Democrats Take Congress, Stephen Miller, Iran, Notre Dame-Miami | Nov. 8, 2026

Transcript

Good Sunday morning. This is Artificially Intelligent News for November eighth, twenty twenty-six. I’m Mark Ellison. This program is created with AI and independently fact-checked from authoritative reporting available early this morning.

The political landscape in Washington has changed sharply after Tuesday’s midterm elections. Democrats have won control of both the House and Senate, ending Republican control of Congress for the final two years of President Trump’s term.

The results remain consequential even with a Republican president retaining the veto. A Democratic Congress will control committee agendas, hearings, subpoenas and the House’s power of the purse. That gives Democratic leaders far more leverage over oversight of the administration and over negotiations on spending, taxes, foreign policy and domestic legislation.

Those powers do not guarantee policy victories. The Senate’s procedures, the presidential veto and the need for agreement on must-pass bills all limit what either party can enact alone. Still, control of the calendar determines which proposals receive hearings and votes, and control of oversight determines what information the administration may be required to provide in public.

The elections also produced notable wins in states and districts that had been considered difficult terrain for Democrats. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won the Senate race to succeed the retiring Gary Peters and will become the nation’s first Muslim senator. In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan won a Senate seat and will become the first Native American woman in the chamber. In Indiana’s Fifth District, Democrat J.D. Ford defeated Republican Representative Victoria Spartz in a district Donald Trump carried comfortably in twenty twenty-four.

The election was not a uniform endorsement of every Democratic position. The AP Voter Poll found voters held mixed views of both parties. But many voters cited high prices, the Iran war and concerns about government conduct as major considerations. The new Congress will be sworn in on January third. Its first tests will include choosing leaders, setting a legislative agenda and deciding how aggressively to investigate the administration.

That new balance of power is already coinciding with a significant White House personnel change. President Trump has named Stephen Miller to replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff, effective Monday.

Miller has been one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers. He joined Trump’s first presidential campaign as a speechwriter and most recently served as deputy chief of staff for policy. He is closely associated with the administration’s hard-line immigration policy and with an expansive view of presidential authority.

The chief of staff is responsible for coordinating the president’s staff, managing access and helping turn policy priorities into daily decisions. That makes the role especially consequential when legislative negotiations and congressional inquiries demand a unified response from the White House.

The White House said Miller is its thirty-third chief of staff. Wiles, who was the first woman to hold the role, said she would continue working for Trump’s political organization. Trump has denied that the change was driven by the midterm results. Still, it arrives days after Republicans lost Congress and as Democrats prepare oversight of major administration policies. The appointment puts a central policy architect in the White House’s most important management job at a moment when the administration faces a more hostile Congress.

Military and diplomatic developments involving Iran remain another immediate pressure point. The U.S. military said Saturday it fired on a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman after the ship attempted to breach the U.S. blockade around Iran.

The incident came after President Trump said Friday that U.S. forces had carried out limited strikes on an Iranian air-defense system. Iranian state media also reported explosions on Qeshm Island and at the port of Jask. Iran’s military said two tankers hit mines near the Strait of Hormuz and caught fire, though details of those claims have not been independently confirmed.

The Strait links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, so disruptions there can affect cargo moving between major oil-producing states and world markets. The reports from both sides remain difficult to verify independently during active hostilities.

The wider conflict has now lasted more than eight months. It has repeatedly disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global energy supplies, and has contributed to volatility in oil and financial markets. The immediate stakes are both military and economic: a broader confrontation could further endanger crews and commercial traffic while raising energy costs well beyond the region.

A separate announcement from the president could reshape another long-standing U.S. security relationship. Trump said the United States will stop providing roughly four billion dollars a year in aid to Israel beginning in twenty twenty-seven, while continuing arms sales.

Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed the idea with him and argued that Israel no longer needs the direct assistance. The United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over decades. The current ten-year security agreement, signed in twenty sixteen, is due to run through twenty twenty-eight.

It is important to separate a presidential announcement from an enacted policy change. Congress appropriates funds and would have a major say in any abrupt end or restructuring of assistance. Israeli officials have previously discussed reducing reliance on U.S. aid over time, but a shift of this scale would affect Israeli defense planning and American defense manufacturers that supply equipment. The practical question now is whether the administration submits a formal plan and whether the incoming Democratic Congress accepts, changes or blocks it.

