The Current Affairs Digest

Earlier report · Published 16 Oct 2026

Federal Agents Search Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Home Three Weeks Before the Midterms

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

The Justice Department says a court approved the warrant; Ms Omar calls it political.

In the US, the executive branch investigates crimes, but courts must approve intrusive steps such as searches. On Monday 12 October, agents of Homeland Security Investigations searched the Washington-area home of Ilhan Omar, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota. The Department of Justice confirmed agents executed a court-authorised warrant but did not name her or give details.

Reports citing sources say the inquiry concerns possible false statements and immigration fraud tied to paperwork her late father filed when she was a child. Homeland Security Investigations, which leads it, covers immigration document fraud. Border czar Tom Homan said in September that there was an ongoing criminal investigation; Ms Omar said then that she had not been contacted. Her office says she has done nothing wrong; she “will not be silenced”, and accused the administration of trying to “weaponize federal law enforcement”. No charges have been filed. President Trump said he had “nothing to do” with the search and that it was up to the Justice Department.

Ms Omar was born in Somalia, came to the US as a child refugee, became a citizen and was first elected in 2018. The timing is contested. The search came about three weeks before the 3 November midterm elections, and House Democratic leaders called it “deeply disturbing”. The Justice Department’s confirmation that a court approved the warrant is the part of the story that is established; motive is a claim made by each side.

Two more details show the process. Sources told CBS that Attorney General Todd Blanche was personally aware of the search and that the Justice Department consulted its Public Integrity section, which handles cases involving public officials. Democrats argue that Justice Department protocol has long been to avoid legal action against politicians in the final weeks before an election, according to PBS NewsHour. Mr Trump said he thinks Ms Omar is a “terrible person”, but that the matter is up to the Justice Department.

Why it matters

It tests how courts, prosecutors and elected officials limit one another, and how a country handles an investigation of a lawmaker close to an election. A warrant signed by a judge is a check on the executive, but it does not prove guilt: no charges have been filed, and any case would have to be proved in court.

Earlier report · Published 20 Oct 2026

2026 US Midterms Set to Be the Most Expensive on Record

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

More than $15 billion has been raised to influence control of Congress.

Midterm elections, held halfway through a president's four-year term, decide who controls Congress. This year they are on November 3. NPR reports that more than $15 billion has been raised to influence the outcome and the control of Congress, making the 2026 midterms the most expensive on record.

Advertising is a large part of it. AdImpact projects $11.6 billion in political advertising in the 2025-26 cycle, more than the $8.9 billion spent in the 2022 midterms and the $11.2 billion in the 2024 presidential cycle.

Individual donors matter too. CNBC reports that Elon Musk put more than $276 million into federal political groups in the third quarter, making him the biggest known individual donor of the midterms. Whether money buys influence is contested; the figures show how much is being spent, not what it achieves.

Read the figures with care, because they measure different things. NPR's $15 billion is money raised to influence the outcome, while AdImpact's $11.6 billion is a projection of advertising alone. Neither tells us who benefits. For revision, hold three numbers: $15 billion raised, $11.6 billion projected in advertising, and the November 3 election date.

The comparison with earlier elections is the key point. The 2022 midterms saw $8.9 billion in advertising and the 2024 presidential cycle $11.2 billion, so this midterm cycle is projected to be larger than a presidential one.

Exam tip: pair this with the idea of a mandate. Because Congress writes the laws and controls public money, who wins these elections shapes policy for the next two years, and that is why so much money is aimed at them.

Why it matters

Elections decide who writes the laws. How much money flows into them is a recurring question about fairness and influence in a democracy.

Earlier report · Published 22 Oct 2026

Forecaster Shifts Three Senate Races Before Midterms

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

The 3 November vote will decide who controls Congress.

On 20 October the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan election forecaster, changed the rating of three US Senate races. South Carolina moved from Likely Republican to Lean Republican, and Mississippi from Solid Republican to Likely Republican. Both shifts favour Democrats.

Minnesota moved the other way, from Likely Democrat to Lean Democrat, because polling showed the Democratic nominee behind the national environment. A rating is a forecaster's judgement of how likely a party is to win, not a result.

Cook has been moving races for weeks. It moved 18 House races toward Democrats on 9 October and 11 more on 16 October. Axios reported that these moves put the likely outcome at Democrats picking up nine to 19 House seats. On 6 October Cook moved Kansas from Lean Republican to Toss Up, New Hampshire from Toss Up to Lean Democrat and North Carolina from Lean Democrat to Likely Democrat. Forecasts can be wrong, and the voters, not the forecasters, decide. On Cook's scale a Toss Up is a race either party could win, Lean means a narrow edge, Likely a clearer edge and Solid a safe seat.

The stakes are control of Congress. The 3 November midterm election, held halfway through a president's term, will decide whether Republicans keep their majorities in the House and the Senate. In Texas, Harris County reported more than 100,000 in-person votes on its first early-voting day. Texas had 911,468 early voters after two days, about 4.8% of its registered voters, and in South Carolina 97,968 votes were cast on day one, more than double the last midterm.

Why it matters

In the US system Congress passes laws and controls spending, so the party that holds the House and Senate shapes what a president can do.

Earlier report · Published 24 Oct 2026

Supreme Court Cautions Lower Courts on Late Election-Rule Changes

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

The justices let New Hampshire limit student IDs for voting ahead of the 3 November midterms.

The US Supreme Court is the country's highest court. This week, according to reports, it let New Hampshire restrict the use of student IDs in voting. In a separate unsigned order, it pushed back on lower federal courts changing election rules close to an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, meaning she disagreed.

