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THE LATEST CALLED RACES — Democrat ERIC SORENSEN defeats Republican ESTHER JOY KING in Illinois’ 17th District, which was vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. CHERI BUSTOS … Republican Rep. JAY OBERNOLTE wins reelection over Democrat DEREK MARSHALL in California’s 23rd District … Democrat GABRIEL VASQUEZ defeats Republican Rep. YVETTE HERRELL to flip New Mexico’s 2nd District … Republican RYAN ZINKE defeats Democrat MONICA TRANEL in Montana’s 1st District … The latest House results … The latest Senate results

PRESIDENTIAL PROGRAMMING NOTE — President JOE BIDEN will meet with Chinese President XI JINPING on Monday in Bali, Indonesia, the White House announced today. In a statement, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said that the leaders “will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC, responsibly manage competition, and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community.” This is Biden and Xi’s first in-person meeting since Biden took office. More from AP’s Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller

MARK YOUR CALENDARS — House Democrats have officially set their leadership elections for Nov. 30. More from Punchbowl’s Heather Caygle

— Speaking of … This morning, Rep. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-Mich.) announced a bid for vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Read her letter

INFLATION NATION — “U.S. Inflation Slows More Than Forecast, Gives Fed Downshift Room,” by Bloomberg’s Reade Pickert: “U.S. inflation cooled in October by more than forecast, offering hope that the fastest price increases in decades are ebbing and giving Federal Reserve officials room to slow down their steep interest-rate hikes.”

The nitty gritty: The consumer price index was up 7.7% from a year earlier, the smallest annual advance since the start of the year and down from 8.2% in September, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. Core prices, which exclude food and energy and are regarded as a better underlying indicator of inflation, advanced 6.3%, pulling back from a 40-year high. The core consumer price index increased 0.3% from the prior month, while the overall CPI advanced 0.4%. Both increases as well as the monthly rises were below the median economist estimates.”

What comes next: “Two Fed officials Thursday argued for moderating the pace of rate increases. PATRICK HARKER, who heads up the Philadelphia Fed, said that he expects the central bank to ‘slow the pace of our rate hikes as we approach a sufficiently restrictive stance.’ At a separate event, Dallas Fed President LORIE LOGAN said the CPI report was ‘a welcome relief, but there is still a long way to go.’”

Good Thursday afternoon.AP’s VoteCast surveyed Tennessee voters about their opinions on TAYLOR SWIFT, with about 4 in 10 viewing her favorably, while “3 in 10 felt they are never, ever getting back together with the songstress.” Talk about an Anti-Hero, am I right? My favorability rating for “Midnights” is 13/13. Let me know yours: [email protected].

MORE MIDTERMS FALLOUT

RUNOFF REPORT — “Walker hauls in $3.3 million on first day of new campaign,” by Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser: “[HERSCHEL] WALKER, who finished roughly 35,000 votes behind Warnock out of nearly 4 million votes cast in the Senate election in the battleground state of Georgia, is returning to the campaign trail Thursday, teaming up with conservative Sen. TED CRUZ at a rally in Canton, a small city about 40 miles north of Atlanta. Walker’s campaign tells Fox News that it plans to be back up on television with an ad later this week.”

HOW IT PLAYED —NYT’s Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias are up with a big look at how Democrats across the country leaned into the abortion issue ahead of the midterms and how it paid off in the end. The results also “signal the struggle ahead for Republicans,” they write, “who leave this election divided on an issue that has long been a bedrock for the party. The socially conservative wing of the party remains determined to advance their cause, but they now face a Republican establishment more inclined to see debates over abortion restrictions as a political liability.”

Interesting nugget: “Exit polls conducted by the television networks and Edison Research showed that in Pennsylvania abortion overtook the economy as the top issue on voters’ minds, and in Michigan, nearly half of all voters said abortion was their top issue.”

DEEP IN THE HEART — Despite better-than-expected results for Democrats across the country, the blue boost did not carry over into Texas. In the Lonestar State, it was mostly business as usual for Republicans, punctuated by a convincing defeat for BETO O’ROURKE in the gubernatorial race by the hands of GOP Gov. GREG ABBOTT — the latest in a string of campaign closures for O’Rourke. Now Dems in the state are wondering where to turn next.

