Maternity care needs more attention from the leadership of the Church of England, the midwife leading numerous NHS inquiries has said.

Since Donna Ockenden was first appointed to chair an independent review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in 2016, she has been called upon to lead inquiries at Nottingham, Leeds, and Sussex.

The inquiry at Nottingham University Hospital Trust — the largest of its kind in NHS history — found that more than 500 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm, or died, between 2012 and 2025.

The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has described England’s maternity services as being “in a state of crisis”. A national review that ran from 2022 to 2024 found that poor care had become normalised.

Read it all.

🤰Maternity care needs more attention from the leadership of the Church of England, the midwife leading numerous NHS inquiries has said. #ChurchTimes #Maternity #Healthcare https://t.co/5UCif4O4Js

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 6, 2026

The central thesis of his new book, Rethinking Christianity, is that what the likes of Ash heard is absolutely correct. The sea of faith around these islands is rising. “I am seeing,” he tells me, “a growth in young people wanting to talk about Christianity. Others have seen it, but right now no one really wants to emphasise it. It is probably best just to let it happen.”

The burnt fingers at the Bible Society, coupled with a still extant British reluctance to talk about Christianity – “We don’t do God”, as Alastair Campbell once put it, on behalf of Tony Blair – appear to have warned many commentators off. Not McGrath, though. This academic and author, best known as the biographer and champion of CS Lewis – both men were born in Belfast, albeit McGrath’s accent gives no hint of it – likes to step up when others hold back. He was, 20 years ago, the first leading Christian to lock horns in public with Richard Dawkins, following the publication of the evolutionary biologist’s global bestseller, The God Delusion.

In public debates with Dawkins, he dismissed the claims of the “New Atheists” that Christianity was a fraud. Dawkins and his sort, McGrath now says, “were aggressively asserting atheist beliefs, but posing as if they were telling incontestable truths”. In response, McGrath and his wife, Joanna Collicutt, a clinical psychologist and Anglican vicar, published a strong defence of religion titled The Dawkins Delusion. “I probably unwisely allowed myself to have a reasonably high profile,” he reflects.

Dawkins has, in recent weeks, been celebrating the 20th anniversary of The God Delusion, making appearances and writing articles (including in this paper). But the scientist is the deluded one, McGrath suggests. “The New Atheism seems to have tanked. It’s on its way out, because people have seen that it was never really answering the big questions.”

Read it all.

Theologian Alister McGrath: Christianity is back because it answers the big questions https://t.co/4sDVPgWjTK

— Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 (@benedictrogers) November 3, 2026

The National Security Agency told organizations that if they couldn’t fix their websites immediately, they should take them offline. Not patch carefully. Not watch for suspicious activity. Pull the plug, according to the NSA’s Oct. 21 advisory.

The flaws were in PHP, the programming language behind most of the world’s websites, and they would let anyone run commands on a server without a password. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and the Czech Republic temporarily took down some government sites.

How serious was it? The prime minister of Japan went on X.com to tell her country to get ready to patch. I have spent two decades in this business, including at the Pentagon and now at Vanderbilt University, where my lab specializes in cybersecurity. I have never seen a head of government issue a patch notice like this. It won’t be the last.

Here is what should worry you: This was pretty much the best-case scenario. The flaws were found with the help of artificial-intelligence models, including OpenAI’s, and handled the way we would want. They were reported quietly in August to PHP’s maintainers, who spent two months working with OpenAI and outside security researchers on a fix before releasing it publicly. OpenAI says that, to its knowledge, AI found these flaws before attackers did.

That is luck, not a system….

Read it all.

