series the show documentaries from around the world that celebrate the human spirit against me oh it's. all over the old. al-jazeera slackness express yourself. about democrats and republicans it's about restoring the constitution's checks and balances to the top. democrats control of the u.s. house of representatives or the crucial midterm elections. they're happy with this economy i think that's reflecting a lot of the results tonight. but in the u.s. senate the republicans maintain their hold on power.

and richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. on in the murder of ordered by the highest levels of the saudi government. voters in madagascar go to the polls to elect a new president. this is one of the most consequential midterm elections in u.s. history all four hundred thirty five seats in the house of representatives are up for grabs and two hundred eighteen are needed for control the democrats need a net gain of twenty three states to take control of that chamber let's go to the senate now remember only thirty five seats out of one hundred there are up for grabs this time out of the remaining seats the democrats have twenty three and the republicans forty two democrat nancy pelosi who could become speaker of the house

again spoke about her party's whens a short time ago. well the special interest free reign over washington more than anything is about what a new democratic majority will mean in the lives of hard working americans down there. explain it to them. damn it thank you pledge a congress that works for the people for our pressure is live on capitol hill so al and mrs haddo republicans can't control the senate which was expected but they actually had some gains in the senate. while i was always going to be much easier for them to defend what they had in the senate than it was for the democrats to win . and that's really how it through people are saying well the democrats that have a great name they're still going to win the house that's one of the you know one of the most important things you can do and they're going to do it with probably but

thirty seats of a cushion that's a huge turnaround when barack obama suffered a similar sort of losses in his first midterms he called it a shellacking donald trump is this evening talking about how this is a great victory the democrats have also done very well and governor told all races around the country to it's been a historic election more than one hundred women have been elected for the democrats you're going to see two muslim american women enter congress for the first time the youngest woman ever elected twenty nine year old from democrat from new york to need two of american women they've also been elected as well and so that kind of reflects america more that congress will no be younger it will be more female it will be more diverse than perhaps the republican parties so that's a concern for them moving forward from from this election and certainly it's going to throw up a few problems for donald trump as well because the democrats know see that they

will take the the rule of oversight much more seriously than they believe that a public. have so will be calling for subpoenas for witnesses that we call in committee hearings and interesting enough they can also call for donald trump's tax returns which of course was a big issue before the presidential election so all of that factoring in they were talking about a blue wave they didn't perhaps get the victories they wanted in florida georgia is still too close to call but they did very well in the house elections and you know perhaps something that might get missed in all of this one of the more significant votes of the evening came in florida where the people there decided that convicted felons will get their voting rights back and that's going to affect one point five million people people who've been convicted of offenses no live in florida and that's a bigger constituency than many other states so that could change the whole makeup of florida in elections to come that's going to be huge as well but i think on the whole the democrats will be thinking that this was

a good night to win the house and that's exactly what they've done so yes of course it seems to have been a good night for the democrats but as you pointed out there are some good takeaways for the republicans as well and it is the message now that donald trump and some of the republicans will feel that it's that they'll continue the type of message the type of tone the type of rhetoric appealing and a lot of ways to to nativism that that's ok because they really didn't get a real smack down. well i think what they'll do is start pulling apart the results and start looking at what republicans lost and whether or not they tied themselves very close to the don't trump but here is the thing that is very important in this election it was always going to be much harder for the democrats to win a majority in the house story the noise you're hearing behind this is a the cleaners have already moved in here they've been waiting very patiently to get in it was always going to be difficult for the democrats to when

a lot of these seats because after the midterms in two thousand and ten a lot of these districts were rearranged to make it much easier for republicans to win and therefore there was almost an inbuilt house majority for republicans so to turn these around in places where donald trump one makes that kind of repudiation of what donald trump has been talking about particularly when you look at the places like iowa like wisconsin like michigan like pennsylvania like virginia places that donald trump needs to win to win the twenty twenty alexion so the democrats will be very pleased that the managed to turn those places around and they'll be saying look this is a repudiation of what donald trump has been doing donald trump has already said he would perhaps reach out to democrats and perhaps there's a way they could work together and he me will soften his tour or you remember before the last election he said that he would be more presidential than anyone you've ever seen that didn't quite pan out for him he may need to change is tone

