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Hegseth on "thin ice" Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photos via Getty Images It's a de facto motto in the Trump White House: "Somebody's gotta take the fall." Lately, that person looks like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Axios' Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt write. Why it matters: From the unpopular war in Iran to his bad bipartisan relations with members of Congress, Hegseth's record has made him the most vulnerable member of Trump's Cabinet after Tuesday night's midterm shellacking. "Hegseth is definitely on thin ice," a Trump adviser told Axios. "It doesn't mean the president forces him out. But there are complications." As early as next week, the House could impeach Hegseth for allegedly defying Congress and illegally continuing the U.S. war in Iran. The measure is sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a vociferous critic of Israel and foreign wars. 🔭 Zoom in: Iran is at the center of both Hegseth's possible impeachment and Republicans' midterm collapse. Before Trump attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Hegseth was the most gung-ho about the conflict. Hegseth gave the rosiest projections about how quickly and easily it would be resolved, according to sources familiar with the discussions. By August, a senior administration official said, U.S. Central Command was reportedly soliciting new approaches to pressure Iran, suggesting that military leaders were still reassessing how to achieve strategic results. Trump stood by Hegseth yesterday, telling reporters the secretary is "doing a very good job." 👓 Between the lines: Trump has been known to praise an embattled Cabinet secretary, only to seek their ouster shortly thereafter. Go deeper: 4 factors weighing on Trump.

Vance's MAGA power play Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Tom Brenner/Getty Images Vice President Vance stepped out of President Trump's shadow yesterday, seizing on the GOP's midterm catastrophe to begin the explosive task of claiming MAGA as his own, Axios' Zachary Basu, Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt write. "The reason we lost is the war," Vance wrote in an extraordinary 600-word postmortem on X, blaming Trump's Iran campaign for Republicans' historic collapse. Why it matters: Vance's presidential ambitions are entangled in the wreckage of a war he privately opposed but publicly defended. His path to 2028 demands a delicate political calculation. Vance must convince MAGA's disillusioned voters that he understands their sense of betrayal, even as he remains a central figure in the administration responsible for the Iran war. "Today, JD Vance became president — or acted like he wanted to become one," a source close to the administration told Axios. 🥊 Vance argued that defections from Trump's 2024 coalition — not lack of turnout — drove the GOP's collapse in Tuesday's midterms. Citing polling of disaffected Trump voters, he identified four demands: "End the war." "Focus on cost of living/inflation." "Put America First." "Change our relationship to Israel." 💡 Between the lines: Those happen to be the four hottest topics among top MAGA podcasters and activists. So Vance is aligning with those leaders on topics where MAGA anger with Trump is raging. Behind the scenes: Vance's commentary caught some in the White House by surprise. But insiders said the vice president worked with senior administration officials on the post. "These were his words and thoughts," one insider said. "He's leading." Said another: "It pains me to say this, but Tuesday showed the emperor had no clothes, and Vance knew he should just state the obvious. There are going to be a lot of other Republicans putting a lot more distance between them and the president." One Republican consultant representing a potential rival in the 2028 presidential race offered a blunter assessment: "The VP had to show he's not a dead man walking out there." Data: The New York Times. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Zoom out: Trump's second term has been riven by a bitter ideological feud between MAGA's anti-interventionist wing and the pro-Israel hawks who championed the Iran war. Vance privately questioned the war's objectives and duration, then publicly defended the campaign and led peace negotiations with Iran. His postmortem now puts him squarely in the anti-interventionists' camp. It also gives Vance an opening against more hawkish Republicans, particularly Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. If Cruz runs in 2028, as many expect, and argues that it's time for the party to move on from Trump administration figures, Vance could try to argue that Cruz was on the wrong side of the issue that helped cost Republicans the midterms. 👀 What to watch: Trump has yet to anoint Vance as his successor, and the Republican collapse is already exposing the contours of a potential succession fight. Asked yesterday whether he had discussed a presidential run with Vance, Trump said the two talk about "a lot of things," before adding: "Maybe he won't run. I don't know who's going to run."