AI saves the day—and could bring doom tomorrow. OpenAI identified a bug in the web and reported it. Will the next one be found by bad guys with a Chinese open model? asks Brett Goldstein https://t.co/bo3vtS8SYq

— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) November 9, 2026

Gracious God, we offer thanks for the lives and work of Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe, hermits and mystics, who, passing through the cloud of unknowing, beheld thy glory. Help us, after their examples, to see thee more clearly and love thee more dearly, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ever heard of the 14th century English hermit, Richard Rolle?Richard Rolle was a 14th century English mystic and prolific religious writer. Although he was never canonised, the Church of England commemorates him on 23 January.Regulars at Choral Evensong won’t be surprised to hear that one of Richard Rolle’s earliest mystical experiences occurred while listening to a choir – and he continued to hear music from heaven whenever he chanted the Psalms.He wrote of two other forms of mystical experience: a feeling of physical warmth and a sense of sweetness. His experiences contributed to the medieval practice of affective meditation, initiated by St Anselm of Canterbury, in which Christians imagine the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of events in the Gospels.You can continue reading this fascinating piece by our Librarian, Emma Laws: https://t.co/rcWBekqsxS#ExeterCathedral #YourCathedral

— Exeter Cathedral (@ExeterCathedral) January 23, 2026

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Nahe Deggendorf, das Tor zum Bayrischen Wald. Beim Betrachten des Sonnenunterganges kommt ein Gefühl der Ruhe, der Freiheit und der Verbundenheit mit der Natur auf. https://t.co/0BybtJT5iR

— Mittelfranke (@Rubenbauer16) November 8, 2026

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethu′el:

Hear this, you aged men,
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children another generation.

What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep;
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and without number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines,
    and splintered my fig trees;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
The fields are laid waste,
    the ground mourns;
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine fails,
    the oil languishes.

Be confounded, O tillers of the soil,
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley;
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
The vine withers,
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are withered;
and gladness fails
    from the sons of men.

Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests,
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

–Joel 1:1-13 

Early morning vibes from Surfside Beach, South Carolina 🌅 #earlymorningvibes @EdPiotrowski @jamiearnoldWMBF @AndrewWMBF @LiamKennyWPDE @jgreenhillwx https://t.co/KkAsxMNeJz

— Cathy Kelley (@catsunrisechick) November 9, 2026

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Never Forget All Veterans. https://t.co/aGd8Y4kFAt

— Historygirl (@janeyellene) November 8, 2026

O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.

–Psalm 96:1-4

Morning everyone I hope you are well. A wander down the very quiet valley alongside Langstrath Beck. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict https://t.co/UfhlYRo1r5

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) November 8, 2026

O Lord our God, who dost call whom thou willest and send them whither thou choosest: We thank thee for sending thy servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve thee, the living God; and we entreat thee to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of thy service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Nov 7: Feast of Willibrord (†739). Northumbrian who studied at Hrypis (Ripon) and Ráith Máelsigi (Clonmelsh, Ireland). He preached in Frisia and became archbishop of the Frisians in 695. His see was at Utrecht. He founded the monastery of Echternach, Luxembourg, in 697/8. https://t.co/sTw8Fl90t6

— North Ages (@NorthAges) November 7, 2026

O Thou, who art the light of the minds that know thee, the life of the souls that love thee, and the strength of the wills that serve thee; help us so to know thee that we may truly love thee, so to love thee that we may fully serve thee, whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

––Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)

Happy Saturday! Robins always manage to cheer me up when I see them. There’s something rather special about these little birds, and I know I’m not alone in feeling that way 🧡 https://t.co/zSbbTccZhl

— Michelle Paul (@nature_michelle) November 7, 2026

But thou, terrible art thou!
    Who can stand before thee
    when once thy anger is roused?
From the heavens thou didst utter judgment;
    the earth feared and was still,
when God arose to establish judgment
    to save all the oppressed of the earth.

–Psalm 76:7-9

Morning everyone I hope you are well. A beautiful tranquil morning earlier in the week on Derwentwater with views across to the island and Causey Pike as the backdrop. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict https://t.co/xKXy5jDYbr

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) November 7, 2026

The Christian Emergency Network (ReadyUK), which equips churches to respond to major incidents such as severe flooding and terrorist attacks, has issued a practical briefing for churches and congregations on resilience measures, and how to navigate serious disruption with “calm and practical faith”.

