Thursday, November 5, 2026
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• Democrats sweep the midterms and take both chambers of Congress• Bomb threats divert at least 19 passenger flights across Europe• Wall Street reverses as AI chip stocks sink the Nasdaq• Vance blames the Iran war for the Republican wipeout• OpenAI rolls out faster image model that also makes GIFs• Pungent gas over Mars fissures hints the planet is still volcanically active• Democrats sweep the midterms and take both chambers of Congress• Bomb threats divert at least 19 passenger flights across Europe• Wall Street reverses as AI chip stocks sink the Nasdaq• Vance blames the Iran war for the Republican wipeout• OpenAI rolls out faster image model that also makes GIFs• Pungent gas over Mars fissures hints the planet is still volcanically active
Politics

Democrats sweep the midterms and take both chambers of Congress

Tuesday's vote delivered one of the biggest midterm waves in decades, ending Republican control of the House and Senate.

BrieflyTold Desk · · 1 min brief

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The brief

  • ■Democrats win at least 240 House seats and a Senate majority of 54 or more
  • ■Alaska and Mississippi Senate races still too close to call
  • ■Trump says he is open to working with the new Congress

Why it matters

A Democratic Congress can block the president's agenda, launch investigations and force compromise on everything from spending to the Iran war.

Democrats secured control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections, a result analysts are comparing to the post-Watergate sweep of 1974. With dozens of races still uncalled, the party is projected to pass 250 House seats.

Hakeem Jeffries, the likely next Speaker of the House, said his party would take on what he called the 'Trump Cartel', while President Trump congratulated the winners and said he was open to working with Democrats.

Two Senate races remain unresolved. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Dan Sullivan by just 637 votes under the state's ranked-choice system, and in Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom holds a roughly 1,100-vote edge over Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Sources

  • Associated Press
  • BBC News
  • Democracy Now

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