Ukrainian Forces Enter Kherson, a Strategic Prize, in a Blow to Putin 

On Nov. 11, Ukrainian soldiers swept into the southern city of Kherson, seizing a major symbolic and strategic prize and dealing a bitter blow to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin. Days after the liberation, accounts of beatings, torture and disappearances are emerging. Weeks after Mr. Putin declared the Kherson region a part of Russia forever, his troops were forced to abandon its capital city, their third major retreat in the war. The setback further dented the once-formidable reputation of an army that has mismanaged logistics and sent unprepared and unmotivated soldiers into battle. Wary of mines and navigating around blown-up bridges, Ukrainian soldiers at first filtered secretly into the city and nearby villages, after Russian forces had withdrawn hours earlier across the Dnipro River. But by Friday afternoon soldiers were appearing openly on a central square, greeted by jubilant residents as liberators. 

Mark Kelly Wins Arizona Senate Race, Putting Democrats a Seat From Control 

Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona won a tough campaign for re-election on Friday, The Associated Press reported, defeating his Trump-backed Republican rival, Blake Masters, to put Democrats within one seat of retaining control of the Senate. Democrats hope to clinch the chamber when votes are fully counted in the Nevada contest between Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, who held a tiny lead late Friday but was expected to fall behind. If Mr. Laxalt were to prevail, control of the Senate would hang in the balance until the runoff election on December 6th in Georgia between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat seeking a full term, and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, the former football star. Mr. Kelly, long seen as one of his party’s most vulnerable incumbents, rose to victory with the support of national Democrats and some top state Republicans who played up his willingness to reach across the aisle and who cast his candidacy as necessary to preserve American democracy. With 83 percent of the vote counted, he led Mr. Masters by 5.7 percentage points. Mr. Masters, a venture capitalist and political newcomer who embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, burst into Arizona politics with millions of dollars in support from the technology billionaire Peter Thiel, his former employer. With an ideological fervor that excited the state Republican Party’s ascendant right wing, he portrayed himself as an internet-savvy insurgent while play to xenophobic and racist fears, claiming that Democrats were trying to bring more immigrants to the country to change its demographics and gain a political edge. He struggled, however, to win over the state’s independent voters, who have helped push Arizona from reliably red to tossup and who now make up about a third of its voting population. 

Election day 2022 

U.S. voters are casting early ballots in the midterm elections that will determine control of the House and Senate, as candidates try to muster last-minute support. Democrats are trying to cling to their majorities in Congress for the final two years of President Joe Biden’s first term. Republicans are favored to win control of the House, while the race for Senate control appears tight. The president had a busy weekend campaigning for Democrats in tight races in New York and Pennsylvania, where former President Barack Obama joined to help Senate candidate John Fetterman in his bid to best GOP opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz. “This crowd is so loud, I think they can hear us in Latrobe,” Biden told a raucous crowd at Temple University in an apparent dig at former President Donald Trump, who was campaigning for Oz outside Pittsburgh. On Sunday, Biden campaigned for Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is facing an unexpectedly tight race against Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin. Another former president, Bill Clinton, campaigned with Hochul in Brooklyn on Saturday, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Voters have already cast more than 42 ballots in the midterm elections as of Monday evening. Election officials and U.S. prosecutors will be keeping a close watch on the polls for any signs of voter intimidation on Tuesday — including in 24 states where the justice department will send poll monitors.