World Brief, Evening: November 4, 2026

JD Vance says out loud what a lot of Republicans were thinking: “The reason we lost is the war.” Trump mostly agrees, and says he would do it again. Joshua Wong gets ten more years in Hong Kong, South Korea moves its navy closer to Hormuz, and Israel’s president starts the hunt for a government. Plus bodycam footage from the Komyshuvakha strike, a German politician found dead in Berlin, Ethiopia expels Sudanese diplomats, Bukele goads Haiti’s gangs, Paraguay’s president faces impeachment, and David Jones collapses after 188 years. Ten stories as of Wednesday evening, November 4.

1. Washington / United States. A day after Democrats took both chambers of Congress, the vice president pinned the loss on the Iran war. In a 600-word statement on X, JD Vance wrote: “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.” He dared anyone who disagreed to make the case: “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,” BBC News reports. He closed with a four-point plan: “1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel.”

Then the surprise. Trump agreed the midterms were “largely” decided by the war, said he would “do it again,” and shrugged off his deputy’s post: “I know how he feels about it. I think it was – I think it was fine.” Meanwhile Mississippi is still a coin toss. With about 96% counted, Democrat Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,100 votes, in a state Trump won by 20 points and that hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1982, CBS News reports. Alaska is also uncalled.

2. Hong Kong / China. Joshua Wong, once the face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for colluding with foreign forces under the national security law, BBC News reports. Prosecutors said he conspired with self-exiled activist Nathan Law to lobby for foreign sanctions against Beijing. Wong, 30, pleaded guilty in September. He was already serving a subversion sentence and had been due out early next year. Amnesty International said the case shows “the lengths they will go to keep them behind bars for as long as possible.”

3. Seoul / South Korea and the Arabian Sea. South Korea plans to stretch its Cheonghae anti-piracy unit from the Gulf of Aden northeast to the open waters south of Oman, roughly doubling its patrol area, Yonhap reports. It would add a P-8A patrol plane, an explosive ordnance disposal team and unmanned mine-clearing gear, taking the unit to 395 people. Officials stress it is non-combat, stays under Korean command and stays out of the Strait of Hormuz itself, though the ministry admits the mine gear is also practice for clearing the strait after the war, The Korea Times reports. It still needs Cabinet sign-off and a vote in the National Assembly.

4. Jerusalem / Israel. President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified election results and began talks with party leaders on Wednesday night. “The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” he said, a blow to Netanyahu’s efforts to discredit the vote, Al Jazeera reports. The Arab-led Ra’am party will recommend Gadi Eisenkot, which Ynet says brings him to 56. The Joint List’s 11 seats are still undecided, and the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah says it will back neither man. Eight more parties meet Herzog on Thursday, with Likud and Eisenkot’s Yashar going last.

5. Komyshuvakha, Ukraine / Madrid, Spain. Ukraine’s police released bodycam footage from one of four officers killed in Monday’s strike on the Zaporizhzhia-region village. It shows a radio warning of more glide bombs, an officer shouting “Quickly [go] to the shelter!”, residents filing underground, and then the blast, BBC News reports. Nine glide bombs, some weighing 3,000kg, hit the village. The death toll is 40, and Zelensky says more than 30 people may still be under the rubble, Al Jazeera reports. Zelensky himself turned up unannounced in Madrid for the Ibero-American Summit, with talks planned with Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI, António Guterres and António Costa. “Our top priority is strengthening Ukraine’s air defences,” he wrote, Euronews reports.

6. Berlin / Germany. Hubert Aiwanger, 55, Bavaria’s deputy premier and economy minister and leader of the populist Free Voters, was found dead in his hotel room in Berlin-Mitte, the Guardian reports. Police and prosecutors opened an inquiry to establish the cause and “rule out any possible third-party culpability.” Bild reported he had skipped a party office opening because he felt unwell. Bavarian premier Markus Söder called it an “absolute tragedy,” DW reports.

7. Asosa, Ethiopia / Sudan. Ethiopia ordered six staff at Sudan’s consulate in the border town of Asosa to leave within 48 hours and closed the consulate, Reuters and AP report, via Al Jazeera. It comes after Sudan complained to the UN Security Council and the African Union that Ethiopia is letting the RSF launch drone attacks from its soil, which Addis Ababa denies. Sudan says it is “making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” in the words of adviser Amjad Farid.

8. Port-au-Prince / Haiti. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele is posting videos of his soldiers patrolling Haiti, with a taunt on X: “Gather your gangs so we can go fight with them,” Al Jazeera reports. He sent more than 2,000 troops after four Salvadoran aviation technicians vanished on October 18. Police have now found the burned truck they used, in Croix-des-Bouquets, but not the men. The UN says only about 200 of the Salvadoran soldiers fall under the Gang Suppression Force, though Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime insists the foreign forces answer to Haitian authority.

9. Asunción / Paraguay. Thirty-five deputies filed impeachment charges against President Santiago Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana over the collapse of ueno bank, and the lower house called an extraordinary session for Thursday morning, ABC Color reports. Approval needs two-thirds of the deputies present, and then the Senate would hold the trial. The fallout has also hit the central bank’s board, UPI reports.

10. Sydney / Australia. David Jones, Australia’s oldest department store, has gone into voluntary administration after 188 years, BBC News reports. It employs about 6,000 people across 38 stores. McGrathNicol are the administrators and FTI Consulting were installed as receivers, hours after Westfield owner Scentre said October’s rent hadn’t been paid. Store closures are expected, most likely in outer suburbs and regional malls, the Guardian reports.

Sources: BBC (Vance and Trump; Hong Kong; Ukraine; David Jones), CBS News (Mississippi), Yonhap and The Korea Times (South Korea), Al Jazeera (Israel; Ukraine; Ethiopia–Sudan; Haiti), Euronews (Madrid), the Guardian (Aiwanger; David Jones), DW (Aiwanger), ABC Color and UPI (Paraguay), Reuters and AP (Ethiopia–Sudan).