A Data Center Backlash in the Midterms, and Melania Trump’s Surprising Diplomatic Role

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, November 6th. Here's what we're covering. We're diving in this morning with another quick round of updates on the midterms, including the latest on the results, with some key races still too close to call. We're going to win. We're going to win. We'll take a look at one of the biggest issues that was on ballots across the country. I'll require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you. And an update from inside the administration, which has been rattled by the GOP's massive losses. Just like the president, we don't back down, and that especially applies now. To start, the results. With more race calls trickling in, the Democratic majority in the House surged past 10%. -250 seats yesterday. No party has held that many seats since 2008, when Democrats swept to power behind Barack Obama. For the Senate, the Dems' exact majority is still up in the air. The races in Alaska and Mississippi have yet to be called. But in both cases, as of early this morning, the Democrats hold narrow, narrow leads over the Republican incumbents. And when it comes to mayors, I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the trust that Angelenos have placed in me. The Los Angeles race was just called for Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialist. With her win, which she pulled off by harnessing the frustration of young voters, this means L.A. and New York, the two largest cities in the country, will now have Democratic Socialist mayors. And Washington, D.C., also elected a mayor who is a member of the DSA, this week. Next, it is now clear from election results that voters slammed on the brakes when it comes to data centers. In 40 out of 41 local ballot initiatives across the country, half of which were in Ohio, people voted to limit or prevent data center development. Similarly, voters went for governors and House and Senate candidates who have been openly critical of big tech. Just very quickly, I want to note how once these data centers started popping up all over the country, residents really started thinking twice. Cecilia Kong covers tech and regulation for The Times. This was also really a reaction to lawmakers who had been catering to these data center developers by offering them things like tax breaks and other incentives, like really easy access to energy and water, that residents felt were hogging up the resources that affected them. Moving forward, we're going to talk about the results of these data centers. We're going to talk about the results of these data centers. Moving forward, because of these election results that were so overwhelmingly against data center development, we're going to see a lot more straight-up bans and possible pauses on the development of projects already underway. And last midterms update: inside the administration, President Trump continued to focus on renovation projects at the White House. Elsewhere, though, the conversations are more pointed. His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is shutting down reports he plans to leave the administration in the wake of the midterms. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has gone on defense. You see, they attack me, they attack us, because we are effective. It's not going to work. We will not back down. Hegseth is now under fire from both sides, with some Republicans blaming the war in Iran for the party's losses and pushing Trump to replace him. And Democrats likely to launch an impeachment effort against Hegseth soon. In response, Hegseth posted a video online defending his tenure and vowing to fight for his job. To the troops, don't blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. You see, all this is politics. For more on the midterms, listen to today's episode of The Daily with Senator Chuck Schumer, widely expected to soon be Senate Majority Leader. He lays out the Democrats' plans for what's next. Also at the White House yesterday, a group of Russian and Ukrainian officials gathered, but their main agenda wasn't seeing President Trump. Instead, it was all about the First Lady. We have chosen humanity over war. Melania Trump and officials from both countries were celebrating a six-day ceasefire that she had helped broker, the first truce of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Together, we can create something more enduring than a temporary ceasefire. The pause in fighting last month allowed hundreds of people to evacuate Oleshki, a Russian-occupied city in the Kherson region, which was facing a starvation crisis. The pause also allowed for the removal of landmines from the area. I was actually in Kherson for two days during the ceasefire, and it was really remarkable to see. I had random civilians, old men, young women saying, please tell Melania, thank you from us. Ukraine and Russia both really went to great lengths to make sure people knew who was behind this. Siobhan O'Grady covers Ukraine for The Times. She says that from a strategic standpoint, it's not surprising that Ukraine and Russia want to be seen as working with Melania Trump. They see her as a conduit to the White House. And that if they can make her happy and heap praise on her diplomatic efforts, it could help curry favor with President Trump. What is surprising, Siobhan says, is that the ceasefire actually held. I mean, this was six days of quiet in one of the most intense frontline regions in the country. It has been just absolute horror there for years for civilians. And in a matter of minutes, all of the drones stopped, all of the missiles stopped. And people who live in that region actually had a moment of quiet for the first time. And this really showed that when there is pressure on both sides and a mutual interest in having a ceasefire, that it is possible. At the same time, Chivon says, Ukrainians are under no illusion that a permanent peace deal is about to be hashed out by the First Lady. Russia is still continuing with some of its deadliest attacks of the war so far. For years around the world, the leading cause of maternal deaths has been postpartum hemorrhaging, where women lose too much blood after childbirth. If it's not caught in time, women can die in as little as 10 minutes. Nowhere is the problem worse than in Nigeria, where more women die giving birth than anywhere else. Recently, though, researchers found that a simple two-step approach to treatment could cut the number of deaths dramatically. The