Rout of office
Democrats win the House and the Senate in the United States in a stunning rebuke to President Trump and White House policies. / NPR
Now that Trump has lost control of Congress, should we expect to see “a personality collapse and rage meltdown on the scale of the final sequence of The Lord of the Rings?” / The Atlantic [$]
Europe braces for what some observers believe will be a “highly likely” post-electoral backlash from the White House. / Politico
Gas prices in the US hit a national average of $4.11 a gallon, an election-day record high. / The Hill
Among major upsets, Texas state representative Gina Hinojosa trounces Gov. Greg Abbott. / Texas Monthly
Eleanor Klibanoff: Texas just experienced “a full flip of statewide political control on a scale unseen in this state since Reconstruction.” / The Texas Tribune
Adi Robertson: Silicon Valley’s all-in support for the Trump administration is looking awfully risky. / The Verge [$]
Meanwhile, the New York Times fires its romance columnist after she shared a post on social media critical of how the company covers Trump’s alleged sexual assaults. / Smart Bitches Trashy Books
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Permitting reform has divided environmentalists into two camps: conservationists and clean energy evangelists. / Climate Colored Goggles
Starbucks plans to phase out its Impossible Foods sandwich as customers lose interest in products that imitate meat. / Quartz
The recent Binance crypto hack was 22 times larger than the biggest bank heist in history. / TLDR
Flint, Mich, used a no-strings-attached cash transfer program to cut its infant mortality rate in half. / Vox [$]
“It can lead to a state of emptiness.” Interviews with young people in Dalifornia, Southern China’s “lie flat” community. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
Photographs from a press-on nail workshop in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. / Sixth Tone
Some examples of artificial intelligence models drafting architectural blueprints. / Stephen Gallagher
What it’s like to use AI to build a chair: “It’s definitely bigger than you’d expect, verging on the uncanny. This I find to be absolutely fascinating.” / Emergence Magazine