New Zealand faces weeks of uncertainty with election ‘too close to call’

National party will be largest in parliament but ultimate shape of next government won’t be settled for some time

New Zealand could be facing a weeks-long wait to know the shape of its next government, after its nail-biting election failed to hand a decisive victory to either the incumbent rightwing coalition or opposition left bloc.

On preliminary results, the centre-right National party, led by the prime minister, Christopher Luxon, managed to secure enough seats to govern alongside its traditional coalition partners, the libertarian Act and populist New Zealand First parties.

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Blackouts and water shortages in Kyiv after Russia strikes Ukraine’s energy grid

Moscow used 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles in attacks on electricity substations and bridge over the Dnipro

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to “plunge Kyiv and the entire country into a blackout”, after a major attack overnight on energy infrastructure in the capital and a bridge over the Dnipro River.

Ukraine’s president said Moscow’s preparations for peace talks next week involved pummelling a city of millions with ballistic missiles.

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Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller a middle finger to millions of voters

Architect of Trump’s far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government – it suggests White House is moving to a war footing

Donald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.

Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility – and perhaps even an obligation to work with the new opposition in Congress.

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Court rules against Home Office in asylum seeker kidnapping case

Department had claimed that being kidnapped for ransom was not exploitation of trafficking victims in case of Syrian man abducted in Libya

The court of appeal has rejected claims by the Home Office that being kidnapped for ransom is not exploitation of trafficking victims.

The ruling means that many people who have been kidnapped for ransom, whom officials have previously excluded from being victims of exploitation under trafficking rules, will now have to have these claims considered. They may be eligible for the support and recovery package trafficking victims are entitled to.

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New ‘high safety’ chemicals in plastic food packaging linked to lower birth weight, study finds

Dinch, an allegedly ‘safe’ alternative, used in the EU and US also found to cause fetal development complications

Exposure to a new generation of allegedly “safe” plasticizers is linked to lower birth weight and fetal development complications, which could cause serious health problems later in life, a new peer-reviewed study found.

As the health risks in exposure to common phthalate plasticizers became clear over the last few decades, industry began switching to a new type of chemical, called Dinch, that it claimed was a “high safety”, nontoxic alternative. It is widely used in soft plastic food packaging in the United States and European Union, and is found in children’s toys, medical devices, some textiles, flooring and other consumer goods.

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Florida Republicans survived the ‘blue wave’, but find themselves on shaky ground

Sunshine state emerged as the lone flag bearer of the Maga agenda, but even there, the GOP finds itself on the defense

After the dust settled on Tuesday night’s near-annihilation of the Republican party nationwide, a single red flag fluttered defiantly in Florida, now a last bastion of the Maga movement that has dominated politics in the US for a decade.

Voters in the Sunshine state bucked the national trend, just barely, to elect two close allies of Donald Trump into office: congressman Byron Donalds as its first Black governor, and Ashley Moody to the US Senate.

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Conservative bloc takes a slim lead in New Zealand election that’s still too close to call – AP News

  1. Conservative bloc takes a slim lead in New Zealand election that’s still too close to call  AP News
  2. New Zealand election 2026 live results: National and Labour neck-and-neck as minor party eyes kingmaker role  The Guardian
  3. New Zealand’s National Party set to cling on to power  Financial Times
  4. Will New Zealand Join Voters’ Global Revolt Over Soaring Costs?  The New York Times
  5. ‘SH*T WE DID IT’: NZ party leader’s disbelief at shock result  News.com.au
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‘Very strange, very sad’: Paraguay bank collapse fells a presidency and leaves millions broke – The Guardian

  1. ‘Very strange, very sad’: Paraguay bank collapse fells a presidency and leaves millions broke  The Guardian
  2. Paraguay's President Santiago Peña impeached and under house arrest  BBC
  3. How Paraguay’s Ueno collapse is only its latest banking crisis  Al Jazeera
  4. Paraguay president impeached and under house arrest following bank collapse scandal  CNN
  5. Paraguay swears in new president as Peña is put under house arrest  Reuters
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Inside the Operation That Helped Ukraine Reverse Some Russian War Gains – The New York Times

