voters said one reason for their vote was to express opposition to the president, a far higher share than in the 2018 midterm election. Trump’s approval rating among voters is 38%, against 45% in 2018. For 75% of voters, the nation’s economy is in rough shape, and 65% said Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions. The network assesses that Trump’s campaign blitz in support of Republican candidates in recent weeks has done little to lift his job approval rating.

San Diego's Registrar of Voters was evacuated on November 2 over a suspected bomb threat, the day before the midterm elections, according to the Hindustan Times. The evacuation order was lifted within about two and a half hours and the affected streets were reopened.

Americans vote this Tuesday, November 3, in an election The Hindu describes as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency. All 435 House seats and 37 seats in the 100-member Senate are at stake, along with governorships in 36 states, according to the newspaper.

The US midterm campaign is set to be the most expensive on record, with total cost projected to reach nearly $12bn (£9bn), according to OpenSecrets, an independent organization that tracks campaign finance. The latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, which run to mid-October, show more than $9.5bn spent in this cycle. AdImpact reported that the Texas Senate race became the most expensive non-presidential race on record, with more than $573 million spent as of October 30.

A federal judge dismissed a criminal complaint on Monday against two former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials accused of falsely downplaying their knowledge of a laptop the Justice Department says belonged to Hunter Biden. “There is no denying this investigation was rushed,” Judge Faruqui said during a roughly hourlong hearing, later adding that it “cannot be described as anything other than weaponization” of the Justice Department.

The White House has spent months preparing for the possibility of Democrats taking over Congress after the midterm elections scheduled for this Tuesday, with plans to push its agenda forward through executive power, according to Reuters, in a text published by Opera Mundi.

US President Donald Trump praised Democratic Representative Haley Stevens for endorsing Republican Mike Rogers over fellow Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and invited her to join the Republican Party, despite never having met her. Jewish Democratic figures in Michigan denounced Stevens’s endorsement of Rogers for Michigan’s open US Senate seat.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced progress toward a future trade deal with the United States. US President Donald Trump subsequently said both sides had a concept for a mutually beneficial deal, according to the AP.

A federal judge in the United States on Sunday dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska's Senate race if Republican Dan Sullivan loses, according to the AP. The lawsuit alleged there could be voter confusion over the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the November ballot, the Guardian reported.

Democratic Representative Haley Stevens appeared this Sunday alongside Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers at Perfecting Church, a prominent Black church in Detroit, Michigan, according to TRT World. Stevens lost the Democratic nomination to Abdul El-Sayed in the August primary.

More than 52 million Americans have already voted early, in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab — a record for a midterm and up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in 2022, Reuters reported in a text republished by WDSM 710. President Donald Trump is due to hold rallies in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday, after taking part in six remote “phone rallies” on Saturday, according to Le Monde.

A two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) ended in Atlanta on Saturday without a joint communique, CGTN reported, as participants failed to reach consensus on major geopolitical and economic issues. Chaired by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the meeting addressed geopolitical tensions, energy security and supply chains. Participants remained divided over the Ukraine crisis, the US-Iran conflict and US tariffs.

The administration of United States (US) President Donald Trump is planning to deport Afghans detained in the US back to their home country via Pakistan, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press (AP). Among those facing deportation are relatives of Afghans who worked with the US military in its 20-year war against the Taliban, which is back in power, according to NBC News.

More than 50.5 million early votes have been cast across the US as of Saturday morning, nearly 5 million more than the total early vote in the 2022 midterm elections, according to an analysis by the University of Florida cited by The Guardian. In states that collate party registration, 10.7 million registered Democrats have voted so far, compared with 7.8 million registered Republicans.

Nearly 48 million Americans have already cast early ballots in the midterm elections, a strong turnout across several battleground states, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, which counted 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by noon on Friday. The figure exceeds the previous midterm record of 45.9 million votes, set before the 2022 election. Among those who have voted, Democrats account for about 44%, compared with 31% Republicans and 25% voters with no party affiliation or registered with minor parties, according to the Election Lab.

A federal judge barred the Trump administration on Friday night from threatening or intimidating election officials ahead of next week's midterm elections, NBC News reported. The eight-page order by US District Judge Trina Thompson, based in California, prohibits actions that threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local election officials and workers into halting the processing of ballots from registered voters the administration alleges are ineligible, and runs through November 16.

Nearly 48 million Americans have already cast early ballots in the US midterm elections, a strong turnout across several battleground states, according to G1. The University of Florida Election Lab counted 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by midday last Friday, a figure above the previous record of 45.9 million set before the 2022 vote.

