Good morning, Thursday November 5th, and I’m Keegan Billings with The Epoch Times, one of America’s largest independent newspapers, now  After Democrats’ major midterm sweep, Republicans are offering sobering assessments of their bruising loss.

So Let’s jump right in.

• Vice President JD Vance pointed  squarely at the Iran war for the defeat. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, describing the rout as the “political equivalent of a meteor strike,” said results were votes against Republicans in Washington, rather than votes for Democratic policies, and blamed the GOP for not capitalizing on kitchen table issues. 

Vance, who may be the GOP presidential candidate in 2028, added later: “If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington, when asked about Vance’s comments, that the position was “largely true because it drove the gasoline up a little bit, short-term.”

He said if he had to start the war again, he would, because he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Numbers indicate that turnout was not the problem, Vance wrote.

“The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026,” he said.

Voters told another analyst that the top four reasons those voters gave ahead of the election for abandoning Republicans were the war in Iran, cost of living, not putting America first, and the U.S. relationship with Israel, according to the vice president.

• Exit polling also shows that voters rejected Republican candidates because of concerns about the cost of living and Iran. 

• Those concerns and others propelled massive swings toward Democrats in deep red regions and among certain demographics, such as young men and Hispanics. 

“The shift was substantive,” Jim Lee of Susquehanna Polling told The Epoch Times.

Under Trump’s leadership, Republicans had made inroads into some traditionally Democratic-voting communities, including black and Hispanic communities. That culminated with the 2024 election, when 15 percent of black voters and 48 percent of Hispanics chose Trump.

This year, just 9 percent of black voters and 34 percent of Hispanics supported Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center.

Men also pulled back from the Republican agenda in 2026, research data show. The GOP had a net loss of 6 percentage points among all men and a 4 percent drop among white men.

The drop was slightly higher among college-educated white men (minus 5 points) than among those without a college education (minus 2 points).

Trump had stronger support from white male voters in 2016, when 62 percent voted for him. In 2026, 55 percent of white men supported Republicans for Congress, the lowest percentage since 2018.

Voters in all age groups shifted away from the GOP in 2026. The sharpest decline, minus 21 points, was among those aged 18 to 24.

Jim Lee of Susquehanna Polling told

“All these groups share something in common,” Lee said. “They’re all upset about what they pay at the pump. It’s not rocket science.”

Republican and Republican-leaning voters also shifted away from the party, as did conservative and moderate Democratic-leaning voters. Trump reached 8 percent of those voters in 2024. That melted to 3 percent in 2026.

And Republican support among independent voters dropped by 10 percentage points in 2026.

• The president has expressed optimism about working with Democrats in his final two years of office, while saying he’s also prepared to be “Mr. Veto.”

Some believe a hostile Congress will block the president’s agenda or pursue impeachment, but Trump has said he is ready to work across the aisle.

It remains uncertain whether this divided government will result in total gridlock or surprising policy wins for Trump over the next two years.

Luke Nichter, professor of presidential studies at Chapman University in Orange, California, questions whether Democrats truly want to work with Trump.

“The question is: Do Democrats want compromise or do they want revenge? Because I think we all know that the investigations in the House are going to start almost right away in January,” he told The Epoch Times.

• Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) looks to be on a glide path to become speaker, leading a large Democratic caucus (currently at 240 seats with 48 races uncalled). He formally launched his bid yesterday and outlined Democrats’ first 100 days to reverse Medicaid cuts, restore SNAP funding, extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, end President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and stop the war in Iran.

• Asked about calls within his caucus to impeach Trump, Jeffries said no House Democrat had raised impeachment with him. Other House Democrats, though, have zeroed in on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as an impeachment target. 

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a Nov. 3 post on X that current and former top officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, should clear their schedules.

“They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, wrote in another post on X.

James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, said on X: “It is unfortunate that Democrats are more interested in political shenanigans than in governing. Rest assured, however, that we are well prepared to deal with this nonsense so Secretary Mullin can continue focusing on protecting the homeland.”

When Democrats take control of both legislative chambers in January, they can nominate committee leaders and control who receives subpoenas. Defying congressional subpoenas can result in criminal charges.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who is set to become the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a two-word statement, “Lawyer up.”