“His defeat on Tuesday instead underscored just how dominant the Republican Party remains in Texas, with control of the State Legislature and every statewide office, and was likely to force a reckoning for Democrats, who do not have a clear path forward or successor to assume Mr. O’Rourke’s mantle,” NYT’s J. David Goodman writes in Dallas.

RED (YOUNGKIN’S VERSION) — Despite all of the travel that Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN embarked on in an effort to boost Republican candidates across the country, WaPo’s Gregory Schneider and Laura Vozzella write that Youngkin’s signature red vest is not as powerful of a symbol as Trump’s traditional red hat — at least not yet.

“Of the 15 states where Youngkin traveled to stump for GOP candidates, four saw clear Republican victories. Three of those were already bright red — Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota — while the fourth was Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp led all summer. Eight — Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin — were losses for Republicans. And the remaining three — Arizona, Nevada and Oregon — are close contests in which Democratic candidates are within reach of victory.”

HOW FAR WILL THEIR STARS RISE? — Democratic Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER’s convincing reelection in Michigan has put her “among a handful of fellow Democrats who, after the midterms, are being mentioned as potential national party stars,” WaPo’s Ashley Parker writes, noting that Massachusetts' MAURA HEALEY, Maryland’s WES MOORE and Pennsylvania’s JOSH SHAPIRO are also generating buzz. “But the specifics of Whitmer’s victory — she’s a woman who triumphed over a Make America Great Again candidate in a Midwestern battleground state, all while sweeping in Democratic candidates down the ballot — help particularly fortify her profile as one of the party’s future leaders.”

BY THE NUMBERS — “After big early vote, overall Georgia turnout misses expectations,” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

PUTIN SKIPS G-20 — Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN will not attend the scheduled G-20 summit next week, according to Russian news agencies, who wrote that Foreign Minister SERGEY LAVROV will represent the country. “For weeks, the Kremlin had been evasive about Mr. Putin’s plans to attend the summit in person. Analysts said that Moscow was watching to see whether the situation on the front lines in Ukraine could allow Mr. Putin to speak from the position of strength,” NYT’s Ivan Nechepurenko writes.

AT THE CLIMATE CONFAB — “Biden’s Message on Climate Might Not Be the One the World Wants,” by NYT’s Lisa Friedman in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt: “Instead of being hailed as a president who passed a landmark climate law, Mr. Biden will join a gathering where developing nations have spent all week excoriating the United States and other industrialized nations for causing climate change and demanding reparations — a call that some European leaders have begun to answer with monetary pledges, squeezing Mr. Biden to do the same.”

— Related reads: “Biden Brings ‘Trust Us’ Message to Skeptical UN Climate Summit,” by Bloomberg’s Jennifer Dlouhy and Will Kennedy … “Biden pushes to require big federal contractors to cut climate pollution,” by WaPo’s Maxine Joselow

MUSK READS

INSIDE MUSK’S TWITTER … There is a torrent of news streaming out of Twitter HQ today, as ELON MUSK continues to put his stamp on the social media giant and users and employees adjust to the new regime. Here’s a roundup of the notable developments so far today:

EXODUS MACHINA — “Top privacy executives quit Twitter, raising questions about data security,” by WaPo’s Joseph Menn, Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui and Nitasha Tiku: “The Federal Trade Commission, which reached its latest consent decree with Twitter in May, said it was ‘tracking the developments at Twitter with deep concern.’ ‘No CEO or company is above the law, and companies must follow our consent decrees,’ said Douglas Farrar, the FTC’s director of public affairs. ‘Our revised consent order gives us new tools to ensure compliance, and we are prepared to use them.’”

CAUTION TO THE WIND — “Elon Musk is putting Twitter at risk of billions in fines, warns company lawyer,” by The Verge’s Alex Heath: “In a note posted to Twitter’s Slack and viewable to all staff that was obtained by The Verge, an attorney on the company’s privacy team wrote: ‘Elon has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetize them. I do not believe he cares about the human rights activists. the dissidents, our users in un-monetizable regions, and all the other users who have made Twitter the global town square you have all spent so long building, and we all love.’ …

“The note goes on to say that its author, who The Verge knows the identity of but is choosing not to disclose, has ‘heard ALEX SPIRO (current head of Legal) say that Elon is willing to take on a huge amount of risk in relation to this company and its users, because “Elon puts rockets into space, he’s not afraid of the FTC.”’”

