Good morning.
Indiana Republicans rejected an effort to redraw the state’s lines on Thursday in a rebuke to Donald Trump and Republican efforts to add two more Republican-friendly seats to Indiana’s congressional districts.
The measure failed 19-31, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in rejecting the new maps. The state senator Greg Goode, a key Republican holdout on the bill, said he voted against the map to reflect the will of his constituents.
The rejection comes despite pressure tactics by Trump to pressure Indiana Republicans to pass the map, including the vice-president, JD Vance, traveling to the state capitol multiple times to meet lawmakers.
How might the administration react to the vote? Heritage Action, the advocacy branch of the conservative Heritage Foundation, posted on social media: “President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state. Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”
What are Democrats doing on redistricting? They’ve retaliated to the initial push by Texas to add five more likely Republican seats by redrawing maps in California.
Trump expands Venezuela sanctions as Maduro decries new ‘era of piracy’
Trump has expanded sanctions and issued fresh threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, as the South American dictator Nicolás Maduro accused him of introducing a new “era of criminal naval piracy” in the Caribbean.
Late on Thursday, the US imposed curbs on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as on six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The US treasury department alleged the vessels “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.
Has there been pushback to Trump’s escalation? Yes – after the US seized a tanker named the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela, some US lawmakers expressed concern that Trump was “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”.
Trump officials ‘conspiring to illegally intimidate’ non-citizens via new VA report, lawmakers say
More than 20 members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and homeland security officials after the Guardian revealed the VA was compiling a report on all non-US citizens “employed by or affiliated with” the government agency, to be shared with federal agencies including immigration authorities.
Led by the Illinois congresswoman Delia Ramirez, along with the congressman Mark Takano of California and the US senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, lawmakers have written a group letter to be sent to the VA secretary, Doug Collins, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, on Friday.
The letter said the report, to be finalized this month, would “seed fear in noncitizens who perform duties in service to our nation’s veterans” amid the Trump administration’s aggressive and far-reaching immigration crackdown.
Who would be in this list? The VA’s leaked memo implies non-citizen doctors, nurses, researchers, medical students, contractors and more will be included in the report. Lawmakers, veterans and VA employees warned that compiling this data, exclusively on non-citizens, could lead qualified workers to quit and exacerbate existing staffing shortages.
In other news …
Dozens have been killed in a military strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to local sources and media reports. Rakhine is almost wholly controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), a minority ethnic separatist force.
The Senate has rejected proposed healthcare bills to address expiring Obamacare tax credits, greatly increasing the risk that healthcare will soon become unaffordable for millions of Americans.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order that seeks to block states from regulating AI, though as an order it lacks the force of law.
Papua New Guinea is dealing with an HIV epidemic as it battles stigma and US aid cuts which have affected hundreds of clinics.
Stat of the day: For every dollar spent in the Caribbean, 80 cents will end up overseas
Most of the Caribbean’s hotel chains, cruise lines and airlines aren’t owned locally, meaning that just a fraction of the money tourists spend in the region stays in the local economy. For every dollar spent in the Caribbean, 80 cents will end up overseas, due to foreign firms repatriating their profits. As part of the Cotton Capital series, Eleanor Shearer looks at the legacy of British colonialism on the region’s tourism industry.
Culture Pick: A stiff dose of ‘weak sauce’: Paul Dano’s best films – ranked!
After Quentin Tarantino described Paul Dano’s acting in There Will Be Blood as “weak sauce” (it just … isn’t?), we rank the actor’s best performances. Including the likes of 2014’s Love and Mercy, where Dano plays Brian Wilson, but also his breakout performance in L.I.E. (2001), here is his best work.
Don’t miss this: Why are gay male pop stars being shut out of the music industry?
Just a few years ago, gay male popstars such as Lil Nas X and Olly Alexander were everywhere. But their success has since stalled. Jeffrey Ingold unpicks what happened, contextualizing their rise against the “golden age” of gay pop in the 1980s – though few of the biggest stars were out then – and drawing a comparison with queer female pop stars.
Climate check: The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how
On the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, Rebecca Solnit reminds us that most countries went into the talks expecting to land on a two-degree threshold global temperature rise. 1.5C was a win, and while not nearly enough is being done to stop deforestation or cut fossil-fuel subsidies, there are reasons for hope, including the boom in renewables. “For decades and maybe centuries it has been too late to save everything, but it will never be too late to save anything,” she writes.
Last Thing: Week in wildlife – an urban opossum, a baby echidna and a 600lb gator
Here’s a palette cleanser: the best wildlife photos of the week, including a cheeky opossum sneaking on to a homeowner’s deck in Chicago for a snack, and a baby echidna found in Victoria, Australia. Another standout is the bull and horse that entered an Australian man’s home when he left the sliding door ajar for his dogs. The animals helped themselves to food from the bin, and drinks … from the fish tank.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