It reinforces official warnings on preparedness for serious disruption in the shape of natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or state-sponsored terrorism. The Government’s “Be Ready” campaign is part of a “national resilience conversation” to raise awareness of emerging risks, particularly in the wake of the summer wildfires, the advance of the winter storm season, the potential impact of the Super El Niño, and growing concern about cyber-attacks — the latest of which disabled freezers in shops all over Europe; and another, a security breach, which meant that 32 government websites had to be taken offline.

The Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, told BBC1’s Question Time last week that the UK was facing a “greater threat to the country than we certainly have for most, if not all, of my lifetime”. The government checklist includes advice on food and water supplies to last for 72 hours; on light and warmth, communications and information, money and documents, and medical supplies.

Read it all.

The Christian Emergency Network (ReadyUK) 🚨 has issued a practical briefing for churches and congregations on resilience measures, and how to navigate serious disruption with “calm and practical faith”. #ChurchTimes #ChurchNews https://t.co/bbTWr5zZwH

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 6, 2026

It was epochal and marks a new era in our political history. And for once everyone rushed to name clearly what happened.

The morning after the 2026 midterm elections, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was searingly blunt. For the Republican Party it was “close to an extinction level event.” Its effects will “reverberate for the next decade or more.”

“It was a Watergate-level repudiation,” said Ted Cruz, soon to be Texas’ lone Republican senator, on a podcast.

Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairman in the first Trump term, told Fox News on Wednesday the election wasn’t only a Democratic wave, it was “a Republican rebellion.”

Read it all.

Peggy Noonan, the Reagan speechwriter who has spent decades as the Wall Street Journal’s keeper of the old Republican flame, has written the GOP’s obituary. Her verdict: Trump is the author of the ruin.It wasn’t the war alone, she argues. It was the prices. The tariffs. Above all, the corruption, showy and shameless: crypto, pardons, federal contracts for his sons’ companies. Then came the decadence. Three days before the election, Trump threw a jungle-themed Halloween party with a caviar bar while Americans outside the gates added up their grocery receipts.Ron DeSantis called Tuesday’s results “close to an extinction level event” for his party. Trump’s response: sign a ballroom beam, declare his office a national monument, and blame Fox’s polls.Noonan has a line for that: “Please. It was you, Fredo.” When a Reagan speechwriter is quoting The Godfather at you, the party is over.https://t.co/Gptx4aHDHV

— Bucky (@BuckyNoseBest) November 6, 2026

War-battered Ukraine risks a demographic collapse. Births in Ukraine are falling, in part because there are fewer adults. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 the population inside government-controlled territory has fallen from about 37m to 27m-28m…. Around 3m-5m Ukrainians now live under Russian occupation, and millions more have emigrated.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, puts combat deaths at over 50,000; an independent estimate is closer to 150,000. Thousands of civilians have been killed, and Russia has deported over 20,000 children to Russify them. Wartime, moreover, is not good for starting families. The fertility rate has dropped from 1.2 children per woman in 2020 to 0.8-0.9, lower than any big country but South Korea. The replacement rate, needed to keep the population stable, is 2.1. In the first half of 2026 deaths outnumbered births by more than three to one.

Ukraine’s birth rate has lagged behind the mortality rate every year since independence in 1991, when the country (including Crimea and Donbas) had about 52m inhabitants. The war has turned that gap into a chasm. Russia’s population is getting smaller too, but Ukraine’s predicament is far worse. For a country under attack by its imperial neighbour, a demographic collapse is an existential worry.

Read it all.

Ukraine’s birth rate has lagged behind the mortality rate every year since independence in 1991. We explain why the war has turned that gap into a chasm https://t.co/59IIitfQ2O

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) November 6, 2026

From here:

Working with his Rugby contemporary R. H. Tawney, the seminal Labour thinker, and William Beveridge, the architect of the welfare reforms which sought to banish the five giants of want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease, Temple’s book Christianity and Social Order, published in 1942, provided a challenging theological gloss to this vision: “. . . there is no hope of establishing a more Christian social order except through the labour and sacrifice of those in whom the Spirit of Christ is active, and that the first necessity for progress is more and better Christians taking full responsibility as citizens for the political, social and economic system under which they and their fellows live.”

