By Nils Adler, Mariem Bah and Rached El-Moctar
Netanyahu faces new ‘reality’ as legislative power shifts in Israel
By Nour Odeh
Reporting from Ramallah, occupied West Bank
Since no clear winner in the vote has been declared in the Israeli elections, consultations are next.
The Israeli President Isaac Herzog will hear from all parties elected to the 26th Knesset, and then he will have to make a judgement within a week from today on who he’ll task with forming a government.
In the meantime, on November 10, the new Knesset will convene and elect its leadership – the speaker, the deputies – and form the committees.
That is really when Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power on the legislature will be lost because it will be a whole new reality for the long-serving leader, who is not the prime minister anymore, but will do the job as interim prime minister until a government can be formed.
Brent crude oil drops below $100 per barrel following US elections
Brent crude fell more than 4 percent to under $100 per barrel after President Trump’s Republican Party suffered a heavy defeat in US midterm elections.
Brent crude for delivery in January slumped 4.7 percent to $98.76 per barrel at 16:05 GMT, the first time it has fallen below the symbolic level of $100 per barrel since early October.
The benchmark US oil contract, WTI, tumbled 4.5 percent to $91.73.
Meanwhile, global stocks rallied after Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress in the US midterm elections, providing greater political clarity and reducing uncertainty that has weighed on markets.
On Wall Street, all three main indexes traded higher, with communication services, consumer discretionary and technology stocks driving gains.
Energy shares were the biggest losers as Trump acknowledged the US war on Iran played a role in his party’s sweeping defeat.
Iran leader says US faces ‘waning power’ after war
The head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Egypt says the Trump administration sought to change the leadership in Iran through war but instead witnessed a “significant transformation” at home.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” said Tehran’s envoy to Cairo, Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour.
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said US military power and global diplomatic influence suffered “irreversible decline” under the Trump government.
“As a result of the arrogance of the oppressors, the waning power and dominance of America has suffered an irreversible collapse in both the hard military power and the soft international power dimensions, and its process of disintegration has been accelerated,” said Khamenei in a statement on Telegram.
VP Vance says US war on Iran ‘the reason we lost’ midterms
US Vice President JD Vance says the war on Iran doomed Republicans in the midterm elections.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said in a lengthy post on X.
However Vance said the war was still justified.
“Everyone knows why we lost, and any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” said Vance, who had reportedly been sceptical about the war President Trump launched in February.
US midterm election a ‘referendum on Trump’s war on Iran’
By Usaid Siddiqui
The outcome of the US midterm elections shows US presidents cannot launch wars in the Middle East without paying a price at home, says Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.
Trump came to office promising to keep the country out of new conflicts, but instead joined Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu in starting the war on Iran with “no clear strategy and no path to victory”, she told Al Jazeera.
The war has become a major political liability for the Republican Party, Mortazavi said, resulting in higher energy costs, inflation, and economic uncertainty for US consumers.
The US election was “a referendum on Trump’s war with Iran”, delivering the House and Senate to Democrats, she added.
Democrats can use their congressional majority to put Trump under greater pressure to end the war, Mortazavi said, though they lack the number of seats required to override his presidential veto.
Beyond Trump, the election also sends a “powerful warning” to future presidents about the domestic cost of foreign wars.
“American presidents cannot assume they can launch costly wars in the Middle East without paying a political price at home.”
UK government ‘clearly struggling’ with Palestine Action ban, group’s cofounder says
A legal battle over the United Kingdom’s ban on Palestine Action resumed on Wednesday as the activist group challenged its “terrorism” classification before the UK’s highest court.
In a statement, Huda Ammori, a cofounder of the group, said: “The overwhelming evidence presented to the Supreme Court by UN experts, Amnesty International, Liberty and even the former Director of MI6 is that this dangerous and disproportionate proscription has criminalised legitimate protest as terrorism for the first time in British history.”
Since Palestine Action was proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” in the UK in July last year, at least 4,000 people have been arrested on charges related to the group.
“The new Government is clearly struggling with the consequences of this ban”, said Ammori, citing several examples, including the fact that “[Prime Minister] Andy Burnham’s own national security adviser’s wife has openly expressed support for Palestine Action”.