WORD OF WARNING — “‘Economic Picture Ahead Is Dire,’ Elon Musk Tells Twitter Employees,” by NYT’s Kate Conger and Ryan Mac in San Francisco: “Two weeks after closing a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, Elon Musk sent emails to the employees of the social media company late on Wednesday, his first communications with them after mass layoffs and high-pressure drives to create new products.

“In two emails seen by The New York Times, Mr. Musk painted a bleak financial picture for Twitter and outlined changes at the company, including an end to its remote work policy and a renewed focus on generating revenue and fighting spam.

“‘Sorry that this is my first email to the company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,’ Mr. Musk, 51, wrote in one email. ‘The economic picture ahead is dire.’ Twitter was too heavily dependent on advertising and vulnerable to pullbacks in brand spending, he added, and would need to bolster the revenue it gets from subscriptions. In another note to employees, he wrote that ‘the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.’”

Musk, in his emails to staff, also told employees that he was banning remote work unless it was personally approved by him, Bloomberg’s Kurt Wagner reports.

WHO’S IN CHARGE — “Musk Starts Assembling New Cadre of Leaders Inside Twitter,” by Bloomberg’s Kurt Wagner: “The company started reshuffling teams this week following a massive round of job cuts that eliminated roughly half of its 7,000-plus workers on Nov. 4. Among managers who remained after the dust settled, a few have begun to emerge as stewards of some of Twitter’s most important internal divisions as Musk seeks to rapidly overhaul the struggling business. The rise of new leadership under Musk has provided at least a glimmer of internal stability after a two-week stretch of chaos.” But, but, but: “Musk seems to be quickly making most decisions himself, and his Twitter feed remains the central megaphone for communicating them.”

— And here’s some background on one of those names: “Twitter’s Moderation Boss Is an Unlikely Ally of Elon Musk,” by WSJ’s Sarah Needleman and Robert McMillan: “YOEL ROTH, Twitter’s global head of safety and security, was maligned by critics a couple of years ago as the embodiment of the company’s alleged bias against conservative users, an issue Mr. Musk has vowed to address. Yet in the chaotic period since Mr. Musk took over Twitter, the billionaire has publicly defended Mr. Roth and positioned him to be a key player in plans to overhaul how the social-media platform moderates content.”

CHAOS ON THE TIMELINE — “Fake account chaos engulfs Musk’s Twitter,” by Rebecca Kern and Alfred Ng

USEFUL TOOL — “This Chrome extension tells you who paid for Twitter’s blue checkmark,” by The Verge’s Tom Warren: “You’ll see an ‘actually verified’ label on original verified accounts, and a ‘paid for verification’ with a blue dollar sign for Twitter Blue accounts.”

SUBSTACK TROLLS — “Introducing the Substack Bestseller badge: A Bestseller badge sits alongside a writer’s byline and is displayed on their Substack profile, ranking them in one of three categories according to how many paid subscribers they have. Paying readers, not Substack, decide who gets a badge. We don’t give out these badges for subjective reasons and they can’t be bought.”

TRUMP CARDS

AT THE TRUMP ORG TRIAL — “Trump Knew of Alleged Tax Dodge, Trial Testimony Suggests,” by Bloomberg’s Greg Farrell and Zijia Song: “Controller JEFFREY MCCONNEY was asked by a prosecutor at the criminal tax fraud trial of two of the firm’s business units on Thursday whether longtime chief financial officer ALLEN WEISSELBERG had spoken with the former president about reducing Weisselberg’s salary -- and giving him perks instead -- to lower his tax liability. ‘That’s what Allen told me, yes,’ McConney said.”

THE PANDEMIC

MUCK READ — “Who killed the Covid-19 vaccine waiver?” by Ashleigh Furlong, Sarah Anne Aarup and Samuel Horti in London: “The inside story of how lobbying, threats and the desire to protect industry gutted a proposal that was meant to make vaccines widely available in poorer countries.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

GONE WITH THE WIND — “Nicole weakens to tropical storm after making landfall in Florida,” by Arek Sarkissian and Bruce Ritchie in Tallahassee

PLAYBOOKERS

STAFFING UP — Elena Crespo is now policy adviser for civilian protection and detainee affairs in the Defense Department’s office for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. She previously was special assistant to the undersecretary of Defense for policy.