U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is willing to accept the results of the midterm elections, bringing a temporary end to questions about whether he would challenge the outcome following a difficult night for Republicans.

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said he was prepared to respect the election results, declaring, “I am absolutely willing to accept those results.”

The president also congratulated Democrats on their electoral victories and expressed readiness to work with them in the interest of the country, despite earlier warnings that he would use his presidential powers to block legislation backed by the opposition.

“My message is congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” Trump told CBS News late Tuesday.

However, he suggested that cooperation would depend on Democrats being willing to work with his administration.

“I think they’re gonna want to work with me,” he said, adding that he could otherwise use his veto power to block their legislative proposals.

Republicans suffered significant setbacks in key races across the country as Democrats recorded victories in several contests, marking a challenging outcome for Trump’s party in the midterm elections.

Reacting to the results, Trump blamed his absence from the ballot as one of the reasons Republicans underperformed, arguing that his presence would have improved the party’s chances.

“I feel that I wasn’t on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that. If I was, we would have won,” he said.

He also suggested that dissatisfaction with some Republican candidates contributed to the losses, claiming that certain candidates lacked his support and failed to attract the party’s political base.

“In some cases, they didn’t like the candidates, and in some cases those candidates were not my friend, and the base knows that better than anybody. And they stayed back,” Trump added.

Despite his conciliatory remarks to CBS News, the president maintained a firm position on his administration’s legislative approach.

Speaking later with Fox News Channel, Trump again emphasised his intention to use the presidential veto to prevent the passage of Democratic-backed legislation.

A business. woman, identified as the President of the Ponmo Sellers’ Association in Ondo State, reportedly collapsed in court during her arraignment in Akure on Tuesday following her arrest over the alleged discovery of human faeces at her ponmo processing centre.

The incident comes days after the Chairman of Akure South Local Government Area, Hon. Gbenga Fasua, ordered the immediate closure of a popular ponmo supply store on Igboliki Street in Akure following an environmental sanitation inspection that reportedly uncovered two buckets containing human faeces on the premises.

The discovery was made during the October edition of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise conducted on Saturday, when Fasua led a monitoring team through Oke Aro, Iro and Igboliki streets to assess residents’ and businesses’ compliance with environmental sanitation regulations.

According to information from the inspection, the ponmo business had reportedly operated in the area for more than 21 years.

The operator, who was present during the inspection, reportedly identified herself as the President of the Ponmo Sellers’ Association in Ondo State.

Following the discovery, Fasua ordered the immediate closure of the premises and directed the disposal of all ponmo products at the shop.

He also ordered that the operator be prosecuted in accordance with applicable local and state environmental laws.

The businesswoman was subsequently arrested and brought before a court in Akure on Tuesday for arraignment.

She reportedly collapsed during the court proceedings.

A spate of cyber-attacks that hit supermarket chains across at least 10 European countries on Monday has prompted European Union officials to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain.

Supermarkets have reported problems in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden, and the significant increase in freezer temperatures has forced retailers to discard food.

Temperatures in chains across Europe reportedly rose as high as 50C (122F).

No-one has yet admitted carrying out the cyber-attacks.

Supermarket chains said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared as high as 50C
The European Union has raised concerns about the attacks, which come three weeks after a cyber-attack disrupted as many as 700 French grocery stores, causing food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros.

The security of refrigeration systems as well as other devices that can be monitored remotely has heightened concerns about government-backed hybrid attacks.

The EU’s food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said the bloc was taking the incidents very seriously and warned of further disruption in the future.

Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier was careful not to attribute blame, but said: “These incidents of course show once again how cyber-attacks can disrupt essential services and affect citizens’ daily lives.”

“These are not isolated incidents and of course we have to be collectively resilient and prepared for such cyber incidents.”