Mississippi Senate race sparks ballot fight; Judge blocks Trump’s triumphal arch

Mississippi Senate race is still too close to call. Now both sides are lawyering up and a tech stock bloodbath wipes out $2.5 trillion in market value. Plus, Trump's massive triumphal arch gets the green light from planners, then a judge slams the brakes on construction. And California's 548 death row inmates get a reprieve. Governor Gavin Newsom moves to spare every one of them. The stories that matter. The facts you can trust. From across the country to around the world, this is Unbiased Updates from Straight Arrow. Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. It's Friday, November 6th. Glad you're hanging out with us this morning. Let's jump into it. Democrats keep adding to their midterm wins, but two Senate races are still too close. We could be waiting weeks for the final results. And the impact of Tuesday's election is already reaching well beyond Washington. Democrats have now flipped at least 40 Republican-held House seats, giving them a commanding majority when the new Congress takes office in January. In the Senate, they're guaranteed at least 54 seats — that number could grow to 56. But first, there's Alaska and Mississippi. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola is leading Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by just 637 votes, with about three-quarters of the expected vote counted. And remember, Alaska uses ranked-choice voting. Neither candidate has a majority, so voters' second and later choices could ultimately decide this race. That count isn't scheduled to begin until November 18th. In Mississippi, it's another nail-biter. Democrat Scott Colome is leading Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by roughly 1,800 votes out of nearly a million cast. With thousands of ballots still to be reviewed, both parties are lawyering up. Attorneys and election observers are descending on the state to watch the count and prepare for possible legal challenges. Republicans want certain provisional ballots preserved separately. Democrats are pushing back, arguing that could violate voters' rights. And voters who need to resolve identification issues have until November 10th to do it. And Wall Street is already reacting to the Democratic sweep. Stocks took a beating Thursday, with investors worried that new Democratic majorities could bring tougher restrictions on artificial intelligence and the data centers powering it. The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 5.5%, wiping out roughly $2.5 trillion in market value. That puts the index in correction territory, down more than 10% from its recent high. The Dow lost more than 1,800 points. The S&P 500 fell nearly 4.5%. It was the worst day for all three indexes since the market turmoil following Trump's tariff announcement in April of last year, and the sell-off spread overseas, with Asian markets It's also plunging. President Trump blamed Democrats for the losses, warning Americans about the hit to their 401ks. Then in another post, he told voters, quote, you only have yourselves to blame. Back in Washington, Democrats are already spelling out how they plan to use their new power. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tells the Associated Press his party won't allow Trump to put another conservative justice on the Supreme Court President Trump's plans for a massive triumphal arch in Washington just hit a major roadblock. A federal judge has blocked construction less than two hours after the project won final approval. Last night, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered a 14-day halt to any construction work, siding with D.C. and Virginia officials who argue the project lacks proper authorization and would cause major traffic disruptions. The ruling came shortly after a federal The federal planning commission approved the arch in an eight to four vote. Despite hours of opposition from veterans and other critics, the 250-foot structure would stand between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, towering over even Paris' Arc de Triomphe, and the legal fight is far from over. Three Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian have also sued to stop the project. Trump also signed a proclamation Thursday designating the Oval Office and Cabinet Room It's a national monument. He says the move will protect the historic spaces from being altered or destroyed by future presidents. It won't be able to be taken down, destroyed, touched, or anything else. It's called actually a national monument. It's a federal landmark. And when completed and when we get the documentation fully done, legally binding. It'll make it impossible for anybody ever to destroy this incredible space. But the proclamation doesn't go nearly that far. Future presidents can still redecorate the rooms and could reverse the designation entirely. In fact, Trump himself has reversed national monument designations made by his predecessors. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is leaving office in January. But before he goes, he's making one of the biggest decisions of his political career. He's sparing the lives of all 548 inmates on the state's death row. Newsom announced Thursday that he's commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole. It's the largest mass commutation of death sentences in modern American history. California has more inmates on death row than any other state in the country. Newsom explained his decision in an open letter to Californians. He wrote, State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us. I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency. Death penalty opponents are already rolling out a national ad campaign praising Newsom's decision. Gavin Newsom has just taken a historic step toward ending the death penalty. Do we have the right to kill? But let's take a closer look at who's on California's death row. And I don't believe we do. Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Kloss, We're better than that. and Charles Ong, convicted of killing 11 people in the 1980s. Victims' families are divided. Some support Newsom's decision. Others are furious. And this isn't necessarily settled. More than half of the commutations require approval from California's Supreme Court. A victims' rights group also plans to sue. His successor, Javier Becerra, has pledged to keep the state's moratorium on executions. She didn't enter the race for Los Angeles mayor until the very last minute. Now, Nithya Raman is about to run the city. The city council member has defeated incumbent mayor Karen Bass, becoming the first challenger to unseat a sitting LA mayor in more than 20 years. And get this, Raman had actually endorsed Bass for re-election before jumping into the race just before the filing deadline in February. Raman declared victory Thursday, thanking the people who helped pull off the upset. Thank you to the thousands of people who knocked on doors, sent texts, made phone calls, convinced their neighbors to believe in the promise of this big, beautiful, joyful city that we get to call home. Bass conceded Thursday after Rahman built a lead of nearly 35,000 votes. The two had been neck and neck in the final polls, but Rahman drew support from younger, more progressive voters. You may remember former reality TV star Spencer Pratt was also in this race. He finished third in the June primary, leaving Bass and Rahman to face off in November. Rahman, a Democratic Socialist, takes office December 8. She's promising to make city government more responsive to everyday problems, including broken sidewalks and potholes. The measles outbreak in the U.S. is getting deadlier. Three deaths reported in just one week, and the country is now seeing its highest measles death toll in 35 years. Health officials in Wisconsin say an infant died from the virus Wednesday, the state's first measles death since 1990. The announcement came one day after Pennsylvania reported its sixth measles death this year. And on Monday, New York reported the death of a child, its first, from measles in more in more than three decades. That brings the national death toll to 8 this year, the most since 1991. And the number of infections is climbing too. The CDC has confirmed more than 5,800 cases so far this year, more than double last year's total, and the highest number in 35 years. Health experts point to falling vaccination rates as a major factor driving the outbreak. Finally this morning, turns out people have been getting high a lot longer than we thought, about 2800 years longer to be exact. Archaeologists in Siberia have uncovered more than a thousand cannabis seeds in an ancient tomb along with strands of human hair, and yes, they actually drug tested the hair. The results? Traces of a chemical produced when THC, the compound in marijuana that gets you high, breaks down. But before you start picturing an ancient smoke sesh, researchers say this was likely part of a burial ritual. So what we cannot probably assume is a sort of recreational use, like after work I smoke a joint type of stuff. stuff. Um, Clearly, in a burial context, there's some aspect of ritual behind this. There might be some sinister aspects as well, because we have a lot of horse sacrifices and also potentially human sacrifices. So not exactly your typical Friday night. The discovery may be the oldest evidence yet of people using cannabis to get high. Scientists are now studying the seed's DNA to learn how the plant spread, and apparently... Some habits have been around for a very, very long time. A quick message for the users out there, if by some scientific miracle they're able to regrow this stuff, maybe just stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to, if you know what I mean. All right, before we head out, here's what we're tracking today. At 10, attorneys for the family of a co-pilot killed in Sunday's deadly Florida Learjet crash hold a news conference, nine people died. At 1.30, President Trump hosts a Diwali celebration at the White House. Then at 6, he speaks at the UP Summit at the Kennedy Space Center. And at 7, SpaceX targets a Falcon 9 launch from California with a four-hour window. Folks, we're the fastest way to get the facts. Watch us anytime at san.com or our app or join our audience on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're glad to be a part of your morning routine. And a reminder, you can email us here anytime. We read them all. You guys haven't emailed me in a while. What's up? Unbiased updates at san.com. That's unbiased updates at san.com. We love hearing from you, whether you're giving us compliments, or criticisms, or feedback. Give us a shout. That's Unbiased Updates for this Friday. For the Unbiased Updates team and all of us at Straight Arrow, I'm Christian Bryant. Thank you so much for watching. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you back here Monday.