Morning Brief, Friday 6 November

Democrats kept adding seats after Tuesday's midterms and stood above 250 House seats by Thursday, with a chance to pass the 257-seat mark they reached after Barack Obama's first victory in 2008. Cait Conley, an Army veteran and former Biden national-security official, defeated Republican Representative Mike Lawler in a suburban New York district after ballot-processing problems in Westchester County delayed the call. Democrats also flipped seats in conservative areas of Virginia, Arizona and Montana.

Black turnout powered several Southern results. Shomari Figures won another term in an Alabama district that Donald Trump had carried by double digits two years earlier, and Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in US history in Georgia. In Mississippi, Scott Colom widened his lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith to more than 1,700 votes by Thursday while lawyers fought over provisional ballots. LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, linked the turnout to the rollback of diversity policies and a weakened Voting Rights Act.

Early voting did much of the work in key Senate races. Jon Ossoff's early and mail votes in Georgia exceeded Mike Collins's Election Day total by 60,352, and James Talarico held an early-vote cushion of about 148,000 over Ken Paxton in Texas. Roy Cooper also built enough early support in North Carolina to win by nearly 20 percentage points, the largest Democratic Senate flip margin reported by Thursday afternoon.

Santiago Peña's resignation failed to settle Paraguay's banking and political crisis. The central bank had taken control of Ueno Bank over what it called a serious capital deficit, after a fast expansion that left the digital lender claiming more than three million clients. Services were suspended while deposit-return procedures were organised, queues formed in Asunción, and arrest warrants were issued for eight senior executives, including bank president Miguel Vazquez, who turned himself in.

Peña tried to move first. He approved emergency payouts, named a new central bank chief and promulgated a law to speed partial withdrawals from guarantee funds. His party then abandoned him. Horacio Cartes withdrew support, the lower house approved impeachment by 78 votes, and Peña submitted his resignation on Thursday.

Congress then lost its quorum when the governing majority walked out of a joint session rather than let the resignation proceed without the votes it wanted. Acceptance would have installed Vice President Pedro Alliana and given Peña life-senator status, with immunity. Opposition senators want impeachment to continue instead, because rejecting the resignation would send the case to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove him.

Prosecutor General Emiliano Rolón Fernández opened three criminal investigations into bank supervision, the bankruptcy process and the placement of public funds at Ueno. The vote on the resignation now decides whether Peña faces a Senate trial or leaves office with a shield that prosecutors may later have to test.

French unions filled streets across the country on Thursday in a strike over wages and purchasing power. The interior ministry counted 575,000 demonstrators, while other reporting placed government and union estimates between 600,000 and 1.5 million. The CGT claimed 1.6 million. Students joined marches, yellow-vest groups backed the action, and rallies spread across more than 70 cities with about 250 actions called.

Laurent Nuñez had deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, plus drones, helicopters, mounted units, armoured vehicles and mobile units. By 18.00, the interior ministry counted 448 arrests nationwide and 53 injured security personnel. Police used tear gas against pupils who built blockades from bins and fencing outside schools, while Toulouse reported 19 arrests after clashes. In Paris, officers blocked access to the statues around the Place de la Nation as the first confrontations began.

Schools, universities and public services felt the stoppage. Unions said nearly 1,000 of France's 3,700 upper secondary schools were affected by blockades, while the government counted 81 blocked schools and teacher participation of 16%. Several regional trains were cancelled, the Eiffel Tower closed to visitors, and some rooms of the Louvre shut.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu answered with a social conference on Monday, 9 November, at Matignon with unions and employer organisations. Student union Unef called new rallies for 7 November, and yellow-vest groups announced further action.

Hoax bomb threats disrupted European air travel on 5 November, affecting 18 flights by the count reported during the day. Six involved Italy, and the cases included three flights that landed at Madrid, a LOT service from Warsaw to Brussels, and four flights that landed in Prague. Officials had already described similar alerts earlier in the week as malicious hoaxes, but airlines and security services still diverted aircraft and scrambled fighters where assessors treated threats as credible.

Two Finnair flights faced what the airline called unfounded scares. A Helsinki to Rome service was intercepted over Croatia and then accompanied by two Italian Eurofighters from Grosseto before landing safely in Rome. Another Finnair flight from Helsinki to Vienna also landed safely and awaited inspection. The Aer Lingus service from Dublin to Rome became more tangled: French authorities ordered it to land in Normandy, the Irish pilot apparently refused, and two French warplanes escorted the Airbus to the Evreux military base. No bomb was found, and questioning of the Irish pilot and English co-pilot forms part of the inquiry.

Investigators are also examining the source of emailed threats. An email warning sent to Rome-bound flights came from a group calling itself anti-feminist, according to a copy reviewed by AP, and Bogota City Hall said a threat to the Italian airport came from an account tied to a public health network in the Colombian capital. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said he had no information on the perpetrators.

Aviation-security experts said diversions can cost up to $250,000, though short-haul flights may make this round less expensive than long international disruptions.

Isaac Herzog closed two days of consultations with 67 Knesset members recommending Gadi Eisenkot to form Israel's next government, against 46 for Benjamin Netanyahu. Seven lawmakers from United Torah Judaism abstained, leaving neither camp with the 61 seats needed in the 120-seat chamber. Herzog said the result was clear but the law still requires him to judge whether a government can actually be formed.

Arab parties tipped the recommendation count. Ra'am, with eight seats, backed Eisenkot first, and the Joint List, with 11, followed on Thursday. Arab turnout more than doubled to roughly 80%, and the two Arab groupings together hold a record 19 seats. Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List, described the move as a rejection of the current government rather than a warm endorsement of Eisenkot.

United Torah Judaism's decision not to recommend Netanyahu broke with decades of loyalty. Isaac Pindrus said the party's immediate demand in any future government would be the status of Torah students, shorthand for military-service exemptions for religious students. Netanyahu had backed the exemption in practice without anchoring it in law, angering Israelis whose reservists have served repeated tours during wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Eisenkot has set conditions for any coalition with Arab parties, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, compulsory civil or military national service, and denunciation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Netanyahu remains prime minister until a new government takes office, and another failed coalition round could send Israel toward its seventh election since 2019.

US technology shares sold off on Thursday after investors concluded that Democratic control of Congress could slow the data-centre and artificial-intelligence buildout. The Nasdaq fell 5.6% during the session, dragged lower by semiconductor companies and firms tied to AI infrastructure. Tesla slid more than 10% soon after the open, leaving it down about 23% for the year, while SpaceX shares fell 10.5% in the same session.

The political fear centres on Elon Musk's companies and on projects that need cheap power, friendly local permits and federal contracts. Investors expect the new Democratic majorities to increase scrutiny of AI projects, data-centre development, Starlink's activities and business with the Trump administration. Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the hit to Americans' retirement savings.

Asian markets braced for a rough Friday open. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both plunged more than 10% in pre-market trading early on 6 November, and Japanese equity futures pointed lower. The Nikkei 225 was at risk of entering a technical bear market after a heavy fall since the end of June, with the index near a 20% drop from its peak.

The sell-off did not hit every asset class the same way. Spain's Ibex 35 closed 0.59% higher, and oil rebounded after a sharp fall the previous day, with Brent rising 2.3% to $96.78 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate gaining 2.4% to $90. The market reaction left AI-linked shares carrying the clearest political discount.