After Temple’s death at the age of 63 after being Archbishop of Canterbury for only 30 months, Bishop Barry of Southwell asked angrily in The Spectator: “Is the Church so rich in prophets that it can afford to squander the gifts of God?” A contrasting view, expressed by Hensley Henson, was that he died just in time “for he had passed away while the streams of opinion in Church and State, of which he became the outstanding symbol and exponent, were at flood, and escaped the experience of their inevitable ebb”.

Although a much different world than that of 60 years ago, the weight of Temple’s greatness is still felt. Once described as “a man so broad, to some he seem’d to be Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy”, his wide informed vision checks our growing narrowness and self-obsession, his realism our Utopian perfectionism, his generosity of heart a worthy riposte to the mood of cynicism and anger epitomising the age and his statesmanship a powerful reminder of what it is to serve as the national church.

Our task with this world is to convert it. Its need can be met only by the shattering impact upon its self-sufficiency and arrogance by the Son of God, crucified, risen and ascended, pouring forth that explosive and disruptive energy which is the Holy Ghost! –William Temple https://t.co/VHYv0IQauO

— Dave Langille (@cdnusboy) June 1, 2023

O God of light and love, who illumined thy Church through the witness of thy servant William Temple: Inspire us, we pray, by his teaching and example, that we may rejoice with courage, confidence and faith in the Word made flesh, and may be led to establish that city which has justice for its foundation and love for its law; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

“When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.” William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury 1942-44, remembered here and around the country today. https://t.co/sttRYctN9g

— Lambeth Palace (@lambethpalace) November 6, 2019

O Lord and Father, to whom alone the debtors in ten thousand talents can come with hope of mercy: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, who have aught to repay; forgive us all the debt, forgive us all our sins, and make us merciful to others; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Autumnal colours of Lakeland https://t.co/Hf59uA2NOw

— Graeme Peacock (@GraemePeacock1) November 6, 2026

Whom have I in heaven but thee?
    And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

For lo, those who are far from thee shall perish;
    thou dost put an end to those who are false to thee.
But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all thy works.

–Psalm 73:25-28

Good morning. It’s Friday! All those lovely colours of Autumn. View towards the city centre from Epping Walk Bridge 🍂 #Manchester https://t.co/prAPiqZ7JT

— Monica NAUGHTON Crimmins (@MonicaCrimmins) November 6, 2026

Is generosity in Britain a thing of the past? A report from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), UK Giving Report 2026, published in March, suggests that both donation levels and the number of people giving are falling.

In 2025, the British public donated an estimated £14 billion, a 9.1-per-cent decrease from £15.4 billion in 2024 — the first decrease in giving since 2021, the report states. The decrease is driven by lower average donations in 2025 of £65, down from £72 in 2024. The report’s findings are based on responses from 12,913 over-16s.

Nevertheless, research specifically into the trends of legacy giving suggests a more positive outlook. The director of Remember A Charity, Lucinda Frostick, says that research shows “a really slow, steady, positive increase in the proportion of people choosing to leave a gift in their will”.

Read it all.

🎗️ As global economic conditions hit charitable giving, the significance of legacies for charities and churches needs to be better understood — and talked about, ✍️ Amelia Braddick #Features #ChurchTimes https://t.co/licTByPzro

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 5, 2026

Russia agreed to supply Iran with 90 launchers for the advanced guided missiles widely used by its forces in Ukraine, a sign of Moscow’s military support for Tehran despite the demands of its own sputtering war effort.

A production schedule for 2024 and 2025 from a major Russian defence manufacturer, seen by the FT, details an export order for the helicopter-mounted launchers to a buyer identified by a code name used in Russian defence documents to refer to Iran. The order, which has not been previously reported, shows how the two allies have strengthened their military ties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Western intelligence officials say Russia and Iran have further deepened their partnership during the war in the Middle East this year, despite US President Donald Trump’s recent claims that Moscow was doing “very little, if anything” to help the Islamic republic. 

Read it all.