certainly could what with one areas like infrastructure and tackling the opioid crisis but after that you're running out of room of the areas that they can walk in and of course the democrats have said if he starts attacking health care in the united states then they would be simply against that and there are other things that they will know why it really is a barrier to donald trump's policies so it's going to be a very interesting two years for donald trump he doesn't have control of all parts of the government all levels of the government so he's got to find a way to accommodate if he wants to move things forward and alan touched on the gerrymandering issue there were some of the district lines are drawn raksha going to touch on that a little later i'm in the newscast thank you very much. republican ted cruz gave an impassioned speech after keeping a senate seat in a competitive race in texas tonight is a picture e for all the men and women in this room and all the men and women across this state that poured your hearts your passion your time your energy to rising to

defend texas. to every one of you heidi and i and the girls we say thank you thank you the old. texas saw something this year that we've never seen before this election wasn't about me and it wasn't about battle roark this election was a battle of ideas it was a contest for who we are and what we believe and of course a texas as a border state as arizona were hiding castro's life for us in tucson is they're saying that this is about who we are and what we believe them particularly for states like that it's about immigration how is this played out in the election in arizona. that's right and you know you heard ted cruz is characterizing this as

a great victory in taxes but the fact is his democratic challenger paid or came within just three percentage points of unseating him which in such a deeply red state like texas is truly significant to shift our attention here to arizona the midterms is far from over there is still an outstanding senate race in this also red state that is still so close that it's too close to call just a few thousand votes separating republican martha mick sally from her democratic challenger kiersten cinema. president was here campaigning on behalf of nick sally and he turned to immigration as his favorite his signature issue calling the caravan of migrants who are approaching the border invaders he promoted a racist campaign ad that try to equate members of that caravan name many of whom are women and children to would be murderers upon their arrival in the u.s.

and that kind of talk well it worked to help get donald trump into the white house two years ago by motivating his base of white conservatives here along the border where the demographics are changing is more is more of a dangerous tactic to take for republican and we saw that here in a close margin in texas and in this neck and neck race that still remains to be hauled here in arizona for shell ok heidi jocasta live for us in tucson arizona heidi thank you a senior adviser to the president kellyanne conway spoke about how the donald trump's last minute campaigning helped republican candidates. everywhere we go we hear from job creators job holders job seekers they're happy with this economy i think that's reflecting a lot of the results tonight very happy with this president's policies to try to denuclearize the korean peninsula which helps everyone the remains of our fallen from north korea from korea have been returned this president is sanctioning iran sanctioning russia when these two pushing back on assad or any gases his people not

once but twice he showed a lot of strength and leadership around the world and many people may not say america first but they say stop apologizing for america mid-term elections are traditionally seen as a referendum on the president this year is no different our white house correspondent joins us live campbell donald trump even specifically said at some of his rallies yeah i'm on the ballot this is about me he invited that so how did all that and playing out when you look at these results. well when you look at these results you see a white house trying to spin it in fact the president has treated three times in just the last hour one of those tweets was someone praising his campaign efforts and the two other were essentially praising donald trump and so donald trump is trying to kind of characterize this as a victory but we know that there were losses for his republican party in the house of representatives so how we're seeing this white house kind of shape this

narrative whether it's kellyanne conway whether it's the white house press secretary whether it's the president who's still up behind me tweeting essentially they're trying to portray this is wherever donald trump went out wherever he went to campaign those were victories for the president we saw even the dialing back of this white house when the polls seemed to definitively show that the house of representatives would go to democrats we saw them starting to change the narrative even before voting day in terms of saying you know the focus is on the senate so that's what we're seeing the coming out of this white house now they're talking about their legislative priorities but as my colleague alan fischer mentioned lot of that's going to be really tough for the president given the fact that democrats have made very clear that they wish to investigate this president they wish to provide oversight for this president and in fact kellyanne conway acknowledging that as she spoke in the driveway here with reporters a little bit earlier saying in fact they've already started talking to their lawyers about that so. it seems yes donald trump actually

