23: Twenty-three people have died in Haiti after Hurricane Melissa passed near the island, adding more anguish to a country that has been in crisis for most of the past decade and without a president since Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. The hurricane is now headed toward Bermuda.
430,000: The UN reports that sectarian violence in post-Assad Syria has already displaced 430,000 people. Syria’s 14-year long civil war had pushed more than half the country’s 22 million people from their homes. The end of that conflict with the ouster of Assad last December had raised hopes for an end to the displacements.
41%: US coffee roasters’ stockpiles are running low as they wait for a new US-Brazil trade deal. Since US President Donald Trump put 50% tariffs on Brazil, coffee prices in the US have gone up by 41% from a year ago, to an average of $9.14 a pound. Brazil alone accounts for a third of American coffee consumption.
5: French authorities arrested five more Louvre heist suspects outside Paris on Wednesday. However, the stolen jewels, valued at more than $100 million, have yet to be recovered.Over the past two weeks, President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has sent around 2,000 troops to Haiti to rescue four Salvadoran nationals working in Haiti who were kidnapped by gangs. But the self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator” may have bigger ambitions.
In the end, the long-predicted “blue wave” turned into a tsunami as the Democrats, harnessing widespread frustrations over high living costs, opposition to the war in Iran, and misgivings about Trump’s deportation policies, swept back to power on Capitol Hill.
Last night’s wins were not only pivotal, but also broke multiple glass ceilings in American politics.
The elections are widely seen as a referendum on the African National Congress (ANC), the party that has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid, amid frustration over pervasive corruption, crumbling public services, and rising migration.