TODAY

The Democratic Party’s historic blowout of its Republican opponents in yesterday’s mid-term elections is extremely likely to result in a slew of high-profile Trump administration programs and initiatives getting put under the microscope and slashed. In the defense arena, the nuclear-powered Trump class battleship is likely the biggest target of opportunity for the new majority in the House and Senate.

The questionable utility and opportunity cost of the Trump class warships have made the program a hot topic of debate since it was first rolled out in December 2025. The battleship effort has already faced growing bipartisan pushback over its price tag and practicality, as well as industrial base concerns.

To provide some quick additional context, Democrats are now set to take firm control of both chambers of Congress in January. This will give the party immense sway over how defense and other federal spending is authorized and appropriated, as well as how broader policy is set.

Control of key committees that oversee the U.S. military and its budgets will also change hands. Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington state Democrat, could be in line now to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat from Connecticut, may be similarly poised to head up the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. Smith and Courtney have both been particularly outspoken critics of the Trump class battleship already.

“We need an appropriate mix of high-end survivable systems and lower-cost attritable capabilities, not a fleet of nuclear-powered battleships as proposed by the President,” Rep. Smith wrote in a letter to Democratic Party colleagues just today, which has now leaked online. The missive’s main thrust was to call for support for him returning to the role of Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in January.

“I think the Democrats will make a broad effort to remove Trump branding from Washington,” Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel who is now a senior adviser with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) think tank, also told TWZ. “The Trump battleship is likely doomed both because of the branding and because the program is extremely expensive and weakly justified.”

“The battleship program was in stormy seas before the midterm elections, because it was premised on a strategy that ran counter to a decade long bipartisan effort to distribute maritime lethality,” Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, told us, as well. “Compounding this challenge was the fantastically high cost per battleship, equating to as many as 10 Arleigh Burke class Destroyers for one battleship – a terrible trade off.”

Montgomery is of the view that, “given the midterm election results, the battleship program is now aground and taking on water.”

The current state of the Trump class battleship plan

As it stands now, the Trump class battleship design is a 35,000-ton-displacement warship that is expected to boast a wide array of weapons, as well as advanced sensors and other systems. From what the Navy has said so far, the ship will be able to fire nuclear and conventional missiles, including hypersonic types, from several very large Vertical Launch System (VLS) arrays. Its armament package is also set to include an electromagnetic railgun and a pair of traditional 5-inch naval guns. Several classes of laser directed energy weapons, as well as other weapon systems for close-in defense, are to be fitted, as well.

In May, the Navy confirmed that the plan is also for the Trump class battleships to be nuclear-powered. The service retired its last nuclear-powered surface combatants – a category that does not include aircraft carriers and submarines – in the 1990s. It has been even longer since a ship of this type was built in the United States. Russia’s Kirov class battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov is the only nuclear-powered surface combatant currently in service anywhere in the world.

The Navy has previously outlined plans to order at least 15 Trump class battleships between Fiscal Years 2029 and 2055. The first one, currently set to be named the USS Defiant, is not expected to enter service until 2036.

The USS Defiant could cost as much as $23 billion, and the average price of the next 14 battleships could be $18 billion, according to estimates the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put out in August. To put this in perspective, even the $18 billion figure would make these warships significantly more expensive than each of the next three Ford class aircraft carriers.

From the start, TWZ has raised detailed questions about the actual viability of the Trump class design, as it has been described to date. This includes the ability of these warships to conduct independent operations, as well as the value of employing them in this way. At least right now, the Navy only plans to acquire a very small number of these ships, each of which can only be in one place at one time, and that would be top targets for adversaries in future conflicts.

All of this comes at a time when the Navy has been struggling to meet operational demands for surface combatants with its existing fleets. This has been further exacerbated by shakeups in separate plans to acquire new frigates and larger uncrewed surface vessels (USV), as well as rising costs associated with its workhorse Arleigh Burke class destroyers.

Though top Navy officials have voiced significant support for the Trump class since December 2025, there had been no calls publicly for a ship of this type before Trump started his second term. For his part, Trump has been enamored with the idea of the Navy sailing new battleships for years now. He notably floated the idea while running for his first term in 2015.

TWZ has previously drawn further attention to industrial base concerns stemming from the battleship plans. Naval shipyard capacity in the United States has steadily dwindled since the end of the Cold War, and what remains is under immense strain from existing demands. Navy shipbuilding programs, even established ones, routinely run up against workforce shortages and growing costs. This is despite extensive efforts by the federal government, including under Trump, to reverse these trends.

Nuclear shipbuilding presents additional challenges. There are currently only two shipyards qualified to build nuclear-powered vessels of any kind in the United States, and only one supplier of naval reactors. This part of the naval industrial base is already heavily committed to building aircraft carriers and submarines. This includes new Columbia class nuclear ballistic missile submarines, the on-schedule delivery of which is critical to national security, but that also faces potential risks.

Bipartisan pushback already to Trump’s battleships

For its part, the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee has already demanded that the Secretary of the Navy outline what the service is doing to ensure the battleship program will not disrupt carrier and submarine production. Rep. Courtney was the one to call for this report, which is due no later than March 1, 2027.

Earlier this year, the Republicans in the House also allowed the passage of a version of the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for Fiscal Year 2027, with a key provision related to the Trump class battleship. Section 131 would block any work on the future USS Defiant until the Navy provides assurances that key weapon systems are “sufficiently mature.” Efforts to pass a final version of the Fiscal Year 2027 NDAA have since stalled in the Senate over non-battleship-related issues.

In July, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued a formal Statement of Administration Policy regarding the House’s version of the NDAA that included explicit opposition to Section 131 among other criticisms of the bill’s contents.

TWZ has pointed out on several occasions in the past that plans for the Trump class battleships could change dramatically given the lengthy schedule for the program. As mentioned, the USS Defiant is not expected to be delivered until 2036, well after the end of Trump’s second term, which will come to an end in January 2029.

There is still the possibility the battleship program could be reformulated in various ways rather than outright cancelled. Work on specific components, such as the railgun, might potentially be redirected to other programs.

“Any money allocated to the program will be for research or long term parts ordering that could just as easily support a next generation destroyer effort rather than the battleship,” FDD’s Montgomery also told us. “The battleship program itself probably can’t be killed until Trump leaves office, but all involved need to ensure that it does minimal damage to other Navy program efforts as it sinks to the bottom.”

“The Navy still needs the capabilities resident in the proposed battleship,” Brent Sadler, Senior Research Fellow for Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology at the Allison Center for National Security within The Heritage Foundation think tank, also argued in response to queries from TWZ. “The name – Trump class – likely won’t survive but the ship will.”

Sadler added that, in his view, what is really “needed is a national shipbuilding industrial plan that includes upgrading shipyard capacity to build the needed large surface warship.”

New pressure from Congress likely to go beyond battleships

The future prospects of other high-profile Trump administration defense initiatives are also very likely to at least see new scrutiny in the next year. Beyond battleships, the President has notably injected himself directly into other aspects of future naval shipbuilding plans as part of a larger effort dubbed the Golden Fleet.

In August, Trump released a memo titled “Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base” that called for, in part, the drawing up of plans for installing steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on the future Ford class aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller. The President has long been a critic of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) that are central to the Ford class design. EMALS and AWE have been a persistent source of reliability and maintenance issues over the years, but going back to steam and hydraulics would be a costly and risky undertaking, as TWZ has previously explored in detail.

Reports later in August also said Trump was pushing the Navy to physically reposition the island superstructure on the Ford class on aesthetic grounds. The President has been very vocal over the years about what he thinks warships should and should not look like.