The administration has also expanded its pressure campaign against Cuba. The State Department issued a determination clearing the way for sanctions on several sectors of the Cuban economy, including electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology activities. It also ordered penalties targeting China-based suppliers connected to Cuba’s military forces.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said humanitarian aid remains authorized and said the measures target the Cuban government and those enabling it. The action adds another layer to the long-standing U.S. embargo. Supporters say the pressure is aimed at the Cuban state and military. Critics of sanctions generally argue that broad economic restrictions can worsen hardship for ordinary people. What changes in practice will depend on the Treasury and Commerce rules used to implement the determination and on how foreign firms respond.

In public health, the CDC’s latest nationwide update reports five thousand one hundred eighty-two confirmed measles cases in the United States this year, as of November fifth. The number is preliminary and could change as jurisdictions complete their reporting.

The cases have been reported across forty-seven jurisdictions, plus eighteen cases among international visitors. The CDC says ninety-six percent of confirmed cases are associated with outbreaks. That is a reminder that measles is highly contagious and can spread quickly where immunity is low.

The total is already far above the two thousand two hundred eighty-nine confirmed cases reported during all of twenty twenty-five. The CDC advises people with symptoms or possible exposure to contact a health care provider before arriving at a clinic, so facilities can reduce the risk of exposing others. State and local health departments will often have more current information on individual outbreaks, while the federal count provides the national picture.

There is a major space and science development to watch as well. NASA announced a broad set of commercial awards and mission updates for its planned Moon Base program, intended to support a sustained presence near the Moon’s south pole.

Eight companies, including Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and Voyager Technologies, are eligible to compete for future lunar delivery missions under a new contract framework with a maximum value of ten billion dollars over ten years. That is a ceiling for future competition, not a ten-billion-dollar award to a single company.

NASA also said it is moving ahead with PROMISE, a nuclear-powered rover designed to operate during long lunar nights and in permanently shadowed areas where ice may be present. The agency is targeting a late twenty twenty-eight launch. Blue Origin received a ninety-four-million-dollar base contract, with an additional option based on performance, to deliver the rover. The plans represent a shift from isolated lunar landings toward building cargo, communications, power and science capabilities that can support repeated missions.

A sustained outpost requires more than landing capability: it needs a way to deliver supplies, maintain communications, generate power and conduct science across successive missions. NASA’s framework is meant to let it order those services as particular missions are defined.

Overseas, central Japan is assessing damage after a strong earthquake struck early Sunday. Japan’s Meteorological Agency measured the quake at magnitude five point seven, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at magnitude five point five.

At least twenty-two people were reported injured in early accounts. Windows shattered in some areas and people fled buildings. The shaking was felt across a wide region near Aichi Prefecture, including Hamamatsu, Kyoto, Nara, Gifu and areas near Mount Fuji. Smaller aftershocks were also reported.

Japan’s emergency systems are built around frequent seismic risk, but even a moderate earthquake can injure people and disrupt transportation, power and daily life in densely populated areas. Damage and injury totals can change as officials inspect buildings and receive reports from local governments.

Ukraine faced another night of attacks as efforts continue to find a path toward negotiations. Drone and missile strikes across Ukraine wounded at least nine people on Saturday, according to officials and emergency services.

In the southern village of Komyshuvakha, recovery work continued after a strike earlier in the week hit a former school and nearby shelter where residents had been waiting for humanitarian aid. The reported death toll there rose to fifty-five, with dozens of people still missing.

Russia, Ukraine and the United States are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Abu Dhabi for talks aimed at ending the war. It would be the fourth round brokered by the Trump administration, after earlier discussions including talks in Geneva. The central issues remain unresolved: territory, Ukraine’s future security arrangements and the terms of any durable ceasefire. The continued attacks underline how difficult it is to translate diplomatic contact into a reduction in violence.

Now to the economy and markets. U.S. markets are closed this Sunday, so these are final closing figures from the most recent completed session, Friday, November sixth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell two hundred thirty-seven point three three points, or zero point four six percent, to close at fifty-one thousand two hundred eighty-five point seven three. The S and P five hundred gained twenty-three point one three points, or zero point three one percent, ending at seven thousand three hundred seventy-six point eight six. The Nasdaq Composite rose two hundred sixty-four point four three points, or one point zero nine percent, to twenty-four thousand five hundred seventy-nine point four two.