NOW, BACK TO OUR TOP STORY:

The Biggest Shifts That Fueled the Blue Wave

Democrats defied expectations and expanded into deep-red territory on Nov. 3.

Democrats gained control of Congress, picking up at least seven Senate seats: Maine, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa.

More wins are possible, as Democratic candidates hold narrow leads in undeclared races in Alaska and Mississippi. The party reached a 237-seat House majority with 59 races yet to be called.

 Aaron Dusso, an associate professor of political science at Indiana University–Indianapolis, told The Epoch Times.

“We haven’t seen a Congress that looks like this since the ’90s. I think this will go down as one of the most impactful election landslides we’ve seen since the 1970s when the Watergate class entered Congress,”

These are the biggest shifts that carried Democrats to a 2026 midterm victory.

Democrats Expand Map Into Red Territory

One of the early wins for Democrats was a South Carolina Senate victory for the first time since 1998, ousting Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.), who had been recently appointed to finish the unexpired term of her deceased brother, Lindsey Graham.

Democrats flipped several other Senate seats across the South and Midwest in states that had supported Trump in three presidential contests: North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio.

Those losses reflected a rejection of Trump and Republicans “by extension,” Joshua Koss, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Michigan University, told The Epoch Times.

Democrats had campaigned in the red states on affordability and the Iran war, and criticized Republicans for giving Trump a “blank check,” Koss said. (More)

Democrats extended their reach into ruby-red Mississippi, which Trump won by more than 20 points in 2024. The race between Democrat Scott Colom and incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde‑Smith (R-Miss.) is yet to be called and is essentially tied with 95 percent of votes counted.

Koss suggested that the shift there is similar to what has played out in Georgia over the past decade, as population changes have allowed Democrats to make breakthroughs in grassroots organizing and mobilizing black voters. African Americans make up 36.8 percent of Mississippi’s population and 32.4 percent of Georgia’s population.

The state of the economy was the No. 1 factor driving Democratic gains in Republican strongholds, Dusso said.

“The war with Iran’s effect on gas prices was easy for voters to see, and they assigned blame to the president and his party,” Dusso said. “Inflation ended the Biden administration and appears to be doing the same damage to the Trump administration.”

One major litmus test of Nov. 3 was whether Democrat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and other progressive candidates would continue the momentum generated by Zohran Mamdani, who won the New York City mayoral race in 2025.

Some observers predicted that the Mamdani movement was unique to heavily blue areas such as New York City.

Yet with 98 percent of votes counted, El-Sayed had amassed 52.5 percent of the votes cast, ahead of Republican Mike Rogers by 7 percentage points. That margin is well above the polling predictions, which hovered at about a 2-point margin for the Democrat.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) narrowly beat Rep. John James (R-Mich.) by less than 2 percentage points in 2020. Then-Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), a multi-decade institutional Democrat, beat James by 6.5 percentage points in 2018, another blue wave year, winning with 52.3 percent and 2.2 million votes.

“Very few candidates can come away with that clean a margin after dealing with the sheer level of opposition and outside spending,” Koss said of El-Sayed.

Progressive Democrat Troy Jackson also defied expectations in Maine, unseating 30-year veteran Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) by 7 percentage points.

The Democratic establishment has tried for decades to oust Collins with “handcrafted” candidates, Koss said. Jackson’s win may force the party to rethink what voters really want, he added.

An even bigger surprise was the performance of Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democrat, who came within 3 percentage points of unseating incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.). By comparison, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) won reelection in Florida in 2024 by nearly 13 percentage points.

Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won two of Florida’s Hispanic-majority counties, Miami-Dade and Osceola, by 7.1 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively. In 2024, Trump won Miami-Dade by 11.5 percent and Osceola by 1.5 percent. That’s an average shift of 19.25 percentage points across both counties.

NOW, OVER TO POLITICS:

• Republican redistricting efforts seem to have backfired in several states, with more than 10 of those seats going to Democrats. 

Republicans lost in 11 redrawn districts that were supposed to be favorable to them. They are also on track to lose two other redrawn districts where results are yet to be called. Meanwhile, Democrats redrew congressional districts in California and, in the end, it benefited their party.