first step involves using a little 80-cent plastic pouch called a maternal drape to objectively measure blood loss. Then, if that level crosses a dangerous threshold, the next step is to quickly deploy treatments like drugs, IV drips, and other methods, all at once, instead of waiting and trying them one at a time. I recently went to northern Nigeria, where they have pioneered this approach that they're now rolling out across the country that's making a huge difference in how many women survive childbirth. Stephanie Nolan covers global public health for The Times. She was just at a large teaching hospital in Nigeria, where she saw the new protocol in action. It was packed. There were 20 women who were either in the process of giving birth or who had just given birth to babies. And there were a few very overworked nurses and midwives. And I met a young woman named Husayna Balarabe, and she was just recovering from having given birth. She was holding her lovely little boy, whose name was Abed. And she wasn't even aware that just a few hours before she had come very close to bleeding to death. Husayna had a postpartum heverage after she gave birth and the drape that was underneath her caught and collected the blood and the midwives noticed right away that she was in danger. And they very quickly jumped in with this whole package of interventions. And it all happened so quickly and so seamlessly that Husayna didn't even realize that her life had been in danger. Stephanie says the research shows that overall, the new two-step approach cuts deaths from postpartum hemorrhage in hospitals by about two-thirds. Nurses at the hospital she visited told her they hadn't had a postpartum hemorrhage death in a year. And finally, about a decade ago, a team of archaeologists discovered a huge ancient burial mound in southern Siberia that turned out to be a literal treasure trove. The site was nearly 3,000 years old. thousand years old and belonged to the Scythians, a nomadic people who roamed the area on horseback. The trove included gold jewelry, animal statues, daggers, human remains with preserved hair, plus hundreds and hundreds of cannabis seeds. So the researchers tapped into their inner narc and drug tested some of the hair. The results were positive. The analysis showed chemicals associated with THC. Essentially, it's evidence that the Scythians, known for being fierce warriors who were big on tattoos, were also potentially the world's first stoners. And that humans were using cannabis to get high hundreds of years earlier than previously thought. The findings were published in the journal Science yesterday. This isn't totally surprising. Descriptions of Scythian funeral practices from around 440 BCE. The authors of the study said he thinks it's still likely that smoking weed goes back much further. There's evidence cannabis was being cultivated at least 6,000 years ago. And he said he thinks even Neanderthals or earlier human ancestors knew what was up with those plants. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood. Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories The Times has been covering. Can you get them all? First up. We are starting with the midterms. On Tuesday night, candidates of both parties gave their victory speeches, which is always a time where politicians love to drop a little bit of state color. I'm going to play you clips from some of these speeches. You guess what state the winning candidate is from. For example. We're the state that put a man on the moon. We're the state that put breakfast in a taco. The answer to that would be Texas. That's James Tallarico, the new senator-elect. Okay, for real now, we will play the candidate you named the state. J.D., you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January. So you know what that means. Wolverine one, Buckeye zero. That is Michigan and its new Democratic senator-elect, Abdul El-Sayed, with a little taunt for the vice president, who's an Ohio State grad. Next one. And look, we used to be known for plastic flamingos, not even real flamingos. Now we're known for freedom. That is Florida, where Republican Ashley Moody just celebrated her Senate win. And last one. Our campaign didn't begin in a. Washington, D.C. conference room, but it grew in the basement of the Hibbing Public Library next to the Bob Dylan exhibit, in cafes, in churches, VFWs. That is Minnesota and Democratic senator-elect Peggy Flanagan. Minnesota being also the birthplace of Bob Dylan and a place that's never said no to a good party at a VFW. Next question, sticking with the midterms for one more. Of all the things on all the ballots all across the country this week, one state voted on an unexpected topic. Residents there were asked to weigh in on what should be the state gun. Voters ended up choosing a Winchester model 1873. Your question, we want to know if you can name the state, and we'll help you out by telling you a few of the state's other symbols. The state tree here is the western white pine. The state dance is square, square dance. The state bird is the mountain bluebird. And you got this, the state vegetable is the potato. Which state is it? The answer? Idaho. Apparently deciding which gun to vote for was not an easy choice. One Republican state senator said, quote, Now, Idaho is not alone. Utah and Kentucky have state guns. So does Texas. Its official gun is the cannon. And final question here, nothing to do with politics, moving on to the world of entertainment. The Times recently covered the opening of a new exhibit at the British Library devoted to the best-selling novelist of all time. It features items from the author's life, like personal letters, family photographs, a typewriter. Who is the author? Again, the best-selling novelist ever. A hint, the exhibit's called A World of Mystery, and you've probably seen at least one adaptation of one of these many novels. The murderer is with us, and every one of you is a suspect. The answer? Agatha Christie, famous for her murder mysteries. Murder on the Orient Express, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, all the biggies. And Christie really knew how to kill somebody. At the museum, you can see her handwritten notes drawing from her time working at a hospital pharmacy. At the top of one page, she wrote, poisons, possibilities for books, and then listed out the effects and the fatal doses. That's it for this week's news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is theheadlines at nytimes.com. We will be back on Monday.