Illustration of the US Capitol at night, with ballot papers floating and a blue wave rising at the foot of the building

Politics 4 November 2026

Democrats win both houses of Congress, flipping seven Senate seats

In the 3 November midterms Democrats took Senate seats in Texas, Kansas, Maine, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio and won back the House. Susan Collins conceded in Maine. Trump says he will work with them, and reminds them he has the veto.

Democrats will run both chambers of Congress from January. US networks projected the House for them at about 10.40pm on Tuesday in Washington (3.40am in Lisbon) and the Senate roughly an hour later, on a night when the president’s party lost seats in states it had not lost in a generation.

Going in, Democrats needed a net gain of four Senate seats. They gained seven.

Seven seats changed hands

Texas is the one people will remember. James Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative and former teacher, beat Attorney General Ken Paxton to become the state’s first Democratic senator since 1988. Paxton had knocked out Senator John Cornyn in the primary with Trump’s endorsement, and the race turned into the most expensive of the cycle.

In Kansas, Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton unseated Roger Marshall, something no Democrat had managed there in almost a century. Maine’s Susan Collins, a five-term senator who chairs the Appropriations Committee, lost to Troy Jackson, a logger and former state senate president. She called him to concede.

The rest of the list: Annie Andrews in South Carolina (against Darline Graham, sister of the late Lindsey Graham), Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Josh Turek in Iowa and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, back two years after losing his seat. Democrats also held Georgia and New Hampshire. Michigan was leaning towards Abdul El-Sayed but had not been projected when we published.

What changes in Washington

The Senate decides which presidential nominees get through, judges and ambassadors included. The House brings the investigative committees. The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee put the plan in a two-word statement: “Lawyer up.”

Trump said he was “a little bit surprised” and blamed Republican candidates. He promised to work with Democrats, possibly on immigration, while describing the veto as one of the strongest powers a president has. Exit polls put his approval at 38%, the lowest recorded for a president at a midterm.

For Europe the read is practical. Treaties, ambassadorial confirmations and foreign aid packages all go through a Senate that changes leadership in January. Until then, the current make-up is on the Senate’s own party division page. Final results are certified state by state over the coming weeks.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Illustration: Tugadaily

Illustration of a long green-baize table with papers and glasses, ringed by empty red chairs in a room with pink arched windows and a lit chandelier

Politics 3 November 2026

Two new members join Portugal's Council of State as it sits for five hours on social cohesion

President Seguro convened the Council of State at Belém on Monday 2 November. The meeting ran for more than five hours. The closing statement names inequality, regional cohesion and access to housing, education and health, but sets out no measures. The Constitutional Court president and the Ombudsman were sworn in first.

Portugal's Council of State spent Monday afternoon and much of the evening behind closed doors at the Belém palace, on a single subject: social cohesion. It sat down at 3pm and broke up more than five hours later. What came out was a short statement, and no measures. None were expected. The Council is the President's advisory body. The Portuguese Constitution gives it a voice, not a vote, and its meetings are private. The public learns whatever Belém…

Illustration of a small green tent on a patch of Portuguese wave-pattern pavement beside a judge's gavel, with a wall clock reading half past midnight

Politics 2 November 2026

Lisbon court lets a protest tent stay in Rossio until 24 November (one tent, not the camp)

Lisbon's Administrative Court ruled on Sunday that the 12.30am cut-off for demonstrations is neither absolute nor automatic, and allowed protester Renata Cambra to stay overnight in Rossio with a tent until the day of the final 2027 budget vote. The ruling does not legalise the collective camp.

Lisbon's Administrative Court sided on Sunday with one member of the housing protest camp. Renata Cambra may spend the night in Rossio, in a tent, until 24 November, the date set for the final vote on Portugal's 2027 State Budget. The ruling landed a few hours after police cleared the Lisbon and Porto camps for the third time in the early hours of the same Sunday, detaining 13 people. Portugal's 1974 law on public assemblies sets 12.30am as the limit for…

Illustration of a negotiating table in a classroom, with scattered papers, a stack of exercise books, an apple and an empty chair at the head in front of a chalkboard

Politics 1 November 2026

Portugal's biggest teachers' union takes its recruitment fight to the ombudsman

Cabinet approved the new teacher recruitment regime on 30 July, a week before the final negotiation meeting set for 6 August. Fenprof says that broke public-sector bargaining law, and the President has since signed it. The ombudsman met the union on 29 October.