AND MORE ON POLITICS:

• Beyond Congress, voters also decided on a host of ballot measures, including a billionaire tax, limiting property taxes, gun measures, and voter ID. Here are some key results. 

An attempt to impose a wealth tax on California’s billionaires failed at the ballot box as California voters rejected Proposition 40, which sought to charge a one-time 5 percent tax on the assets of residents with a net worth of more than $1 billion by a margin of 55.6 percent against to 44.4 percent in favor.

Simultaneously, voters in the Nov. 3 midterm elections approved Proposition 42, which prohibits the state from imposing new property taxes,

Abortion

Idaho

Voters in Idaho rejected a proposal that would have limited the state’s power to regulate abortion before the fetus can survive outside the womb.

The Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative would also clarify that the state has no power over contraception or fertility treatments. Nearly 56 percent of voters said no to the measure.

Missouri

Amendment 3 in Missouri would have repealed the statewide right to abortion until fetal viability that was passed in 2024, and would have prohibited abortions except in cases of medical emergency, rape, or incest if the pregnancy was less than 12 weeks along. The measure would have also banned gender-transition treatments and surgeries for minors. The initiative was rejected by 55 percent of voters, keeping the status quo.

Nevada

The Right to Abortion Initiative passed in Nevada with nearly 63 percent support. In that state, amendments need to pass twice; the measure already passed in 2024.

There is now a state constitutional right to abortion, up to the time of fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman.

Virginia

The Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment passed in Virginia, with 62 percent support.

The law gives women “the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”

Abortion is legal until the third trimester, with exceptions for medical emergency or the mental health of the mother. The measure also allows for restrictions on access to abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive.

Guns

Massachusetts

A series of restrictions on gun ownership in Massachusetts will continue, after voters adopted a proposal to keep them in place.

The original provisions, including an electronic gun registry, serial number requirements, and safety certificate requirements, were enacted in 2024.

Arkansas

Voters in Arkansas overwhelmingly (by nearly 71 percent) passed a measure to add language to its constitution saying that the right to bear arms is “a natural, fundamental, and individual right that shall not be infringed.”

The previous language said citizens could bear arms “for their common defense.” The change clarifies that they can own guns for hunting and recreation. This includes ammunition and firearms accessories and components.

Idaho

The state asked voters which gun should be the official state firearm. The Winchester Model 1873 won with a little more than 31 percent support, beating out the Winchester Model 1894 (25 percent support), the 1873 Colt Single Action Army “Peacemaker” revolver (15 percent), the Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle (12 percent), the Colt M1911 .45 automatic Colt pistol (nearly 8 percent), and the M1 Garand rifle (7 percent).

A separate vote is still needed to ratify the winner.

California voters rejected (59 percent to 41 percent) a measure that would require ID to vote, and that would have directed election officials to keep accurate voter registration lists and verify citizenship.

Virginia

Voters in Virginia passed a measure that gave back convicted felons their voting rights upon being released from incarceration.

Redistricting

Maryland

Voters adopted a measure that said redistricting criteria, such as “contiguity, compactness, and equal population,” will only apply to legislative districts, not congressional ones. It also gives the state Supreme Court jurisdiction to review those maps.

Missouri

Missouri voters struck down a measure that would have allowed the state to adopt its new congressional districts map passed by state lawmakers in 2025.

Colorado

Voters in Colorado passed on a measure that would make it harder to redraw district lines outside normal redistricting years. Such changes would have required approval from the Colorado Supreme Court and the state’s independent redistricting commission.

It would also prohibit maps drawn to give one party an advantage.

Colorado

Colorado voters rejected a measure (55 percent to 45 percent) that would have required law enforcement to notify the Department of Homeland Security if a person charged with a violent crime, or who has a previous felony conviction, is an illegal immigrant.

Tennessee

Voters approved a law in Tennessee that said victims of violent crime have to be notified if the perpetrator is released from custody. It also allows the victim to be present at trial, and to have a voice during plea deals and probation or parole hearings.