a lot of the places where he went to campaign those candidates did and doing well it may have made the difference in florida we still don't know the results in georgia but a lot of the house seats some of the house seats that were flipped from republican to democrat are places were donald trump actually won by by many many points in the election so there are certain districts that are definitely rejecting his message. absolutely i think the message that we can take away from all of this in terms of the poll is this is kind of the vote of women not only did women get elected in the house of representatives in greater numbers than we've ever seen before but we also saw many women in the suburban areas outside of major cities in the united states who supported donald trump these are college educated women rejecting his style of presidency in terms of the rhetoric in terms of the tone as we've been saying throughout the night repudiating this president so this is what we've seen evidence

from this and this is what donald trump is going to have to work on if he has any hope of winning reelection in two thousand and twenty in fact even donald trump acknowledged that his tone could have been different he said that when he was asked by a conservative network here in the united states in the last twenty four hours if the tone was right if you played this right he said you know maybe i should have had a softer tone we don't hear donald trump admit he might have made a mistake ever i really can't even remember that that was about as close as you get . you know he basically admitted that he might have played his cards wrong and so that's that's what we're taking away from all of this is we continue to move forward and digest this it seems that even donald trump might have acknowledged he made a mistake it will be interesting to see if he actually can change his tone though he can't really alkali for us at the white house kimberly thank you when you're president signature foreign policies are still in development and the outcome of

these elections could have an impact on how he perceives on the international stage the diplomatic editor james mason has more. the world is watching these elections very closely and they'll be watching in iran there were fresh sanctions in the last twenty four hours most of those that were lifted under the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal are now firmly back in place iran's already suffering a great deal of economic damage it's going to get worse they'll need now to make a political decision in tehran and in part it will depend on these elections perhaps they'll get an early indication if trump is going to be a one term or a two term president and whether they can wait him out the investigation into the death of jamal khashoggi may also be affected by the elections saudi arabia's not cooperating on handing over the suspects or on helping to find the journalist body so they could now be other legal steps if turkey requests it that could perhaps even be an international u.n. led investigation in congress watch for efforts to take action against saudi arabia

under the magnitsky act or the possibility of new congressional investigations next yemen with saudi arabia under pressure look for congress to take renewed interest in the devastating war there's already a new push for a ceasefire by the trumpet ministration and i can tell you at the u.n. in new york the u.k. is starting efforts to draw up a security council resolution on the ceasefire the plan is all of this would lead to peace talks in sweden at the end of the month highly awaited too is the trump administration's middle east peace plan the u.n. has recently been warning of fresh conflict particularly in gaza but the palestinians have already written off the still to be unveiled plan being devised by trump's son in law jared cushion and i'm also hearing whispers that the international criminal court may soon make a ruling on whether to pursue investigations into israeli actions in syria there could be a final military push by the assad regime and its russian allies efforts by the u.n. to get talks going on

a new constitution have been making very little progress as a new u.n. special envoy pederson from norway prepares to. afghanistan is another key priority for the administration and for the new congress after seventeen years of war the taliban has been gaining ground on the battlefield there's a new effort by the u.s. to talk to the taliban being led by top diplomats. but there's very little immediate prospect of progress because of afghanistan's own political calendar with presidential elections due in april next year. is an assistant professor at texas a and m. university and political science faculty here in qatar he joins us live in the studio thank you for joining us you know texas well let me ask you about this ted cruz did end up winning the incumbent republican senator but it was much closer about i think anybody in texas would have imagined what happened there i think partially. partially deals which is of local issues with cruz himself and

how he sometimes viewed partially dealing also with. opponent mr rick a large portion of this being just the sheer amount of money that iraq was able to bring in and also the sheer amount of attention he was able to bring in but in a sense i think it may have also harmed or worker a little bit because in many ways you could say yes i'm getting all this money from california from new york is having glowing repeated stories from washington post new york times so say conservative types of people the conservative voters in texas are not exactly the most pleased with the fair criticism which in this sense i mean in a sense or did very well the question is whether or not the democrats would be able to do something quite similar in other cases just in terms of the sheer amount of money the sheer amount of positive attention the sheer amount of energy. they might be able to but we'll still have to see whether a work is heading for their own or fuse going to become another wendy davis yes

