As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning.
“Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!” Trump posted.
The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map in order to gain an additional Republican seat, the AP reported.
The push to redraw the map had come from Trump but senators had political concerns with the new boundaries – they didn’t think the new boundaries would guarantee Republican success.
Additionally, there were administrative concerns; with primaries only about a month away and early voting starting even sooner, new maps would mean conducting another statewide primary for US House races in August.
Trump’s push for South Carolina comes as other states are also redrawing their maps in the hope of impacting election results.
Thomas Massie, the conservative Kentucky congressman filed to run again for the US House of Representatives in 2028, less than a week after losing to Donald Trump’s handpicked challenger, Ed Gallrein, 55-45 in a bruising primary.
The US president celebrated last week as Massie – a Republican thorn in his side – became the latest to be ousted from office by his political operation. “He deserves to lose,” claimed Trump.
But Massie, who has seven months left in Congress, has made clear he plans to remain engaged.
“I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race,” he wrote on social media on Monday. “This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office. I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run.”
Discussion has emerged about Massie’s potential as a US presidential candidate in a post-Trump political environment, despite his loss last Tuesday.
The National Redistricting Foundation applauded the federal court’s blocking of Alabama’s attempt to bring back a 2023 congressional map.
Marina Jenkins, the executive director of the Foundation, said:
“Alabama must use its 2023 court-adopted map—a map with two Black opportunity districts—in this year’s elections. Make no mistake, the fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color. The message from this panel is clear: courts must fulfill their independent duty to protect voters’ rights, not just rubber-stamp state officials’ efforts to use the Supreme Court’s Callais decision as an excuse to draw Black voters out of a say in our democracy.”
Donald Trump has said “everything checked out perfectly” following his 6-month physical examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He wrote on Truth Social:
Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House. President DJT
Last month a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively.
“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, told the Associated Press.
Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment . The White House had not disclosed what Trump’s check-ups would entail.
“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement issued to the AP ahead of the check-up.
Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight.
Iran’s foreign ministry said US strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported sounds of explosions in the early hours of Tuesday, represented a “gross violation” of the tenuous ceasefire that has been in place for nearly seven weeks.
The US airstrikes are a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue, the ministry said, as it warned: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.”
The US military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines.
The development leaves progress on a peace deal murky, and we’ll bring you any updates throughout the day as we get them.
Both sides had previously indicated progress on a memorandum of understanding that could halt the war and restart shipping through the blockaded strait of Hormuz, while giving negotiators 60 days to negotiate more complex issues including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iranian media reported that Iran’s negotiators had also been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
You can also follow our Middle East live blog for more coverage:
The United States has launched fresh strikes on Iran despite suggestions that a peace deal could be within reach. Donald Trump faces growing criticism from Republicans over the proposed plan to end the war, which reportedly contained major concessions from Washington. But could an agreement still be imminent?
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.
President Trump raised the cap on refugee admissions for the current year by 10,000, a move aimed at allowed more white South Africans into the US, a signed presidential determination seen by Reuters disclosed.
White South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity are in dire circumstances in the majority-Black country, because of ‘incitement of racially motivated violence’ by the South African government and political parties, said the document which was dated May 21.
Trump halted refugee admissions from around the globe when he took the presidential oath in 2025, but soon launched a program that specifically brought white South Africans into the US.
The total cap on the number of white South African refugee admissions into the US for the 2026 fiscal year is now 17,500.
The Supreme Court won’t intercede in an discrimination lawsuit that Brian Flores, the Miami Dolphins head coach, filed against the NFL, the AP reported Tuesday.
The NFL had appealed to the Court, asking that the case be handled through an arbitration process instead of open court in New York.
Flores filed his lawsuit against the league and three teams in February 2022, claiming that the league is “rife with racism,” with regards to its hiring of Black coaches. At least two more Black coaches joined his lawsuit later.
Alabama cannot use a new Republican-friendly map in this year’s midterm elections because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday.
The decision blocks Alabama from using a congressional map lawmakers passed in 2023 but never went into effect because the same court found it was drawn with intent to discriminate. Alabama was eventually ordered to adopt a map with two majority-Black districts that both elected Democrats After the US supreme court gutted a major provision of the Voting Rights Act in April, Alabama took the extraordinary step of moving its imminent congressional primary and sought to use the 2023 congressional map this year.
The state is likely to appeal to the US supreme court.
But Tuesday’s ruling is significant because the judges said the supreme court’s landmark ruling on the Voting Rights Act did not permit Alabama to use the map.
“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the court wrote in its opinion.
While the Senate race between Republican Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general is generating a lot of attention, especially after the President endorsed Paxton, there are several other important races in Texas today:
One race is between Representative Al Green, 78, who has served 11 terms as a Democrat and Christian Menefee, 38, who has been serving his first term as a representative since earlier this year when he won a special election.
The two sitting members of Congress are opposing each other because the recent Republican redistricting shuffled their districts.
Previously Green represented Texas’ ninth district and now he’s racing for a nomination from the 18th. Green has long been among Trump’s top critics, and was the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017. He used to represent a majority African American district and has long fought for civil rights.
Menefee and Green have stood apart on their stance on crypto. While Green has opposed pro-crypto bills, in a January questionnaire, Menefee told Stand With Crypto:
“We should make sure the next generation of blockchain innovation is built in America.”
Within a month, a crypto Pac had donated more than $1.5m to his campaign – a boost of roughly 60%.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
