Hardline aide offers ‘unwavering commitment’ to president amid fears White House will double down on far-right immigration agenda

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has lavished praise on the president after his appointment as White House chief of staff.

In his first public remarks since the move was announced, Miller – who begins the role on Monday – pledged “total devotion” to Trump amid concern the administration is now poised to double down on its far-right, nativist immigration agenda.

Democratic socialists won the mayorship, a US House seat and powerful positions in Los Angeles – and a large network of volunteers helped them do it

As a blue tsunami overtook US politics this week, Los Angeles saw a major shake-up of its own with a wave of democratic socialists elected to key offices.

Most notably, Nithya Raman, the first democratic socialist to serve on the Los Angeles city council, prevailed over incumbent Karen Bass to become the next mayor. Even in the deep blue city, Raman’s victory was hardly a given, and marked a stunning win for the progressive wing of the party. With her election, America’s two largest cities will now be run by democratic socialist mayors.

Tech companies like the idea, as they largely eliminate community opposition, and could cut down on utility costs

While 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.

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 footing

Donald 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.

President spent weeks praising his favored candidates’ physiques, from their jawlines to their shoulders – but most of his hot guys lost

​It 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.

The ‘secretary of war’ and his shameful history are facing bipartisan scrutiny

Can 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

Dinch, an allegedly ‘safe’ alternative, used in the EU and US also found to cause fetal development complications

Exposure 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.

Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it

For 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.

In a reversal of longstanding assumptions, strong criticism of Israel’s actions may have helped put candidates over the top

“You 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.

From North Carolina to Arizona, Democrats with almost no public profile were stunned at their election triumphs

One 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.

Sunshine state emerged as the lone flag bearer of the Maga agenda, but even there, the GOP finds itself on the defense

After the dust settled on Tuesday night’s near-annihilation of the Republican party nationwide, a single red flag fluttered defiantly in Florida, now a last bastion of the Maga movement that has dominated politics in the US for a decade.

Voters in the Sunshine state bucked the national trend, just barely, to elect two close allies of Donald Trump into office: congressman Byron Donalds as its first Black governor, and Ashley Moody to the US Senate.

The GOP tried to dilute their power, but Black voters helped Democrats get elected in Alabama, Texas and Florida

Black 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.

There’s not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over prices

It was the economy, again. Although Donald Trump largely ignored it, voters’ acute concerns over the rising cost of living fuelled a political upheaval for the ages that is likely to deliver the biggest swing toward Democrats since Watergate, granting them the largest House majority in nearly four decades alongside their biggest edge in the Senate since 2008.

Still, having come to power promising to restore affordability, the new crop of Democrats are soon to discover that there is not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over pricey gas and groceries, exorbitant mortgages and unaffordable healthcare.

Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack

Democrats and Republicans blast promotion of ‘xenophobe’ who led administration’s immigration crackdown in wake of US midterm elections

Democratic lawmakers decried Stephen Miller as a “hatemonger”, a “xenophobe” and “vile” after Donald Trump appointed his most trusted adviser as White House chief of staff.

On Friday afternoon, the US president abruptly announced via his Truth Social platform that Miller – the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown – would replace Susie Wiles, whom he confirmed had been ousted.

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.

• Warriors center, 31, announces decision on social media

• Latvian big man does not disclose nature of health issue

• Porziņģis leaves door open to return after long absence

Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porziņģis announced he is stepping away from basketball to prioritize his health due to an undisclosed matter in a social media post on Friday.

Porziņģis did not reveal the nature of the issue in a message posted on his X account, and the 31-year-old did not make clear whether he will resume playing.

US voters repudiated mass deportation campaign, but choice of new chief of staff is an ominous signal that Trump is driving ahead at full speed

On 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.

Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos arrested by secret service after telling officers voices told him to kill Donald Trump

The 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.

• Kolek calls singer’s courtside appearances ‘performative’

• McBride agrees as teammates question celebrity fandom

• Knicks give statement saying Swift is longtime supporter

Taylor Swift’s love story with the New York Knicks caught an unexpected stray after two players from last season’s NBA champions accused the singer of being a fair-weather fan.

