A day after Democrats won both houses of the US Congress, Republicans were openly arguing over what went wrong, and President Donald Trump faced a hard choice on the war with Iran, according to updates compiled by The Hindu from agencies on Thursday (November 5).
'The war' and prices
Vice-President JD Vance, in a long social media post, blamed the war for the defeat. One of four suggestions he made for winning back lost ground was to "change our relationship to Israel", The Hindu reported. Mr Trump himself acknowledged that the war had hurt his party.
Prices weighed just as heavily. Most voters said Mr Trump's own policies had slowed growth and pushed costs higher, according to the AP Voter Poll, a survey of about 100,000 midterm voters. Prices began rising with last year's tariffs, and energy costs spiked after the US launched the war with Iran in February, AP reported. Mr Trump's message that the blame lay with his predecessor, Joe Biden, did not land.
Trump's next move on Iran
For weeks, Mr Trump had threatened to resume full-scale bombing of Iran once the elections were over if Tehran did not agree to a settlement on his terms, AP reported. After the defeat, he must now decide what to do about a war that is eight months old and unpopular at home.
A vote against data centres
The midterms also carried a message on artificial intelligence. Voters in dozens of US cities approved restrictions or outright bans on data centres, AFP reported. In Piqua, Ohio, a ban on data centres larger than 25 megawatts passed, putting at risk a Meta data centre worth more than $1 billion that had already been approved.
Ten states voted on 41 data-centre-related ballot measures, 21 of them in Ohio, Reason reported, and NBC's exit polls found that AI and data centres were a "crucial or a major factor" for 56% of voters.
Why it matters for India
Markets read the result as raising the chance of an end to the war. Brent crude has fallen to $94 a barrel from a pre-midterm peak of nearly $120, and Indian government bonds rose for a fourth straight session on Thursday, The Economic Times reported. For India, the world's third-largest oil importer, the war's course now matters for inflation and for the Reserve Bank of India, which raised rates by 25 basis points in October, the paper said.