The Morning Briefing: November 3, 2026

Americans are voting on Tuesday, November 3, in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump’s second term. Polls opened in the early morning across the country, and the first results are expected after the earliest polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Here is what is driving the day.

Americans vote in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are on the ballot, along with 36 governorships and thousands of state and local offices. Republicans now hold both chambers, with a 53-47 edge in the Senate and a narrow House majority. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the Senate to take control, and a net gain of three seats would give them the House under one tally cited by Al Jazeera. More than 51 million people had already voted early or by mail before Election Day, according to figures reported by Al Jazeera. That total passed the early-vote total from the 2022 midterms.

Polls and forecasters favor Democrats in the House race, while the Senate is less settled. Decision Desk HQ gave Democrats an 80 percent chance of winning the House and a 60 percent chance in the Senate in a model updated October 29. The Cook Political Report rated seven Senate races as toss-ups: six seats held by Republicans, in Texas, Maine, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Kansas, and one held by Democrats, in Michigan. In Michigan, the race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers took a turn on Sunday when Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost the party primary to El-Sayed, endorsed Rogers. A Reuters/Ipsos poll put Trump’s approval at 32 percent, near a record low for his second term.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to force California to set aside mail ballots from about 20,000 voters the administration flagged as possible noncitizens. The court gave no reason in a one-sentence order, and there were no noted dissents. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had already barred federal intervention in California’s mail-in ballot counting on Friday. Read our full report on the Supreme Court decision.

U.S. carries out limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island

The U.S. military carried out limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, three U.S. officials told CNN. The officials described the action as defensive and said it came in response to Iran firing at a U.S. aircraft, with one official saying it targeted Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets. The Wall Street Journal first reported the operation and said it was the latest in a series of limited operations Washington has carried out in secret in recent weeks. Officials said the strikes were not a resumption of large combat operations.

Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island, which sits about 14 miles from Bandar Abbas and near the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried about 20 million barrels of oil a day before the war. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said separately that it had shot down two U.S. reconnaissance drones over the island. The strikes landed as diplomacy continued in public: Trump wrote on social media that an agreement with Iran “could happen,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters the two sides had made some progress toward an off-ramp, and Iran’s top diplomat said Tehran could open the Strait of Hormuz within two days if an agreement is reached. Oil prices, which fell more than 7 percent on Monday on hopes of diplomatic progress, rose about 1.6 percent on Tuesday, with Brent crude back above $100 a barrel. Read our full report on the Qeshm Island strikes.

Death toll rises to 29 after Russian strike on Ukrainian aid site

The death toll from a Russian attack on a site in southern Ukraine where people had gathered to receive humanitarian aid rose to 29 on Tuesday, with 48 still missing, according to reports from the region. Rescuers continued to search the blast site of a destroyed aid facility and shelter in Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian bunker-busting bombs carrying nearly 1.5 tons of explosives were used in Monday’s attack. Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia.

The attack came with a wider overnight barrage. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions. The barrage hit power plants and a medical facility in Kharkiv that injured at least 62 people. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones were fired toward the Russian capital. The Kremlin confirmed on Tuesday that Russia will hold three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the United States in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, with Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky as Moscow’s chief negotiator. Read our earlier report on the aid-site attack and our report on the Abu Dhabi talks.

Markets steady before the vote as the Nasdaq 100 sits in a correction

U.S. stock futures were mixed on Tuesday morning as investors waited for midterm results. At 5:06 a.m. Eastern Time, Dow futures were down 219 points, or 0.42 percent, S&P 500 futures were nearly flat, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.46 percent, according to Reuters. The Nasdaq 100 closed more than 10 percent below its all-time closing high on Monday. That drop put the tech-heavy index in a correction. A gauge of U.S. chipmakers has fallen 12 percent over three sessions.

Apple fell 4.5 percent in premarket trading after the company warned that rising memory chip costs would pressure its holiday-quarter gross margin. The drop followed Apple’s report of $114.48 billion in quarterly revenue, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier, with iPhone revenue of $57.6 billion. Chip stocks steadied in part, with Nvidia up 1.6 percent and AMD up 2.8 percent ahead of its earnings report after the bell. Traders also await U.S. job openings data on Tuesday, jobless claims on Thursday and Friday’s payrolls report, where economists cited by Bloomberg expect October job growth of 65,000 with unemployment steady at 4.2 percent. Read our report on Apple’s earnings and our report on Monday’s market moves.

New York reports its first measles-linked child death in more than 30 years

A child in Lewis County, New York, has died in connection with an ongoing measles outbreak, the New York State Department of Health said on Monday. It is the state’s first known measles-associated death in more than 30 years. Governor Kathy Hochul declared a State Disaster Emergency last month in response to the outbreak across areas of New York and neighboring states.

As of October 24, New York had reported 178 measles cases this year, with 170 outside New York City and 8 in the city. Pennsylvania has been the center of the outbreak this year, with 1,433 confirmed cases and five measles-associated deaths, according to Reuters. The U.S. is in its worst measles resurgence in decades. Read our full report on the New York measles death.

Bears beat Seahawks 34-17 on Monday night to reach 6-2

The Chicago Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks 34-17 on Monday night in Seattle to improve to 6-2. Caleb Williams completed 24 of 34 passes for 247 yards and one touchdown, and D’Andre Swift ran 27 times for 69 yards and three touchdowns. The Bears led from early in the game and never gave the lead back.

Chicago now faces the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Soldier Field on Sunday night. Seattle, the defending Super Bowl champion, fell in a game where Chicago controlled possession and forced turnovers throughout the night.