The Knicks released a statement on Friday defending Swift after Tyler Kolek and Miles McBride questioned whether the pop superstar was a genuine supporter of the team.

Wiles thanks president for ‘honor of a lifetime’ as departure leaves behind overwhelmingly male leadership team

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump on Friday said Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, will leave her post, a major shake-up of his inner circle that comes amid a steady exodus of senior female officials from his administration.

The president announced her ouster – and her replacement, by the immigration hardliner Stephen Miller – in a post on Truth Social, days after a sweeping blue wave gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. Wiles’s departure leaves behind an overwhelmingly male leadership team.

Men allegedly impersonated voices and images of executives to convince employees to send large payments

Three foreign nationals were arrested and charged with using AI to allegedly impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys to steal over $100m, according to an indictment that was newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice.

According to a press release from the United States attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, three men – Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit – were arrested for using AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and attorneys at various companies in order to convince employees to send over large payments. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026.

Tech industry fears delays to its multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout meant to power artificial intelligence

Several newly elected Democrats and Senator Bernie Sanders have renewed calls for datacenter moratoriums in the days after the US midterm elections. The sweeping Democratic victory, which was buoyed in part by backlash to the tech industry, has added momentum to efforts to slow down the multi-trillion-dollar buildout of the controversial facilities.

On the social media platform X, Sanders posted a call for an immediate national datacenter moratorium this week. “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future,” Sanders said on Wednesday.

• Bilka and Edwards score twice each in American rout

• Canada open with 5-1 win over Sweden as Eldridge shines

• Jersey dispute overshadows tournament’s Danish debut

The United States opened their defense of the women’s ice hockey world championship with a 7-0 victory over Switzerland on Friday in Esbjerg, Denmark.

Hannah Bilka and Laila Edwards scored twice each, while Kirsten Simms, Hilary Knight and Casey O’Brien also found the net as the Americans pulled away after a competitive opening period. Caroline Harvey contributed three assists.

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.

• Elon Musk’s nearly half a billion dollars in midterms spending was a flop

• Five dimensional chess: inside James Talarico’s extraordinary bid to break Texas Democrats’ losing streak

Faculty senate passed resolution expressing deep discontent with school’s response to alleged fraternity rape

Cornell 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.

New lawmakers from Annie Andrews and Adam Hamilton to Abdul El-Sayed indicate they will not support him

Incoming Democratic senators want someone other than Chuck Schumer to become the next majority leader in the US Senate, although Schumer likely still has enough votes in his caucus to remain the top Democrat.

Annie Andrews, the Democratic senator-elect from South Carolina, told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Thursday that the Democratic party needs new leadership. When asked whether she would support Schumer’s leadership bid, she replied: “I still very much believe it’s time for generational change on both sides of the aisle.”

Mayor said only immigrants that ‘pose a danger’ would be referred to ICE, after Democrats gain control of governor’s seat

The mayor of Houston on Friday said the city would limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, heralding “a new model” of immigration enforcement after Democrats won power in Texas for the first time in decades.

Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education”.

US president confirms Susie Wiles, current chief of staff and first woman to serve in the role, will step down

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, will become his new White House chief of staff days after Republicans lost control of the US Congress in US midterm elections.

The president announced the extraordinary appointment on Friday, confirming that Susie Wiles – his current chief of staff, and the first woman to serve in the role – had been ousted.

Democratic and Republican lawyers and groups trade sharp legal letters about procedures for counting ballots in tight race

• Where Trump and Republicans lost the midterms – a visual analysis of the key states

Democrat Scott Colom is on the verge of winning a Senate seat in Mississippi in a stunning upset, but ballots are still being counted in a close race where Colom holds a lead of just under 2,000 votes over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. Losing ruby-red Mississippi would be the final straw for Republicans after a midterm sweep by Democrats that turned Texas blue and saw a Democrat elected to the seat once held by the late South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

A possible legal fight is also brewing, as both sides trade sharp legal letters about the procedures for counting remaining ballots. National voting groups and attorneys have descended upon the magnolia state, joining the local groups that worked to mobilize voters. Democratic and Republican groups, including Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.