The Golden Dome missile defense initiative is another potential area where the new Democrat-led Congress could clash with the administration. The full scale and scope of the Golden Dome plan, as well as its cost, remain very murky. In August, U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the top officer in charge of the initiative, warned that work could come grinding to a halt if key budgetary hurdles were not overcome.

The leaked letter from Rep. Smith makes clear that many more programs and policy issues, as well as defense spending writ large, are set to be put under the microscope when the Democrats take control of Congress in the new year. The Trump administration continues to pursue a roughly $1.5 trillion defense budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which includes some $350 billion that would come from outside normal defense spending streams via a process called reconciliation.

“We must thoroughly review our national defense strategy and develop a more realistic and sustainable approach that does not require a defense budget in excess of $1 trillion or paid for through draconian cuts to critical domestic programs,” Rep. Smith wrote in his ‘dear colleagues’ letter today.

Many other defense programs could potentially be at risk of being truncated or even cancelled if defense spending plateaus in the near term. Spending priorities also now have to take into account the need to restock critical munitions expended in the course of the war with Iran, as well as other crises in the Middle East in recent years. There are also ongoing demands to support allies and partners, especially Ukraine.

“President Trump has outlined a bold vision to restore American maritime dominance and construct a Golden Dome to protect our homeland and our citizens,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly told TWZ when asked about concerns about the fate of certain defense programs following the mid-term election results. “President Trump will work with anyone to protect the United States from threats abroad – if Democrats oppose these critical projects, they are playing politics at the expense of our national security.”

Asked to confirm her comments included the Trump class ships, Kelly added that these remarks also extended to the realm of “maritime dominance.”

It is still far too early to know the full extent of the fallout from this year’s mid-term elections on the U.S. government’s defense and other priorities. When it comes to the Trump class battleship, the program’s course had already looked increasingly uncertain before this massive shift in the political winds, and it looks one heck of a lot more precarious now.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

A world record of 51 red cards were shown during a chaotic under-20s game in Brazil.

The semi-final first leg of the Minas Gerais Under-20 Championship tie between Uberlandia and Mamore was marred by scenes that led to 43 players and eight members of coaching staff being sent off.

The previous record was 36, in a 2011 fifth-division game between Club Atletico Claypole and Victoriano Arenas in Argentina.

Brazilian news outlet O Tempo reported the military police were called, external because of extensive damage to the Parque do Sabia Stadium.

According to the referee’s report, a brawl broke out in the second half after Mamores’ Davi taunted the opposition bench during celebrations when his side went 3-1 up.

Uberlandia goalkeeping coach Paulo Sergio Dias Dos Santos ran on to the pitch to confront him, sparking clashes and the subsequent dismissals, with three players having already been sent off earlier.

The police report referenced 14 broken doors, damaged shower facilities, broken windows and that benches, tables and chairs had been destroyed.

The game was paused for approximately 40 minutes and then abandoned by referee Fernando Patrick Drosghic Modesto.

Uberlandia have since confirmed, external that they have conceded the second leg of the semi-final because Mamore only have seven players available as a result of all the red cards.

They described their move as a “gesture of fair play” as Mamore would progress through to the final, and Uberlandia will instead focus on the third-place match.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end Washington’s annual military assistance to Israel, estimated at approximately $3.8 billion, by the end of 2026.

The announcement reportedly surprised Israel’s security establishment, where senior officials said they had not received advance notice or detailed information about the decision and its potential implications.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 quoted a senior security official as saying the announcement had caught the defense establishment off guard despite ongoing consultations with Washington.

“We did not expect this announcement—certainly not today,” the official said.

“There is a constant dialogue with the Americans, yet it is fair to say that we were taken by surprise,” the official added, noting that the relevant authorities would assess the implications once further details became available.

Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump said he and Netanyahu had agreed several months earlier to discontinue the annual financial transfers, which he estimated at approximately $4 billion.

READ: Trump pressures Netanyahu to exclude Ben-Gvir and paves way for unity government

Trump said the two sides had agreed to stop the payments, adding that Israel no longer required the assistance because of its economic prosperity.

“We will no longer pay Israel,” Trump said, while emphasizing that Washington would remain prepared to provide support if necessary.

“Of course, we will help them if they need it,” he added.

The reported agreement raises questions about the future of US military assistance to Israel, particularly because the existing ten-year memorandum of understanding governing American security aid remains in effect until 2028.

Under the agreement, Israel receives approximately $3.8 billion annually in US military assistance.

In addition to this regular funding, Washington has provided Israel with billions of dollars in supplementary military assistance in recent years amid the war in Gaza and Israeli military confrontations involving Lebanon and Iran.

The report did not clarify how the proposed termination would be implemented under the existing agreement or whether the necessary legislative and administrative measures had been initiated.

READ: Trump claims his endorsement helped Netanyahu perform better than expected in Israeli election

The value of sterling fell significantly after the Brexit referendum in June 2016, and reached further lows during the Brexit process, the Covid pandemic and the 2022 mini-Budget.

Some traders said the UK was being seen in a different light given relative political stability, solid growth and the rapprochement with the European Union.

Sterling has responded strongly to Brexit developments and political uncertainty in recent years.

Jim O’Neill, an economist and former Treasury minister, said: “I’m not surprised. People were, and to a lesser extent, are, underestimating the improving momentum in the UK,”

A stronger pound can help rein in inflation, and increase buying power for consumers on imports and on holidays.

UK growth so far this year has outperformed all expectations, but there are signs that higher energy and fuel prices have now hit consumer confidence.

The Bank’s nine member Monetary Policy Committee faces an important decision on interest rates on Thursday, with the first rise in three years widely expected.

Democratic leader says party expects at least 255 House seats and promises to deliver on affordability.

Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries has celebrated his party’s sweeping victory in the United States midterm elections, calling the results an “American tsunami” as Democrats have taken control of both chambers of Congress.

“It wasn’t simply a blue wave. It was an American tsunami,” Jeffries said at a news conference on Wednesday, a day after Democrats pulled off upsets in several Republican strongholds.

Jeffries said Democrats expect to win at least 255 House seats once all vote counts are final, giving the party what he described as a historic majority.

“The American people have chosen common sense over corruption, chaos and cruelty,” he said.

Jeffries, who is set to become the first Black Speaker of the House when the new Congress takes office in January, said the results showed Americans wanted a change in direction.

“We’re humbled by the outcome,” he said, promising a “relentless effort to make life more affordable for everyday Americans”.

Speaking earlier on MS Now’s Morning Joe, Jeffries said Democrats would focus on getting things done rather than seeking revenge against President Donald Trump and his allies.

“We ran on affordability. We won on affordability. And now it’s our job to govern on affordability,” he said.

Democrats campaigned on bringing down the rising costs of groceries, petrol, housing and healthcare, which have left Americans feeling increasingly squeezed. But with Trump’s threats to use his presidential veto to block legislation he’s opposed to, Democrats may struggle to push through new laws even with a majority in Congress.

Jeffries pointed to a bipartisan housing affordability bill passed in July as an example of the types of legislation Democrats could pursue. The bill became law without Trump’s signature after he dismissed it as “a yawn” and “so unimportant”.

Jeffries also said Democrats would work to hold the Trump administration accountable for any wrongdoing, even as he acknowledged Americans wanted them to get things done, not “get even”.

“There’s a cost to corruption,” he said, adding that Democrats would follow the facts and the law, and “let the chips fall where they may”.

In the weeks leading up to the midterms the deployment of US forces and Trump’s own, often belligerent, statements ramped up talk that the US was getting ready to go back to war with Iran.

On the eve of the elections, the US carried out a limited bombing raid on an Iranian island in the Gulf.

