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Unlock trusted, first-hand reporting, free-thinking opinion and a wealth of practical advice.
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Democrat supporters celebrate James Talorico’s win in Texas | Credit: Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla
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Connor Stringer
Chief Washington Correspondent
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It could not be any worse for Donald Trump. In an extraordinary election defeat, the president and his Republican Party have lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Democrats carved deep inroads into the GOP’s heartlands to win both chambers, which will seriously hamper Trump’s political power.
The party made a gain early last night with North Carolina, which was followed by a rapid series of wins across deep-red territory including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
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Adam Hamilton celebrates his historic win in Kansas | Credit: Reuters / Nathan Howard
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In doing so, Democrats not only won states that had backed Trump by significant margins in the 2024 election, some by double digits, but took victories in states for the first time in decades. Kansas had not elected a Democrat since 1932.
The defeat raises the prospect of Trump facing impeachment proceedings and a wave of investigations into the administration’s business dealings.
Washington will plunge into political deadlock as the president struggles to pass legislation against a Democratic majority, threatening his remaining domestic priorities.
The president, who was impeached twice during his first term, could now face renewed attempts to remove him from office.
Follow the latest updates here ➤
See more of our coverage below:
Talarico wins Texas Senate race in midterm humiliation for Trump ➤
El-Sayed shouts at British journalist: ‘I don’t care about the UK’ ➤
Poppy Coburn: Trump’s Republicans only have themselves to blame for this disaster ➤
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Should a parent be sent to prison for questioning their child’s self-identification as a cat? Ludicrously, that appears to be one of the risks inherent in draft legislation to stop “conversion therapy”.
The legislation is the draft Conversion Practices Bill, introduced in the dog days of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership to fulfil a manifesto promise to pass a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices.
Like previous aborted Tory attempts to do the same, the intention is seemingly well-meaning – to outlaw cruel practices that seek to persuade an individual that they are not the sexuality or gender they believe themselves to be.
Campaigners point out, however, that these are already unlawful. What we are left with is an expansive and potentially dangerous law that threatens to turn normal conversations between parents and their children into criminal matters.
In a report for Policy Exchange, Baroness Falkner, a former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has gone through the legislation line by line. Writing for The Telegraph, she calls it “an unprecedented and unwarranted intrusion into family life”.
She warns that parents could be sent to prison for up to five years for refusing to use a child’s preferred name, for refusing to fund gender reassignment, or for seeking to dissuade a child from embarking on medical interventions that could lead to permanent sterility.
That is abhorrent. On social media and in schools, children are assaulted with confusing ideas about gender, including the notion that there is a possibly unlimited number of them. Lady Falkner points out that the draft legislation is so poorly worded that exotic identities such as “catgender” could potentially be given protection.
Parents will naturally feel a responsibility to help their children through this rabbit warren, and will be best placed to judge when a child’s statements should be questioned and when they should be affirmed.
In a desperate attempt to appease extreme trans campaigners, Labour has failed to answer basic questions about this legislation. Is it based on evidence of real harm? Does it undermine existing rights? Does it replicate existing laws? Is it even enforceable?
The Conversion Practices Bill should be scrapped before it causes real damage.
Continue reading ➤
Calls to scrap ‘chilling’ trans law ➤
Kishwer Falkner: Labour’s conversion therapy ban is an assault on family life ➤
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Robert Tombs
The PM’s slavery stance encourages those who say it was key to Britain’s economic might and only abolished when it was no longer profitable
Continue reading ➤
Oliver Brown
Rugby’s problem with mercenaries has gone beyond a joke
Continue reading ➤
Camilla Tominey
Powerful men shouldn’t be able to hide behind human rights law
Continue reading ➤
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• The King has reminded the Commonwealth that the Royal Navy led the way in ending the transatlantic slave trade. His remarks come amid a row over whether Britain should pay reparations for its role in slavery.
• A series of bomb threats grounded flights across Europe yesterday, raising suspicions of a co-ordinated sabotage attempt. Experts pointed the finger at Russia, which was also accused of staging a provocation on the border with Poland.
• Shabana Mahmood will crack down on asylum seekers who use work and student visas as a backdoor to settle permanently in Britain with new rules that will force them to wait more than a decade longer for indefinite leave to remain.
• A celebrity accused of sexual misconduct has lost his High Court battle to avoid being named. An interim injunction to protect anonymity remains in place while he decides whether to appeal.
• Man Utd 3-2 Roma | Man Utd completed an unlikely comeback last night to beat Roma after a late winner from Mateus Cunha. The striker was subsequently sent off in a fittingly chaotic end to the match.
Barcelona 3-0 Aston Villa | Elsewhere, Unai Emery endured his heaviest defeat in Europe last night at the hands of Barcelona. The Prince of Wales and Prince George could only watch as Lamine Yamal starred for the home side.
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Lucy* speaks to Telegraph reporter Fiona Parker for the documentary
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Lucy* was just 17 when she was hit over the head with a crowbar and kidnapped by a member of a rival county lines gang. While pop culture portrays boys and men as dominating organised crime, nearly 40 per cent of teenagers in gangs are girls. Women and girls have spoken to The Telegraph about their experiences, and described how they found the courage to escape. *Name changed for legal reasons.
Continue reading ➤
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Maya Jama might not have won The Celebrity Traitors, but the Bristol-born presenter has secured something immensely more profitable – nation’s sweetheart status. Beautiful yet down to earth, the 32-year-old overcame a difficult childhood, personal tragedies and famous heartbreaks (from rapper Stormzy to Manchester City’s Ruben Dias) to become one of Britain’s biggest stars. Liam Kelly digs into her generation-spanning appeal.
