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The Rest of the World Report | November 4, 2026 — Morning Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Good morning from Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Wednesday morning, November 4th.
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  SPEAKER_00: You guys had a big night over there in the States, didn't you?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're going to talk about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats win both chambers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats will control the House and the Senate when the new Congress convenes in January.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine,
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  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.
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  SPEAKER_00: They've secured at least 54 of the 100 seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republicans held 53 before the vote.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the House, Democrats will win at least 258 of the 435 seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's an estimate they can still move by a few more seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: They have not reached that number since 1993, or as the guy on CNN keeps saying, 1993.
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  SPEAKER_00: Exit polls put Trump's disapproval at 62%,
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  SPEAKER_00: and nearly half of voters said they saw the election as a chance to rebuke him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two Senate races are still undecided as of this recording.
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  SPEAKER_00: Alaska's race between Democrat Mary Paltola
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  SPEAKER_00: and Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is too early to call and could take weeks.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colum leads Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 28 votes.
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  SPEAKER_00: The flips reached into Republican strongholds.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Texas, James Tallarico beat Attorney General Ken Paxton and became
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  SPEAKER_00: the first Democrat elected to the Senate from that state since 1988.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats also won the Texas offices of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Railroad Commissioner.
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  SPEAKER_00: And before Tuesday, no Democrat had won statewide there since 1994.
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  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, we'll get to Governor in a minute.
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  SPEAKER_00: But in Kansas, Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor,
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  SPEAKER_00: won the state's first Democratic Senate seat since 1932.
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  SPEAKER_00: In South Carolina, Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, took the seat held by Darlene Graham.
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  SPEAKER_00: Graham is the sister of Lindsey Graham, who died in July.
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  SPEAKER_00: Roy Cooper beat Michael Watley in North Carolina.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sherrod Brown beat Senator John Husted in Ohio.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Troy Jackson beat Senator Susan Collins in Maine.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Josh Turek beat Ainsley Adams, I mean, Ashley Hinson in Iowa.
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  SPEAKER_00: Several winners are historical firsts.
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  SPEAKER_00: Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia governorship and is
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  SPEAKER_00: the first black woman elected governor of any U.S. state.
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  SPEAKER_00: And somewhere, Stacey Abrams has got to be smiling from ear to ear.
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  SPEAKER_00: Deb Haaland won New Mexico and is the first Native American woman elected governor of a state.
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  SPEAKER_00: Gina Hinojosa will be Texas's first Latina governor and the first woman governor
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  SPEAKER_00: since 1995 after Greg Abbott conceded.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amy Klobuchar will be Minnesota's first woman governor
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  SPEAKER_00: and Amy Acton will be Ohio's first elected woman governor.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republicans won firsts too.
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  SPEAKER_00: Marsha Blackburn will be Tennessee's first woman governor
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  SPEAKER_00: and Byron Donalds will be Florida's first black Republican elected governor.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the Senate, Chris Pappas won New Hampshire and is
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  SPEAKER_00: the first openly gay man elected to the chamber.
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  SPEAKER_00: Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan and is the first Muslim elected to the Senate
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  SPEAKER_00: while Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota and is the first indigenous woman ever elected
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  SPEAKER_00: to the U.S. Senate.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats will hold both chambers in Congress in January,
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  SPEAKER_00: with at least seven Senate flips and at least 258 House seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: Voters also elected the first Black woman governor of a state,
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  SPEAKER_00: the first Native American woman governor, and Texas's first Latina governor.
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  SPEAKER_00: They sent the first openly gay man and the first Muslim to the Senate,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Alaska and Mississippi races are still undecided,
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  SPEAKER_00: so the final Senate count can change.
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  SPEAKER_00: A little reaction from the rest of the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed the results on Wednesday,
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  SPEAKER_00: As a new era in world relations,
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  SPEAKER_00: he told reporters that the people of America had spoken.
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  SPEAKER_00: China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning,
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  SPEAKER_00: said the midterms are an internal affair of the United States.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mao said China is willing to continue working with the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: to carry out the consensus reached by the two heads of state,
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  SPEAKER_00: strengthen communication and manage differences.