“The Government’s own assessments acknowledge that Palestine Action has never advocated violence against any person, instead employing civil disobedience tactics,” she said, urging “the Supreme Court justices to bring this authoritarian overreach – and the chilling censorship it has unleashed – to an end once and for all.”
US-Israel ties at a crossroads, but Democratic leaders still favour unconditional support
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, says that after the outcome of the midterm elections, US President Donald Trump might make more of an emphasis on foreign policy over domestic policy, as he searches for a “legacy”.
“I suspect that [Trump] knows in his heart that the American people reject his war on Iran and that he needs to slow down or change course,” Bishara said.
As for the US’s relationship with Israel, he said that although the US is on the “cusp of change” when it comes to the Middle East and Israel, the Democratic leadership in Congress still belongs to the “past, not the future”.
“The Democratic leadership in Congress still supports Israel and basically a war against Iran in some form or another; they just didn’t want it the way it was handled,” he said.
“While the Democrats in Congress are not fans of Netanyahu, they remain fans of Israel and support unconditionally Israel’s security,” Bishara added.
The role of these newly elected congressmen and senators will be important both symbolically and politically, he said, to put the kind of leverage necessary to change Congress’s stance on these issues.
US midterm results reflect wider anger over Trump’s policies, war on Iran
By Usaid Siddiqui
Political analyst Rami Khouri has told Al Jazeera the US midterm election results reflect widespread frustration with Trump’s policies, with the war on Iran highlighting broader economic and political grievances.
“The war itself is a problem for a majority of Americans who don’t want it to continue,” Khouri said, adding that the conflict reflected wider concerns over inflation, rising fuel prices, economic hardship and Washington’s support for Israel.
He also pointed to growing frustration among voters who feel ignored by their political leaders.
“The government doesn’t care what happens to ordinary Americans and does what it wants,” he said.
Khouri stressed that while the war on Iran played a role in the election, it was not the main reason voters backed Democrats.
“They didn’t directly do it mainly because of the Iran war. It was an issue somewhere there, but they did it for all of the reasons that caused them to be negative on Trump and the American economy,” he said.
‘The American people have sent a clear message’ with election result: Iran’s Foreign Ministry
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has issued a warning to the US after the country’s midterm elections, saying that attacking Iran will “not bring victory, but will lead to defeat”.
“The United States has been dragged into an illegal and horrific war against our country out of greed and in service of a deceitful entity,” Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X.
Baghaei attributed the move to what he called “failed calculations” and “strategic mistakes”.
“The American people have sent a clear message to American officials; if the US administration continues to ignore reality and insists on proceeding with its dangerous approach, the repercussions of its miscalculations will exceed anything it has witnessed so far,” he said.
“Iran is not a country that can be understood through arrogance, intimidated by threats, or forced to surrender through aggression.”
Israeli air strike kills one person, injures another in southern Lebanon’s Qabriqa
One person has been killed and another injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a motorcycle in the town of Qabriqa in southern Lebanon, the country’s Ministry of Health has reported.
One of our colleagues on the ground reported that a drone struck the motorcycle with a missile, destroying and incinerating it
We will bring you more information as soon as we receive it.
‘Iranian officials reflecting more or less a celebrating mood’ following US election results
By Resul Serdar Atas
Reporting from Tehran, Iran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei released a lengthy statement covering lots of topics, but there was a specific emphasis on the election result of the United States.
He says that if there are still those who harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour of the hegemonic system could change through party or factional shifts, or who believe that making concessions to the United States could end hostility towards the Iranian people and Iran, they are gravely mistaken.
Earlier today, we saw some of the statements being released by Iranian officials reflecting more or less a celebratory mood.
However, the supreme leader’s message is much more cautious, and he says, in essence, nothing has changed. The United States is going to remain a hostile force to Iran.
Both officials and the mood on the streets – despite cheering now that Donald Trump has lost the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives – still are very much cautious, and there is not such a belief that the United States is going to dramatically change its policy towards Iran.