Multiple flights in Europe diverted because of bomb threats November 05, 2026 Finnair said that Flight 1761 from Helsinki to Rome was targeted by a bomb threat on Thursday. But Finnish broadcaster Yle reported that nothing out of the ordinary was found on the plane after it landed normally in the Italian capital. Three Ryanair flights bound for Bulgarian capital Sofia had to make emergency landings because of bomb threats on board. They all landed safely.

> President Donald Trump reportedly floats possibility of firing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with advisers following Tuesday's electoral losses, anticipated congressional action over Iran war; Trump publicly denies considering the move (More) > Montenegro is on track to become the EU's next member by 2028, European Commission says, leading a pack of nine candidates including Albania, Moldova (More) | How do countries join the EU? (More) > Russia and Ukraine confirm they will send delegations to Abu Dhabi early next week to engage in US-mediated peace talks (More) | See war updates (More)

> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.6%, Dow +3.0%, Nasdaq +1.4%) as Brent crude oil prices dip below $95 per barrel to hit their lowest point in two months (More) > Trade deficit decreases by 0.7% to $105B; imports and exports of capital goods like computers and civilian aircraft rise to all-time highs of $158B and $73.3B, respectively, per Commerce Department data (More) > Duolingo shares soar 26% after language-learning app reports 64.9 million daily active users in third quarter, a 29% year-over-year increase (More) | How Duolingo turned a free app into a nearly $8B business (More via YouTube)

> Roughly 35% of infants diagnosed with peanut allergies show no reaction during supervised oral food challenges, shedding light on the importance of confirming a diagnosis before long-term allergy treatment (More) > Cyberattack on several French blood banks is thwarted before it can raise temperatures to levels that would compromise blood samples; report follows news of cyberattack on European supermarket freezers earlier this week (More) > United Kingdom launches novel trial investigating whether simple blood tests can help primary care doctors detect cancer in early stages (More) | US health advisers endorsed separate cancer-detecting blood test in September (More)

Humankind: Texas school district names new elementary school in honor of beloved school custodian of 39 years; watch her reaction.

> Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz stand trial on fraud charges related to rigging pitches for gamblers in an alleged betting scheme (More) > "Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo will play Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni, in Snoop Dogg biopic releasing in August (More) | Who will portray Snoop, Dr. Dre, and the Notorious BIG? (More, w/photos) > John Frieda, the British hairstylist who worked with Princess Diana, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Madonna, and more stars before building a global empire of styling products, dies at age 75 (More) | See photos of his work and clients (More)

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 more years in prison HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court sentenced prominent activist Joshua Wong to 10 more years in prison Thursday under a Beijing-imposed national security law, in a case that critics say underscores the crackdown on the city’s once-thriving pro-democracy movement. https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-joshua-wong-sentencing-national-security-f4b08dd23bab9912569e5cabd990c1ef?

🤼 Epic power struggle House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a news conference today after the midterm elections, with DCCC leaders Reps. Suzan DelBene (from left), Katherine Clark, Ted Lieu and Pete Aguilar. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images House Democrats channeled anti-Trump fury into last night's landslide. Now comes the hard part: Figuring out what to do with their huge majority. Why it matters: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has called for "dramatic change" next year. But the Democrats' ideological factions have contradictory visions about what that looks like. "Last night was a rebuke of the status quo," progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told us. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a centrist, said it was a "gigantic night for the middle ground," and the mandate is far more modest. The big picture: House Democrats are on track to win more than 250 seats. That blows up the plans of a cohort of incoming progressives known as the "Bloc" to demand leadership concessions. The left is hopefully eyeing the "Bernie Dogs": Populist candidates from working-class backgrounds who won red districts with support from both progressives and centrists. They are also taking a close look at the "wave babies": Candidates who won upset victories in districts not on the party's radar and whose politics are largely unknown on Capitol Hill. What they're saying: Former Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said she is "100% down" for the items on Jeffries' 100-days agenda, but "I just don't think there's any way we can stop there. ... We have to pass a living wage bill, we have to pass universal child care." "Americans delivered a demand for bold change, and progressives are excited to deliver it," CPC Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) told us in an interview. The other side: Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.), a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, told us, "The most extreme elements ... want to do messaging bills and yell and scream and point the finger." Jeffries ally Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) said the results were a "victory for common sense, not any extremist ideology." — Andrew Solender