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  SPEAKER_00: French finance minister Roland Lescure told French television that Trump is still
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  SPEAKER_00: in charge of foreign policy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lescure said Trump will either rise above the fray,
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  SPEAKER_00: accept that changes are necessary, particularly on gasoline prices,
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  SPEAKER_00: and tone down his international involvement, or he will not.
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  SPEAKER_00: So very French.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lascure said France will watch in the coming days.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two Indian Americans, Suha Subramaniam, in Virginia, and Pia Dandia in Florida, won house seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: Vivek Ramaswamy, an Indian American Republican, lost in Ohio's governor race.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translator's Notes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Abroad, the result is being read as a verdict on Trump,
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  SPEAKER_00: not as a handover of American foreign policy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Three governments answered three different questions.
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  SPEAKER_00: South African President Ramfosa answered What the vote means to the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Mao answered whether Beijing's dealings with Washington will change,
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  SPEAKER_00: while Lescure answered whether Trump will change.
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  SPEAKER_00: And all three treat the White House as the place where foreign policy is still made,
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  SPEAKER_00: and none of them mention Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Leaders in South Africa, China, and France responded to the midterms within hours.
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  SPEAKER_00: South African's president called the results a new era in world relations.
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  SPEAKER_00: China called them an internal matter and said it would keep working with the U.S.,
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  SPEAKER_00: and France's finance minister said Trump still controls foreign policy.
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  SPEAKER_00: What Congress can change abroad.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump said the war on Iran played a role in the Republican losses.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a television interview, Trump said voters probably were not ready
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  SPEAKER_00: for the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump acknowledged that Democrats had done a good job and fought hard.
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  SPEAKER_00: On his Truth Social platform,
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  SPEAKER_00: he said he was not on the ballot and would have won in a landslide if he had been.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump also said Democrats will send him bills he considers insane and that he will veto them.
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  SPEAKER_00: He predicted that after a couple of months of vetoes,
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats will call and the two sides will work together.
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  SPEAKER_00: The president can veto legislation and Congress can override the veto
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  SPEAKER_00: with a two-thirds majority in both chambers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Congress writes legislation and government spending
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Senate must approve cabinet members, ambassadors, and federal judges.
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  SPEAKER_00: Michael O'Hanlon, director of research for foreign policy
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  SPEAKER_00: at the Brookings Institution,
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  SPEAKER_00: said before the election that he did not expect Congress to have a large power
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  SPEAKER_00: over the Iran War.
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  SPEAKER_00: O'Hanlon said Congress could perhaps prevent a major escalation by refusing to fund it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Conradus, an editor at Government News Service,
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  SPEAKER_00: said Democrats can push legislation that would give Ukraine more aid.
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  SPEAKER_00: A veto of such a bill could be overridden only with the vote of some Republicans.
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  SPEAKER_00: Conradis also said Democrats will use oversight to scrutinize the closing
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  SPEAKER_00: of the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Agency for International Development and will call officials they hold responsible
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  SPEAKER_00: to hearings.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know,
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats now control the chambers that write laws and pay for programs,
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  SPEAKER_00: but a presidential veto can only be overridden with Republican votes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Analysts expect Congress's main tool on the Iran war to be funding
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  SPEAKER_00: and expect Democrats to push for more aid to Ukraine and for hearings on the closing
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  SPEAKER_00: of U.S. aid.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump says he will veto bills he considers insane and expects to work with Democrats afterward.
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  SPEAKER_00: Missouri Voters Reject Abortion Amendments Voters on Tuesday defeated
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  SPEAKER_00: a proposed amendment to Missouri's Constitution
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  SPEAKER_00: that would have reimposed restrictions on most abortions.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would have allowed abortions only for medical emergencies and fetal anomalies
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  SPEAKER_00: or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would also have barred certain medical procedures for transgender minors.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two years ago, Missouri voters became the first in the United States to undo
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  SPEAKER_00: an existing abortion ban by approving an abortion rights amendment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ilhan Omar wins her re-election.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrat Ilhan Omar won re-election to the House despite calls from Trump for her
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  SPEAKER_00: to resign from Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: So suck on that, Donald.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this morning's edition.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know it's a short edition, but you know, I figured we could use a midweek good news edition.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this is.
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  SPEAKER_00: I hope the rest of you enjoy the rest of your week.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will see you guys all again tonight.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez. Thanks so much for listening.
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  [music]