Russia deepened Iran support with missile launcher deal https://t.co/10SHf9wy0b

— Financial Times (@FT) November 5, 2026

Surfers call it the washing machine. When a giant wave throws you off your board and plunges you underwater, you lose all sense of where you are. That is what befell Donald Trump and his party on November 3rd, as they were slammed by tens of millions of American voters. They have still to grasp just how much their country has changed.

Already it is clear this was not a normal midterm swing against a sitting president, but the biggest wave-election since the aftermath of Watergate more than 50 years ago. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, flipping seats deep into once-safe red waters, from South Carolina to Texas.

The coming days will spell out two further lessons. One is that this is not just a triumph for Democrats, but also for American democracy. Voters cannot be taken for granted. If they are angry, they will turn against parties they have long supported. The other lesson, which follows from this, is that both parties now need to find a new way of doing politics—one that spends less time riling up their constituents and more getting things done on their behalf.

The wave has swept across America.

Read it all.

Donald Trump’s humiliation offers America an opportunity https://t.co/Naxd9wxajs https://t.co/sXRA5MiMCp

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) November 5, 2026

The national elections, just completed, added five states that will be completely controlled by Democrats next year, i.e., legislature and governor. They are, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Every one of these is ripe for legalizing assisted suicide, as that policy is now part of the liberal/progressive issue agenda. Most have already seen serious efforts to legalize doctor-prescribed death — even when Republicans held some power. Indeed, the electorally late (defeated for reelection) Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada vetoed a legalization bill a few years ago.

Every one of these is ripe for legalizing assisted suicide, as that policy is now part of the liberal/progressive issue agenda. Most have already seen serious efforts to legalize doctor-prescribed death — even when Republicans held some power. Indeed, the electorally late (defeated for reelection) Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada vetoed a legalization bill a few years ago.

Other states that are already governed by a so-called Democratic trifecta, but which have not yet legalized assisted suicide, are Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Efforts have been made to legalize assisted suicide in all of these as well, with Massachusetts voters rejecting assisted suicide in 2012 — thanks in large part to the opposition by Ted Kennedy’s widow.

I think all of these states will see renewed legalization attempts in the next two years. 

Read it all.

The other Democratic trifecta states have already legalized assisted suicide. But that is never the end of it. The first laws passed are not meant to be ceilings but launching pads. https://t.co/w842Yov8xR

— Wesley J. Smith (@theWesleyJSmith) November 5, 2026

But at least those young men had plenty of options for gambling online and buying legal weed. Here we come to the territory where the new right simply failed. Many of its tribunes had promised cultural renewal, a more assertive religious conservatism to counter progressivism’s moral framework, a war on porn and other digital addictions. This was the aspect of the new right that liberals attacked as theocratic or “integralist,” but they didn’t need to worry, because in the second Trump administration it only showed up in social media posts about Reformation Day and St. Michael the Archangel.

Otherwise, the new right in power was a force for libertinism, with corruption in Washington, D.C., going hand in hand with policies that favored vice. The pro-life movement vanished, the quest for pro-family policy was stillborn, and the idea of a new patriotic elite for a new America dissolved into a grifter’s mindset, leering side-eyed at Sydney Sweeney’s bust. Any religious revival in the wider culture probably helped elect religious Democrats, not a sinful-seeming GOP.

Nothing in this sad story means that the new right is simply finished. It’s not like there is some other form of conservatism more attuned to late-2020s reality waiting in the wings.

But the movement will be starting over. It needs leaders who either find a way to separate themselves from the Trump record or else were on the outside all along. It needs to repudiate corruption and stupidity. 

Read it all.

Read @Douthat60 on how the new right failed.https://t.co/io5ZKvZWMU https://t.co/sTh251EKgl

— Oliver Wiseman (@ollywiseman) November 4, 2026

We give thee thanks, O God our Father, for the good work which thou hast begun in us, in that thou hast called us to the knowledge of thy grace and faith in thee; and we pray thee so to continue thy work in us that our lives may be strengthened for thy service in the fellowship of the gospel, and our love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, to thy praise and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For thou, O Lord, art my hope,
    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon thee I have leaned from my birth;
    thou art he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of thee.

–Psalm 71:5-6

Reparations for slavery would amount to a “vast fine on the entire British people for a crime they did not commit”, the former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Revd Justin Welby said this week.