talk about the gerrymandering issue a lot of these things have been debated in court basically and that the idea that some of these district lines are drawn in such a way that they don't really represent the electorate necessarily do you think that that played a role in any of these results. yes in the truest sense i'm almost positive it did but this is also in keeping in mind the context that partisan gerrymandering has been going on in the u.s. since at least the twenty's. what we're seeing is that make it ok i mean in terms of i mean if they're ok you know generally speaking what it's come to with some exceptions more recently the courts have usually said that partisan gerrymandering isn't great but it's a political issue they can't really address versus a racial gerrymandering things that this is the result of see the large number of state legislatures after two thousand and ten being able to do that redistricting in that way it's kind of similar to say how one would see partisan gerrymandering

affecting say like the house of representatives during that forty years when the democrats controlled a lot of it was that so what is changing now one of the key things that as a result of the house being controlled by democrats now is the head of those committee changes. are the democrats on the same page about what they want to get out of this new power particularly you know talked investigations have been resistant to that or are they of one mind of what they're going to do with this. my suspicion is probably not in terms of the three it looks at least in terms of who's coming in that there may be a division between more of the establishment or longstanding democrats versus the newer younger democrats who are in many ways much more ideological in some sense than some of their the establishment ones probably what we'll see in the coming months is which of these sides is going to have more influence so when we start seeing who receives the committee chair people will probably see who's won in that

internal debate. thank you so much for the go still ahead on al-jazeera continued coverage of the u.s. and term elections and some other stories making news including the latest on the murder of. howlers been blowing a gale raining steadily and heavily in subfiles for the best part of eighteen hours the whole lot is slowly moving on but the overnight story is still one of rain and of course some hot there will be some snow for the something else with stops italian and french but it is a moving system so we're left with a few showers i think during wednesday night as they are going to affect the toe of italy and sicily once again the places that was so badly hit by flooding in the last three days east of all this action it's still fairly warm and fairly sunny is

in the time of the year and west of it all we will eventually see the next system wind up just west the bay of biscay is that an indication of a lot of rain falling in the northwest in spite of the next five days which takes away some of the pressure from place elsewhere that this actually is for the north and it was so the weather in northwest africa is quite settled we're going to fall cautious in tunisia algeria or read libya nor indeed in america one thousand euro bats twenty if you're lucky ounces am bright or even sunny skies in fact if you drop down even to tropical africa your inches pick up the showers there's not much really in northern nigeria or further west some still as far west as majority further south in that.

market. watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories for you right now donald trump's republican party has maintained control of the senate democratic incumbents running in protract states have been defeated helping the republicans after their current

one seat majority and the democrats have taken control of the house of representatives for the first time in eight years this means they will now have the opportunity to block president trump's agenda over the next two years. voter turnout has been much higher than normal for midterm elections with early numbers and vacating it could be the highest turnout in a generation comes just by having to queue for hours and parts of the country. amid record turnout american voters made their choice on what was widely seen as a referendum on president obama and his policies on many races are still undecided the most important outcome of the midterm election has become clear a split decision can still hold the senate of law lost the house of representatives . and what's seen as a rebuke to the president and all supports. the voters have spoken democrats will control the u.s. house of representatives thank you all for making the future that are far from her . hair on the string of democratic victories

began in suburban virginia where democrat jennifer webster and prevailed one of many women to claim victory thank you to well where did you hold. as had been widely predicted republicans retain control of the senate in the high profile texas senate race incumbent republican ted cruz narrowly defeated his democratic opponent representative beto or rourke this was an election about hope and about the future and the people of texas rendered a verdict that we want to future with more jobs and more security and more freedom . the takeover of the house is a rebuke to president donald trump who held dozens of rallies and explicitly made the mid terms into a referendum on his leadership he campaigned furiously in the final days