Before he was hospitalised with a stroke, the US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, went to a classified briefing about potential military options for renewed war with Iran.

Without going into detail, he condemned the plans as “insane”, warning that they would trigger a “devastating escalation”.

There has been speculation that the Americans have plans to bomb civilian infrastructure.

Not only would that be likely to constitute a war crime, it might also be answered by devastating Iranian strikes on equivalent targets on US allies in the Gulf. Its list of potential targets could start with the United Arab Emirates, which is as close to Israel as it is to the US.

The regime in Tehran watches political developments in the US closely. It has not concealed its satisfaction that the consequences of its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have become a domestic political issue in the US.

Tehran is aware of the damage caused to Trump and the Republicans by the sustained rise in the prices of everything (from petrol and diesel to agricultural fertilisers) caused by the war and its attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted a warning on social media.

He said: “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message. If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, now acting prime minister of Israel after its election last week, and manoeuvring hard to form a new government, has repeated that he wants to bring down the Islamic regime in Tehran.

Reports in Israel and the US say that he is pushing Trump to go back to war.

Netanyahu does not have the seats to form a new government with his outgoing coalition.

But if a major war restarted and was sustained, and if Israelis came under direct fire, he could have new options of forming a unity government that he would use his considerable political skills to dominate.

Vance cited trusted pollster saying Iran war, Israel ties were top of mind for Trump voters swinging to Democrats.

Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war on Iran for his party’s withering midterms defeat, suggesting that the conflict may not have been worth ceding control of the US Congress to Democrats.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote in a lengthy post on X. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.”

“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

Vance, a likely 2028 presidential candidate and heir apparent to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, has been a key negotiator with Iran as the two countries search for a way out of the conflict, which has dented their economies and pushed global fuel prices up.

His statements on Tehran have been more dovish than those of other key members of the administration, and his post-election note appears to mark the closest he has yet come to publicly diverging from his boss on an issue that looks set to dog Republicans as the war continues.

Citing a pollster he describes as “one of the smartest people I know”, Vance said he was told ending the Iran war and “changing our relationship with Israel” were two of the top four answers given by Americans surveyed who had voted for Trump in 2024 but were planning to vote for Democrats in the 2026 midterms.

In stark contrast, Trump said, in the wake of the rebuke at the ballot box, that he had no regrets about launching the conflict.

“I did the right thing. I would have done it again,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Russian strikes also cut power to Ukrainian cities as Moscow claims 700 Ukrainian drones downed across multiple regions.

Ukrainian drone strikes have killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while attacks cut power to multiple cities in Ukraine and parts of Russian-occupied Crimea, officials reported.

Local Russian authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, announced the three deaths on Wednesday. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations in nine regions leaving emergency outages in many cities.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Telegram that it hit two power stations in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions. Ukraine has repeatedly said Moscow is targeting its energy grid as temperatures drop before winter.

Overnight, Russian attacks on critical infrastructure caused hours-long power and water outages across Kyiv and surrounding regions.

Residents in the capital were urged to use public drinking water fountains, and emergency centres offering hot tea and power points to charge devices were set up in the worst-hit areas.

There were also power outages in Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, home to approximately 2.5 million residents. Russia’s Ministry of Energy said Ukrainian strikes hit energy infrastructure overnight and that temporary outage schedules were in force. It did not say how many households were affected.

But reports also indicated that Russia-held Crimea ordered power cuts after an accident outside the region, a Moscow-installed ⁠official said, according to the Reuters news agency.

‌In addition to the capital, Kyiv, Russia also hit the regions of Poltava, Dnipro, Kirovohrad and Rivne, Reuters reported, citing Ukraine’s emergency service and local officials.

In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a major warehouse belonging to Ozon, known as Russia’s Amazon. The strikes were on an Ozon distribution facility in the town of Adygeysk, in the Republic of Adygea, regional head Murat Kumpilov said.

Ozon said all workers were evacuated and no one was hurt, and that it had removed damaged goods from its listings and rerouted deliveries.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said it downed 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 regions, Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

Kremlin response to US midterms

Amid ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin hopes United States President Donald Trump will continue his peace efforts after a sweeping Democratic victory in the congressional midterms dealt a blow to the president.

“President Trump continues to exercise his powers. We sincerely hope that he will also continue his peacemaking efforts,” Peskov said in a statement.

Whether a change in Congress could hinder Trump’s peace efforts, Peskov said, as cited by the state-run Interfax news outlet, that it was “an internal matter for America”.

Democratic control of the legislature in January is expected to bring a more vocal pro-Kyiv majority in Congress that could pressure Trump to change tack, but there is little hope that the US will return as a major financial backer of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy awarded US First Lady Melania Trump the Order of Princess Olga, which honours women who have contributed to Ukraine, according to a presidential decree on Wednesday.

The decree noted Melania Trump’s “significant personal contribution” in providing support for humanitarian aid and children in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials say the US first lady played a pivotal role in organising a six-day local ceasefire to evacuate civilians from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, which ended on Sunday.

The U.S. Air Force is seeking options for a new unpowered 500-pound air-launched glide bomb as part of a new ‘spiral’ to its Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) program. The service has already been acquiring two different lower-cost jet-powered cruise missiles under ERAM, including batches of these munitions for Ukraine. Adding glide bombs to the mix could create additional streams of even cheaper weapons that still offer valuable extended reach.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Stand-In Strike division (AFLCMC/EBI) put out a request for information (RFI) for what it is currently calling Extended Range Attack Munition Glide (ERAM Glide) on Monday. AFLCMC/EBI also put out a separate RFI for additional powered ERAM options.

For ERAM Glide, a “500lb class weapon desired, with the equivalent warhead with approximately 105lbs of explosive and associated fuzes,” according to the contracting notice. The warhead has to be “capable of blast / frag / and limited penetration effects.”

For navigation, proposed munitions have to use “M-Code GPS with a CRPA [Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna] antenna capable of operating in a GPS degraded environment,” the notice adds. It does not call for any particular form of guidance in the terminal phase.

However, ERAM Glide munitions will need to have an accuracy of “CEP [Circular Error Probable] 50 w/in 10m both in non-EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and high EMI environments (includes GPS degraded).” This means they hit, on average, within 10 meters, or approximately 33 feet, of the specified impact point at least 50 percent of the time. This also happens to be the stated accuracy requirement in the original ERAM RFI put out back in 2024.

The ERAM Glide contracting notice notably does not include a range target, but does specify “glide ratio of at least 10:1, and >15:1.” When it comes to unpowered glide munitions, range is especially dependent on the speed and altitude of the launch platform. Tactics like toss bombing can also help extend the reach of glide munitions even when the launching aircraft starts at a lower altitude.

The Air Force is also looking for munition designs that are already at a high level of developmental and production maturity for ERAM Glide.

There are potentially relevant munitions in production today in the United States. A prime example is Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER). The JDAM-ER is really more of a kit that turns various types of unguided bombs into the ‘warheads’ for the resulting precision-guided munitions. JDAM-ER builds on the basic JDAM concept by adding a pop-out wing kit that allows the weapons to glide out to a maximum range of around 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) depending on the aforementioned launch factors. A standard JDAM can also glide, but only for around 15 miles (24 kilometers) at most, according to the Air Force. JDAM-ER kits are available in 500-, 1,000-, and 2,000-pound-class flavors.

DST | The Joint Direct Attack Munition – Extended Range (JDAM-ER) | Andrew Snowden

There are other glide bomb options on the open market in the U.S. and elsewhere globally today, as well. This includes the SPICE family from Israel’s Rafael and the French AASM 250 Hammer, among others. However, many of them are smaller than the 500-pound-class weapons the Air Force is seeking for ERAM Glide.

