Your Wednesday Briefing

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After a bitterly contested and partisan midterm election campaign, full results from yesterday’s vote in the U.S. are yet to be delivered. Early this morning, as Democrats were bracing to defend their slim majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, there was little sign of the so-called red wave that Republicans had expected or hoped for. Follow the latest updates.

Republicans won some key early victories in Florida soon after polls began to close on Tuesday evening. But Democrats scored a series of wins — an incumbent senator in Colorado, congresswomen in Northern Virginia and Ohio, an open seat in Rhode Island — that began to dim Republican hopes of a far-reaching nationwide sweep.

As of 1 a.m. Eastern time, Republicans had a multitude of pathways to claim the House majority, needing to flip just five seats. But the Senate, which is now divided 50-50, remains on a knife-edge. With so many tight races yet to be called, a fuller portrait of the implications is not likely to emerge until later today at the earliest. Here is our real-time forecast.

Voting: As of yesterday evening, elections overall across the country seemed to have unfolded smoothly for millions of Americans. But in some communities, there were lawsuits filed amid scattered problems, including technical glitches that disrupted ballot counting in Arizona’s Maricopa County.

In the lead-up to the vote, Democrats battled intense national headwinds, shaped by grave concerns about the economy and inflation, and confronted the general challenges faced by the party in power during midterm elections. Almost everywhere, President Biden’s unpopularity was a driving force. Read analysis from our opinion columnists.

Republicans sought at every turn to tie Democratic candidates to their national party — and the president — while Democrats often cast their opponents as far outside the political mainstream, especially on issues of abortion rights and election denialism.

A handful of Republican megadonors had supplied tens of millions of dollars to a House Republican super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, which used its financial might to stretch the political playing field deep into traditionally blue territory, thinning Democratic defenses. Fighting to stave off defeats there, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held closing events and rallies.

In other news from the day:

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, urged his followers to vote Republican.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a two-term Republican, fended off a strong challenge from Beto O’Rourke, his Democratic opponent.

Ron DeSantis won a second term as Florida’s governor, cementing Republicans’ grip on power in what was once a battleground state.

Several European countries yesterday pledged compensation to developing nations for the costs of devastating storms and droughts caused by climate change. At this year’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt, known as COP27, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Ireland joined Scotland in committing millions toward “loss and damage.”

Direct funding for loss and damage represents a major break from precedent. For decades, wealthy nations have avoided calls to help poor countries recover from climate disasters, fearing that doing so could open them to unlimited liability. Legally and practically, defining “loss and damage” and determining who should pay what costs has also been very challenging.

The U.S. has not offered a contribution. Instead, the Biden administration wants corporations to fund renewable projects in developing countries — and then count the resulting emissions cuts toward their own goals. Payments from companies would then go to countries struggling to adopt renewable energy.

Dissent: Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said that Europe was already helping poorer countries and that other Western nations needed to do more. “Europeans are paying,” he said. “We are the only ones paying.” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, endorsed the idea. “It is high time to put this on the agenda,” she said.

In other climate news:

The top four emitters — China, the U.S., the European Union and India — aren’t meeting their climate goals.

A draft of a major federal scientific report slated for release next year offered a stark warning: “The things Americans value most are at risk.”

Times photographers have documented the climate crisis across the globe.

With movement on the ground slowing, the battle in Ukraine’s skies is increasingly central to the course of the war. Both sides are looking to their allies for new weapons.

Ukraine received its first shipment of an advanced weapon that can be used to shoot down Russian drones and warplanes.

Amid reports that the U.S. wants to keep the door open to peace negotiations, Ukraine said it was open to them but wanted Russia to return territory and pay damages.

A former archbishop acknowledged that he had behaved “reprehensibly” with a 14-year-old girl 35 years ago, renewing scrutiny of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in France.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it had reached a deal to buy a former competitor, FTX, amid fears the industry could enter another meltdown.

Kenya shared details of a loan agreement it signed with China in 2014 to build a railway, which has since become associated with debt, dysfunction and criminal inquiries.

An ambitious effort has effectively pulled Mexico’s jaguars back from the brink.

The theory of the “wood-wide web” — that shared fungal networks help trees talk to each other — is everywhere. Some scientists argue that it is overblown and unproven.

A small study demonstrated that deep brain stimulation can limit an urge to overeat in people with binge eating disorder.

Antidepressants seem to work — but not because they correct a “chemical imbalance.” Here’s what you need to know.

Watch footage from yesterday’s lunar eclipse.

It’s tough to profit in the struggling market of blockchain assets right now. Burning a purported drawing from Frida Kahlo’s personal diary — which has resulted in accusations of fraud and an investigation by the authorities in Mexico — didn’t help a businessman’s cause.

Evelyn de Rothschild, a London scion of the European banking dynasty who helped to privatize Britain’s railroads, steel and coal, has died at 91.

Tactical guide to World Cup Group B: Are England and Wales too reliant on their stars? What are the U.S.M.N.T.’s strengths and weaknesses? And about those javelin-style throws from Iran’s goalkeeper …

“War and sport have never been so close”: The six-part podcast series “Away from Home” follows the tragedy and triumph of Shakhtar Donetsk’s Champions League odyssey while Russia wages war in Ukraine.

Super League: The company behind the failed European Super League project, A22 Sports Management, is set to meet with UEFA officials as it seeks to revive talks about the model and put the future of European club soccer back in the spotlight.

From The Times: Iran’s national soccer team was long seen as a unifying force in a fractious nation. But as the squad, known as Team Melli, heads to the World Cup, it has become ensnared in Iran’s internal politics.

For a 70-minute Austrian symphony first performed more than a century ago, Mahler’s Fifth makes a surprisingly strong case for itself as the song of the season, Louis Lucero II reports for The Times.

The symphony, which plays a central role in the new Cate Blanchett drama, “Tár,” may not appear in the Billboard Hot 100 or as a viral TikTok sound. But Mahler’s Fifth is nonetheless finding its way onto the strolling, cleaning and cooking playlists of listeners who might otherwise be more inclined toward Adele, OneRepublic or Beyoncé.

“Tár” is not the only film in which you might hear the symphony this year. Its fourth movement also has a star turn in “Decision to Leave,” a fast-paced detective thriller by the South Korean director Park Chan-wook.

Pieces of classical music breaking into pop culture is by now a familiar tale: Works by Beethoven and Pachelbel became widely popular in the 1970s and 1980s after appearing (in one form or another) in “Ordinary People” and the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.

You don’t need to celebrate Thanksgiving to find a use for nine new pie recipes.

Haruki Murakami’s new memoir, “Novelist as a Vocation,” reflects on his craft and his career.

The latest season of “The Crown” depicts a royal family in crisis.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: King or queen (five letters).

And here are today’s Wordle and the Spelling Bee.

You can find all our puzzles here.

Thanks for starting your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — Natasha

P.S. How did The Times prepare to cover the U.S. midterm elections? Months of preparation, coast-to-coast coordination and sticky notes along a basement wall.

The latest episode of “The Daily” is on the future of American democracy.

What did you love? And what can we do better? Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.