Republicans face a reckoning after 2025 elections

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Good evening and welcome to your daily news briefing from The Independent.

Democratic victories in the first major elections under Trump's second presidency have rattled the GOP, Putin is making preparations for nuclear testing after Trump said the U.S. would do the same, and commercial air traffic will be slashed amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Top stories

1 | 'They're really bad for the party': Republican strategists say Democrats now have the momentum into 2026

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2 | FAA cuts airline traffic in 40 markets over shutdown as Americans already face uncertainty over holiday travel plans

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3 | Lutnick, Bessent – and John Mulaney? The surprising audience for Trump's 'life or death' tariffs case

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4 | Video shows ICE agents grabbing childcare worker from inside Chicago preschool

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5 | Putin orders nuclear weapons test preparations after Trump threat in new escalation

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The Big Question 

Even as he pushed to focus his campaign on affordability in one of the world's most expensive cities, New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani still had to contend with Donald Trump.

Mamdani told supporters before election day that New Yorkers face "twin crises" of an "authoritarian" Trump regime on one hand and a mounting cost of living crisis on the other.

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Editors' picks

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WATCH 

Watch Zohran Mamdani's victory speech in full as he wins New York mayoral race

STAT OF THE DAY

$100 million 

The price tag for Trump's planned victory arch is estimated to cost $100 million.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"A one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch."

An extremely skeptical Supreme Court appeared to signal a ruling against Trump's sweeping tariff agenda in a high-stakes case.

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