How The Oligarchs Lost in the Midterms

Billionaires don’t often lose elections. They did this time.

The New Republic

‘Indian Christmas:’ Hindus celebrate and mourn the commercialization of Diwali

Big-box retailers and luxury brands have embraced the Hindu festival of lights. But some question whether the five-day spiritual festival question is being flattened into a glitzy shopping season.

Religion News Service

The Path Forward for Trans Rights After the Midterms

Both pro and anti-trans Democrats beat MAGA politicians by huge margins this week, with new opportunities in ‘red’ states, and painful losses on ballot measures in ‘blue’ states. Our path forwards starts with you, and ends with ending capitalism

Trans Rights Network

How Democrats reshaped the Senate, in charts and maps

Voters shifted toward Democrats in more than 780 of those states’ 800 counties — another illustration of the nearly uniform partisan movement by the electorate across the nation in House and Senate races.

CNN

Trump makes hardliner Stephen Miller his chief of staff after midterm defeat

Trump said this week he was willing to work with Democrats on Capitol Hill. But elevating Miller, who is known for being caustic and uncompromising, could signal ​a more confrontational approach and a renewed push to advance the president’s agenda on immigration and other issues, several White House officials said.

Reuters

Centrism did not win the Democratic party the election

The blue wave, while a rebuke of Trump’s policies, was also a referendum on the party’s status quo

The Guardian

Anger over GOP education agenda helped fuel Democratic sweeps in Texas, advocates say

Before they flipped Texas blue, Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico made names for themselves fighting book bans, private school vouchers and restrictions on classroom instruction.

NBC News

Trump Administration Moves to Shut Down Planned Parenthood

Remember when the White House promised anti-abortion leaders that the “gloves will come off” after the midterms? Well—here we go.

Abortion, Every Day

An 11-Day-Old Baby Couldn’t Stop Bleeding. For Hours, the ER Didn’t Provide a Critical Vitamin Shot.

Since the 1960s, the vast majority of newborns in the United States have received a vitamin K shot. The injection virtually eliminated vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a rare condition that can cause catastrophic bleeding and even death. 

But a shift in recent years has threatened to upend the unwavering protection that many doctors and hospitals had taken for granted. Families — mistrustful of medical interventions, misled by social media and devoted to a birth experience they deem natural — have begun to shun the vitamin K shot. 

ProPublica

How Gen Z voters helped fuel a blue wave for Democrats

Democrats have done well in recent elections when they win young voters by a margin of at least 20 points. On Tuesday, they carried Gen Z — those under 30 — by nearly 50 points, according to exit polling.

NPR

The Navajo Nation Just Elected Its First Woman President

The Navajo Nation isn’t alone. The Seneca Nation of Indians also elected its first woman president this week.

Truthout

United Arab List to back possible Eisenkot-led gov’t in Israel without coalition deal: Report

United Arab List (Ra’am), a political party in Israel headed by Mansour Abbas, intends to support a possible government to be formed by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot even without a coalition agreement, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday.

“Our party, which has eight Knesset members, will support a Gadi Eisenkot government even if no coalition agreement is signed,” Haaretz quoted a party source as saying.

Middle East Monitor

South Africa’s ANC suffers setback in local elections

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party wins just over 30 percent nationally.

AlJazeera

Pope Leo calls for universal health care ‘in every society’ in first address in Uruguay

“Ensuring that health care is accessible to everyone, regardless of their resources, is a duty that confronts every society,” Leo said. Pope Francis also pushed for universal health care during his 12-year pontificate, and it has been a long-standing position of the Holy See.

America Magazine

Krakow mourns rare mass killing as authorities say attacker had far-right views

Poland began two days of national mourning on Sunday, after a 24-year-old man with far-right views drove into a busy central square in Krakow and opened fire, killing six people and wounding 15 others before police shot and wounded him.

Chicago Tribune

Drone attack on a Colombian military base leaves 3 soldiers dead

Authorities have not said who carried out the attack in Santa Rosa del Sur, a small town on the foothills of the San Lucas mountain range. The area around Santa Rosa is rich in gold mines and has long been disputed by the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army and smaller groups led by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

AP News

Could Iraq’s Kurdish region return to two separate administrations?

A political impasse between the KRG and PUK threatens to break up the semiautonomous northern region into zones of governance.

AlJazeera

Yemeni army says it carried out over 800 operations against Houthis

In southwestern Taiz province, government troops and allied Popular Resistance fighters continued to repel Houthi attacks and target the group’s positions and movements.

Middle East Monitor

Trump defeated: Is he weaker or more dangerous to Latin America?

Trump’s electoral defeat weakens his room for manoeuvre at home, but could intensify the pressure he exerts on Latin America –a divided region with little capacity for a unified response.

Latino America21

Europe will be represented at US-mediated Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Europe will be represented in scheduled talks on Tuesday and Wednesday aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Le Monde

CENTCOM launches task force to disrupt Iran’s weapons supply routes

CENTCOM’s Adm. Brad Cooper ordered the establishment of Task Force Iron Gate, a new initiative designed to disrupt the movement of advanced weapons, sanctioned material and illicit revenue through Iran.

Stars and Stripes

Russian strikes on Ukraine leave hundreds of thousands without electricity

About 850,000 people lose power after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.

AlJazeera

COP31: Will Countries Finally Deliver on Their Climate Promises?

Against the backdrop of increasingly frequent and extreme weather events, water stress, and food insecurity, this COP must prioritize critical mandates on equitable fossil fuel transitions, post-2020 climate finance, and global urban resilience.

Common Dreams

In the UK, Face Sitting Porn Might Land You in Jail

The Crime and Policing Act, which goes into force on November 6, criminalizes possessing or publishing strangulation or suffocation porn, as well as some types of “close familial relatives” roleplay.

404 Media

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say 2 oil tankers hit mines, caught fire near Strait of Hormuz

The IRGC said the tankers switched off their navigation and positioning systems and attempted to use an unauthorized route. It accused both vessels of multiple violations, saying one was hit east of the strait and the other inside it.

Middle East Monitor

Tracing the recruitment trap behind Russia’s war

His story is a case study in how this insidious war pipeline operates: a local agent, a borrowed fortune, a contract nobody could read, and a war that was never part of the bargain. But to understand how a man from Lakshmipur ended up in that camp, it’s important to look at the realities in Russia and what is driving these recruitment traps.

Global Voices

Ousted Paraguayan president appears before prosecutors

Peña is one of Washington’s closest allies in the region and was a shareholder in Ueno Bank, a digital lender that served about 3 million customers — more than half of the country’s adult population.

NPR

Pope ‘proud to be an American’ after US elections, and credits God and doctors with cancer rebound

It noted that the pope, who also has Peruvian citizenship, had exercised his right to vote while he lived in Peru. Leo said Friday that he hadn’t been able to vote in Peru’s recent election since absentee ballots “aren’t possible.”

Religion News Service

Global Youth Rising Up Know There’s No Democracy Without Economic Justice

Youth around the world are rising up against capitalism and for democracy.

Truthout

A rare strike in Taiwan exposes labor unrest beneath the global AI rush

Labor disputes and unionization in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry highlight growing worker discontent over the unequal distribution of profits from the AI boom.

Rest of World