Continue reading ➤
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Of the hundreds of container ships, cargo vessels and oil tankers sent to specialist ship graveyards every year, it is estimated that more than three quarters are dismantled in South Asia
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In February 2020, Arvid Trolle, a private equity executive, received an email from a City accounting firm, explaining that a company in which his firm had invested tens of millions of pounds was about to be liquidated. His firm, Njord Partners, had fallen victim to a major fraud – which, it would later discover, its partners in a ship-breaking venture had perpetrated.
Continue reading ➤
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Natasha was stunned when her vet quoted her £6,000, plus after-care costs to fix Bowie’s leg
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When Bowie, Natasha Bowler’s five-year-old dog, needed major surgery after being attacked by another dog, she was quoted £6,000 by a British vet. Instead, she took him to Belgium, where the operation cost £1,800. She is not alone. Growing numbers of pet owners in Britain are heading overseas to escape soaring veterinary bills, and the savings can run into thousands of pounds – even after travel costs.
Continue reading ➤
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How long can you balance on one leg? Our “balance age” is strongly associated with health, and even how long we’ll live, according to one 2022 study. Don’t panic if you wobble immediately – Caroline Idiens, our fitness columnist, has four simple exercises to improve your stability in 10 minutes a day.
For subscribers only ➤
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Thornham
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Oliver Brown
Chief Sports Writer
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Nowhere do I find a more instant mental escape than on Staithe Lane in Thornham, strolling up to the old coal barn at high tide as the sea spills over the creek and floods the surrounding marshes.
You can understand why. Almost 30 years ago, it made the perfect backdrop for a BBC adaptation of Great Expectations, mirroring the “dark, flat wilderness” of the Thames marshland where Dickens found his inspiration. If you come here on a crisp winter’s morning as the mist rises, it is ghostly, ethereal, and quite stunningly beautiful.
Having grown up here, I can declare with absolute certainty that there is no better place for a bracing walk on the beach with a golden retriever. This stretch of north Norfolk coastline only seems to become more desirable, with The Telegraph recently naming Brancaster, three miles to the east, as the poshest village in the county.
Whenever I go back, I feel Thornham could make an equally plausible case for that distinction. Last year, the local deli made national headlines for its attempts to attract “chopper stoppers” – in other words, customers who preferred to arrive by helicopter. Drove Orchards, the rural market that has ballooned beside the A149, now has its own wine bar.
Inescapably, Thornham’s character has changed with the arrival of so many second-homers. I can well recall my father muttering about ‘‘the gin-and-Jag set” and the braying teenagers who would invade the pubs during Hunstanton tennis week, but there is still a timeless quality to the setting that nothing can erode.
Even with the North Sea wind turbines now visible on the horizon, the view out from the dunes still stops you dead in your tracks. Even though The Lifeboat is today a destination gastropub, its charms as a 16th-century smugglers’ inn remain undiminished. Our dog Daisy loved it so much that once, to my mum’s horror, she made her own way there, planting her feet on the bar to demand a pack of ready salted.
Although I now live 150 miles away in London, I continue to keep my golf membership at Royal West Norfolk, up the narrow road from Brancaster, one of the great sporting sanctuaries and a course where the farthest holes can be cut off by the tide.
The connection will endure for as long as I do. Dad, who died in December 2020, has a memorial bench in Jubilee Meadow with a simple but poignant inscription: “In memory of Adrian Brown, 1937-2020, who lived in Thornham and loved the village.” It is a love that I will always share.
Have you ever been to Thornham? If so, let us know your memories of it here.
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Still listening?
Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories.
Orlando writes...
It is true that the concept of a “listening bar”, as described by James Hall, invites a degree of scepticism. In case the trend has passed you by, people are increasingly forking out to hear their favourite records played in a dedicated space, with high-quality speakers, and perhaps a drink or two. Aren’t there enough money-extraction schemes in the world?
Yet I found myself rather taken with the idea. As the article points out, music is everywhere these days, but we’re often only half-listening. Sitting in a comfy chair with nothing to do except take in, say, Waltz for Debby sounds like a luxury to me.
Not all readers were convinced. Robert Jones wrote: “I’ve got a very nice hi-fi and some stunning headphones, cold beer in the fridge, and an old leather chair. I can choose my own music, and there’s no one else in the room. Why do people feel the need to create something unnecessary and then try to flog it to the rest of us?”
Others, such as Mark Janes, were more enthusiastic: “If this encourages folks to listen to an album all the way through, as a body of work rather than individual random tracks, then I’m all for it. Of course, back in my student days we used to do this anyway in our own digs or flats, as most of us had decent hi-fi systems, and it didn’t cost £26.
“I wonder what happens at the end of the album in these rooms, though. Do folks chat about it or just get up and leave as they would in a cinema?”
James Rollin added: “For the past two years, my church has been running a monthly Album Club. Members take turns to host it in their homes, choosing a favourite album to listen to (on a vinyl LP record) and laying on a few snacks and drinks. There is something special about a communal listening experience, and about making connections with people over shared interests. Needless to say, our Album Club is free to attend.”
Would you go to a listening bar? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.
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1890 | Edward, Prince of Wales opens Stockwell Underground station in south London, one of the original stations on the world’s first deep-level electric “Tube” railway
1922 | Howard Carter discovers the intact tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Egypt
2008 | Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected president of the United States, defeating the Republican candidate, John McCain (see our front page coverage below)
Birthdays: Matthew McConaughey (57), Kathy Griffin (66), Chris Difford (72)
Plus, in the news this week, Rice Krispies will no longer be made from whole grains of rice, Kellogg’s has revealed. One other cereal will be affected – which is it?
1. Special K
2. Coco Pops
3. Ricicles
Click one of the options to reveal the answer...
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was BUTTERCUP. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.
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Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor
I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.
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