relentlessly stoking fear of a column of bedraggled migrants slowly making their way through mexico to the us border if you want more caravans if you want more crime vote democrat tomorrow that may actually have hurt republican incumbents in more moderate suburban house districts because exit polling showed the most important issue to most voters was health care democrats campaigned heavily on preserving and shoring up the affordable care act turnout was extremely high for a midterm election long lines formed in states from coast to coast often extending blocks from polling stations in some places people waited for hours to cast their votes once they take office in january house democrats will certainly launch a series of investigations into trump's ties with russia his family's business

dealings his taxes and other issues cabinet members and heads of federal agencies will likely be grilled about alleged ethical lapses the political dynamics in washington shifting under the president's feet robert oulds al-jazeera washington that spent just over a month since she was killed and u.s. consulate in istanbul still there is no body new evidence continues to come to light has more from istanbul more than a month since he was killed. body has yet to be found and the questions about his. but turkish authorities having creased that pressure on the saga government by slowed leaking vital information. according to turkish sources cia director general hospital was briefed on the murder and had access to crucial evidence suggesting the order came from the highest levels of the saudi

government riyadh insists no member of the ruling royal family had a role in. but during his visit to istanbul last month sandy chief prosecutor said. reported it told turkish authorities that the king was willing to pay blood money to hush up his family and fiance he also said he had no idea about the whereabouts of the slain journalist body. and as the investigation continues turkey's foreign minister. says his country has more information wants to give a name and nobody can stop him to do that so we emphasize in the article that the instruction didn't come from king solomon but it is also reads that those fifteen people. didn't come to stumble to murder

kushat to themselves so they got instructions from somebody so we have to find out who gave these instructions this is the. simple question that we have put according to the turkish daily newspaper staff of the saga consulate tried to tamper with security camera outside the consulate but turkish police managed to retrieve the footage providing the now famous image of hotshots you walking into the building on the day he was killed and we're finding out more about the teams that were sent to turkey from saudi arabia al-jazeera learnt from its source there were three teams involved in the killing of. a surveillance team the death squads and the cleanup team sent later to cover up the murder for turkish officials this confirms that believe the case was premeditated and ordered by

someone senior in the saudi government. is the board holes have opened a madagascar presidential election and voters queued and long lines to cast their ballots three front runners are former heads of state there are thirty six candidates all of them promising to create jobs and poverty and by corruption and presidential contender and that's when fifty percent of the votes cast for a second round will be held on december nineteenth. you can get all the latest news including the incoming results of the elections in the u.s. the midterm elections if they go to our web site it's al jazeera dot com al-jazeera top. of the headlines here on al-jazeera we have some breaking news coming to us out of cameroon more than seventy students who were kidnapped on monday those students

have been freed or priests conducting negotiations says the armed men are still holding the principal and one teacher but the students have been released we'll get more information on that story donald trump's republican party has maintained control of the senate democratic incumbents running in proton states have been defeated helping the republicans add to their current one seat majority democrat nancy pelosi who could become the speaker of the house spoke about her party's went a short time ago. and well the special interest free reign over washington lured didn't anything shifted down what a new democratic majority will mean in the lives of hard working americans dammit. i want to ban. democratic congress that works for the people for the people the democrats have taken control of the house of representatives for the first time in eight years this means they will now have the opportunity to block president trump's agenda over the next two years and voter turnout it was much higher than

normal for midterm elections but early numbers and the heading it could be the highest turnout in a generation that's all despite and credibly long lines and parts of the country a senior advisor to the president kellyanne conway spoke about how donald trump's last minute campaigning helped republican candidates. everywhere we go we hear from job creators job holders job seekers they're happy with this economy i think that's reflecting a lot of the results tonight very happy with this president's policies to try to deal with their eyes the korean peninsula which helps everyone the remains of our fallen from north korea from korea have been returned this president sanctioning iran sanctioning russia enemies to pushing back on assad when he gasses his people not once but twice he showed a lot of strength and leadership around the world and many people may not say america first but they say stop apologizing for america so those are your headlines but there are still some elections that haven't been called we'll bring you those results are on al-jazeera next us inside story. and the

reported world. u.s. and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of the days looking forward to full drive riverbeds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their countries have been truly unable to escape the war. china in the hot seat over its treatment of weaker muslims the un's human rights council is examining beijing's alleged crackdown on this minority but will the growing international pressure make a difference this is inside story.