First Thing: US supreme court approves redrawn Texas congressional maps
Major win for Trump as majority rejects lower-court ruling that found maps had been racially gerrymandered. Plus, the story of Mr DeepFakes, the world’s most notorious AI porn siteGood morning.Texas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional...
<p>Major win for Trump as majority rejects lower-court ruling that found maps had been racially gerrymandered. Plus, the story of Mr DeepFakes, the world’s most notorious AI porn site</p><p>Good morning.</p><p>Texas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/04/us-supreme-court-texas-congressional-maps">supreme court ruled</a> yesterday, handing Donald Trump a major win in his push to boost Republican seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.</p><p><strong>What did the lower court rule?</strong> The lower district court previously found that Texas had likely sorted voters based on their race – an unlawful practice called racial gerrymandering – when it adopted the new maps, and ordered the state to use the maps it had adopted after the 2020 census for next year’s election.</p><p><strong>Why was the boat targeted?</strong> “Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the statement said.</p><p><strong>What else is happening?</strong> Vladimir Putin is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/05/vladimir-putin-narendra-modi-russia-india-us-ukraine-trade-latest-news-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-6932a60d8f0808f97b5eacde#block-6932a60d8f0808f97b5eacde">visiting Delhi</a> for a summit with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. It comes as Washington seeks to increase pressure on India to cut back trade with Russia. It is the first time Putin has visited India since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and marks another step for him on the international stage since starting a war that has turned Russia into a global pariah.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/05/first-thing-us-supreme-court-approves-redrawn-texas-congressional-maps">Continue reading...</a>
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