‼️ Schumer's high-wire act Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer plans to use his new majority to confront President Trump when he wants to — and cooperate with him when he needs to. Why it matters: It's a high-wire act made a little easier by a majority that could grow to 56 seats. It's made a lot easier by the absence of a clear challenger for the top job, though Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has called for an "open and honest discussion" about who should lead the Senate. Schumer, 75, is eager to demonstrate he has plenty of fight left. Zoom in: At a late-morning press conference, an energized Schumer seemed to acknowledge the risk Democrats could squander their new majority by focusing more on confronting Trump than delivering for voters. "These voters did not give us the majority so we can do whatever we want. They entrusted us with the majority to do what they, the American people, want." Zoom out: Schumer's success will depend on buy-in from his Democratic colleagues — including an ambitious class of 2028 presidential hopefuls — for his two-track approach. He'll also need to reach an understanding with Trump that aggressive congressional investigations into the president, his family and his Cabinet can be kept separate from the routine business of divided government. The first test will come before a stopgap government funding measure expires Dec. 11. Schumer also wants to use Congress' power of the purse to prevent Trump from restarting military action in Iran. "We are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war," Schumer said. — Hans Nichols

😭 Next GOP nightmare Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Republicans woke up "in shock" this morning after they got hit with the biggest midterms wave in 50 years. Within hours, it turned into rage and despair. Why it matters: House Republicans are savaging their leaders and each other, while Senate Republicans are questioning what they can get done before Democrats take power next year. They'll have four days to grieve before going back to work in Washington. 🏛️ In the House, every GOP leader lost reelection, stepped aside or faces a challenger in next week's leadership elections. Within minutes this morning, Speaker Mike Johnson said he'll step aside, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said they'll run for minority leader, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) picked up a challenge from Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas). Not to be outdone, Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) picked up a challenge tonight from Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.). McClain says 35 members have already endorsed her. There's no love lost: "Please do us all a favor and step aside so new leadership can take a truly conservative direction," Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) posted on X today about House GOP "Leadership." 😭 In the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune is on a glide path to retain his party leadership job on Tuesday. But he'll be leading a conference that's lost the wind in its sails. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) vowed to work on a MAGA megabill to end all megabills if Republicans lost both chambers. The GOP's nightmare election scenario has given Democrats little reason to cooperate with Republican demands. Multiple Republican sources questioned whether they'll pass anything beyond a short-term CR to avoid a government shutdown in December. The intrigue: Sources expect a bipartisan permitting-reform effort to move forward, but that's dependent on Democratic goodwill. Some conservatives will push for a Hail Mary reconciliation package or another swing at the SAVE Act voter-ID bill. But don't expect those to gain traction. The bottom line: House GOP leaders could have a whale of a problem motivating the dozens of lawmakers who lost to come back for the lame duck. — Kate Santaliz and Stef Kight

How Trump and Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections, according to The AP Voter Poll After more than a decade with Donald Trump at the epicenter of U.S. politics, most voters appear exhausted and exasperated by him, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of midterm voters in all 50 states. Read More.

Democratic sweep of Congress ushers in a new era as Trump acknowledges impact of the Iran war The midterm election blowout delivered a new era in Washington, with Democrats in Congress eager to meet voter demands for change while Republicans watched their majorities evaporate after a revolt against President Donald Trump and his party in power. Read More. Photos show Trump touring White House ballroom construction after crushing Republican election loss President Donald Trump spent the day after his party’s major election defeat touring his new White House ballroom, where he signed the final steel beam before it was raised into place Wednesday. He also touted other projects underway in what has been a remaking of the city. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. Read More.

