🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
President Trump named Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, as the new White House chief of staff on Thursday, with Miller set to take over Monday after Susie Wiles’ sudden resignation closed out 21 months in the job, the longest tenure of any Trump chief of staff across both terms. Trump thanked Wiles, who called her service “the honor of a lifetime,” for doing “a great job,” while a White House official described the departure as amicable, saying Wiles submitted her resignation Thursday night. The shake-up follows Republicans losing control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history.
In 1874, political cartoonist Thomas Nast published an illustration in Harper’s Weekly depicting the Republican Party as an elephant for the first time, an image that would come to define American political iconography for the next century and a half. Nast, already famous for creating the modern image of Santa Claus and for popularizing the donkey as a Democratic symbol, drew the elephant amid a midterm election season after a satirical rival cartoon suggested Republican voters had been frightened into the polls. The elephant stuck, and both parties’ animal mascots remain instantly recognizable shorthand in American politics to this day.
High winds whipped through Washington state on November 7, 1940, sending the Tacoma Narrows Bridge crashing into Puget Sound just four months after it opened to traffic. The suspension bridge, nicknamed “Galloping Gertie” for how dramatically it swayed, stretched nearly 6,000 feet and was the third-longest of its kind in the world; its designer built it with unusual flexibility, and engineers of the era hadn’t yet accounted for the aerodynamic forces that doomed it. Concrete began falling from the roadway around 11 a.m., and within minutes a 600-foot section tore loose, sending the span to the bottom of the sound, where its wreckage still forms one of the largest man-made reefs in the world.
🗳️ Mississippi Senate Race Still Unresolved as Colom's Lead Grows, Legal Battle Looms
Mississippi's Senate race remained unsettled Friday as Democrat Scott Colom's lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith grew to nearly 2,000 votes, with about 96% of ballots counted and thousands of absentee and provisional ballots still outstanding.
Secretary of State Michael Watson's latest count found roughly 3,300 absentee ballots and 12,000 to 20,000 uncounted provisional “affidavit” ballots remaining; voters have until Tuesday, Nov. 10 to resolve ballot problems, and counties must certify results by Nov. 13.
Mississippi has no automatic recount law, so both campaigns have deployed lawyers, with Republicans asking officials to preserve records tied to the outstanding ballots ahead of any court fight.
A Colom win would make him Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction and the state's first Democratic senator since 1982, though Democrats have already clinched Senate control without the seat.
🕵️ Alaska Senate Race Still Too Close to Call as 'Decoy Dan' Probe Escalates
Alaska's Senate race remained a nail-biter as Democrat Mary Peltola held a lead of fewer than 700 votes over Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, with roughly a quarter of ballots still uncounted and a ranked-choice tabulation looming if no candidate clears 50%.
A spoiler candidate who shares the senator's name, dubbed “Decoy Dan,” pulled about 3,600 votes — more than five times the margin — and the Justice Department has issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas investigating whether Peltola allies illegally recruited him.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a state investigation and said he could refuse to certify the race if it finds illegal conduct, while a New York Times report alleges Peltola staffers searched voter rolls for men named Dan Sullivan using aliases and burner phones.
Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee deny any role in recruiting the decoy candidate, calling the controversy a distraction from the race itself.
📈 AI and Chip Stocks Stage Friday Rebound After Wall Street's Worst Day Since April
Wall Street clawed back some of its losses Friday as AI and chip stocks rebounded from Thursday's rout, with the Nasdaq Composite up more than 1% and the S&P 500 higher in early trading, even as the Dow dipped on broader profit-taking.
The bounce followed Thursday's steep selloff, when the Nasdaq entered correction territory as investors weighed whether Tuesday's Democratic sweep of Congress could bring tighter AI regulation and slower data-center growth.
October's jobs report, also released Friday, showed a surprisingly strong 165,000 jobs added against expectations of 65,000, with unemployment ticking down to 4.1% and wage growth outpacing forecasts.
Analysts cautioned the rebound could prove fragile, noting that much of the “political risk premium” priced in right after the midterms had already unwound in Wednesday's rally.
🚔 ICE Arrests Illegal Immigrants Convicted of Attempted Murder, Child Sex Crimes on Election Day
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested five illegal immigrants with violent and sexual-crime convictions on Election Day, Department of Homeland Security officials announced, as the administration's nationwide crackdown on noncitizen voter fraud continues to widen.
Among those arrested: a Mexican national previously convicted of attempted murder and aggravated battery in Naples, Florida, and a Guatemalan national convicted of child molestation, along with three others convicted of aggravated assault.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the administration “will never apologize for putting the safety of the American people first” and that ICE enforces immigration law “every day, including on holidays and Election Day.”
The arrests come as DHS says it's investigating 1,620 cases of suspected noncitizen voter fraud nationwide, with 151 arrests made so far and roughly 300,000 additional cases under review.
⚔️ Iran Sends Formal Nuclear Proposal With 7 Demands as Trump Weighs Resuming Strikes
Tehran sent a formal nuclear proposal to Washington through Qatari intermediaries, conditioning further talks on seven demands, as President Trump met with his national security team to decide whether to resume military operations against Iran.
Iran's demands include U.S. compensation for war damages, an end to sanctions and the naval blockade of its ports, a reduced U.S. military presence in the region, and a permanent end to the war rather than a temporary ceasefire.
Trump said the U.S. would “make a decision” soon on resuming strikes, adding he'd “rather not destroy the rest of the country” but “maybe I will have to,” with officials noting that Nov. 9's new moon would favor military operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the conflict a “courageous and historic effort” and urged Congress to approve at least $350 billion in defense funding, even as Rep. Thomas Massie presses an impeachment effort against him over the war.
— Fox News