Harris concedes defeat to Trump, US House still up for grabs

Biden; need to 'bring down the temperature' of US politics

Biden continues his address urging Americans to lower the political temperature after Donald Trump's sweeping election win, saying he would ensure a "peaceful and orderly" transition to the Republican.

"Something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other, not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature," Biden said in an address to the nation from the White House.

Harris 'should be proud' of campaign: Biden

Biden has begun his first national address since Trump won the election by promising to ensure a peaceful transition of power and commending his Vice President Kamala Harris for leading an “inspiring campaign."

“I assured him [Trump] I would work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve,” Biden stated from the White House Rose Garden.

He described Harris as a steadfast “partner” and “public servant.” Reflecting on her campaign, Biden added, “Everyone got to see something that I saw early on: character.”

“She and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran,” he concluded.

Houthi leader: Trump will 'fail' to end Israel-Gaza war

The leader of Yemen's Houthi rebels criticised Donald Trump for supporting Israel on Thursday, saying the US president-elect would fail to end the Middle East conflict in his second term.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, whose group is aligned with Iran, said that a series of normalisation deals between Arab countries and Israel brokered by Trump's administration during his first term did not help bring the conflict closer to an end.

"Trump failed in the project of... 'the deal of the century' despite all his arrogance, haughtiness, recklessness and tyranny, and he will fail this time as well," Houthi said in his weekly speech.

China tariffs on the table, Trump's ex-Treasury chief says

US President-elect Donald Trump is likely to return to the issue of tariffs in negotiations with China, as well as consider tax cuts and new sanctions, his former Treasury Secretary said in an interview Thursday.

"I think that tariffs do need to be used to get counterparties back to the table, especially China, which is not living up to all of the agreements they made in the Phase One trade agreement," Steven Mnuchin told CNBC.

He was referring to a 2020 trade deal that followed a truce in a tariff war between Washington and Beijing.

The agreement saw China pledge to boost purchases of American products and services by at least $200 billion over 2020 and 2021. But the target was not met amid the pandemic.

Mnuchin added Thursday that he would recommend Trump use tariffs in a "strategic way" to ensure there is not widespread inflation.

Biden pushes through Ukraine aid amid Trump election win

Donald Trump's election victory spells immediate doubt for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, with President Joe Biden's administration expected to sprint in its final days to ensure -- insofar as possible -- long-term US support.

Trump, who won an overwhelming victory in Tuesday's election, has in the past voiced admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion in US assistance committed for Ukraine since Moscow's 2022 invasion.

The 78-year-old tycoon has repeatedly boasted that he can end the war in 24 hours, without explaining how.

His aides have mused about conditioning aid to Kyiv to force concessions, with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance once bluntly saying he did not care what happened to Ukraine, seeing the country as strategically insignificant compared with the global US rivalry with China.

With 10 weeks to go until Trump takes over, the Biden administration is looking to push out the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine, officials said.

The Biden team is also looking for structural ways to put European allies in greater charge of assistance to Ukraine before Trump returns, diplomats said.

In a pre-emptive "Trump-proofing" measure, NATO -- the transatlantic alliance that has been criticized by the president-elect -- has already agreed to take over from the United States in coordinating aid to Ukraine.

Biden blamed by Harris allies for Trump election drubbing

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump's decisive victory, some of the vice president Kamala Harris's backers are expressing frustration that Joe Biden's decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party's surrender of the White House.

“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will affect communities for years to come.

But having run four years ago against Trump to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden's priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

Trump victory a shot in the arm for Brazil's Bolsonaro

Donald Trump's electoral victory in the United States has injected new energy into Brazil's hard right and stirred hopes that former President Jair Bolsonaro can mirror his return to power despite legal obstacles to running for office in 2026.

Although analysts say it is a long-shot, Bolsonaro's backers are pushing to get him amnesty after an electoral court ruled him ineligible for public office until 2030 due to his baseless attacks on Brazil's voting system in the last presidential race.

Bolsonaro, an anti-establishment firebrand who was dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics" when he was elected in 2018, thanked God for the Republican's victory on Tuesday, which he touted as improving his chances of returning to the presidency.

"Trump's victory will inspire conservatives worldwide and reinforce the movement in Brazil to re-elect Jair Bolsonaro as president in the 2026 elections," said Valdemar Costa Neto, head of Bolsonaro's right-wing Liberal Party (PL).

Party officials hailed Trump's victory as part of a global trend including the election of right-wing libertarian Javier Milei as president of Argentina last year and Brazil's recent municipal elections confirming a more conservative electorate.