Fenprof, Portugal's largest teachers' union federation, has filed a complaint with the Provedora de Justiça, the national ombudsman, over how the Government negotiated the new system for recruiting and placing state-school teachers. Its statement of 31 October also takes aim at someone who was not part of the August row: the President, who has since signed the decree into law without answering the union's objections.

Politics 31 October 2026

Democrats need four Senate seats on Tuesday. These are the races where they could find them

Americans vote on 3 November for all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governors. Republicans hold the Senate 53-47. In Lisbon, the first polls close at 11pm on Tuesday and the last, in Alaska, around 6am on Wednesday.

Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, 3 November, in the first nationwide election since Donald Trump returned to the White House. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up, along with 35 Senate seats (the 33 senators whose terms end in 2027 plus special elections in Ohio and Florida) and 36 governorships. The number to watch is four. The Senate splits 53 Republicans to 47 Democrats, so Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control.…

Politics 31 October 2026

Poland's top court has two rival leaderships this morning

On Friday a judge elected by the current parliament ordered the Constitutional Tribunal's president and vice-president off the job for a month. They refuse to go. Donald Tusk calls it restoring the rule of law, the opposition calls it a coup, and President Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal.

Poland woke up on Saturday with two competing answers to a basic question: who runs its Constitutional Tribunal? At about 6pm Warsaw time on Friday, the court's website announced that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, had been suspended from their duties for up to a month. Within half an hour the tribunal's official X account said the opposite. The website, it said, had been unlawfully taken over, and both men…

Illustration of a payslip sliding out of an open envelope, gold coins bouncing around it and two coin stacks either side, on a green background

Politics 30 October 2026

Your November payslip in Portugal will look generous. The income tax cut behind it is smaller

Portugal's cabinet approved the decree-law cutting IRS rates in the first six brackets on 29 October, backdated to 1 January. November withholding on wages and pensions is halved, which for many people advances more money than the cut is worth. The difference is settled in the 2027 tax return.

This year's income tax cut in Portugal is now law in all but the signature. On Thursday 29 October the Council of Ministers approved the decree-law lowering IRS rates in the first six brackets, backdated to 1 January 2026. The government says almost three million households benefit and puts the cost at 400 million euros. When cabinet first signed off the idea in September, it still needed a vote in parliament. Parliament has since granted the…

Illustration of a 230-seat chamber coloured by how each seat voted on the 2027 budget (91 for, 60 abstaining, 79 against), with a ballot box in front of a neoclassical portico

Politics 29 October 2026

Five parties voted against Portugal’s 2027 budget. It passed anyway

The 2027 State Budget bill cleared its first reading on 28 October with PSD and CDS-PP in favour, PS, PAN and JPP abstaining, and Chega, IL, Livre, PCP and BE against. Committee stage runs 18 to 23 November and the final vote is on the 24th.

Portugal's 2027 State Budget has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle. On Wednesday afternoon, 28 October, bill 110/XVII/2 was approved in principle with votes in favour from the governing PSD and CDS-PP. The Socialists (PS), PAN and JPP abstained. Chega, the Liberal Initiative, Livre, the Communists and the Left Bloc all voted no. Nobody was holding their breath. Once the PS's 58 MPs stepped aside, the AD's 91 seats were enough on their own, as the…

Politics 28 October 2026

Israel's election leaves Likud in first place and no bloc at 61

With about 90% of votes counted, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud has 26 of the Knesset's 120 seats, ahead of 21 for Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar. Netanyahu's bloc has 53, Eisenkot's 48 and the Arab-led parties 19. Turnout reached 77.7%, and the double-envelope count runs into Thursday.

Israelis voted on Tuesday and woke up on Wednesday without a winner. Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud is once again the biggest party, but neither the prime minister's bloc nor the opposition reaches the 61 seats needed to control the 120-seat Knesset. The channel 11, 12 and 13 exit polls put Likud on 24 or 25 seats on election night. Overnight projections lifted it as high as 27 or 28. With about 90% of the vote counted on Wednesday afternoon, Likud stood at…

Politics 27 October 2026

Serbia's Student List wins an outright majority as Vučić concedes

The movement born from the Novi Sad canopy protests took 52.7% in Sunday's snap election, per the electoral commission (RIK), for a projected 140 of 250 seats. Vučić's United Serbia list got 39.2%. Turnout was 68.8%.