Chinese nationals Liren Lai, 40, and Yuance Chen, 39, were sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release for acting as agents of China in the United States (US), according to the US Department of Justice. According to the department’s release, the two operated under the direction and control of China’s Ministry of State Security in clandestine intelligence activities that included secret cash “dead-drop” payments in exchange for information related to US national security, gathering information about US military personnel and installations, and assisting efforts to recruit inside the US military. The two admitted trying to recruit US service members to spy for Beijing and pleaded guilty to acting as foreign agents without prior notification to the Attorney General, according to The Hindu, which reported they were arrested in California on Friday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira met in the same room at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on Friday, the first time they shared a setting since Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the United States, where the former presidential candidate investigated for corruption went after losing Brazil’s election, according to EFE, in a text republished by Infobae. Rubio and Vieira shared the table at the foreign ministers’ meeting, hosted by the United States, but held no bilateral meeting. According to Brazilian government interlocutors, no bilateral meeting between the two was scheduled, in principle, as UOL reported.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country “learned we are overdependent” on the US, according to DW. Carney said four decades of deeper economic integration had left Canada too reliant on the US, PBS News reported, in an article from the Associated Press.

The Texas government announced it has taken control of nine islands on the river border with Mexico, along the Rio Grande between Laredo and McAllen, according to El País. Mexico’s foreign ministry says ownership of the islands is the remit of the International Boundary and Water Commission.

Trump canceled the in-person rallies set for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday — Republican Senator Roger Marshall faces a competitive race in Kansas against Democrat Adam Hamilton, and Trump told reporters he did not feel he had to go to the state. The Republican National Committee announced on Thursday evening that he will instead hold “a large number of tele-rallies” in the closing days of the midterm season.

The United States Department of Homeland Security asked Icelandic web hosting company FlokiNET to take down a site with information about tens of thousands of its employees, according to Al Jazeera. In a letter cited by the outlet, the department says the content is live and “places more than 40,000 identifiable individuals at risk of harassment, stalking, and physical harm.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that the European Union and Canada continue to explore Canada becoming the bloc’s first “associate member,” a term so divisive among member countries that it does not appear in the joint declaration, according to Reuters, in a text published by the South China Morning Post. In a speech at a Canada-EU summit in Montreal, von der Leyen said the two sides aim to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence, climate, energy and security. Deeper ties to Europe are part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s strategy to reduce reliance on the US amid strained relations under Trump, according to the newspaper. The term, which Germany and several other EU countries oppose, has no legal meaning.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 46, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty in federal court to 12 hate-crime charges for using Molotov cocktails to attack members of the group Run for Their Lives and others. According to the US Department of Justice, the attack killed one person and caused permanent and life-threatening injuries to several others, and Soliman admitted that he targeted the group because of the victims’ actual or perceived Israeli national origin and Jewish religion. The Times of Israel described the case as an antisemitic attack on a hostage rally in the United States.

Prime Minister Mark Carney launched The Plan for a Stronger Canada on Thursday, the country’s first national security strategy in more than two decades, according to the Chinese agency Xinhua. According to the release cited by the agency, the strategy outlines five main priorities, including strengthening economic security and resilience by transforming strategic industries and securing supply chains, advancing a disciplined foreign policy to diversify partnerships, and rebuilding and strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces. The Globe and Mail reported that under the new strategy the government will beef up Canada’s intelligence-gathering capabilities and prepare for all contingencies, up to and including war.

The US economy grew at a 3.4% annual pace from July through September, accelerating from the second quarter on strong consumer spending and investment in artificial intelligence, according to a preliminary Commerce Department estimate reported by AP News. Consumer spending rose at a 3.8% clip in the quarter, and business investment was up sharply, reflecting the AI boom, AP reported.

A federal judge rejected a request from the United States government to stop California from processing the ballots of up to 20,000 people over allegations they are likely noncitizens, warning it would “wreak havoc” on the midterm elections, according to the AP. In the ruling, the judge wrote that eroded trust in democracy is irreparable, that once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred and that democracy is in danger if the Executive can discount votes because of unproven allegations. The Justice Department said it would immediately appeal the decision.

A grand jury in Washington rejected prosecutors' request to return an indictment charging Cassidy Hutchinson, people said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case, according to The Guardian. Details of the prosecutors' allegations against her were not immediately clear, but Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath in her 2022 testimony about Trump's behavior on January 6, the newspaper reported.