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz called 'cheaters' at fraud trial Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were described by a prosecutor Wednesday as “cheaters” during opening statements at a New York criminal fraud trial that has cast a spotlight on the threat gamblers pose to America's pastime. Read More. Scientist who brought frog embryos to Boston for cancer research is cleared of smuggling charges U.S. prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a Russian scientist who was tossed into an immigration jail last year after she landed at a Boston airport with frog embryos intended for her cancer research at Harvard Medical School. Read More.

Midterm elections crack open political map, putting conservative states back in play For a decade, the political map has been largely stagnant, locked into the same half-dozen or so political backgrounds, reflecting a polarized, evenly divided country. On Tuesday, voters took a wrecking ball to that map, electing Democrats in states that were long considered reliably Republican. Read More.

At What Cost? (Matt Ramey / AP)   View in browser Democrats were jubilant last night, and for good reason: Few midterms in modern American history have produced such a thorough repudiation of a party as the Republicans experienced in this election. But celebrations have a pesky way of being followed by hangovers. For Democrats, the cause of their morning-after headache is affordability. Across the country, Democratic candidates campaigned and won by railing against Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. When they take control of Congress in January, however, they’ll find themselves with few direct levers to bring down prices. We don’t need to guess what happens to politicians who campaign on affordability and don’t deliver. We saw it last night. Democrats can hardly be blamed for placing affordability concerns at the center of their campaign, alongside discussion of rampant corruption. This was good electoral politics—you want to run against your opponents’ weakness—and also good republican politics: It’s healthy for candidates to respond to voters’ concerns. The price of orange juice is up nearly 25 percent since Trump returned to office. The price of the candy that trick-or-treaters received on Halloween has risen 71 percent in five years. The average national price of a gallon of gas was more than $4 on Election Day for the first time in history. These price increases are a drag on many Americans’ budgets. Real wages—the difference between nominal wage growth and inflation—have declined over the past year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers released this week. For the Democrats, this has been a perverse political godsend. Long the undisputed party of workers, the Democratic Party has recently developed a reputation among voters for caring more about elites and cultural issues than basic economics. Trump demonstrated the power of focusing on inflation in 2024, when he assailed President Biden and Vice President Harris over rising prices. Trump never demonstrated any sort of plan for how he’d bring prices down, but his emphasis on the matter—along with Democrats’ muddled messaging about it—helped him overcome voters’ deep hesitations about his character. Since taking office, though, his lack of any vision for whipping inflation has been obvious. He has not pursued policies to fight high costs. He has demanded, in vain, that the Federal Reserve lower interest rates, which would be inflationary. He has mocked and dismissed the concept of affordability as a “hoax.” And although presidents typically have very limited short-term power to affect an economy, he found a way to make inflation worse by launching an ill-advised war in Iran, which he now has no idea how to end. This made Republicans very vulnerable in the midterms. But even with impressive wins in both the Senate and the House, Democrats will have few ways to bring prices down. On corruption, by some measures the top issue in the election, Democrats have room to hold Trump and his administration accountable using investigative powers. But on affordability, rhetoric and doomed bills designed to send a message are almost all they can offer. If reliable methods of bringing prices down in the short term existed, Republicans in Congress would have tried them this year. With unified Democratic control, Congress will be able to pass legislation, but Trump has already vowed to become “Mr. Veto.” Democrats can and will attempt to pressure Trump to end the conflict with Iran, but as the United States has seen repeatedly this century, starting a war is a lot easier than getting out of one. “People are impatient. They want answers now. They’re economically insecure,” Gina Raimondo told me in an interview last week. Raimondo, the commerce secretary under Biden, is often mentioned as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. “If we’re sitting here in a year and a half and we haven’t done a damn thing about cost and prices, people might say, Well, forget about you; I’m going to try the other guy.” Any parallel with voter rejection of Trump is imperfect. A president tends to shoulder more blame from voters than Congress does, a dynamic that is likely to be exacerbated with Trump, who is compelled to dominate attention, although it is sometimes to his disadvantage. But even if voters don’t blame Democrats specifically, they may still feel disillusioned with all politicians’ inability to bring quick change. That points to another risk for Democrats in 2028: not that people who voted blue in the midterms will turn against them, but that they will tune out entirely, just as the many disaffected Trump voters who opted not to vote in 2026, rather than flipping to Democrats, did. The fact that party leaders are aware of these challenges doesn’t give them any easier answers to the affordability conundrum. Democrats had no choice but to campaign on high costs, but they may still pay a price for it. Related: The simple message that produced a Democratic landslide America’s latest inflation check-in doesn’t look good for Trump.