Jason Reding Quiñones led investigation into whether Trump’s rights were violated during 2020 election inquiry

A 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 Quiñones, 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.

Severe storms brought heavy rain across the border between Georgia and Tennessee on 4 November, flooding communities and forcing dozens of rescues

Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry’s political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoning

This 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, Elon Musk, 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 Acemoğlu. 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.

After midterm wins, Democratics plan comeback for when new Congress is sworn in, including pushback against Trump and his policies

Donald Trump will be blocked from putting a “rightwinger” on the US supreme court, according to Chuck Schumer, the soon-to-be Senate majority leader, in remarks that were a preview of how Democrats intend to wield their power come January.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Schumer said Democrats would not confirm “any crappy nominees” to the supreme court, lower courts or Trump’s cabinet.

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

After Thursday’s share price plunge on Wall Street, could the volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?

Global financial markets have been thrown into a tailspin as investors bet on an AI slowdown after the US midterm elections.

This is not the first time stock markets have wobbled in recent months due to concerns over a tech bubble. But could this volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?

Historians and political scientists say that framing the wins as ‘Ohio’s working class has come home’ is too simple

At 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.

Father of the Duchess of Sussex was taken into custody near Tampa, US prosecutors said

Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested by US federal agents in Florida on Friday and charged in connection with possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Markle, 82, was taken into custody at a senior care facility in Polk county early on Friday, and made a brief initial appearance in federal court in Tampa on Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. He was later released with the condition that he be electronically monitored.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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.

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

After years of outrage or numbness being the main options for dealing with politics, Tuesday’s results were permission to be optimistic

• This was originally published in the Stakes 2026, a newsletter about the midterm elections. Sign up to get it in your inbox

We shed some tears this midterm cycle.

US politics always makes people emotional, but I heard from friends and colleagues many times this year that speeches, campaigns and underdog success stories moved people in unexpected ways, whether it was this ad of Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed doing bedtime, a photo of newly elected Texas Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at a Whataburger, or Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first Black female governor in the entire country.

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 personalities

If 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.

In a Guardian article in 2010, the Oxford Rhodes scholar said UK democracy had the ‘upper hand’ over the US

• US politics live – latest updates

In the tense final hours before his dramatic election as senator for Michigan in this week’s midterms, Abdul El-Sayed had a heated encounter with a British TV journalist that rapidly went viral.

As James Matthews, of Sky News, tried to ask him a question, El-Sayed bit back. “Why would I care to have a conversation with you?” he demanded of Matthews, placing both hands on the reporter’s shoulders in a gesture of emphasis.

‘Low-hire, low-fire’ labor market shows sluggish growth but few layoffs, with an interest rate hike expected in December

The 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.

A decade of political misery does terrible things to the mind. Tuesday’s wins came with a sense of unreality

Late 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.

The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by Republicans

• What happens after the ‘blue wave’? Ask your midterm election results questions

Abdul 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.

Wildlife advocates incensed as documents show state paid out $2,000 per kill in effort to shrink state’s wolf population

Idaho 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.

Democrats won over rural voters from Maga in the midterms by focusing more on working people and less on culture wars

Long 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.

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

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Good morning. Stock markets around the world have fallen sharply as a rout in US tech stocks spread across the Atlantic after the Democrats’ midterms victory led to fears of a slowdown in the AI industry. A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stock markets on Friday morning. The dip in investor sentiment has also reached London.

Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “The tech sell-off has intensified. Big worries are colliding – the build-out of datacenters looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.”

What happened to the Nasdaq? The Nasdaq share index had its worst day in 19 months after slumping 5.5% on Thursday amid growing signs that the AI industry will face tougher regulation.

Yes, the Republicans suffered humiliating defeat. But the fact that a Trump presidency was even possible means something like it could happen again

He’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.

Fred Wellman, host of the progressive podcast On Democracy, defeated longtime incumbent Republican Ann Wagner

• What happens after the ‘blue wave’? Ask your midterm election results questions

Fred 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.