Transgender Issues

Colorado

Voters in Colorado approved a measure (52 percent to 48 percent) requiring athletes in school to participate only in sports matching their biological sex.

Another measure prohibiting gender surgery for minors also passed. That initiative also stops federal funds from being used to pay for such procedures.

Arizona

Students in Arizona will have to use restrooms, locker rooms, and other private spaces that match their biological sex, following the passage of Proposition 318.

The measure also requires schools and athletic associations to designate teams as male, female, or coed. The designation will exclude males from participating in female-designated sports, and vice versa.

Washington State

Voters in Washington opted (57 percent to 43 percent) to exclude boys from competing against girls in sports, whenever teams are separated by sex. To enforce that rule, student athletes will require a note from a healthcare provider verifying their sex.

Missouri

Missouri’s Amendment 3 contained a provision to prohibit gender surgeries or cross-sex hormones for minors. That provision sank along with the abortion ban.

• The blue wave hit gubernatorial races too, with Democrats winning a majority of governorships for the first time in 20 years. Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa ousted Gov. Greg Abbott, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, defeated businessman Rick Jackson to flip Georgia’s governor’s mansion blue. 

Texans will have their first Latina governor and the first Democrat to hold the office in more than 30 years.

Underdog candidate Gina Hinojosa, 52, took the seat from incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to run the executive branch of the nation’s most populous red state.

Abbott’s policies on data centers, water rights, and public education caused some voters to abandon him after 12 years in office.

Hinojosa, who was outspent 5-to-1 on ads, according to AdImpact data, had support from fellow Latino politicians and the Democratic Governors Association.

In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, became the first black woman elected governor in U.S. history. Bottoms defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson, flipping the top job in the swing state.

Bottoms overcame accusations about mismanaging Atlanta during the COVID-19 pandemic and defeated Jackson, accusing him of profiting off of pain by making money in health care.

Amy Acton in Ohio is the first Democrat to win the seat in two decades, and the first woman to ever hold the state’s top political office.

A doctor and former COVID-19-era state health director, Acton campaigned on affordability and access to health care.

Wisconsin and Florida also elected their first black governors, with Democrat David Crowley and Republican Byron Donalds taking the positions in their respective states.

Crowley will replace Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who chose to retire. His win also marks the first time in Wisconsin’s 178-year history that Democrats will hold the governor’s office for more than eight consecutive years.

In Tennessee, Republican Marsha Blackburn became the state’s first woman governor.

Blackburn, who has spent the last eight years in the Senate and a total of almost 28 years in public office, beat out Democrat Jerri Green, a Memphis city councilwoman and lawyer, in the tight race.

In New Mexico, Deb Haaland became the first Native American female elected governor in U.S. history. Haaland is a Laguna Pueblo citizen.

• First Lady Melania Trump and Louisiana State University have secured $5 million in philanthropic donations to establish a permanent endowment fund for students from foster care to attend LSU.

The fund is part of the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative, launched in 2022 and focused on supporting young adults aging out of the foster care system as they prepare for college.

It is also part of the Be Best campaign she launched in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term to focus on children’s well-being.

Roughly 400,000 children are currently in the U.S. foster care system, and about 20,000 age out each year without a permanent family, according to the Education Department.

Data from the National Foster Youth Institute shows that just 55 percent of young people in foster care earn a high school diploma, compared with 87 percent of the broader population. Fewer than 5 percent go on to complete a college degree, largely because of insufficient support.

Employment outcomes are also weaker. By age 24, only about half of former foster youth are working, versus roughly 75 percent of their peers. Those who do find jobs typically earn less than young adults who were never in the system.

Estimates further indicate that around 20 percent of youth who leave foster care become homeless after aging out.

The donation creates lasting scholarships at the university.

The first lady will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to formally launch the program from campus on Nov. 7.

• MORNING READ: The US Has Freed 115 Americans Without Concessions, Counterterrorism Czar Says

The Trump administration has had “history-making” success securing the release of 115 U.S. citizens held hostage or wrongfully detained in foreign countries, Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, told The Epoch Times.

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, told This to us  in an exclusive interview with Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek that aired on Oct. 27.

Gorka said.

