Two stories ran through this hour: the US midterms and the wars that keep pressing on them. Voting is underway for all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships ¹. Democrats need to gain three House seats and four Senate seats ², and polls show them ahead in multiple Senate battlegrounds ³. Cost of living dominates, with six in 10 voters in a Fox News survey naming it their top economic concern and September CPI running at 3.7% ⁴. Trump has framed the vote as a presidential-level contest, saying 'When I'm not on the ballot, we don't do well' ⁵. The courts were active on the eve of the vote. The Supreme Court let California count all ballots ⁶. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered federal officials to stop sending states lists of suspected noncitizen voters ⁷. In Alaska, the DOJ has appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit over two candidates named Dan Sullivan ⁸. Iran is the foreign-policy thread tying into the vote. Trump repeatedly raised the conflict on the campaign trail ⁹, early polls showed around 60% disapproval of the war ¹⁰, and he is now mulling strikes after the midterms as mediators push for a deal ¹¹. The US struck Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz ¹². Oil climbed after reports of explosions there, taking Brent to $106.61 ¹³. Qatar says both sides are still studying proposals ¹⁴, while Gulf states are bracing for a possible renewal of war ¹⁵. Separately, Dow futures fell nearly 400 points as Apple declined and oil jumped ¹⁶. Apple's slide came on higher memory costs fueling margin concerns ¹⁷. In Ukraine, Russia launched 289 drones and 76 missiles overnight on US election day, which Zelensky called a deliberate strike on energy assets ¹⁸. The barrage knocked three DTEK plants offline ¹⁹. It followed a strike on an aid site in Komyshuvakha that killed 29 people, with 48 still missing ²⁰. On the diplomatic track, Washington will mediate Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11 ²¹. Vladimir Medinsky will lead Russia's delegation ²², and Zelensky is in Berlin seeking air defense and energy support ²³. In crypto, fallout from the Binance hack kept bitcoin below $77,000 ²⁴. North Korea rejected US allegations attributing the heist to Pyongyang . One item not to miss: a child died of measles in New York, the state's first such death in 30 years, as US cases near 4,900 this year ²⁵.