For ERAM Glide, prospective vendors might also put forward unpowered derivatives of lower-cost cruise missiles. Eliminating the need for an engine and fuel to power it could free up additional space and weight for larger warheads or other payloads, or just lower overall weight. Reduced weight could, in turn, translate to extended glide range. Developing an unpowered variation of an existing design could also offer sustainment and manufacturing benefits, as well as reduce unit costs. There might even be a possibility for a modular design that can be readily configured for powered or unpowered use.

As already mentioned, the Air Force is already acquiring two lower-cost cruise missile designs through ERAM. These are the Rusty Dagger from Zone 5 Technologies (now a subsidiary of Norwegian defense company Kongsberg) and CoAspire’s Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile (RAACM). Zone 5 and CoAspire are already developing extended-range variants and derivatives of their respective designs for air- and surface-launched applications through two other U.S. military programs called Low-Cost Containerized Missile (LCCM) and Consolidated Affordable Ordnance System (CHAOS).

ERAM, as well as CHAOS, are also heavily focused on providing lower-cost extended-range strike options to allies and partners. Ukraine was notably the first known recipient of munitions through ERAM. At the same time, the ERAM effort, and its subsequent spirals, have also been feeding into the Family of Affordable Mass Missiles (FAMM) program for the U.S. Air Force’s own use. ERAM Glide could similarly help provide additional munition streams for the U.S. military, as well as for export.

Overall, the broadening of the ERAM program to include ERAM Glide speaks to growing demand within the U.S. military, and elsewhere globally, for enlarged and more diversified supply chains for munitions. The Air Force alone plans to acquire 28,000 lower-cost cruise missiles in multiple different configurations over the next five years through FAMM.

The war with Iran, as well as other crises around the Middle East in recent years, together with the conflict in Ukraine, have made clear that just stockpiling munitions ahead of a major fight is not enough. There also have to be realistic mechanisms to readily replenish those inventories, and do so in a cost-effective manner.

There has already been an explosion globally in the development of lower-cost air- and surface-launched cruise missiles for programs like ERAM. Many of these designs also blur the line between traditional cruise missiles, longer-range one-way-attack drones, and decoys. As noted earlier, the Air Force has also put out a call for new powered ERAM designs as part of the latest spiral to the program.

As these trends continue to grow, the Air Force is now looking to expand the ERAM program to include both powered and unpowered munitions.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

His mother was escorted to the airport by relatives and Dr Erieka Bennett, Head of Mission of the African Diaspora Forum.

“I’m going to America to plan my son’s funeral,” Gyamfi said.

She thanked the government and well-wishers for their support and prayers following her son’s death.

In a social media post on Saturday, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani said Trump had agreed to grant a visa to Gyamfi so she could mourn her son in person.

Mamdani said the murder of a child was a pain no parent should endure, “let alone from thousands of miles away.”

“Javits Frimpong’s mother deserves to say goodbye to her son in person. I just got off the phone with President Trump, and he has agreed to grant her visa immediately,” he said.

“All of New York City is mourning this tragedy,” he added.

Ghana’s government has condemned the killing and said it was following the case closely to ensure justice.

It has urged US authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and said it was ready to provide legal and consular support to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Police are searching for three teenage suspects who fled the scene, captured on surveillance footage.

The shooting has sparked concern among Ghanaians about the safety of children sent to study in America.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that anyone expecting a shift in the United States’ policy towards his country is “seriously mistaken”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to President Donald Trump.

His comments came as other Iranian officials struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, following the results of the US vote, which saw Democrats score a major victory by taking control of both chambers of Congress.

“Those who still harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour of the hegemonic system might change through partisan or factional shifts, or who imagine that making concessions to the United States can dissuade it from hostility towards the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken,” Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.

He said that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz had shattered the “myth of America’s invincibility”, and warned that any renewed US attack would draw a far wider response.

Trump himself has acknowledged the US-Israel war on Iran that began in February likely impacted his Republican Party’s poor performance in the elections, saying voters were probably not ready “for the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline”.

Khamenei said Iran’s confrontation with the US had reached a point where “every day and every hour” had become a time of resistance against “the Great Satan”. His message was to mark the National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance, which falls each year on November 4, the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

The supreme leader described Iran’s management of the strait and what he called the elimination of US military bases in regional countries as a reaction to US “aggression and crimes” during the war.

“In the event of repeated transgressions, it will take on much wider dimensions,” he said.

‘Americans said NO TO WAR’

The supreme leader struck a “cautious” note on Wednesday, warning that a party shift in the US would not persuade Washington to abandon its hostility against Iran, noted Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, reporting from Tehran.

This contrasted with a more celebratory mood among other Iranian officials reacting to the Republican defeat, Atas said.

“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with Washington and his country’s parliament speaker.

“If the US [government] betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he added on X.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser and assistant to the supreme leader, said Trump had been “slapped in the face by his own people”.

“The true winner in this arena was Iran, which transferred the cost of the war into the United States,” he wrote on X.

Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on Telegram: “Trump was defeated both in war and in politics; we will certainly impose further defeats on him; this is still only the early outcome.” He added that November 4 “has always been a day of defeat for the Americans” and honoured “the dear martyred students of Minab”.

Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head for communications at the president’s office, said Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, “blind adherence” to Israel’s interests and the “futile war” with Iran had handed the Republicans their biggest defeat.

Atas said Iranians believe a Democratic-controlled Congress could restrain Trump and make him “less reckless” over the war, with some Republicans wary ahead of the 2028 elections. But some in Tehran fear that because officials have framed the result as a defeat imposed by Iran, Trump could “personalise the matter” and launch a new round of war “in an act of revenge”.

The US has warned it could carry out a short but intensive military campaign against Iran after the midterms.

Hamidreza Moghadamfar, an adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran would hit targets beyond US bases if Gulf states allowed Washington to launch attacks from their territory. Speaking at a rally in Bandar Abbas, he named the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and said Iran would respond with a “new doctrine and new technology”.

Mérida, November 3, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco held meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a trip to Washington, DC, on Monday.

Blanco, who was appointed as the Caribbean nation’s top diplomat on October 30, is the highest-ranking Venezuelan official to be hosted by the Trump administration.

His morning summit with Rubio included a photo-op but no statements to the press. On social media, Blanco reaffirmed the acting Delcy Rodríguez government’s “commitment to continue building spaces for understanding for the benefit of Venezuela.”

“During the meeting, we discussed bilateral relations, regional challenges, cooperation, and energy security between our countries,” he wrote.

For his part, Rubio stressed the Trump administration’s “three-phase plan” for Venezuela, which comprises “stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition.”

“[Rubio and Blanco] discussed progress in the Venezuelan-led reconciliation talks, including institutional reforms that lay the groundwork for free, fair, and credible elections,” a State Department press statement read.

The head of Venezuelan diplomacy followed up with a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent which reportedly focused on “conditions for Venezuela’s full economic development.” Blanco added that the pair discussed Venezuela’s “access to multilateral financial bodies and bilateral economic cooperation opportunities.”

Despite reestablished diplomatic ties and significant US control over Venezuela’s economy and the oil industry, the US Treasury Department has maintained its wide-reaching sanctions program against the South American country, issuing only limited licenses granting exemptions to specific corporations.

The US Treasury Secretary congratulated Blanco on his recent appointment and claimed the White House is “committed to supporting Venezuela’s economic recovery.” 