“No other president has liberated 115 Americans in 20 months ever,” 

He  repeatedly maintained that the United States has not made concessions to foreign regimes in exchange for the release of American hostages and detainees.

He outlined shifting terrorism trends following the administration’s efforts to remove the threats posed by Islamic terrorist organizations in the Middle East, and said it is now addressing threats from extremist organizations in the United States.

Gorka said releasing Americans who were wrongfully detained or held hostage is “of paramount import” to President Donald Trump and that ensuring that no American is left behind is “one of the most obvious examples of what ‘America First’ means.”

The most recent example was the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American teacher, who had been detained and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison by Russian officials in 2024. He was convicted of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.

Hubbard returned to the United States after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gorka credited Hubbard’s release to Witkoff’s “unrelenting determination” and repeated visits to Russia as part of the administration’s efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

In March 2026, Dennis Coyle, an American researcher from Colorado, was released and returned to his family in the United States after being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for more than a year.

Marc Fogel, an American teacher, was returned to the United States in February 2025 after being imprisoned in Russia for 3 1/2 years.

Keith Siegel, an Israeli American dual national, was also released in February 2025 after being held hostage by the Hamas terrorist organization for 484 days.

In March 2025, George Glezmann, an American airline mechanic, was released after being detained by the Taliban for 836 days.

Ksenia Karelina, a Russian American dual national and ballet dancer, was wrongfully detained in a Russian penal colony for 14 months before being released in April 2025 as part of a prisoner swap with Moscow.

In August, a group of Democratic lawmakers urged the Trump administration to take further action and designate five U.S. nationals in Russia as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. They suggested that it was a “valuable tool” that would “maximize U.S. government coordination and advance negotiations to ensure their swift release.”

Despite this success, Gorka warned that terrorist tactics are shifting.

He told The Epoch Times that terrorist organizations are now largely restricted to using social media platforms and the internet to inspire disaffected Americans to commit acts of violence on American soil.

The White House released a new counterterrorism strategy in May, identifying violent left-wing extremists such as Antifa and anarchist groups as terrorism threats. It also addressed the “red-green” alliance between the far-left and Islamists.

In July, a group of 11 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticizing the Trump administration’s new counterterrorism strategy as a “politically partisan document.”

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report in September 2025 that shows an increase in the number of left-wing terrorist attacks and plots in the United States in recent years.

Gorka said countries such as China, Russia, and Iran also work to foment violence and division in the United States to serve their own national purposes.

NOW MOVING ONTO WORLD NEWS:

• Joshua Wong, a prominent former student leader of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in prison, following his second conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law that has been used to arrest many of the city’s prominent activists critical of the Chinese communist regime. 

Joshua Wong, 30, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger communist China’s national security.

He first rose to international prominence in 2014 for his role in Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests, known as the Umbrella Movement. That year, Time magazine named him one of the world’s 25 most influential teenagers.

Wong cofounded a Hong Kong political party, Demosisto, in 2016, with fellow young activists Nathan Law and Agnes Chow. However, the party disbanded shortly after the regime’s national security law took effect in 2020.

In 2018, then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers nominated Wong, Law, Chow, and the entire pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2021, Wong was among 47 activists charged under the national security law over their involvement in an unofficial primary election that involved candidates not vetted by Beijing. The case drew international criticism of the Chinese Communist Party’s interference in Hong Kong’s governance. Wong was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison in November 2024 and was originally expected to be released in January 2027 for that charge.

On Nov. 5, Hong Kong High Court Judge William Tam handed down the new 10-year sentence against Wong.

According to a press release, Tam characterized Wong’s offense as of “grave nature.”

• Chinese health authorities reported one death from the plague but didn’t disclose any further details, following the death last month of a worker at an anti-plague institute in Siberia. 

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) reported the plague death on Oct. 29 in its national report for infectious diseases for September. The plague case was one of eight cases recorded for Class A infectious diseases, which is the most contagious category. The other seven cases were of cholera, and the only death from Class A infectious diseases in September resulted from the plague case.

However, in the official report, the China CDC did not provide any details regarding the death from plague, such as the type of plague, the specific time, and the location of the case.