“You may be able to fine individual people for their conduct, but not everyone for their nationality,” he wrote in The Independent on Tuesday. “Group punishment is a moral evil. It mixes up the guilty and the innocent even when it is about contemporary times, let alone two centuries past.”

The article was published on the same day as a speech made by the King at the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St John’s, Antigua. The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons was a “shameful chapter of history” that “fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow”, the King said.

The UK Government has so far resisted calls for reparations, although the Prime Minister has indicated that a formal apology may be forthcoming.

Read it all.

💷 Reparations for slavery ⛓️‍💥 would amount to a “vast fine on the entire British people for a crime they did not commit”, the former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Revd Justin Welby said this week. #ChurchTimes #ChurchNews https://t.co/BeWPsnLZMk

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 4, 2026

he architect of the Republican midterm collapse stepped out from the rubble on Tuesday night and insisted it wasn’t his fault.

“I wasn’t on the ballot,” President Donald Trump posted to social media. “And if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE.”

Except, of course, the Trump name was stamped on every brick. His war of choice in Iran drove up US gas prices and alienated supporters drawn to his pledge of no more foreign conflicts. Allegations of profiteering by the president and those close to him, and his obsession with gilding the White House, went down badly with voters struggling to pay their bills. His handpicked Senate candidates in ruby-red states like Texas and South Carolina proved so unpalatable that Democrats won for the first time in decades.

“The Democratic strategy was to nationalize the election and make it all about Trump. To tell voters they can end Trump and end Trumpism right now. That pitch resonated with people on the left,” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist. “This became a referendum on the president.”

Read it all.

The architect of the Republican midterm collapse stepped out from the rubble on Tuesday night and insisted it wasn’t his fault. https://t.co/CgzEVvTdGk

— Bloomberg Government (@BGOV) November 4, 2026

Dorchester County voters have approved a new one-cent education sales tax that will help fund school construction, renovations and other improvements in Dorchester School Districts Two and Four.

With 100% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, unofficial election results showed 31,643 voters, or 59.96%, supported the referendum, while 21,128 voters, or 40.04%, voted against it. The tax is expected to take effect April 1, 2027, and will remain in place for up to 15 years.

Read it all.

(WCIV) Dorchester County voters approve one-cent education sales tax https://t.co/L8ksJ4XiDY 59.96% supported the referendum, while 21,128 voters, or 40.04%, voted against it #southcarolina #midtermelections #lowcountrylife #taxes #politics #midterms2026

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 4, 2026

Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy Admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is projected to win in the traditionally red House district in South Carolina against Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted the race for Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R) 1st District seat from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up,” as Lacore out-fundraised Honeycutt, a Charleston County Council member. Mace unsuccessfully ran for governor in the Palmetto State earlier this year.

The Democrat notched just under 50 percent of the vote, while Honeycutt trailed with just over 48 percent, with all votes tallied as of early Wednesday.

Read it all.

Nancy Mace’s former very red South Carolina house seat (where we are) goes narrowly blue https://t.co/IgcdQYD2gJ 49.7 to 48.6ish #midterms #elections #southcarolina #houseelections #midterms2026

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 4, 2026

In the end, it wasn’t just a wave. It was a wipeout.

A Democrat won a Senate seat in Kansas for the first time since the Herbert Hoover administration. The party picked up Senate seats in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Republicans even fell short in House districts in the South where they had tried to give themselves an edge by drawing new, gerrymandered maps.

The sweeping Democratic victories on Tuesday night offered a decisive rebuke to President Trump and his aggressive, often chaotic second-term agenda.

The party seized control of both houses of Congress. Voters rejected Republicans in conservative states that supported Mr. Trump by double-digit margins just two years ago, in places that had not seen competitive elections for major seats in decades.

Even some Democrats were stunned by the extent of their wins, which included defeating Greg Abbott, the three-term Republican governor of Texas; and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican senator from Maine.

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NYT top #midtermelections this was all about a negative vote on the president and his policies #politics #usa https://t.co/OUkC2Lqi9p

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 4, 2026