GOP blame game Vice President JD Vance pinned Republicans’ massive midterm losses on the Iran war that President Donald Trump started. The president said that’s “largely true,” but he would do it again. 👀 Live updates: Trump administration gearing up for aggressive oversight 📈 Soaring stocks: Dow has best post-midterm elections day in 44 years A blue tidal wave Texas. Kansas. South Carolina. Ohio. Democratic candidates flipped seats in one red state after another. And after a decade of dismal showings, the party roared back to life in Middle America. 🥳 ‘It’s about time’: Voters celebrate with tears, cheers and disbelief + Seismic shift: How Mississippi became an unlikely Senate battleground Winners and losers Newly elected Black governors and the religious left have a lot to celebrate, along with Democrats across the country of course. The biggest losers? Trump, Vance and Elon Musk — but there’s a lengthy list. CNN’s Aaron Blake breaks it down. 🌏 Foreign policy: What Trump’s setback could mean for Iran, Israel and Ukraine Lame-duck president Trump enters his final two years in office wounded but determined to retain an iron grip on power. Meanwhile the jockeying of potential GOP candidates for 2028 has already begun. ▶️ Watch: Trump boasts about ballroom in first speech after midterms For CNN subscribers A wide swath of the electorate — including women, young voters and independents — shifted their votes toward the Democrats in this midterm election. Here’s what the data shows. 💸 Why the big swing? It was the economy all along + Analysis: Trump is forced to face a damning reality