“This Administration is committed to supporting Venezuela’s economic recovery, revitalizing critical sectors, boosting energy production, and reconnecting its financial sector to restore confidence, attract investment, and lay the groundwork for a more prosperous future,” Bessent stated on X.

The high-level Washington, DC meetings were Blanco’s first trip abroad as foreign minister. He had previously served as vice minister for Europe and North America. 

The 34-year-old foreign relations graduate hails from the ranks of the opposition Acción Democrática party and had been an outspoken critic of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro governments. In 2013, Blanco celebrated Chávez’s death, claiming he was in hell alongside Muammar Gaddafi and Osama Bin Laden. The tweet was recently deleted.

In 2016, Blanco was appointed head of communications for the opposition-controlled National Assembly that unsuccessfully tried to oust the Maduro government.

Since the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, Washington and Caracas fast-tracked a diplomatic rapprochement that included the reopening of their respective embassies after seven years of broken ties.

The Trump administration has backed legislative reforms, spearheaded energy deals, endorsed a dialogue process with the Venezuelan opposition, while also reportedly engaging in military and intelligence cooperation.

After assuming his role in the foreign ministry, Blanco became one of the most visible figures in the renewed relations with the US, often accompanying US Chargé d’Affaires John Barrett on visits and meetings around the country.

Barrett was among the first to congratulate Blanco following his promotion to head Venezuela’s diplomacy, wishing him “success as we work together on the three-phase plan.”

The two held a “cordial and constructive” meeting on Friday. 

Blanco flew to Spain following his US trip to take part in the Iberoamerican Summit taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Democrats in the United States have scored a major victory in midterm elections, taking control of both chambers of Congress in a stinging rebuke of President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.

The results are being carefully watched outside the US, as foreign leaders consider how the new political reality in Washington could affect US foreign policy – from the conflict with Iran to the Russia-Ukraine war and trade relations.

Trump himself has acknowledged the US-Israel war on Iran likely impacted his party’s poor performance in the elections, saying voters were probably not ready “for the short-term consequence of the price of gasoline”.

Here are the latest reactions from world leaders, as the scale of the Democratic victory continues to emerge:

Iran

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the chief negotiator in talks with the US, said voters had rejected conflict.

“Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” wrote Ghalibaf in a post on X.

“If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he added.

Israel

There was no immediate reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally whose coalition lost its own majority in Israel’s parliament in elections last week.

However, opposition figure Yair Golan, whose party is in a coalition seeking to replace Netanyahu, said the US vote reveals “just how toxic Netanyahu has become” among US Democrats and Republicans alike.

He warned that if Netanyahu and his far-right government remain in power, Israel would be on “a path toward international sanctions, global isolation, and a confrontation with the United States – our most important friend and ally.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, also part of the anti-Netanyahu coalition, said the US vote effectively ruled out “any possibility of a unity government led by Netanyahu”.

European Union

European Parliament Vice President Christel Schaldemose said the US results left her “cautiously optimistic on Europe’s behalf”.

“Not because everything now ⁠⁠changes for the better, but because it could benefit the support for Ukraine, the green transition, and ⁠⁠relations with the rest of the world,” said Schaldemose in a post on X.

“But the EU must continue the course of standing stronger and standing on its own two feet. That’s not up for debate,” she added.

United Kingdom

Health Minister James Frith stressed that the UK would maintain steady, strong ties with Washington despite an apparent “seismic shift in domestic politics for the Americans”.

“The change of emphasis of power in the States is frequent,” Frith told British media. “But the mainstay of the relationship with the UK Government, as its closest ally, is unwavering and unchanging.”

“So I don’t expect it to change the nature of the relationship at all; it remains very strong,” he added.

France

Finance Minister Roland Lescure said France would wait to see whether Trump, who remains in control of US foreign policy, adjusts his approach.

“Either he decides to rise above the fray – acknowledging that ‌‌changes are necessary, particularly regarding gasoline prices, which directly ‌‌affect people – and, I might add, he tones down his international involvement, or he does not,” Lescure told French TV. “Frankly, this is something we will need to keep an eye on in the ⁠⁠coming days.”

Spain

Left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the US Democrats’ landslide victory was emblematic of the “unravelling” of the global far right.

“It happened in Brazil. It just happened in the US. And it will soon happen in Spain,” said Sanchez, whose own premiership is at stake in snap elections he called for November 29 .

Sanchez said US voters had rejected policies that “only ‌‌impoverish”, as well as hate, sexism, climate change denialism and “the privileges of the elites”.

Greece

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said US-Greek relations would not be affected by the election results.

“Greek-American relations will remain strong,” he told local media. “The United States is our strategic ally, and this will continue for major projects ⁠⁠and all major agreements. Nothing will be affected by this outcome. It is obvious that we respect every outcome. The conclusions are clear.”

Russia

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stressed the need to wait for the final results of US elections to come into focus, but noted that leaders in the US Democratic Party had a “sharply negative” approach to relations with Moscow.

Russia’s position on Ukraine and broader foreign policy “is not based on short-term considerations and, naturally, does not depend on the fluctuations of the political barometer in other countries,” Ryabkov was quoted by Russian state media as saying.

“We will continue our work in accordance with the directives of the President of the Russian Federation,” he added.

China

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing would continue its “constructive strategic relationship” with the US, stressing that US elections are a “domestic affair”.

“China is willing to work with the US to safeguard and implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, strengthen communication, properly manage differences and expand cooperation, build a constructive strategic relationship based on respect and equality,” Mao told reporters in Beijing.

Japan

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said whatever the outcome of the US vote, “the Japan-US alliance the is the cornerstone of Japan’s foreign and security policy.”

“As the international situation becomes turbulent and increasingly uncertain, a strong Japan-US alliance is essential for maximising Japan’s national interests and for peace and stability in the international community,” Kihara said at a press briefing.

South Africa

⁠President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has clashed with Trump over the US president’s promotion of debunked claims of a white genocide in South Africa, said the election marks “a new era in world relations”.

“We have seen that the ⁠⁠Democrats have taken ⁠⁠control of the Senate and of ⁠⁠the House, and ⁠⁠the ⁠⁠people of America have spoken,” Ramaphosa told ‌‌reporters.

A new report from the think tank founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt quantifies the grim realities of the U.S. defense industrial base’s dependence on China for critical rare earth minerals. It also details which weapons systems might face the most impact if that delicate supply relationship breaks down.

The white paper, exclusively obtained from the Special Competitive Studies Project, uses AI intelligence from the supply chain tech firm Exiger to assess how many unique components, identified by National Item Identification Number, or NIIN, contain critical minerals, such as antimony, gallium, germanium and tungsten.

From an assessment of almost nine million parts and 3,000 U.S. military weapon systems, the company identified more than 28,000 unique components  across 1,400 weapons systems containing just these four rare earths. The isolation of these parts is relevant in particular because of a near-term crisis: the expiration of a suspension on Chinese export controls set to take effect in November. Disruption to weapons fielding plans, as well as operational readiness and sustainment activities, according to the white paper, is very much a possibility. Yet according to Kit Conklin, chief strategy and global affairs officer at Exiger, the crisis is already here. 

In an interview with TWZ, he pointed to Japan, which is facing the prospect of a manufacturing halt after China choked off supply of some rare earths to the tune of more than 80% earlier this year.

“There’s no question that right now it’s a crisis for a lot of companies that are trying to get licenses approved by China and just not getting the licenses,” Conklin said. “So there’s real risk to current production, and when I think about us and scaling, whether it’s the drone industrial base or trying to scale our interceptor capacity to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 interceptors a year, I mean, these are real choke points that we have that are impacting our ability to deliver these to the warfighter right now.”

