Mamdani’s Historic Win, and Democrats’ Big Night Nationwide

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, November 5th. Here's what we're covering.

0:15Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice. Hope is alive. In New York City, Zoran Mamdani capped off a stunning political rise last night, winning the mayoral election with voter turnout there the highest it's been since the 1960s. New York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate for a city we can afford, and a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that. When Mamdani is sworn in next year, he'll become New York's youngest mayor in more than a century at 34 years old, as well as the first Muslim, first South Asian, and only the second-ever Democratic Socialist to run America's largest city.

1:06Mamdani's victory is a huge win for progressives. He represents the left wing of the Democratic Party. He's close allies with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. And now Mamdani is one of the most prominent progressives in the country. Emma Fitzsimmons is the Times City Hall bureau chief. She says Mamdani's rise has been meteoric. At the start of the race, he was a virtually unknown state assemblyman. Ahead of the primary, he was such a long-shot candidate, he didn't even prepare a victory speech. But over the last year, his social media-savvy campaign turned him into a national figure, and his ambitious platform electrified a broad range of New Yorkers.

1:52Mom Donnie connected with younger voters and immigrants. He ran on this message of affordability, that he was going to make the city more affordable by making buses free, by freezing the rents on rent-stabilized apartments, and by implementing universal child care. But now the hard part begins. Running a city of 8 million people, he's going to face a lot of challenges running a complex city and trying to make progress that he has promised to voters. Meanwhile, Democrats up and down the ballot won elections across the country last night. This was a tough fight. And this is a tough day. But I know you're New Jersey.

2:33We love you! And I love you. In New Jersey, Mikey Sherrill won the governor's seat by a wide margin. And in Virginia... We chose our commonwealth over chaos. Abigail Spanberger flipped control of the governor's seat with her win. Both candidates beat out Republican challengers who President Trump had endorsed, an apparent rebuke of Trump's aggressive first year in office. In what was also seen as backlash to the president, voters in California approved a measure to redraw the state's congressional maps to favor Democrats, after months of Trump pushing the GOP to do the same in red states. Democrats also notched victories in smaller races.

3:18Pennsylvania voters chose to keep the Democratic majority on the state's Supreme Court. And in Georgia, Democrats flipped several seats on the state's utility board, one of several races seen as a bellwether for the midterms next year.

3:36As of midnight, the government shutdown is now officially the longest shutdown in American history, stretching on for 35 full days and counting. Republicans need to get it into their head. Families are not going to forget this because they are going to be paying the cost of the mega health care hike every single month. Democrats still say they won't vote to reopen the government unless Republicans strike a deal to extend health care subsidies for millions of Americans. The Democrats have completely lost the plot. All we need are five Democrat senators to put country over party and vote to end this reckless shutdown.

4:17Republicans say they won't negotiate on anything until Democrats help them pass a short-term spending bill and get the government back up and running. During the last major lapse in government funding, which happened in President Trump's first term, Trump got involved in trying to negotiate a way out. But this time around, the president has taken a more aggressive stance by pushing for layoffs of federal workers and funding cuts to Democratic-led states. Now, he and his administration are only ramping up those kinds of threats. He suggested yesterday that he might defy a court order and withhold food stamp payments to over 40 million Americans, a threat the White House later walked back.

5:00And the administration is still floating, not giving back pay to furloughed federal workers who've gone without paychecks, even though they're legally entitled to that money.

5:17Anybody who has seen the images and the video know how violent this crash is. In Louisville, Kentucky last night, a UPS cargo plane appeared to catch fire as it traveled down the runway, taking off briefly before it crashed and exploded in an enormous fireball just outside the airport. Right now, we believe that the main area hit consisted of two businesses that looks like they were hit pretty directly. At least seven people were killed and 11 were injured in the crash. The city's mayor said four of the fatalities were people on the ground. An eyewitness told the Times that he heard multiple explosions as the plane, which was loaded with almost 40 ,000 gallons of jet fuel, hit the industrial area near the runway and that he saw people run away from the flames and the wreckage.

6:08The crash temporarily disrupted UPS's operations at the airport, which is one of the largest air cargo hubs in the country. Every day, more than 300 UPS flights carrying about 2 million packages go in and out of Louisville. The National Transportation Safety Board says its team of investigators will arrive on the scene today.

6:34In Israel, a case involving the alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza has reignited a national controversy. Last year, a group of Israeli soldiers were accused of assaulting the man at a military jail, including breaking his ribs, puncturing a lung, and tearing his rectum. There's a long history of abuse allegations at that facility, where thousands of Gazans have been held. Surveillance footage of the incident was leaked shortly after. It didn't offer a clear view of what happened, since the soldiers mostly hid themselves and the detainee from the cameras. Still, excerpts of the footage showed them surrounding the man as he was pinned against a wall, and later him lying on the ground.

7:20After the soldiers were detained, some right-wing Israelis protested, saying that soldiers should be largely immune from prosecution for mistreating Palestinians in custody. The case is back in the news now because the Israeli military's chief legal officer admitted last week that she was the one who leaked the footage. She defended that decision in a resignation letter, saying she'd done it so people could see the investigation was legitimate. She wrote that even during war, there is an obligation to investigate abuse. She added, quote, Unfortunately, this basic understanding that there are actions which must never be taken even against the vilest of detainees no longer convinces everyone.

8:04This week, she was arrested on suspicion of misconduct and obstructing justice. Lawyers for the soldiers who've been charged with abuse now say their case should be dropped, arguing she sullied the legal process by leaking the tape.

8:24And finally, in Alaska, the remnants of a typhoon hit the state last month, carving away as much as 60 feet of coastal land overnight. One of the things the rare storm hit was an archaeological dig site on the shoreline, where researchers had been excavating artifacts left behind by the ancestors of the Yupik people there. Some of the objects were up to 600 years old. Ever since the storm, there's been a race to recover the items that got washed away. Wooden bowls, dolls, carvings, arrow shafts. Some of the locals have found them washing up again on the beach. You think you're picking up driftwood, but it's actually a priceless mask.

9:04One archaeologist estimates there are likely 10 ,000 artifacts still out there, and people have been rescuing them from the water by the box full. For many, finding and preserving that history feels particularly urgent now, as climate change transforms the Arctic. The frozen ground there used to preserve objects for centuries, but now the thaw of the soil, known as permafrost, has caused some buried objects to begin decomposing. In a twist, the same storm that destroyed the dig site also may have helped expose new finds. Just a few miles away, the wooden beams of an old house are now peeking through the storm-shredded permafrost.

9:45That site is possibly even older than what was washed away at the dig.

9:53Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, more on what last night's elections mean for the future of the Democratic Party. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back tomorrow with my colleague, Will Jarvis. Thank you.