News Wrap: Officials in Iran welcome midterm results as vote against war

In our news wrap Wednesday, top officials in Iran welcomed the results of the U.S. midterm elections, Israeli President Isaac Herzog says he's accepted the results of last week’s election and will consult with party leaders on forming a new government and Ukraine's air force says Russia launched more than 300 drones overnight.

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Meantime, top officials in Iran welcomed the results of last night's U.S. midterm elections, casting them as a rejection of President Trump's war. That's where we start our day's other headlines.

Iran's Parliament speaker and chief negotiator said American voters sent a clear message, no to war. But Iran's supreme leader warned that anyone expecting a change in U.S. policy toward Iran is, in his words, gravely mistaken.

The U.S. has carried out limited strikes on Iranian targets in recent weeks, while fears of renewed all-out war following the election have kept the region on edge.

In Israel, President Isaac Herzog says he's accepted the results of last week's election and will consult with party leaders there on forming a new government. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party nor that of his chief challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, secured a parliamentary majority.

That means Herzog must now meet with party officials and choose a candidate to form a coalition government, which would likely lead to weeks of talks. He urged all sides to work towards a compromise.

Isaac Herzog, Israeli President (through interpreter):

I expect the factions and the representatives to understand that, in the current reality, it is not possible to fulfill all commitments and promises. I'm not asking anyone to give up their fundamental values, but, in the current reality, in which there is no clear winner after, I'm asking for originality, creativity, boldness, and goodwill.

Geoff Bennett:

Earlier today, Israel's election commission said it found no evidence of voting irregularities, despite Netanyahu's attempts to cast uncertainty on the result. He's claimed without evidence that Arab-led parties, as he put it, stole that election.

Ukraine's air force says Russia launched more than 300 drones overnight. Most were shot down, but one strike in Western Ukraine set a shopping center ablaze, injuring at least one person.

Meantime, rescue crews are still searching for bodies after Monday's attack on a former school that was being used as a shelter in Southern Ukraine. President Zelenskyy says at least 40 people were killed, while 30 more possibly trapped beneath the rubble. It's believed to be one of the deadliest strikes of the war.

In Brussels, officials from the U.S., Germany, France and other countries met to discuss Ukraine's postwar reconstruction. The E.U.'s foreign policy chief expressed cautious optimism following the U.S. election results.

Kaja Kallas:

U.S. voters have made their choice clear. I hope that the new Congress and the new Senate will continue supporting Ukraine and also putting more pressure on Russia. Let's see what happens now, but elections have results.

Geoff Bennett:

The talks in Brussels come ahead of a new round of U.S.-brokered peace talks set for next week in Abu Dhabi.

A federal judge in Boston has dismissed a case against a Russian-born Harvard scientist who was accused of smuggling frog embryos into the U.S. Kseniia Petrova was arrested last year as she returned from a holiday in France with the specimens. She spent four months in detention, during which she spoke with us on this program via video call.

Prosecutors agreed to drop the charges after a judge said she could seek evidence to support her claim that she had been unfairly targeted. Petrova has said she did not realize she had to declare the items.

One of NASA's most successful space telescopes plunged back to Earth today. The U.S. Space Force says the Swift Observatory reentered Earth's atmosphere near Indonesia. NASA officials believe the 3,200-pound spacecraft likely burned up upon reentry, though a few components may have survived. Its demise came less than three months after a rescue mission failed.

Swift was launched in 2004 to study gamma ray bursts and exploding stars and has been pulled back towards Earth ever since. The mission was meant to last for two years, but instead continued for more than two decades.

Well, stocks surged on Wall Street today as investors welcomed last night's election results. The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 1, 500 points. The Nasdaq jumped nearly 1.5 percent. The S&P 500 also ended sharply higher.

And we have two passings to report tonight, starting with British celebrity hairstylist and beauty entrepreneur John Frieda. Frieda built a global hair care empire best known for products like Frizz Ease and Sheer Blonde. He started his career in London, styling some of the world's most famous figures, including Princess Diana, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Madonna, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

He opened his first salon in 1976 and later turned his expertise into a multimillion-dollar hair care business, which he sold in 2002 for a reported $450 million. His salon announced that Frieda died peacefully surrounded by family. No cause of death was disclosed. John Frieda was 75 years old.

And a founding force of techno music, Juan Atkins, has died. His 1985 single "No UFOs" made "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 200 greatest dance songs of all time. The Detroit native broke out in the early 1980s, inspired by the German band Kraftwerk and George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic.

Over the years, his work as a deejay and producer helped bring techno to a global audience. Atkins is even credited with originating the name techno. His talent agents confirmed his death in Mexico City this past weekend, but did not provide a cause of death. Juan Atkins was 64 years old.