Illinois

Tech and chip shares fell worldwide after the US midterm elections, with the Nasdaq dropping 6 percent, its worst fall since March 2020, and Nvidia shares losing more than 9 percent. The sell-off wiped out about $3 trillion in S&P 500 market value, and trading in South Korea was briefly suspended. Investors fear Democratic control of Congress could bring stricter rules on technology firms and data centres. Democrats in Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Georgia pledged to slow or pause data centre development. Dozens of local ballot measures restricting data centres passed in several US states.

Pope Leo XIV mailed his ballot from Chicago for the 3 Nov United States midterm elections, the Holy See press office said. The Vatican says it is the first known time a pope has voted in a political election. The 71-year-old pontiff, who holds US and Peruvian citizenship, is recovering from lung-cancer surgery performed on 13 Oct. His ballot covers the Illinois governor race, a Senate seat vacated by Dick Durbin, and a House contest. The ballot will travel from Vatican City to Joliet, Illinois, for processing. The pope also met immigration advocates at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on the same day.

The Democratic Party now holds 54 seats in the Senate and 228 seats in the House, giving it clear control of both chambers. Voters flipped four Senate seats previously held by Republicans, including a win in Texas that made James Talarico the state's first Democratic senator since 1988 and a victory in South Carolina. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa also became the first Latina governor. The Justice Department deployed about 1,000 monitors to polling places nationwide, citing election integrity as a top priority.