Timing is the issue. Elections are run under rules that states set, and courts sometimes review those rules after challenges. The Court's order signals that judges below it should be wary of changing the rules while voting is under way or about to begin.

The ruling comes as the midterms near. The University of Florida's Election Lab counts more than 16 million people who have already voted. Democrats and Republicans are also making the Supreme Court a campaign issue in the fight for Senate control, according to the Washington Times. Democrats warn that if Republicans keep the Senate they could confirm more of President Trump's picks to the Court. The Court's 2026-27 term began on Monday 5 October with a climate-liability case, Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, and a veterans' benefits case. SCOTUSblog reported that it has also agreed to hear cases on a DOGE data dispute, prisoners' rights and what qualifies as “material support” for terrorism.

Voters are hearing the economy argued over. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers debated in Detroit on Wednesday night. Mr El-Sayed linked rising gas and grocery costs to the war with Iran. Mr Rogers argued gas prices would be much higher if the US had not launched the war. Early voting has surged in Kansas and Texas, and Maine, North Carolina and Ohio each saw at least 30% more than four years ago, according to the Associated Press.

Why it matters

Who can vote and how is decided partly by courts, so rulings made close to an election can shape how easily people vote.

Earlier report · Published 4 Nov 2026

US Midterms: Voters Decide Control of Congress

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats were on the ballot on Tuesday 3 November.

Americans voted on Tuesday 3 November in midterm elections that decide control of Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump’s term. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats were on the ballot, and 36 states were electing governors. Before the vote, Republicans held 53 Senate seats to the Democrats’ 47. In the House, Republicans held 218 seats plus an independent who normally caucuses with them, Democrats held 214, and two seats were vacant.

The stakes differ by chamber. Democrats are widely projected to win the House, which would make Rep. Hakeem Jeffries the first Black House speaker in US history. CBS’s Battleground Tracker of 25 October projected 229 Democratic House seats, within a range of 215 to 237; at 215, Republicans would keep a narrow majority. House Speaker Mike Johnson said control could hinge on about 21 seats. The Senate is harder to call: Democrats need to flip four Republican seats while holding all their own. CBS named 11 key races, including Texas, where State Rep. James Talarico (D) faces Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), and Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed (D) faces former Rep. Mike Rogers (R).

Voters pointed to high consumer prices, the war with Iran, perceived government corruption and an immigration crackdown, and Trump’s approval ratings have been persistently low. In Kansas, which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, the Senate race was rated a toss-up. More than 59 million Americans voted early, according to the University of Florida Voting Lab. Minnesota recorded 886,427 early ballots through Sunday, above its 2022 midterm record of 687,062.

The map itself is part of the story. Republican-led states redrew congressional maps mid-decade to favour the GOP, and Democrats responded with their own redraws. In Texas and Florida, Republicans redrew nine seats to be more Republican, but the Cook Political Report favours Republicans in only three of them. An April Supreme Court decision weakened a key section of the Voting Rights Act, which endangers majority-Black districts in the South. The Justice Department said it would deploy about 1,000 monitors to all 50 states.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern time in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, with later closings elsewhere. CBS notes that close races may be called later, and that this is not in itself evidence of fraud.

Why it matters

Control of a chamber decides which party sets its agenda. CNBC notes that Democratic control of the House or Senate would bring more congressional oversight and investigations of the administration, so a midterm can change politics without a presidential election.

Earlier report · Published 13 Nov 2026

How 65 Votes Became a Result: Democrat Scott Colom Takes Mississippi’s Senate Seat After a Count Lasting Days

The Current Affairs Digest · Ages 15+

Colom won 49.2% to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s 48.7%; Democrats will hold at least 55 Senate seats.

Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate seat for Mississippi, defeating the Republican incumbent, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. The election was held on 3 November, but the Associated Press (AP) called the race only on Wednesday 11 November. By AP’s figures Colom took 49.2% of the vote to Hyde-Smith’s 48.7%.

The delay shows how close contests are settled. At the end of election night the candidates were separated by just 65 votes. Local election officials then spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, the latter also called affidavit ballots, and Colom’s lead grew as the count went on. Hyde-Smith conceded in a video posted on X on Wednesday evening, saying she respects “the decision of Mississippi voters”; Colom’s campaign confirmed that she also telephoned him.

The result is striking because of where it happened. Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points in the 2024 presidential election. Colom will be the state’s first Black US senator since Reconstruction, the period after the American Civil War. Mississippi has the largest share of Black voters of any state, and AP reported strong turnout in the Mississippi Delta and in majority-Black counties, with nearly the whole state shifting toward the Democrats compared with 2024.

Colom, 43, is a district attorney, a local prosecutor. In 2022 President Biden nominated him to be a federal judge in Mississippi, and Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination under Senate custom. He campaigned on the cost of living and healthcare and said the Iran war and tariffs had hurt Mississippi farmers, while avoiding personal attacks on Trump or his voters. An NBC exit poll found that a majority of Mississippi voters disapproved of the president’s job performance.

Hyde-Smith, 67, was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and was seeking a second full term. She was the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Congress.

Nationally, Mississippi is the eighth Senate seat the Democrats have taken from the Republicans in these midterm elections, after North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas and Maine. From January they will hold at least 55 seats to the Republicans’ 44. One race is undecided: in Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by 48.9% to 47.3% with 84% of the vote counted.

Why it matters

Midterm elections fall halfway through a president’s term. The Senate confirms judges and senior officials and must pass every law, so a larger opposition majority there constrains the president for the rest of his term.