Serbia's student movement has turned two years of street protest into a parliamentary majority. The Student List won Sunday's snap election outright, and Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat. The Republic Electoral Commission's results gave the Student List 52.71% in Monday night's count, with 8,187 of 8,392 polling stations in. United Serbia, the list led by Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party, was on 39.2%. Turnout reached 68.8%, the highest in more than…

The entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan US Courthouse in Manhattan, home of the Southern District of New York, its name carved into the granite facade

Politics 26 October 2026

Judge rules Maurene Comey's firing unlawful and orders her reinstated

US District Judge Jesse Furman in New York found that the July 2025 firing of federal prosecutor Maurene Comey broke the Civil Service Reform Act and the separation of powers. He ordered her reinstated retroactively with back pay. The Justice Department says it will appeal.

A federal judge in New York ruled on Monday that the US Justice Department unlawfully fired prosecutor Maurene Comey. Jesse Furman, of the Southern District of New York, ordered her reinstated retroactively and paid the salary she lost. The Justice Department has already responded. It disagrees with the decision and says it will appeal. In a 55-page decision, Furman concluded that the firing broke the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and the…

Bar chart of Lula's share of the runoff vote: Portugal 59.4%, Brazil 51.8%, Faro consulate 47.3%

Politics 26 October 2026

Portugal's Brazilians backed Lula by far more than Brazil did (Faro was the exception)

Brazil's electoral court gave Lula 51.79% against Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.21%. Among Brazilians voting in Portugal he took 59.42%, but lost the Faro consulate.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a fourth term as Brazil's president. On Sunday night Brazil's electoral court announced his re-election with 64,256,232 votes, or 51.79% of valid votes, against 59,826,041 (48.21%) for Flávio Bolsonaro. That is a margin of about 4.4 million votes out of 128.2 million cast. More than 158 million Brazilians were eligible, and abstention fell to roughly 19.2% from 21.08% in the first round.

Politics 25 October 2026

B.C. Conservatives win their first majority in nearly a century, and Eby steps down

In Saturday's snap election in British Columbia, Lorne Doerkson's Conservatives lead in 64 of 93 ridings on 48% of the vote with 99.9% of ballot boxes reported. The NDP drops to 27 seats, David Eby holds his own riding by 538 votes and resigns as party leader.

David Eby called British Columbia's election two years early to turn a one-seat majority into something sturdier. On Saturday night the province handed power to the Conservatives instead, and Eby announced he is stepping down as NDP leader. With 99.9% of ballot boxes in, the Elections BC initial count has the Conservatives elected or leading in 64 of the 93 ridings, comfortably past the 47 needed for a majority. The NDP has 27 and the Greens 2. The…

Meeting of the Socialist Party's national political committee at party headquarters in Lisbon, with an 'Avançamos todos' backdrop

Politics 24 October 2026

Why Portugal's 2027 budget is safe before the debate even starts

The Socialist Party (PS) confirmed on 21 October that it will abstain in the first-reading vote on the 2027 State Budget, debated on 27 and 28 October. With its 58 MPs out of the count, the governing AD's 91 seats are enough: even if every other party votes against, they total 81.

Portugal's 2027 State Budget goes into its first-reading debate on 27 and 28 October with approval all but certain. On Wednesday 21 October the Socialist Party's national political committee confirmed a "total consensus" behind José Luís Carneiro's proposal to let the budget through by abstaining. Party spokesman André Moz Caldas was careful to say the abstention is neither a blank cheque nor a move towards Luís Montenegro's government. The argument is…

Politics 23 October 2026

Brazilians in Portugal vote again on Sunday, and they backed Lula when Brazil didn't

More than 134,000 Brazilian voters registered in Portugal can vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, from 8am to 5pm in Lisbon, Porto and Faro. In the first round they gave Lula 52.45% and Flávio Bolsonaro 38.57%, the reverse of the national result.

Brazilians living in Portugal go back to the polls on Sunday 25 October for the presidential runoff between Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. They arrive with a first-round result that looks nothing like their country's. On 4 October, voters registered in Portugal gave Lula 52.45% (26,401 votes) and Flávio Bolsonaro 38.57% (19,412), according to the Superior Electoral Court's count. Back home it went the other way. With every section counted, Flávio…