Morning Brief, Wednesday 4 November

Democrats moved towards control of the House after projections from CNN and NBC, with Decision Desk HQ earlier calling the chamber for the party on election night. All 435 House seats were up, and the result, if it holds across late counts, gives Congress its first real institutional check on President Donald Trump since he returned to office.

Senate results sharpened the rebuke. Jon Ossoff held Georgia, Chris Pappas won New Hampshire, and Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham in South Carolina, a state that had not elected a Democratic senator since 1998. In Texas, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton, making it the first Democratic Senate win there in nearly 40 years, according to the reports.

The governorships carried the same message in different accents. Kathy Hochul won a second full term in New York, Byron Donalds was projected to become Florida's first Black governor, and Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia to become the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. Steve Greenberg, a Siena Research Institute pollster, put New York's result in a longer frame.

Donald Trump told the Financial Times that the United States has no immediate plan to strike Iran, pushing back against speculation that Washington would expand its campaign after the midterm elections. He said US forces were ready if needed, after months of limited strikes and naval pressure around the Strait of Hormuz.

The comment followed a limited US strike on Monday against an air-defence installation on Qeshm, an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz. US officials said the action was defensive and targeted positions from which Iranian forces had reportedly fired surface-to-air missiles at American aircraft. Iranian media reported explosions on Qeshm, Hengam and near Bandar Abbas.

Shipping still looks exposed. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said three tankers exploded after hitting naval mines while transiting the strait without permission. Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that an oil tanker had been struck by two unknown projectiles near the strait. Iran says it has a maximum deterrence plan ready against any new US attack, with target lists that include US and Israeli assets.

Trump also said indirect talks with Iran continue over enriched uranium, a stockpile he put at roughly 1,000lb. Qatar says it still hopes conditions can be created for an agreement and future negotiations, leaving the diplomatic channel open while Hormuz traffic absorbs each new warning.

Óscar Puente resigned as Spain's transport minister after a four-hour hearing in Congress on the high-speed rail crash near Urda in Toledo province. He also stepped down as the PSOE's lead candidate for Valladolid in the 29 November general election, saying political dignity required the move after two severe accidents in less than a year.

The opposition said the resignation came too late. Ester Muñoz of the PP linked the Urda crash to January's Adamuz accident and counted 116 deaths across the two. Vox also pressed him in Congress, while some government partners that had demanded his resignation softened their tone once he announced it.

Puente defended maintenance spending and argued that 2026 had seen fewer LZB signalling disruptions than any year since 2010. He said the system had failed about 170 times this year, but only 64 failures had affected train circulation, and he attributed three quarters of the figures to outside causes such as cable theft, vandalism and fires.

The politics now moves from rail safety to the campaign. Alberto Nuñez Feijóo asked unions to reconsider the general strike called for 11 November, saying the timing was a serious error after Urda. Business leaders welcomed the call, while unions and smaller parties continued to press for an independent investigation into the chain of failures.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian guided bomb destroyed a school used as a humanitarian aid centre in Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region. People had gathered there to collect aid, and rescuers searched both the school rubble and a nearby shelter where residents had run after the first blasts.

The reported toll rose to 33 dead, with dozens still unaccounted for. Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, earlier put the number missing at 48, while Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 50 people could be buried under the rubble. The regional authorities declared three days of mourning.

The UN human rights mission in Ukraine said the time and place of the aid distribution had been widely publicised in advance. Danielle Bell, who heads the mission, said Russian forces either knew an aid distribution was taking place or failed to take basic steps to establish what was happening. The mission said the attack appeared to breach core rules of international humanitarian law.

Russia also launched a broad overnight barrage across nine Ukrainian regions, according to Zelensky. He said the attack involved 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles, and emergency power cuts followed. In Kharkiv, local authorities reported damage to a medical facility and said more than 200 patients were transferred to other hospitals.

Authorities checked at least seven European flights after bomb threats on Tuesday, and searches found no explosives. LOT, Scandinavian Airlines, Ryanair and Wizz Air were among the affected carriers, while aircraft were diverted, escorted or searched after landing in Poland, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary.

In Poland, a LOT flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw Chopin carrying 181 people diverted to Modlin and landed at 10:01. Modlin airport closed while bomb-disposal experts examined the aircraft and baggage, then reopened after the threat was cancelled at 12:21. Passengers went through border control and were taken to Warsaw Chopin by coach.

Italy handled two Ryanair flights at Rome's Fiumicino airport, one from Lisbon and another from Dublin that was escorted by the Italian Air Force. In Spain, a Ryanair flight from Manchester landed at Murcia with 114 passengers and seven crew members, and the Guardia Civil later ruled out explosives. Officials there called the report a hoax.

Bulgaria reported threats on flights bound for Sofia, including a Wizz Air service from Bergamo with 176 passengers and a Dublin flight with 185 people on board. The UK Government described threats to two British departures as malicious hoaxes. No official has confirmed a link between the incidents, though authorities in several countries are expected to compare evidence.

Hackers entered remote refrigeration controls at supermarkets in several European countries and drove temperature settings to absurd levels. In Silvi Marina in Abruzzo, attackers set a store's refrigeration to 150 degrees, a level the equipment could not reach, but actual temperatures climbed to 40 degrees before technicians arrived around 7am.

Italy convened officials at Palazzo Chigi and then called an urgent meeting with retail representatives and the agriculture ministry. The government said the domestic impact was strongly limited, with only a few outlets hit, mostly those running obsolete security systems. It also said no health risk tied to thawing had emerged.

The pattern still widened. Giovanni Arena of Federdistribuzione put the number of affected supermarkets in Sicily at 20 across Catania, Ragusa and Palermo, while police opened an inquiry in Sassari after display fridges at a Viro store were pushed to about 15 degrees. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the attacks appear coordinated across Europe.

At least six countries reported refrigeration problems on Monday, including Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and Estonia. Earlier investigations in France, Belgium and the Netherlands blamed outdated remote-control modules made by Danfoss and Copeland. ENISA said investigations continue and the perpetrators remain unidentified.