Among the weapons systems most at risk for supply chain and manufacturing disruption, according to the data, is the vital Virginia-class submarine, which requires more than 300 critical NIINs containing the four elements, including 190 parts requiring germanium.

Germanium, used in optics, night vision systems, EO/IR equipment and more, is a byproduct of zinc ore. In January, the Pentagon announced an $18 million investment in the country’s only germanium production facility in St. George, Utah to expand refining capacity “sevenfold” to more than 20 metric tons annually by an unspecified deadline.

China controls some 68% of the world’s refined germanium. It has a far greater chokehold on gallium, used in semiconductors and solar cells, and especially advanced radars, controlling up to 99% of production. Each Virginia-class sub requires 50 unique parts containing gallium.

China controls about half the production of antimony, used to harden ammunition and to manufacture optics and electronics; and up to 80% of the supply of tungsten, used in manufacturing tools, warheads and heat-resistant components.

While it doesn’t break down components by weight, the report notes that the rare earth requirements for the Virginia-class sub are also considerable by mass: each sub required 9,200 pounds of the elements, while an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet requires 900 pounds.

The Virginia-class submarine is America’s only in-production fast-attack nuclear-powered sub that has been in service since 2004. Twenty three of these critical vessels are in service today, or roughly half of the total planned program, with the remaining boats yet to be built. It’s notable in the context of the paper because it has multiple points of exposure to supply chain disruption. Another of these exposure points: its 1,700 mission or safety-critical parts requiring casting, forging or extrusion. As the report lays out, supply chain bottlenecks around limited metal casting, forging and extruding capacity are delaying production timelines and putting manufacturing at risk.

China, again, produces about half of the world’s casting output and “is often the sole option for large castings,” the paper found. The analysis shows that more than half, or nearly 8,000, unique supply items containing steel castings have delivery lead times of more than 36 weeks. More than 9,400 items containing extruded aluminum, about 47% of these parts, have lead times that long.

“Virginia-class submarines, already threatened by U.S. reliance on China for critical minerals, are reportedly also three years behind schedule, potentially due in part to the lack of domestic large-scale casting capacity,” the report finds. An analysis of Navy construction timelines published earlier this year does indeed find that 10 of the 12 Virginia subs now under construction face delays of 36-44 months.

Alarmingly, a recent war game simulation found that the U.S. could not replace ships, planes and missiles lost to combat specifically due to casting and forging shortfalls, the report notes. That’s despite a $2 billion Pentagon initiative launched in 2024 aimed at revitalizing this industry.

Beyond submarines, the report shows that aircraft, including some of the nation’s workhorse fighter jets, face outsized production and sustainment risk due to rare-earth elements and casting/forging dependencies.

The B-2 Spirit bomber – the nation’s only nuclear-armed stealth bomber until fielding begins on the B-21 Raider sometime next year – requires 782 parts containing the four rare-earth elements isolated in the report.

The F/A-18 Hornet family of fighters flown by the Navy and Marine Corps, including the Navy’s Growler electronic warfare variant, tops the list for dependency on steel castings, with 3,800 individual parts requiring the process. Following is the KC-135 Stratotanker, with 2,570 parts. All 10 of the systems requiring the most metal castings for production are aircraft, the analysis shows. The legacy Hornet and the KC-135 have been out of production for decades, while the Navy’s Super Hornet will see its production line go cold in 2027. Any ongoing demand for castings for these systems would thus be in spares and repair parts. 

Military aircraft also represent the highest-need category among weapons systems requiring cadmium plating, a process used to make aerospace components corrosion-resistant.  The domestic supplier base has shrunk due to EPA safety limitations established in 2008. All of the top 10 weapons systems requiring the most cadmium-plated parts are aircraft, with the KC-135 topping the list with 2,780 unique components. The C-130 Hercules transport, B-52 Stratofortress bomber and Galaxy C-5 transport all have more than 2,000 parts.

The B-52, which is undergoing a service life extension to take it into the 2050s – past its century mark – may run into modernization delays not only over cadmium-plated and steel-casted components, but also due to overly rigid military specifications, which increase lead time and delays. The white paper cites the bomber’s rib airfoil and fuel vent valve components, which both have lead times of more than 400 days due in part to production being burdened with dozens of mil-spec compliance requirements, which the authors say have not kept pace with today’s commercial practices.

“The requirement for a part to meet so many mil-specs, if not reasonably necessary, may limit the number of possible suppliers of that part, potentially increasing its lead time and bottlenecking production,” they write. “For the B-52, this could inhibit current modernization efforts intended to keep the airplane operational through the 2050s.”

A final risk the paper addresses is workforce shortages and dangers from limited suppliers creating single points of failure. Across defense, the number of small suppliers has decreased by 43% in the last decade, it notes. It cites, as a case study, the February 2025 fire that forced the closure of SPS Technologies in Jenkintown, Penn. – a fastener maker that produced components for more than 1,000 weapons systems and was deemed critical for 90, including the Nimitz-class carrier, the F/A-18 fighter and the M1 Abrams tank. For systems including the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile and the MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, the facility was a single-source supplier.

With operations offline until at least 2028, the supply chain has been “actively disrupted” due to the outage of just one facility, according to the paper.

“This case underscores the risk of single sourcing in the defense industrial base and the need to qualify alternate sources to avoid such significant chokepoints,” the authors write.

The paper hails work that has already begun to invest in domestic critical minerals production and shore up the defense industrial base. But it does hint that these efforts may be too late to avoid a crash if China shuts off or severely reduces exports. The paper notes that, on average, it takes the U.S. 29 years to open a new mine. The U.S. has one established domestic mine: The Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility, just outside of Las Vegas. Initially established in 1952 and reopened in 2018 after a long hiatus, it now produces more than 50,000 tons of rare earth oxides annually. Last year, for the first time in seven decades, a new domestic rare-earth mine opened in Wyoming, stating plans to start producing ores extracted from coal, including gallium and germanium, by 2029. Production is projected to total 456 tons of rare earths per year. The project had been in development for more than a decade before opening. 

Conklin said a July executive order aimed at developing domestic production of rare earths while collecting data on what elements systems required created opportunities for smart policy creation – perhaps in the next National Defense Authorization Act – around holistically attacking the problem. 

“I would love for us to figure out a way to get out of thinking about these supply chain risks system by system. We tend to have disparate requirements to look at the nuclear triad or subs or interceptors,” he said. “I think with the executive order that came out earlier this year, there’s a real opportunity for Congress to legislate on some of these issues beyond just figuring out what the risk [is] for antimony in the sub industrial base, and thinking about it a little bit more holistically.”

One potential solution he proposed: an agency within the executive branch (led, perhaps, by a critical minerals czar) who can coordinate production needs and resourcing and develop the most efficient pathways to secure needed materials.

While no U.S. defense manufacturer has yet publicly cited manufacturing disruptions due to rare earth availability, signs are increasing that the federal government is taking supply concerns seriously. In addition to Project Vault, a $12 billion White House initiative announced in February that would create a strategic stockpile of rare earths akin to existing stockpiles of critical medical supplies and petroleum, the U.S. Army has begun extending long-term leases on military land to companies seeking to build critical mineral processing facilities.

Conklin said he doesn’t anticipate major changes in rare earth exports between now and the end of the year, describing the U.S.-China supply relationship as “in a bit of a détente.” That said, with new policies pending, we could be only days away from new revelations about the extent of the impact of these materials on the defense manufacturing enterprise.

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

While votes are still being counted in California, a handful of important races in the midterm elections have already been called or are pointing firmly in one direction.