November 4, 2026 Mike McQuade By Melissa Kirsch I’ll be on vacation next week, so don’t be alarmed when The Good List doesn’t show up in your inbox on Wednesday. I considered trying to get next week’s list done before I left, or trying to write it on the plane, but my editors and I decided that the “Good List” thing to do would be to actually take the time off, without conditions. I’ll admit this feels a little uncomfortable, but I’m sitting with the discomfort! Enjoy this week’s list, and I’ll see you on Nov. 18, refreshed and replenished. On this week’s list: 1. Honey, please 2. Why run? 3. Going local 4. Be free 5. Special cheese 6. Side of Bacon? 1. Honey, please Romain Costaseca/Hans Lucas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The sun will set at 4:48 p.m. today in New York, which means the urge to retreat inside and get cozy will be irresistible. I am not a heavy tea drinker, but I aspire to be, because it’s the consummate cozy behavior, and because I like the idea of warming up from the inside out. If you are — or aspire to be — a tea drinker, my colleague Melissa Clark’s hack for getting the last of the honey out of a jar: Splash a little of your hot tea in the jar, swish it around, pour the whole thing back into the cup. What a satisfying little trick! It reminds me of my friend Claire’s suggestion that you use the dregs of your jam jars to make a cocktail. I like these tricks because not only are you getting every last drop, but you’re also using the original vessel, a tiny gesture of efficiency. 2. Why run? Lexi Parra/The New York Times The New York City Marathon was Sunday, and I spent much of the day, as I do every year, considering what it must feel like to complete such a grueling feat. I began marathon training several years ago with the idea that once I’d completed the race, it would serve as a touchstone when facing challenges in the future. I imagined saying to myself: “I ran a marathon. Surely I can do this,” where “this” was whatever apparently impossible task was before me. I confess I felt mostly relief when I didn’t get a spot in the marathon lottery and decided that was a sign I should stop training. In retrospect, I didn’t have a ton of conviction; I didn’t have a good “why.” In her new book “The Great Remembering,” June Cohen, a co-creator of TED Talks, writes about how humans have always undertaken physical challenges to help cope with emotional ones. Cohen spoke to a woman who undertook a 150-kilometer run around Mount Rainier to commemorate the 15th anniversary of her husband’s death. “Life gave me hard that I didn’t choose,” the woman said, adding, “When we choose hard and let that hard redefine what hard means in our lives — it gives us back our power.” I’m trying to understand this: Choosing to do something hard as a way to reclaim agency. Hard things don’t always have to be unwelcome; sometimes we invite them in to reframe our understanding of suffering. If I could internalize this, I think I’d have a good reason for running a marathon. A British man who walked 31,000 miles over 28 years returned home this week, and he said the thing that surprised him most was how kind strangers were — in every country he traversed, people offered him food, shelter, a hug. “The world is just a much better place than you will imagine,” he told The Times. This is why many people love to run marathons: The magical feeling of the crowds cheering you on. “It doesn’t just come from training for months to test your body in a physical challenge. I could do that on my own,” Jen A. Miller wrote in The Times in 2018. “Marathons, especially city marathons, are a big party, and one that keeps going even when you don’t want to, when everything inside you screams to just stop, even though you need to get to the finish line somehow.” This party, this collective effervescence, is available to all of us, even if we don’t run. Sometimes we’re the ones taking on a physical challenge, sometimes we’re the ones standing along the route cheering. 3. Going local The Saugatuck River Bridge in Westport, Conn. in 1990. Robert Moore, via Library of Congress If you’re considering your own walk across the world, you might start small and explore your own neighborhood with Local Wikipedia, which describes itself as “Wikipedia but only for things a half-hour walk from you.” The creator said he wanted to make the vast, unwieldy archive into something “wieldy,” something that “tells a story about a specific place.” It’s strange and exciting to see what landmarks and locations, no matter how humble, make it onto your area’s entry. I put in the Connecticut town where I grew up and discovered that it’s home to the oldest surviving movable bridge in the state, built in 1884. Stephen Sondheim was an apprentice at the local playhouse! What might you find about your own hometown? The stories we tell of the places we live are personal, particular to our experience. They seldom take into account the census districts or the historical bridges. It’s interesting to see what a dispassionate illustration of a place looks like, separate from all the things that have happened to us there. 4. Be free I read David Whyte’s poem “Sweet Darkness” this week, and one line has stayed with me: “You must learn one thing. / The world was made to be free in.” I’m not sure why this line in particular resonated, but I keep returning to it, and whenever I do, I unclench a little. It sort of resets my perspective. If the world is made to be free in, then there’s no good reason to allow myself to be confined. And then: How can I help others to be free in this world? 5. Special cheese Tony Cenicola/The New York Times My friend Minju told me recently about her favorite cheese, Rush Creek Reserve, which she serves only on Thanksgiving. Why only on Thanksgiving? If you love a cheese, might not you indulge more than one day each year? Turns out this cheese costs $37 for about 12 ounces, which is, for Minju and me and most everybody, not part of the everyday cheese budget. Plus, Rush Creek Reserve is produced only in the fall. That means it’s on sale for only a limited time — and scarcity like that automatically makes me want to get it while I can, like Mallomars. I happened on the cheese in my local supermarket and couldn’t resist. I served it with fresh baguette and, as Minju insisted, apricot preserves. It was indeed a special cheese, not only because it was creamy and nutty and subtle, but also because I loved eating something that someone close to me loves. 6. Side of Bacon? Krista Schlueter for The New York Times The old party game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” where you can supposedly link anyone in Hollywood to Bacon via movies they’ve worked on in fewer than six steps, suggests that Bacon is the center of the entertainment universe, its most prolific star. Someone has crunched the numbers and — plot twist! — it turns out Bacon currently ranks 175th out of 169,000 actors. Find out who’s more connected, and which Gen Z star might be the “next” Kevin Bacon. Now, whenever someone references “Six Degrees,” you can be that smarty-pants who goes, “Well, actually. …” (I’m sorry.) One more thing: Mary Beth Robinson, a reader from Heidelberg, Germany, has a clever way to deal with things that go awry when traveling: My husband and I are accustomed to vacationing with large groups of friends, but we once courageously embarked on a two-week road trip through Europe with my elderly parents, the four of us packed tightly into a Honda Civic. This could have easily gone pear-shaped were it not for the brainchild of my better half: Every morning, we (s)elected a scapegoat for anything that might go wrong that day, whether it was a forgotten item that we’d have to turn back for; long lines at tourist attractions; snippy wait staff; out-of-service elevators; even inclement weather or scarce parking or cold coffee. When serving as scapegoat of the day, one had to accept blame — but not responsibility — for any “negative” thing, no matter how grievous or insignificant. Reservation for the wrong time? Hey, scapegoat! Chewing gum on your shoe? Hey, scapegoat! It quickly becomes so absurd that it turns everything into a joke, stopping hard feelings in their tracks. We still call on this convention whenever we travel, no matter how large or small the group. Do you have any strategies for stopping hard feelings in their tracks? Share them in the comments, or send me an email. And you can check out past editions of The Good List anytime. — Melissa The editor of The Good List is Jodi Rudoren. Eli Cohen handles the photos.

