The national redistricting battle enters its next phase with California Democrats scheduled Thursday to pass a new congressional map for voters to consider in November that would create five more winnable seats for their party, a direct counter to the GOP Texas House members imposing a new map on their state's voters at the urging of President Donald Trump.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has engineered the high-risk strategy in response to Trump’s brinkmanship in Texas, where passage by the Republican-controlled state Senate and signature by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott are now all that’s needed to make the maps official. California by contrast has an independent commission and only a voter-approved ballot measure can override the current map.
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Marco Rubio to host Ukraine security talks with Europe
The U.S. secretary of state will host a conference call Thursday with the national security advisers of European countries expected to play a role in future security guarantees for Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said.
One of Kyiv’s conditions for signing any peace deal is getting Western-backed military assurances to deter Russia from mounting another invasion in the coming years. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that making security arrangements for Ukraine without Moscow’s involvement is pointless.
It was not immediately clear which countries would be represented on the call with Rubio. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to outline a discussion that had not been publicly announced.
Michael Flynn called for federal custody of Colorado clerk
Flynn, who served briefly as Trump’s first-term national security adviser, called Wednesday on Attorney General Pam Bondi to move Peters into federal custody, saying “she possesses critical information as a potential federal witness in the current investigation” of the 2020 election.
Jurors found Peters guilty for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity.
The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Trump warns ‘harsh measures’ for Colorado if convicted clerk isn’t freed
Mesa Country clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. But Trump is calling her “a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians.”
“Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election,” Trump posted Thursday on his Truth Social platform. “She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!”
Is empathy a sin? Some conservative Christians argue it can be
Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue key to human decency. Voices on the Christian right are preaching that it’s become a vice, a cudgel for the left that can manipulate caring people into accepting opposing views of abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, illegal immigration and opposing views of social and racial justice.
Pastor Joe Rigney, whose denomination includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, describes empathy as a sin. The idea is gaining traction as Trump issues executive orders denounced for lacking empathy. As foreign aid stopped and more deportations began, Trump’s then-adviser Elon Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
And Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, framed it as his concept of ordo amoris, or order of love, putting immediate family first and the wider world last — an interpretation Pope Francis rejected.
▶ Read more about how Trump’s Christian base is being counseled against empathy
US-EU negotiators issue trade deal framework
Trump administration and European Union negotiators released on Thursday a bare-bones account of their trade deal imposing a stiff 15% import tax on 70% of European goods exported to the U.S. It leaves key areas blank, including wine and spirits and steel.
They called it just “a first step in a process” as they deal with a vast range of goods in the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship, involving $2 trillion in annual transatlantic business.
EU officials said Thursday the agreement brings stability and avoids a trade war with even higher tariffs, or import taxes.
▶ Read more about the US-EU trade deal framework
‘South Park’ continues its cartoon assault on the Trump administration
The Comedy Central show addressed the federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department, showing armed forces patrolling in front of the Supreme Court and a tank rolling by the White House. Wednesday’s episode also roasted world leaders and tech CEOs for kowtowing to Trump.
Earlier episodes depicted Trump lying in bed with Satan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shooting puppies, a reference to her biography where she revealed that she killed her family’s dog. The show also showed Noem being trailed by a team of beauticians having to reattach her face.
“It’s so easy to make fun of women for how they look,” Noem told Glenn Beck. The White House called the show fourth-rate and irrelevant.
Trump escalates threats against California over transgender policies
“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded,” Trump said in a Thursday morning social media posting.
The new warning from Trump comes after his administration sued the California Department of Education last month for allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams, alleging the policy violates federal law.
The lawsuit filed by the Justice Department says California’s transgender athlete policies violate Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination in education based on sex.
California has sued the Trump administration for unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth. That lawsuit was filed with attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia, plus the governor of Pennsylvania.
State Department press officer fired after questioning talking points on Israel and Gaza
Officials said Shahed Ghoreishi, a contractor working for the Bureau of Near East Affairs, was terminated over the weekend following two incidents in which his loyalty to Trump administration policies was questioned.
He and two current U.S. officials say he drew ire for drafting a response to an Associated Press query related to discussions between Israel and South Sudan about the possible relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan. The draft response included a line that said the U.S. does not support the forced relocation of Gazans, something that Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff have said repeatedly.
That line was rejected by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, according to Ghoreishi and the officials. He also questioned an embassy statement referring to the West Bank as the biblical “Judea and Samaria.”
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel changes.
Texas governor says new maps will ‘better reflect the actual votes of Texans’
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll sign into the law the redrawn U.S. House districts that give his party five more winnable seats. He had put escalating pressure on Democrats to come home during their two-week walkout that had delayed the vote.
“While Democrats shirked their duty, in futility, and ran away to other states, Republicans stayed the course, stayed at work and stayed true to Texas,” he said.
Abbott spoke after the Texas Republicans used their majority in the House to approve the new congressional voting maps on Wednesday. Seconds later, House Speaker Dustin Burrows removed the “call of the House.” The chamber doors were unlocked and House members are now allowed to leave.
The Associated Press
