Ukraine and Europe react to the new Congress. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told German broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday that he hopes Democratic control of Congress brings more United States support for Ukraine, saying Democrats speak clearly about supporting Ukraine and about renewing the connection between the United States and Europe, and that strong financial or military support from Congress would have an impact on President Vladimir Putin. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she hoped the new Congress would continue supporting Ukraine and put more pressure on Russia. Both remarks come from a single Al Jazeera report of the interviews and are carried as the speakers’ stated positions. The next concrete test is the Abu Dhabi meeting on November 10 and 11, where United States envoys are bringing Ukrainian and Russian delegations together.
Germany’s chancellor doubts Congress will bind Trump. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at an event in Berlin on Wednesday that President Trump has largely governed by bypassing Congress over the last two years and asked why that should be any different now, while his foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, took the opposite view, calling the Democratic victory very clear and a new opportunity for initiatives to end the wars in Ukraine and Iran. The Merz remark is single sourced to an Al Jazeera video item in the pool, corroborated in substance by the Al Jazeera report above, which carries the same quotation.
The system held, on the Guardian’s account. The Guardian reported on November 5 that President Trump accepted the midterm results and that the election system held up against interference efforts. Trump’s acceptance and congratulations to Democrats were already carried in this site’s midterms story and are not repeated as a new development here; the interference assessment is the Guardian’s reporting, single sourced in this pool.
Netanyahu raises a foreign spending claim. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on November 4 that he had serious concerns about foreign spending intended to sway Israel’s election, France 24 reported. This is a claim by a party to the dispute, made after the Central Elections Committee certified the results and rejected fraud claims; no evidence for the spending claim is carried in the report, and it is recorded here as his stated position only, at grade C.
Savings bond rates, from the primary source. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s release lists the Series I savings bond rate at 4.26 percent and the Series EE rate at 2.40 percent. The item is a primary Treasury document surfaced in the politics gap check; it belongs primarily to the rates beat and is noted here so the figure traces to the Treasury’s own release rather than to secondary reporting.
South Africa election cases. South African police are investigating 14 election related cases arising from the November 4 local elections, AllAfrica reported on November 5, separate from the counting covered in today’s full story on the early results. The report is single sourced in this pool.