‘I’ll be working for de-escalation’, wants Strait of Hormuz fully reopened: UK PM
Andy Burnham has promised to push for de-escalation in the Middle East after the Democrats won control of the US Congress in the midterm elections.
Asked for his reaction to the results, and whether he thought they would make Trump more unpredictable, the UK prime minister said: “Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living.
“That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves. But I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved.”
Asked whether he was worried there might be an escalation in the Middle East following the results, he said: “Well, I’ll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again.”
Houthis claim missile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport
The Houthis say they have targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the strike landed directly on the airport and caused “significant damage”.
He repeated a warning to airlines, staff and travellers to avoid Saudi airspace, with the exception of the skies over Mecca and Medina.
Saudi authorities are yet to comment on the claims.
US midterm elections a ‘protest vote’ against war on Iran
By Usaid Siddiqui
US-based political analyst Yousef Munayyer says the midterm election results reflect widespread public anger over Trump’s war on Iran and its economic consequences.
“The single biggest driver of votes in this election was the American public’s frustration and anger over the Iran war,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera, pointing to rising fuel prices and persistent inflation.
He described the outcome as “first and foremost a protest vote” against the direction of US foreign policy, arguing that opposition to the war superseded other political disagreements.
Munayyer said the implications for the conflict would depend on how Democrats use their control of Congress to hold the administration accountable and how Trump responds to the results.
The analyst said the Republican president could move swiftly to end the conflict or choose to escalate further.
“He may take the route of doubling down on this war, but that would only compound the political disaster for Republicans, and the disaster for American foreign policy that this war in Iran has been as well,” he added.
Houthis say they carried out several operations against targets in Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Houthis say they have carried out several operations against targets in Saudi Arabia.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted government forces in the east of al-Jowf province with six ballistic missiles.
Saree claimed the operation resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries, and the destruction of a number of vehicles.
The spokesman also announced that the group had targeted a military camp in the kingdom’s Najran region.
He said the group attacked a radar with a drone and launched a ballistic missile against a border control centre, both in the Jazan region, claiming “casualties among Saudi enemy soldiers and officers”.
Earlier today, Saudi Arabia’s civil defence directorate issued brief danger alerts in Najran and Jazan.
Saudi authorities are yet to comment on the claims.
Doctors Without Borders says it has delivered lifesaving supplies to Taiz hospital
Doctors Without Borders says it has delivered lifesaving medical supplies to a hospital in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz, as fighting intensifies.
In a statement, the aid organisation, known by its French initials MSF, said the supplies sent to Al Thawra Hospital would be used to help care for wounded patients. MSF said it was also treating people injured in the fighting at another city hospital.
It also reiterated its call for patients and humanitarian supplies to be allowed to move “safely and without delay”.
Taiz city has been the focus of a month-long Houthi-imposed siege, with more than two million people facing restricted access to food, water and medical supplies.
Failure of Trump, Netanyahu’s ‘warmongering policies’ becoming clear
We have more comments from Iranian officials on the US midterm elections results – this time from the spokesperson of Iran’s Defence Ministry.
In a social media post, General Reza Talaeinik described the situation as an opportunity to “revisit the crimes of global arrogance, especially America, and to renew our pledge to resist interventionism”.
“Today, with the failure of Trump and Netanyahu’s warmongering policies becoming more apparent and the trend of their hegemony’s collapse in the world, the steadfastness of the Iranian nation is more than ever inspiring to free nations,” he wrote.
Earlier, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the US cannot be trusted and stressed that changes in its political leadership will not change its hostility towards Iran.
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Trump received ‘resounding slap from his own people’ in midterms, says Iranian official
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser and assistant to the Iranian supreme leader, has commented on the US midterm results that saw Trump’s party lose control of Congress.
“The criminal Trump made every possible effort to ensure his party’s victory, but he received a resounding slap from his own people,” he said in a social media post.
“The true victor in this arena was Iran, which shifted the cost of war onto American soil,” Mokhber wrote.
“Continuing Trump’s failed policy will squander the remnants of America’s dignity, thanks to the blood of the martyrs, at the hands of the Iranian nation and the Axis of Resistance,” he added.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.