Despite its status as a reliably Democratic stronghold, the Western state has played a dynamic role in Tuesday’s United States elections, acting as a testing ground for questions as varied as partisan redistricting and tax measures targeting billionaires.

Let’s take a quick look at some of tonight’s results:

Democrats ahead in key races

While vote-counting was still under way, Democratic candidates have pulled decisively ahead in several contests seen as must-wins for the party’s effort to take control of the US House of Representatives.

To boost the party’s chances, voters a year ago approved a partisan redistricting measure promoted by Governor Gavin Newsom to net Democrats five additional seats in the US House.

One such race took place in the state’s 22nd Congressional District, located in the agriculture-rich Central Valley.

Progressive educator Randy Villegas celebrated the results of the race on Tuesday night as the Democrat held a commanding lead of about 30 percentage points over Republican incumbent David Valadao.

Democratic candidate Marni von Wilpert is also ahead in the 48th district, located in Southern California near San Diego, where she is leading Republican Jim Desmond by about 20 points.

While those advantages are considerable, The Associated Press news agency has not yet officially called those races.

Progressive Aisha Wahab is also firmly ahead in her race against Melissa Hernandez, a fellow Democrat, in the 14th district.

Wahab overcame substantial spending by pro-Israel groups to defeat the establishment-aligned Hernandez in a special election in September. She is now on track to win a full term in that seat.

With her previous victory, Wahab became the first person of Afghan ancestry elected to Congress.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, moderate Democrat Scott Wiener is leading progressive rival Connie Chan in a race for the seat of retiring Representative Nancy Pelosi, the powerful former Democratic House speaker. Wiener has a lead of about 10 points with 50 percent of the vote tallied thus far.

Republicans face another bruising defeat in gubernatorial race

While Republicans across the country have laboured to turn California into a symbol of liberal dysfunction, voters in the state remain unconvinced that conservatives offer a better alternative.

The gubernatorial race was called for the Democratic candidate, former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, immediately after the polls closed.

Becerra’s Republican rival, British political commentator Steve Hilton, had argued that years of unbroken Democratic domination had resulted in sky-high prices and public disorder.

But his bid to underscore cost-of-living issues by holding campaign events where he offered discounted petrol fell flat at a time when many voters blame President Donald Trump’s war on Iran for eye-watering prices at the pump.

Becerra’s victory comes more than five years after Republicans tried to dislodge Newsom through a recall election that failed by a margin of more than 20 points.

In the past, Republicans could console themselves that if they remained in electoral purgatory in the most populous US state, their Democratic rivals were likewise locked out of power in conservative strongholds such as Texas.

Tuesday’s losses will sting a bit more after a series of shock wins by Democrats in states that can usually be counted on to deliver easy wins for Republicans, including Texas.

Uncertainty over some ballot measures

While some results have come in quickly, tight contests over some of the state’s ballot measures, or policy questions put directly before voters, have yet to be called.

Proposition 40, which would institute a one-time tax on the net worth of billionaires in the state to help fund programmes such as healthcare and education, is trailing with about 44 percent of the counted votes in favour and 56 percent against.

The measure won support from progressive figures, such as Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna, but prompted a deluge of spending from wealthy donors and companies to oppose it.

The Associated Press has announced that Proposition 39, which would have instituted voter ID laws sought by conservatives, has been rejected by voters.

Longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins had held the seat for nearly three decades, but was swept away in the blue wave.

Democrat Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and labour organiser who entered the race in July, has won the Senate race in Maine, flipping a seat held by the Republicans for 30 years.

Longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins conceded the race to Jackson early on Wednesday, ending nearly three decades as Senator for Maine.

Maine’s race was one of the most closely watched in the country. Republican groups spent heavily on the race, donating $76m compared with $40m by Democrats. Jackson’s campaign raised $26.9m, slightly more than the $25.2m for Collins through mid-October.

Located in the far northeastern United States bordering Canada, Maine’s economy has been affected by Trump’s tariff wars with its northern neighbour and key trading partner.

Collins, who has served as senator since 1997, has framed herself as sharing voters’ moderate politics and serving the state’s 1.4 million residents as chair of the Senate’s powerful Appropriations Committee.

Polls released shortly before the election suggested Jackson edging out Collins in a tight race shaped by negative campaigning.

Collins distanced herself from Trump during the campaign but drew criticism for voting in favour of Trump’s legislation and judicial nominees after the Supreme Court ended abortion rights.

Jackson, who campaigned on strengthening the economy and government accountability, framed Collins as a Trump ally and accused her of corruption, which she has denied.

Collins focused on her independence – she was one of the few Republicans who voted to remove Trump from office after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol – and attacked Jackson for his federal inexperience and his voting record in the state legislature.

By the end of the year, the U.S. will stop providing Israel with billions of dollars in annual assistance, President Donald Trump proclaimed Tuesday morning. The announcement was delivered as both Washington and Jerusalem are mulling plans for a new wave of attacks on Iran and amid increasing American voter antipathy toward the Israel in the wake of the Gaza war and America’s involvement in the war with Iran.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has openly discussed weaning his country off direct U.S. assistance in favor of more cooperation on weapons development, the Trump announcement still caught many there by surprise. It also raises a lot of questions about Congressional authorization and the impact on future sales of advanced arms from U.S. manufacturers, many of which are planned, that still have to be answered.

“As far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that – we give Israel $4 billion a year – and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” Trump told Fox & Friends Tuesday morning during his message to American voters going to the polls for the midterm election. “And they’re fine with it because you know they have become a very successful country. They don’t need it, and we won’t be paying anymore to Israel, so it’s just a wasted thing because we’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel.”

“Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” the American leader added. “You know they’ve been a great ally, and we’ve been the greatest of all allies to many many countries.”

Trump did not elaborate on what specific expenditures he was referring to, and we’ve reached out to the White House for more details. However, the president was almost certainly talking about the ongoing decade-long Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Israel.

The MoU calls for providing $3.8 billion in annual aid and it is drawing to a close. Set to run through 2028, the vast majority of that funding is for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to purchase weaponry mostly from American manufacturers.

“In 2016, the U.S. and Israeli governments signed their third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid, covering [Fiscal Year] 2019 to [Fiscal Year] 2028,” according to a 2025 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. “Under the terms of the MOU, the United States pledged to provide—subject to congressional appropriation—$38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations) to Israel.”

The MoU is merely a promise and not legally binding. Congress has to approve any funding requests.

A New Deal

Washington and Jerusalem began negotiating a new MoU in June, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry (MoD).

“The new framework, reflecting the strategic vision of Israel’s Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, is designed to strengthen the IDF’s qualitative military edge through expanded joint investment in research, development, and co-production, deepen the U.S.-Israel partnership demonstrated during Operation Roaring Lion, and gradually transition from aid to a completely reciprocal partnership,” MoD explained.

Netanyahu has been warning Israel for months that it would have to face reduced assistance from the U.S.

“If you think we will continue receiving what I secured twice — tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget — you’d better prepare yourselves and get used to the idea that this will not continue,” he told Israeli media last month, according to Bloomberg News. “That is because America has changed, not because Israel has changed. It will end. It is only a matter of time.”

Netanyahu added that Israel has two more years with Trump, but must prepare for a less favorable Washington after he leaves power.

In January, the Israeli leader said he wanted to reduce Israel’s reliance on American aid. He told The Economist that he was not seeking the full renewal of the MoU, which has to be renegotiated by 2028. 

“I want to taper off the military aid within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told the publication. Asked if he meant “to taper it off to zero,” Netanyahu said “yes.”

