World Briefing: November 6, 2024
Here in Eastern Europe, it’s the day after of the last day of voting in the U.S. elections - and perhaps nowhere else are the results being watched as anxiously as in Ukraine. All bets are off should Donald Trump - the man who said he admires strong men such as Russian President Vladimir Putin - return to the White House to move on his pledge to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
Just before 2 am ET, the Fox News Decision Desk projected that Donald Trump will become the 47th President of the United States.
The latest from BBC America: Donald Trump declares victory in the US election as he addresses jubilant supporters in Florida. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate," he says to cheering crowds. The Republican has picked up the battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, leaving Kamala Harris with only a narrow path to victory. Harris's campaign says she won’t speak today, as dejected supporters left her watch party earlier
Meanwhile, Republicans are projected to take back the Senate
Control of the House is still up in the air: Republicans currently have 197 of the 218 seats needed to control the chamber. The Democrats hold 169 as of 3:30am ET
Meanwhile, voters in Florida narrowly rejected a measure to overturn its six-week abortion ban
For the first time in history, the Senate will have two Black women serving simultaneously: Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland, both Democrats (NYT)
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen appears to have jumped the gun and tweeted congratulations to Donald Trump before he’d been official declared as the victor. At the time of her post, Fox News was the only network to declare him. Wrote Von der Leyen: “I warmly congratulate Donald J. Trump. The EU and the US are more than just allies. We are bound by a true partnership between our people, uniting 800 million citizens. So let's work together on a strong transatlantic agenda that keeps delivering for them.“
an indication of how tense the situation on voting day was in the center of U.S. power, Washington DC, some parts of the U.S. Capitol were locked down after a male was found to be carrying flares and other dangerous materials
Trump said he was "confident" as he cast his ballot in Florida, while Harris, who sent her own ballot by mail, called into several radio stations in swing states in a final push to convince voters - BBC
The FBI said on November 5 that polling locations in several U.S. states have been the target of bomb threats, many of which appear to originate from Russian domains. At least two U.S. polling stations in the state of Georgia were evacuated because of the threats, officials said. Both reopened after about 30 minutes and authorities are seeking a court order to extend voting hours beyond the statewide closing time of 7 p.m. to make up for the time lost during the evacuations - RFE/RL
Donald Trump has been spending Election Night hunkered down at his beloved Palm Beach golf resort with one of his top campaign backers, Elon Musk, The New York Times reports. The former president is reportedly hosting multiple events at Mar-a-Lago throughout the night, with different tiers of exclusivity for his various guests. Some donors will join him for dinner, with others invited to attend a speech at the Palm Beach Convention Centre a little later in the evening. Given how close the vote promises to be, and the level of electoral disinformation already being spread online, some commentators have raised concerns over the prospects of Trump using Musk’s control of X, formerly Twitter, to create disruption and sow distrust as the count comes in. Over the past few weeks, Musk has repeatedly pushed false claims about the ongoing vote, such as releasing information on votes that were cast early to falsely imply Trump had a strong lead in key swing states like Pennsylvania, which otherwise remain too close to call - Daily Beast
Thousands of people in Tel Aviv took to the streets late Tuesday after the beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, fired the hugely popular defense minister Yoav Gallant. Opposition members are calling for a general strike. Sources close to Netanyahu said he’s also planning to sack the heads of the IDF and Shin Bet. He cited a breakdown in trust and “significant differences in managing Israel’s war” as reasons for firing Gallant. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will step in as defense minister, with Gideon Sa'ar assuming the foreign minister role - Haaretz
North Korean troops have entered the fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine, clashing for the first time with Ukrainian forces who are occupying a large chunk of Russia’s Kursk region, according to a senior Ukrainian official and a senior U.S. official. The engagement was limited, the Ukrainian official said, and likely meant to probe the Ukrainian lines for weaknesses. The North Koreans fought together with Russia’s 810 Separate Naval Infantry Brigade, the official said. It was unclear when the fighting took place. The Ukrainian official offered no details about casualties, but the U.S. official said a significant number of North Korean troops were killed. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive military information. The North Korean troops are part of what Ukrainian and Western officials estimate to be a contingent of about 10,000 soldiers sent by the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to bolster Russian forces trying to dislodge the Ukrainians from the Kursk region. Ukraine’s forces currently hold about 250 square miles there after an incursion that began last summer. - NYT
Georgia's opposition staged a third day of protests on November 5 against the results of last month's parliamentary elections claimed by the ruling Georgian Dream party amid accusations of widespread vote-rigging and irregularities at polling stations. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Appeals Court in Tbilisi before beginning a march through the Georgian capital, where traffic came to a standstill in parts of the city. Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream claimed victory in the election, with preliminary official results showing it received nearly 54 percent of the vote. The opposition and the country's pro-European president, Salome Zurabishvili, refused to recognize the validity of the results, alleging massive fraud and Russian interference - RFE/RL
