Fox News ratings slump; Guardian analysis calls Musk spending a flop
Ballot measures produced policy shifts alongside the partisan contests, The Guardian reported in its First Thing newsletter. Voters approved nearly every data-center moratorium that was on the ballot, while Colorado voters rejected a conservative effort to require police to cooperate with immigration officers. In Nevada, Virginia, Missouri and Idaho, voters passed or strengthened protections for women’s reproductive freedom.
Democrats also gained hundreds of seats in state legislatures across the country, under-the-radar victories that The Guardian said may have major implications for life in America. The outlet reported that the Democrats’ success was helped by popular anger over tech, AI and the super rich, and that life for billionaires could become much more difficult in newly blue America.
Dozens of Republican candidates directly endorsed by Trump lost their races, according to analysis by The Guardian, which said the losses raised questions over the power of the president’s support. The Guardian said criticism of the US-Israel war on Iran was seen as a huge factor in the Democrats’ sweeping victory, and named the war as a key reason for the Republicans’ poor showing. Pete Hegseth was increasingly looking as if he may take the fall for Republicans’ losses, the outlet reported, while JD Vance had already distanced himself from the decision to strike at Iran alongside Israel. A Democratic-controlled Congress will probably try to constrain Trump’s future foreign adventure plans, according to The Guardian.
Robert Tait reported from Portland, Maine, on what the downfall of the near three-decade senator Susan Collins says about Republican unpopularity, while polling experts hailed a “great night” after correctly calling most key US midterm election races.
Trump accepted the results as the system held up against attempts at election interference. His administration had waged an aggressive effort to sow doubt about the results in advance, but the worst fears have not been realized, The Guardian reported. “It was essentially too big to rig,” an unnamed Trump adviser told CNN, after Democrats swept into power across the nation on a “blue wave”. Trump made a public appearance the day after the results, chiefly to talk about his new White House ballroom plans.
The Guardian described it as a bruising night for Fox News, which suffered a ratings slump, and Nick Robins-Early noted in an analysis piece that Elon Musk’s nearly half a billion dollars in midterms spending was a flop.
Trump’s finances also drew scrutiny. Forbes estimated in a September analysis that he is $2.7bn wealthier than when he won the White House in 2024, The Guardian reported, and stock in Trump Media and Technology Group may have plummeted on the Nasdaq to its lowest ever level.
New York attorney general Letitia James tapped a former prosecutor involved in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case to head a criminal investigation into 2024 sexual assault allegations at Cornell University. James appointed the Cornell alum Jacqueline Kelly to serve as outside counsel and lead a “fair and comprehensive criminal investigation”, The Guardian reported.
Hundreds of thousands were expected to march in demonstrations across France as trade unions called for a nationwide strike expected to extend to hospitals, air traffic control, the post office, teachers and rail staff. Emmanuel Macron’s final months in the presidency continue to be marred by domestic crises, The Guardian reported, as high school students protesting over poor teaching conditions have been joined by workers in weekly protests over the cost of living.
The UK agreed to “structured dialogue” in the next year with Caribbean nations affected by the slave trade and its legacy. Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister, said there was a “consensus” in discussions between governments about a way forward on slavery reparations at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. A 10-point plan drawn up by the Caribbean Community’s reparations commission specifically asks for “debt cancellation” — not debt restructuring — and “monetary compensation”, arguing that former colonies’ “existing debts are intergenerational and are ultimately and intimately tied to centuries of colonial extraction”.
Other items in the newsletter covered a second day of disruption to flights across Europe caused by bomb threats; a helicopter crash in Miami that left one person dead and two others injured; South Korea’s plans to expand the operations of its anti-piracy unit to waters closer to the strait of Hormuz, according to its defence ministry; and confirmation by Canadian authorities that a mother and a daughter were killed in a grizzly bear attack. An Italian chef in Australia, sacked for not putting pineapple on pizza, lost his battle to get his job back.
The seas around Britain and Ireland, particularly the southern North Sea, have been identified as “marine climate hotspots”, one of 20 globally to have warmed the fastest over 50 years. Their increasing heat could destabilise marine food webs, weaken ocean health and jeopardise food security by 2050, according to a four-year study.
The newsletter also carried features. Marian Bull tested more than a dozen blenders for budget, size, “mulch factor”, speed and whether they had plastic or glass jars. Erin Somers examined the world’s first lab-grown beef burger and why nobody is firing up the chicken vats. Tobias Grey explored Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, a book whose global humanism makes it relevant now. In a lighter report, a 3ft-long alligator entered the Bagel Dock Express, appeared to be looking for a meal, and was safely removed by animal protective services.