Zelensky: US-Europe ties 'cannot be lost' after Trump win

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that ties between the US and Europe must not be lost after Donald Trump's election victory.

"We do hope that America will become stronger. This is the kind of America that Europe needs. And a strong Europe is what America needs. This is the connection between allies that must be valued and cannot be lost," Zelensky said in Budapest at a meeting of European leaders.

Hezbollah calls for US action, not words, as Trump wins

Hezbollah welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on a particular U.S. administration, Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi said on Thursday when asked about Donald Trump's election victory.

"It might be a change in the party who is in power, but when it comes to Israel, they have more or less the same policy," Moussawi told Reuters. "We want to see actions, we want to see decisions taken," he said.

Iranians fear war after Trump election victory

Iranians, like many around the world, are divided on what Donald Trump's next presidency will bring: Some foresee an all-out war between Tehran and Washington, particularly as other conflicts rage in the region. Others hold out hope that America's 47th president might engage in unexpected diplomacy as he did with North Korea.

But nearly all believe something will change in the U.S.-Iran relationship.

“Trump will use tougher levers against Iran," warned Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political analyst. “Iranian officials will keep rejecting him and that could make him escalate his pressure.”

And while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, has repeatedly expressed his own disgust with Trump, Iran’s new reformist president has kept the door open to talks with Trump to seek relief from international sanctions to buoy a cratering economy . The Iranian rial, in a free fall for years, hit its lowest value against the dollar on Wednesday before slightly recovering.

Trump win casts doubt on future of Mexico's migrant caravan

Thousands of migrants traveling together in a caravan in Mexico are grappling with their next steps after former U.S. President Donald Trump, who ran on an anti-immigration platform, was propelled to victory for a second term.

After hearing Trump had won, many migrants in the caravan of about 3,000 people which started in the southern city of Tapachula on Tuesday, felt less hopeful about their chance at a new life in the United States.

"I had hoped (Kamala Harris) would win, but that didn't happen," said Valerie Andrade, a Venezuelan migrant traveling with the caravan from Chiapas to Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

Andrade, along with her husband, and like over 7 million other Venezuelans, left their crisis-ridden country seeking better prospects.

Trump, 78, clinched Tuesday's election after a campaign that promised large-scale deportations and a return to fast-tracked deportations to Mexico.

His proposed immigration policies also include ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.

China's Xi congratulates Trump on winning US election

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday sent a telegram to Donald Trump congratulating him on being elected to be the next U.S. president, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Berri claims Trump pledged to end Israel's war on Lebanon

Lebanon's Speaker of the House Nabih Berri commented on the reasons why US President Donald Trump received a substantial portion of the Lebanese and Arab vote in Michigan, saying, "It's because of Joe Biden's policy, as he stood by watching the killing of children in Gaza and Lebanon."

In response to another question about the "promises" made by the Republican president, he added, "He signed a written pledge to ceasefire in Lebanon immediately upon his victory, at Hassan Abbas’s restaurant," referring to a Lebanese eatery visited by Trump during the campaign.

Syrian-American Hamadeh wins House race for Republicans

Pro-Israel Republican Abraham Hamadeh, the son of a Syrian immigrant will win his US House race for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, a safe Republican district, against Democratic nominee Gregory Whitten, CNN projects.

Hamadeh has strongly aligned himself with Donald Trump, pledging to support the former president’s border wall and make border security a priority. He has also echoed Trump’s unproven claims regarding the 2020 election.

A former Army intelligence officer, Hamadeh previously served in the Maricopa County prosecutor’s office. According to his campaign website, he is the son of immigrants, with his family having fled to the United States from Syria and Venezuela.

Iran: US elections opportunity to review 'wrong approaches'

US elections are an opportunity to review the "wrong approaches" of the American government, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday according to state media, after Donald Trump won the presidency on Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump's return to the White House could mean tougher enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions against Iran, which he initiated in 2018 after exiting a nuclear pact between Tehran and global powers.

"We had bitter experiences with various U.S. governments' past policies and approaches. Elections are an opportunity to review the wrong approaches of the past," Baghaei said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in September that Tehran is ready to end its nuclear standoff with the West, which accuses it of seeking capacity to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Outgoing president Joe Biden attempted to revive the nuclear deal with Iran in negotiations but failed to reach a new agreement. Trump has not made clear whether he might reopen the issue.

"What is important for Iran will be how we evaluate the actions of the U.S. government,"