Those mixed finishes followed a turbulent week centered on artificial-intelligence stocks. The S and P five hundred still fell two point seven percent for the week, its worst weekly loss since the tariff-driven market shock in April twenty twenty-five.

Nvidia rose two point eight percent Friday after steep declines in the previous two sessions. Other companies tied to data-center construction also recovered: CoreWeave gained six point three percent and Micron rose five point one percent. But the recovery did not erase the broader concern.

Friday’s advances offered a measure of relief after two steep sessions, but a single trading day’s recovery does not settle the underlying valuation debate. The weekly decline shows how quickly broad market sentiment can change when investors reassess the cost and potential return of large capital investments.

Investors are wrestling with three related questions. First, can companies earn enough from AI to justify the enormous spending on chips, data centers and electricity? Second, can that construction continue if borrowing remains expensive? And third, could election results in states where data centers are planned bring more resistance over power bills, water use or permitting?

There were company-specific moves as well. IREN climbed twenty percent after stronger-than-expected quarterly results and new contracts. Lam Research rose eight point two percent after announcing a plan to return up to twenty-five billion dollars to investors through stock buybacks. The market’s message is not that AI demand has disappeared. It is that investors are reassessing price, financing and the pace at which an enormous buildout can continue.

In sports, college football delivered one of its biggest Saturdays of the season. Notre Dame, ranked fourth in the AP poll before kickoff, beat top-ranked Miami thirty-one to twenty-four in South Bend.

Irish quarterback C.J. Carr threw for three hundred nineteen yards and three touchdowns in a matchup with Miami quarterback Darian Mensah, who passed for two hundred seventy-six yards and three scores. Notre Dame’s Luke Talich made the decisive defensive contributions. His third-quarter interception helped set up a touchdown, and he later forced a fumble as Miami threatened to tie the game in the final minutes.

The result leaves both teams at eight and one and reshapes the playoff picture immediately. Notre Dame entered the first College Football Playoff rankings at number eleven and needed a signature win to strengthen its case. Miami had been number one in both the AP poll and the initial playoff rankings. The new AP poll is due today, and the next playoff rankings arrive Tuesday.

The NBA’s Saturday night spotlight belonged to Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Curry scored forty-one points, with six rebounds and six assists, as Golden State beat Orlando one hundred twenty-six to one hundred nineteen in overtime for its seventh straight victory.

Curry made a three-point play with one minute and thirty-eight seconds left in overtime to put the Warriors ahead, then added a late layup. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg contributed twenty-three points and eight rebounds. Orlando forced overtime on Jamal Cain’s putback with two seconds left in regulation after coming back from a sixteen-point halftime deficit.

Golden State began the season zero and three. It is now seven and three, and the seven-game streak is its longest since March twenty twenty-five. Orlando’s Franz Wagner finished with thirty points and eleven assists, but the Magic have now lost four straight at Golden State’s home floor.

A quick scoreboard from Saturday. Second-ranked Georgia dominated tenth-ranked Ole Miss, forty-two to seven, behind four touchdown passes and a rushing score from Gunner Stockton. Oregon beat Ohio State forty-one to twenty-eight in Columbus after scoring thirty-five straight points. Alabama won at LSU, thirty-one to thirteen. In the NBA, the Warriors outlasted the Magic one hundred twenty-six to one hundred nineteen in overtime. And in the NHL, the Rangers edged the Kraken four to three in Seattle.

Finally, in entertainment, U2 is heading into a significant release week. The Irish band’s sixteenth studio album, Carnaval De Luz, arrives Friday, November thirteenth. It is U2’s first full-length album of new material since Songs of Experience in twenty seventeen.

The album is produced by Jacknife Lee, who has worked with the band since How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Its final track, Torn, is a duet with Dolly Parton and is described by the band as her last recorded vocal performance. U2 has also announced a twenty twenty-seven stadium tour, beginning in Mexico City in February, with Beck supporting the first announced Latin American dates.

That is your Sunday briefing. Democrats taking Congress, heightened stakes around Iran, markets reassessing the AI buildout, and a college-football weekend that reset the playoff conversation are the major threads to follow today.

Follow Artificially Intelligent News, and share this briefing with one person who would value a calm morning news summary. I’m Mark Ellison. Thanks for listening.