The one plague death in China was reported after the death of a young researcher at an anti-plague institute in Siberia in early October. Russian authorities said the researcher died of pneumonia of unknown origin and said there was no evidence her illness stemmed from pathogens she worked with. So far, Russian authorities haven’t released any specific information about her cause of death, despite being urged to do so by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East that is close to the Mongolian border, was hospitalized with severe pneumonia on Sept. 29 and died on Oct. 2, causing global concerns of a possible pneumonic plague outbreak.

Russian authorities told the WHO that they placed approximately 200 contacts under quarantine, which was lifted on Oct. 8.

• A cyberattack against the refrigerator systems of France’s public blood service was recently thwarted, officials said, the incident coming after supermarkets across Europe reported that their cooling equipment was targeted by hackers.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said in a Nov. 3 statement that one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers had been targeted, resulting in temperatures being forced to rise in the cold storage rooms at three of its sites.

“The EFS’s monitoring and alarm systems enabled the rapid identification of these anomalies and the implementation of necessary measures to ensure that no blood samples or products were compromised,” the statement reads.

It stated that affected equipment was brought under control and that no blood products or samples were affected or ruined.

It added that blood products, including plasma needed for transfusion, which had been stored in these rooms, were transferred to other facilities as a precaution.

Service to patients was not interrupted by the incident, the EFS stated.

The EFS stressed that it was not targeted itself, but rather the equipment supplier was.

The organization stores blood products, including plasma, in its preparation and distribution sites before they are sent on to hospitals and other kinds of healthcare facilities. It also keeps blood samples for its biobanks.

• Israeli President Isaac Herzog has accepted the certified results of Israel’s national election, despite claims of fraud and foreign interference by sitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who is seeking to remain in office, had raised allegations that Israel’s Arab political parties had defrauded the Oct. 27 Israeli national election through various means, including bribery and intimidation. He subsequently raised additional allegations that outside forces had also interfered to benefit Israel’s Arab parties.

Netanyahu’s election fraud allegations came as Israel’s Central Election Committee recorded a historic turnout for Israel’s two main Arab parties, Joint List and Ra’am. Joint List won 11 seats in Israel’s Knesset legislature, and Ra’am won eight.

Herzog said the Israeli authorities, including the Shin Bet security service, would continue to investigate the election fraud claims.

Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition won 53 Knesset seats, while his main opposition bloc won 48.

To form a government in Israel’s parliamentary system, a party or coalition of parties must win at least 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

Neither major bloc appears ready to ally with the Arab parties to form a government.

The election outcome leaves Netanyahu at the head of a diminished caretaker government until a bloc can negotiate a new governing majority.

In the event no party wins a clear majority in the Knesset, the president of Israel nominates party leaders to take turns negotiating for a coalition government. If no majority coalition forms, the country may call another round of elections.

The Israeli president has since entered into talks with the various political party leaders to assess which one he will name first in an attempt to form a government.

• China has dispatched more than 100 navy and other vessels across the western Pacific, according to a senior Taiwanese official.

On Nov. 3, Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, posted a map on X showing the locations of Chinese naval and coast guard vessels, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, across the East China Sea, South China Sea, and waters near Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Beyond China’s maritime activities, Wu also pointed to the “high number of air sorties” conducted by Chinese military aircraft near Taiwan recently.

On Nov. 3, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported detecting 49 Chinese military aircraft around the island in the preceding 24 hours, including 31 sorties that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

An ADIZ is an area extending beyond a country’s national airspace, where approaching foreign aircraft may be required to identify themselves and provide their location.

The Chinese regime “is such a big bully,” Wu wrote in remarks accompanying the map, before adding that Taiwan “is staying vigilant.”

“We won’t provoke, but we won’t bow to any pressure,” he added.

Wu has published several similar maps in recent months, including one in late October.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has pursued a sustained campaign of military intimidation, economic coercion, and political pressure aimed at shaping public opinion on the island.

And before we leave, here are some words of wisdom to start the day…Today’s quote is by the British philosopher and writer Roger Scruton,

He said, 

“Music addresses us from beyond the borders of the natural world.” 

—Roger Scruton