World Brief, Evening: November 3, 2026

Democrats take the House, and the Senate is suddenly in play after upsets in North Carolina and South Carolina. Trump says the US is “locked and loaded” on Iran but may not need to strike, and says US military aid to Israel will end. Ukraine’s death toll climbs after a glide-bomb attack on an aid centre. Plus Spain’s transport minister quits, Greenland ratifies its US security deal, Indonesian police generals are held over tapping the president’s phone, South Africa votes, Paraguay seizes a bank tied to its president, and Uber loses big in Australia’s High Court. Ten stories as of Tuesday evening, November 3.

1. Washington / United States. Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives, NBC News projects, which hands them committee gavels and subpoena power for the last two years of Trump’s term. They take over on January 3, and Hakeem Jeffries is in line to become the first Black speaker, NBC News reports.

The Senate is closer than anyone expected. Roy Cooper flipped North Carolina, beating Michael Whatley to become the state’s first Democratic senator since 2008. “Chaos and corruption in Washington were hurting our people. Today, you said, ‘This has to stop,’” he told supporters, BBC News reports. Then pediatrician Annie Andrews beat Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina, which hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, CBS News projects. Jon Ossoff held Georgia and Chris Pappas won New Hampshire. Democrats need a net four seats, and CBS has Texas and Kansas leaning their way, with nothing final yet. In the governor races, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in US history, in Georgia, beating Rick Jackson, who spent more than $200m of his own money, Al Jazeera reports. Republican Byron Donalds will be Florida’s first Black governor after beating David Jolly, the Guardian reports.

2. Tehran / Iran; Strait of Hormuz. Trump told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the US has no immediate plan to strike Iran. “We seem to be getting everything we want,” he said. Asked about hints from Netanyahu that an attack could be coming, he said: “I’m ready, we’re ready. We’re locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it.” Tehran answered that a “maximum deterrence” plan is ready for any new US attack and promised an immediate response. Its military is updating target lists to include US and Israeli assets across a wider area, Al Jazeera reports. At sea, UKMTO said a tanker was hit in the engine room by two unknown projectiles near the strait, with no casualties reported. The Revolutionary Guards said three tankers exploded after hitting mines while crossing “without permission.”

3. Jerusalem / Israel. Trump says the US will stop its roughly $4bn a year in military aid to Israel by the end of this year. “Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” he told Fox & Friends. He added that Israel can still buy US weapons “whenever they want,” DW reports. The current $3.8bn-a-year agreement was meant to run to September 2028. Trump said part of the point was to blunt Democrats like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed: “Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it?” Netanyahu’s rival Gadi Eisenkot said the fact that Israel’s defence establishment learned of the change from the media “shows just how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is.”

4. Zaporizhzhia region / Ukraine. Russian strikes have killed at least 38 civilians in 24 hours, BBC News reports. At least 33 died when nine 3,000kg glide bombs hit a school being used as an aid centre in the village of Komyshuvakha, and more than 50 people may still be under the rubble. Zelensky called it “one of the largest mass killings committed by Russia during this war.” Russia says it hit Ukrainian troops, but the UN monitoring mission said the aid handout had been widely publicised and the attack “seems to have violated the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.” In Dnipro, a missile wrecked a hospice and nearly 50 terminally ill patients had to be moved. In Kharkiv, 73 people were hurt when a hospital was hit. Talks are still set to resume in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11, and Melania Trump is due to host Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House on Thursday.

5. Madrid / Spain. Transport Minister Óscar Puente resigned on Tuesday, six days after the high-speed train crash near Urda that killed at least 69 people. “A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents of this seriousness in less than a year,” he told Congress, pointing back to January’s crash on the same line, which killed 46, BBC News reports. He’s also taking his name off the lists for the November 29 snap election. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he went “out of dignity. Of his own accord. Out of respect for the victims.”

6. Nuuk / Greenland. Greenland’s parliament ratified the security agreement with the US and Denmark. It allows two new US military bases and Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile-defence system, keeps Greenland under Danish control and reaffirms Greenlanders’ right to self-determination, DW reports. “We must accept that peace and stability are no longer something we can take for granted,” Foreign Minister Mute Egede said. Pele Broberg of the pro-independence Naleraq party said “no economic benefit has been gained.” Denmark’s parliament votes on November 19.

7. Jakarta / Indonesia. Police have detained three senior police generals on suspicion of illegally tapping the phones of President Prabowo Subianto and dozens of others between 2025 and 2026, ABC News reports. One of them is General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, a former national police chief whom the president appointed his chief of staff in last month’s reshuffle. Police say the targets included “state officials, political figures, media figures, community leaders, NGO activists and businesspeople.” No motive has been given, and the investigation is ongoing.

8. Johannesburg / South Africa. South Africans vote in local elections on Wednesday for control of nearly 300 municipalities, including the biggest cities. More than 500 parties are running, and the ANC is trying to show it can turn around a long slide. It got 70% of the national vote in 2004 and about 40% two decades later, BBC News reports. “On the 4th we will show those naysayers,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told his final rally. Water is a big issue: parts of Johannesburg have had cuts and rationing for weeks, and a water treatment failure in Tshwane recently made more than 400 residents sick, DW reports.

9. Asunción / Paraguay. Paraguay’s central bank seized the digital lender ueno after its solvency ratio fell below half the legal minimum, leaving millions of customers locked out of their accounts, AP reports. President Santiago Peña was a business partner of the group that owned the bank until March 2025. On Tuesday he asked central bank chief Carlos Carvallo, who ran ueno until 2023, to resign, and prosecutors ordered the arrest of eight people linked to the bank, Reuters reports. Peña posted on X, in Spanish, that “those responsible must answer to the courts, without exceptions and without privileges.” Deposits are insured up to about 228 million guaraníes per person.

10. Canberra / Australia. In a six-to-one ruling, Australia’s High Court found that Uber owes A$81m in New South Wales payroll tax for 2015 to 2020, holding that its drivers are employees for payroll-tax purposes and their fares are wages, ABC News reports. That ends Uber’s legal options, and later years could push the bill well past A$100m, the Guardian reports. “Local businesses pay their fair share. Uber should pay their fair share too,” NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said.

Sources: NBC News (House), BBC (midterms; Ukraine; Spain; South Africa), CBS News (Senate), Al Jazeera (Iran; Georgia), the Guardian (midterms; Uber), DW (Israel aid; Greenland; South Africa), AP (Paraguay), ABC News (Indonesia; Uber), Reuters (Paraguay), Financial Times (Iran interview).