“We want to be as independent as possible,” the Israeli leader proffered. Referring to his meeting with the the American president in Florida in late December, Netanyahu added: “In my visit to President Trump, I said we very deeply appreciate the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age, and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”

For Israel, the MoU “now matters less for the money it provides than for what it signifies: a gauge of the depth and durability of U.S. support,” the Crisis Group think tank argued in August. “To be sure, FMF has enabled Israel to build up its military power without fully bearing the cost, and phasing out this assistance would impose real burdens. Israel would have to pay for critical U.S. weapons from its own budget.”

However, with its annual GDP now exceeding $700 billion and defense spending above $40 billion, “Israel has found increasing difficulty in arguing that it requires an additional $3.3 billion each year for military purchases,” Crisis Group posited. “Netanyahu has asked the finance ministry to allocate billions of dollars in additional funding for the defense budget over the next decade, a large portion of which would be earmarked to procure U.S. fighter jets, on the assumption that Israel will no longer receive the funds necessary for these purchases from Washington.”

Since the attack by Hamas, U.S. money from the MoU has made up a smaller percentage of the Israeli MoD’s overall budget as the country has increased its own defense spending. Those funds have also been bolstered by several large tranches of U.S. supplemental aid to procure bombs and other weapons.

“For most of the last 15 years, the $3.3 billion Israel receives annually in FMF made up roughly 20% of Israel’s defense budget, which was itself 5-6% of Israel’s GDP in the same period,” the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) explained in May. “Both Israeli defense spending and the share coming from U.S. aid slowly declined amid major economic growth throughout the 2010s, and then spiked in 2023 following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and ensuing wars.” 

IPF stated that after the Hamas incursion, “Israel sharply increased defense spending (both within the regular budget framework and in extraordinary expenditures) to 8-9% of GDP, and the U.S. gave Israel several large supplemental security assistance packages between late 2023 and early 2026 in addition to the MOU-directed security aid.”

“The net result, taking into account both much higher Israeli spending and large amounts of American aid, is that in 2024 U.S. assistance briefly accounted for more than one third of Israel’s defense budget,” IPF noted. “In 2025 this figure dropped to close to 10%, with Israel spending an estimated NIS 168 billion ($52 billion) on defense in that year.”

Until recently, “Israel had been given a partial exemption” on the requirement that FMF funds be allocated for American products,” the Crisis Group noted. This allowed Israel to “invest a portion of the money in its own defense industry, Crisis Group explained. “This carveout, in turn, has made Israeli firms more competitive in the arms export market.”

Heavy Reliance On American Hardware

Israel, which has received more than $175 billion in U.S. aid since its creation in 1948, relies heavily on American weaponry. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) tactical aviation fleet consists of U.S.-built F-15s, F-16s, F-35s and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, among other U.S. types. Israel also made deals for a number of other platforms including KC-46A aerial refueling tankers and CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters and it uses large amounts of American precision munitions. Meanwhile, Israeli missile defense systems like Iron Dome and Arrow 3 have been developed with significant assistance from the U.S.

A top Israeli MoD official told The Times of Israel (ToI) last month that his country wants to flip the switch to add value to the American defense industry by using its experience developing weapons as it fights seemingly constant wars. The continual threats from regional actors and terror groups allow Israel to serve as a testing ground for U.S. defense technologies, Aviram Hasson, director of the Defense Ministry’s mission to the US and Canada, explained.

“Hasson pointed to engineering breakthroughs and intellectual property emerging through development of Israel’s active-defense systems, saying every US government request for technology arising from the long-range anti-ballistic missile Arrow 3 program has been fulfilled,” the publication noted.

“It is clear on both sides of the ocean that this cooperation is a strategic need of both powers, not only of Israel,” Hasson told ToI.

U.S. Has Paid Far More Than $4B A Year For Israel’s Defense

Beyond direct financial aid, the U.S. has expended a great deal of resources defending Israel over the past several years. This has included defending against multiple Iranian missile barrages on Israel on top of participating directly in two wars. In addition, there were the constant drone and missile battles in the Red Sea with the Houthis, who began attacking shipping there in response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Part of the U.S. operation against the Houthis was also providing a layer of protection against long-range missile and drone launches at Israel by the rebel group.

During the course of all these events, the U.S. deployed a very large number of its available warships, aircraft, and air defenses, as well as thousands of personnel, to the Middle East at great expense, both in dollars and the toll on troops and equipment.

Just this year alone, 23 U.S. troops have died and nearly 900 have been injured since the launch of Epic Fury in February. Dozens of aircraft have been destroyed and U.S. bases in the region have been partially destroyed and will take billions to repair.

The U.S. has also fired off a large amount of its own munitions defending Israel from attacks by Iran and its proxies. This has contributed heavily to shortfalls in America’s own stockpiles.

All told, the U.S. has spent nearly $50 billion just on the most current conflict with Iran, far exceeding the $4 billion Israel gets per year in annual direct aid. Then there is the opportunity cost of the massive wear and tear on the force and the U.S. military’s overall capacity to fight in the near and medium term due to all these engagements.

All that being said, it can be argued that the U.S. had major interests in participating in these conflicts beyond just the defense of Israel. It is rarely just that simple. The Iran nuclear program, for instance, has impacts much farther than the Middle East and Israel. Still, the U.S. has poured unprecedented resources into Israel’s defense and these investments far eclipse the $4B being discussed today.

Surprise In Israel

Many Israeli government officials were caught completely off guard by the Trump announcement, according to Politico.

“Officials in the Finance Ministry say they were surprised by U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that military aid to Israel would cease by the end of the year, ” the publication reported.

“No formal document was submitted from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the end of aid,” Politico added. “The ministry was aware of the intention to end it, but was surprised by the intention to do so immediately.”

Officials in the Defense Ministry and the military were also reportedly surprised by the announcement, according to the Post.

“We did not expect this announcement, certainly not today,” a senior defense official told Israeli media.

“There is ongoing dialogue with the Americans, and we can say that we were surprised. We will study the implications of the decision, which has yet to reach professional officials,” the official is quoted as saying.

As for Netanyahu, he has yet to weigh in on Trump’s statement. However, one of his main rivals in the closely fought Israeli parliamentary election that could unseat him has commented.

“The fact that Israel’s defense establishment is learning of a shift in our strategic relationship through the media, at the same time as the Israeli public, shows just how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is,” Gadi Eisenkot said in a statement. “He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced.”

In his comments to Fox & Friends, Trump conceded that the midterm election played a role in his decision.

The annual assistance to Israel is a “bad talking point” for Democrats, including Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, the president proclaimed.

“The left uses the $4 billion payment … as a signal of unfairness. And we can’t allow that to happen,” Trump stated. “I don’t like that. … It’s almost too easy to target

There are many unknowns surrounding Trump’s statement about diminishing U.S. support for Israel.

The MoU, if that is what he is talking about, still has two years left, and almost $8 billion worth of anticipated funding, the vast majority earmarked for procurement of U.S. arms. 

As we noted at the top of this piece, the MoU itself isn’t legally binding but the aid is authorized by law and appropriated by Congress each year. Ending it early would mean Congress either not appropriating the money or changing the law.

Will Congress agree to cut the deal off by December? What about the U.S. defense industry? It is unclear at the moment how, or if, this move would affect American defense contractors selling arms to Israel. These companies depend in large measure on predictability and taking this agreement off the table two years early could be problematic.

It is not exactly clear at this point which U.S. arms makers will be hit the hardest by Trump’s announcement. There are billions of dollars in contracts for the future procurement of aircraft, munitions and other equipment to companies like Boeing for F-15Is and KC-46As, Lockheed Martin for F-35Is and AM General for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. While Israel has bumped up its defense budget, it is not really known at this point how it will cover these costs without that lost U.S. aid.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com