Reuters World News - Mamdani, election takeaways and Brazil

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Election results in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia and California give Democrats some momentum. Listen to host Kim Vinnell and our journalists discuss what they mean for midterms – and how Republicans will use Mamdani's embrace of a socialist agenda as a line of attack. Plus, Brazil’s president is feeling the heat after the country’s deadliest police raid leaves him in a tricky spot ahead of playing host for COP30.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Wednesday, November 5th. Today, Democrats sweep to victory in elections across the US, including making democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani mayor-elect of New York. And Brazil's president, Lula de Silva, deals with the fallout of a major drug cartel sting, which left bodies in the streets, as the country prepares to welcome world leaders.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. The results are in. Across the US, voters turned to Democrats, who swept a trio of races seen as a litmus test of President Donald Trump's second term. The three major winners all made standing up to the president a core theme of their campaigns, including the Democratic candidate for the most high-profile race, the now mayor-elect of New York City, Zohan Mamdani. 34-year-old Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo in an election which saw the highest voter turnout since the 1960s. So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you.

Turn the volume up. Mamdani's win coming despite an earlier threat from President Donald Trump to withhold money from the city in the eventuality that he won. Reuters correspondent Maria Twitskova is in New York. He definitely managed to bring some voters back to the Democratic Party. I spoke with the voters all day at pollsides. One of them was an immigrant from Bangladesh who came to New York City decades ago. It voted for Trump at the presidential election.

And now Trump disappointed him, first of all, by the tariffs. He realized that he eventually pays a higher price for goods. And he saw a promise in what Mamdani offered people affordability. While Mamdani was speaking, Trump posted on Truth Social, and so it begins. All caps. Trump blamed the losses on the fact his name was not on the ballot and an ongoing federal government shutdown. Trump may not have been on any of the ballots, but in New Jersey and Virginia, the candidates who won the races for governor, both Democrats, put opposition to him front and center of their campaigns. Mikey Sherrill had this to say in New Jersey. We're not going to give in to our darker impulses. Here in New Jersey, we know that this nation has not ever been, nor will it ever be ruled by kings.

Abigail Spanberger elected governor in Virginia. You chose, we chose leadership that will always put Virginia first. Spanberger becomes the state's first ever woman to hold the role. To give us the big picture on what all of these results tell us. I spoke to Reuters correspondent Bo Erickson. So it's not a shock that both Democratic governors elect won the races tonight because in these handful of elections that take place in the year after a presidential election, the opposing party, which is now the Democrats, they usually enjoy some more momentum. Bo says it's too soon to say what these results mean for the midterms next year. They don't really give away the whole story of what can happen next year because

In Trump's Washington, a lot happens in just one day. This is kind of a shot in the arm for Democrats who are trying to find momentum after losing the White House to President Trump. But to be sure, Republicans are going to try to discount any sort of moderate wins here from the Democrats tonight. Some Republican leaders in Congress have already dismissed, quote, Kami Mamdani. So we are really expecting conservatives ahead of next year's midterm election to use Mamdani's popularity to try to paint more moderates as extreme. And in California, voters have decided to give Democratic lawmakers the power to redraw

the state's congressional map. It may help Democrats flip several seats in the House of Representatives, all part of a wider gerrymandering battle across the country. I spoke with Royty's correspondent in Carlsbad, California, Daniel Trotter. This means the Democrats are fighting back. For a long time, Republicans had sort of owned the gerrymandering redistricting in their states. Legally, of course, they have used their political advantage to advance districts, to redraw districts that favor them at the expense of Democrats. California is fighting back, as it were, by proposing this ballot initiative to redraw,

districts in California in order to favor Democrats. Daniel says even so, this won't be the end of the redistricting battle. Republicans are already attempting to gerrymander, mid-district, mid-cycle, in a number of other states. It's happened in Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri. There's maybe half a dozen other states. They're trying to do this in. Democrats, however, don't have as many options.

At least seven people are dead after. a UPS plane crashed on takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky. The UPS wide-body cargo plane headed for Honolulu erupted into a fireball moments after it took off, eyewitness video showing a trail of black smoke in the sky. At least 11 people injured on the ground have been taken to hospital. A market sell-off on Wall Street has investors questioning whether the AI rally has run out of steam.

Kamal Krimmns is the host of our sister podcast, Royt's Econ World. Kamel, what has triggered this? A wake-up call from the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. So they warned this week that markets might be due for a pullback after a massive run-up and it's triggered underlying concerns about AI valuations. Are they overstretched? The question is, though, is this just a blip and will we see investors return and buy the dip, as it's called? Or could we be due for a deeper sell-off?

Meanwhile, Carmel, we have a burning markets question of our own, right? We do, Kim. So people who know this show know that we have a bell to accompany our market segment. Now, it's caused a little bit of consternation on the team. Should we keep it? We have some fans. We have some people who don't like it. We want to hear from you.

What do you think? Should the market's bell stay or should it go? We're going to be running a poll on Spotify. So please let us know. And just quickly, what have you got for us this week on Royter's Econ World? We're looking into the economics of art heists after that jewellery theft in the Louvre. That pod will be dropping later today and you can catch it on roiders.com, Reuters app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Brazil's President Luis Anasio Lula de Silva is facing increased scrutiny after a brutal roundup of accused cartel members left more than a hundred people dead, literally lying on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. That is the country is preparing to host. the COP 30 climate summit this week. Our reporter Lucinda Elliott is covering the fallout. Lula's really attempting to balance growing international condemnation of this deadly police operation with domestic support for a crackdown on organised crime

in Brazil ahead of a presidential election next year. So international observers, UN officials and members of Lula's own left-wing party have raised the alarm over how the police operation was handled. but fresh polling suggests quite widespread domestic support for how the police acted. And at the same time, Brazil's political right that very narrowly lost the last presidential race has moved swiftly to capitalize on the incident. Lula has now said he will push for an independent probe. He said it was important to see under what conditions it took place

and that the authorities had approved for arrest warrants, but not a quote, mass killing. A new decree from the Vatican is clarifying how Catholics view Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the decree approved by Pope Leo, the church says, Jesus alone saved humanity and that Mary was not on equal footing. And that while Mary opened the gates of redemption by giving birth to Jesus, she herself is not a redeemer. And for today's recommended read, we take you to Parra, the Brazilian state hosting next week's COP30 climate conference. with a story about the past and future of Amazonian mining. There's a link to that story in today's podcast description. For more on any of the stories from today,

check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. I'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.