  1. Inside the Operation That Helped Ukraine Reverse Some Russian War Gains  The New York Times
  2. Sitrep for Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 2026 (as of 7 a.m. UTC+3)  Conflict Intelligence Team — Teletype
  3. Gagin Blames Intelligence Leaks for Ukraine's Vivaldi Failure  Demokratis.co.id
  4. Gagin Links Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi Failure to Spies  Военное дело
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Trump’s midterm drubbing adds to the populist right’s losses. France’s Le Pen could still win – AP News

  1. Trump’s midterm drubbing adds to the populist right’s losses. France’s Le Pen could still win  AP News
  2. Europe’s far right has a Trump problem after Republican US midterms wipeout  The Guardian
  3. European far right distances itself from Trump, blaming Iran war for Republicans' defeat  Reuters
  4. US midterm results unsettle French far right, boost hopes of left ahead of presidential election  Le Monde.fr
  5. How Europe's Far-Right Leaders Are Backing Away From Trump After Midterm Losses  Time Magazine
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TikTok accused of helping to promote sex industry to girls

Researchers say popular performers covertly market OnlyFans content and tell followers about wealthy lifestyle

TikTok is helping to promote and normalise the sex industry, allowing “sexfluencers” to post videos aimed at marketing pornographic content they have uploaded elsewhere on sites such as OnlyFans, a report indicates.

After studying non-explicit content posted on TikTok over the course of a year by some of OnlyFans’ most popular young female performers, researchers said the women buried coded references to pornography in “girly lifestyle content” that showed them shopping, playing with their pets, baking or offering skincare advice.

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Strait of Hormuz could reopen as part of Qatari plan for Iran nuclear inspections

Trump still considering new assault on Iran nuclear sites – though threats less credible after Vance remarks

Qatar, the lead mediator in the US-Iran conflict, is seeking to persuade Tehran to allow UN nuclear weapons inspectors to visit Iran’s bombed nuclear sites, including those housing the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran would not be required to make any commitment that the stockpile would be removed from the country, with other options on the table, including reducing the uranium content by down-blending it.

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After the US midterm rout of Trumpism, the world struggles to trust America again – AP News

  1. After the US midterm rout of Trumpism, the world struggles to trust America again  AP News
  2. What will a lame-duck Donald Trump get up to overseas?  The Economist
  3. Three ways Democrats could reshape U.S. foreign policy after the midterms  NPR
  4. Five Ways Trump Can Push His Agenda Abroad After Midterms Losses  Bloomberg.com
  5. The Guardian view on the midterms and foreign policy: American voters spoke, and now the world waits anxiously  The Guardian
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US midterm results may help unite Israeli coalition to unseat Netanyahu

Democrats’ sweep could urge Israel’s divided opposition to join forces and remove prime minister closely allied with Trump

The Democrats’ sweep of Congress may make it easier for Israel’s splintered opposition to overcome deep internal divisions and form a coalition government, by increasing the urgency of unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, who has associated himself so closely with Donald Trump’s Republicans.

But as Israel took stock of the results, there was also a sense that the elections marked a longer-term shift in US politics that will make the job of any new Israeli leader far more difficult.

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No, ‘mogging’ does not signal the decline of the English language – Financial Times

  1. No, ‘mogging’ does not signal the decline of the English language  Financial Times
  2. The 5 most brutal political moggings of 2026  POLITICO.eu
  3. Collins Dictionary chooses ‘mogging’ as its 2026 word of the year  AP News
  4. ‘Mogging’ is Collins’ word of the year, but what does it mean?  CNN
  5. I thought ‘mogging’ was a family in-joke  The Telegraph
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