💊 CVS Health is splitting its health and pharmacy services businesses into two public companies, reversing a get-big strategy involving mergers with prescription benefits provider Caremark and insurance firm Aetna. More from Brock E.W. Turner.

🍔 Traffic at McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. fell during Q3 as customers struggled with high gas prices and other costs. Go deeper.

⚡️ Catch me up Data: The Downballot, Ballotpedia, AP; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios 📊 In the seven states where Republicans redrew congressional boundaries, they're on track to lose as many as eight seats — rather than gain the 15 they had hoped to pick up. More from Hans Nichols.

🏛️ Speaker bows out Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) plans to step down as the House's top Republican after the GOP's epic midterm election losses wiped out his party's majority, Axios' Kate Santaliz reports. 📝 Johnson told colleagues in a letter that his decision wasn't easy, but that the demands of serving in leadership had required significant sacrifices from his family. He wrote: "After three years in this role, I believe the time has come for me to give them more of the attention and presence they so richly deserve." (Read his letter.) Johnson's exit touches off a potentially contentious scramble to replace him. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have both thrown their hats in the ring. 🗳️ What's next: House Republicans are set to hold leadership elections on Nov. 10. Go deeper.

Democratic sweep of Congress ushers in a new era as Trump acknowledges impact of the Iran war WASHINGTON (AP) — The midterm election blowout delivered a new era in Washington, with Democrats in Congress eager to meet voter demands for change while Republicans watched their majorities evaporate after a revolt against President Donald Trump and his party in power. https://apnews.com/article/congress-democratic-blue-wave-midterms-house-senate-9c5c4c5283f58b1ae0786e2f410c21a0? Vance blames war for GOP's catastrophic night Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Brandon Bell and U.S. Navy via Getty Images Opposition to the Iran war fueled the Democrats' "blue tsunami," Vice President Vance argued in a surprisingly blunt midterms postmortem today, Axios' Herb Scribner reports. Vance's comments effectively kick off the 2028 election cycle, with the vice president distancing himself from Trump's highly unpopular war. 🤳 Vance wrote on X: "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night." "If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest." Vance argued that Republicans need to do four things to win voters back: End the Iran war, focus on inflation, "put America First," and "change our relationship to Israel." He wrote: "To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let's take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country." ⛽️ Trump said this afternoon that he agrees that the war "drove the gasoline up a little bit, short term." "But at the same time, if I had to do it again, I'd have to do it again because long term, it's the only answer," he added at an impromptu White House ballroom event. "You have no choice. You have to do it. You can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon." The intrigue: Donald Trump Jr. responded to Vance's post: "Every word of this is 💯💯💯." Neither the White House nor the vice president's office responded to Axios' requests for comment. Go deeper. ps:Lets blame anything else except those that are really to blame!!

Microsoft's Big Bet on 8GB PCs Is Finally Paying Off Windows 11 now runs surprisingly well on 8GB of RAM. I spoke with Microsoft execs and engineers about what changed. https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsofts-big-bet-on-8gb-pcs-is-finally-paying-off?