California state lawmakers have commenced action on redrawn political maps aimed at giving Democrats five more seats in the US Congress, countering the partisan advantage President Donald Trump hopes to gain from a Republican redistricting plan in Texas.
California Democrats, led by Governor Gavin Newsom, are pushing for fast-track passage of their redistricting effort in the Sacramento statehouse by Friday, just in time to place it on the ballot for a special election on November 4.
Newsom, who enjoys a Democratic super-majority in both houses of the state legislature, ultimately seeks voter support for his plan. If it succeeds, it would neutralise a Trump-backed Texas bill designed to flip five Democratic seats to Republican control in the US House of Representatives.
Republicans, including Trump, have openly acknowledged that the Texas effort is about boosting their political clout by helping to preserve the party’s slim House majority in the November 2026 midterm races. That election already is shaping up as closely fought.
Democrats have characterised their bid to depart from the state’s usual independent, bipartisan redistricting process – adopted by voters in 2008 – as a temporary “emergency” strategy to combat what they see as extreme Republican moves to unfairly rig the system.
“The decks are stacked against us, so what we need to do is fight back”, California Senator Lena Gonzalez, a joint author of the redistricting plan, said as the state Senate opened floor debate on the bill.
Democrats say more than 70 percent of their newly drawn congressional districts were adopted from maps used by the independent commission in formulating the current boundaries.
Republican Senator Tony Strickland objected, saying, “These maps were drawn behind closed doors”.
In the lower house of the legislature, known as the Assembly, Republicans sought to block consideration of another component of the package on procedural grounds but were overruled by the Democratic leadership. That proposal would amend the state constitution, temporarily bypassing the bipartisan commission.
Unlike the California initiative, the newly drawn district lines in Texas would go into effect without voter approval, though Democrats have promised to challenge the plan in court.
The Texas measure cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday when the state House of Representatives in Austin adopted it on an 88-52 party-line vote. The Texas Senate is expected to pass the measure next, possibly on Thursday. The two versions of the bill may then need to be reconciled before the legislation goes to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has said he will sign it.
“Big WIN for the Great State of Texas”, Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The United States Department of State has said that it’s reviewing the records of more than 55 million foreigners who hold valid US visas for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules.
In a written answer to a question posed by The Associated Press, the department said on Thursday that all US visa holders are subject to “continuous vetting” with an eye towards any indication that they could be ineligible for the document.
Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked and, if the visa holder is in the US, he or she would be subject to deportation.
The department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility including visa overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of “terrorist activity”, or providing support to a “terrorist organization”.
“We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility”, the department said.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has directed a large-scale crackdown on migration, going after those with legal status as well as undocumented migrants.
While the government initially said it would focus only on dangerous criminals, thousands of people are being arrested daily, with the New York Times estimating this week that the government is on track to deport 400, 000 people in 2025.
Authorities have gone after working immigrants through unprecedented raids of restaurants, construction sites, and farms – as well as in courthouses where immigration agents arrest those attending civil appointments needed to help legalise their status.
The government has also sought to roll back humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status, which has given hundreds of thousands of people from a range of countries facing adverse conditions the right to live and work in the US.
As Moscow’s conflict with Ukraine drags on, which could give President Vladimir Putin a reason to call for the end of the conflict, Russia’s once resilient war economy is struggling. Alex Kozul-Wright of Al Jazeera explains.
Add to the legal hazard that his administration faces in a tight election season by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in the United States by releasing four indictments against a senior associate of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, her son Glenn Martin II, and seven other defendants were charged on Thursday with what the prosecutor’s office described as a “wide-range series of bribery conspiracies.”
Lewis-Martin, who was previously referred to as the “Lioness of City Hall,” was Adams’ chief adviser. However, as a result of a corruption investigation, she resigned in December.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Lewis-Martin of ignoring the needs of New York City residents over her personal interests in a statement.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin allegedly conspired against the law in a classic bribery plot that had a significant and broad impact on the city government, according to Bragg in the statement.
Lewis-Martin consistently outperformed public servants’ abilities so she could afford her own expenses. Every other New Yorker allegedly lost out, despite receiving more than $75, 000 in bribes and a TV appearance.
The mayoral residence in New York City’s Gracie Mansion was recently roiled by the indictments on Thursday.
Former police officer Adams, who took office in 2022, has had a series of scandals that have eroded his standing in the public.
As Adams campaigns for re-election in the 2025 mayoral election, which is scheduled for November, that has turned out to be fodder for his rivals.
The Democratic Party’s support for Adams and the opposition to Zohran Mamdani’s nomination as the winner are seen as decisive tests for the party, according to Republican president Donald Trump.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the then-chief adviser, and Eric Adams speak at a press conference on November 14, 2023. [Mike Segar/Reuters]
Inside the scandals
In response to corruption scandals, Lewis-Martin is one of several senior Adams aides who have since resigned.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office initially indicted her and her son, a music producer who works under the name Suave Luciano, shortly after she left the Adams administration in December.
It claimed they “traded on the access and influence of her position” from real estate developers for more than $100 000 in checks and cash.
Lewis-Martin and her son were charged with accepting the payment in exchange for assisting with rejected application submissions and obtaining construction permits sooner.
According to the indictment, those decisions were made “without regard to safety considerations or the Department of Buildings’ expertise.”
Lewis-Martin and Martin II are both facing similar bribery charges in the most recent indictments. In one instance, the district attorney accuses them of quickly implementing a Department of Buildings residential renovation plan in exchange for free catering, including salmon and crab cakes.
In another instance, Lewis-Martin is accused of “interfering” with the owners of a nearby company that provides services for TV and film productions in an effort to please the Department of Transportation’s plans to install bike lanes on a boulevard in New York City.
The production company’s owners allegedly gave Lewis-Martin a speaking role on the TV series Godfather of Harlem in exchange for money and catering services.
According to a third indictment, Lewis-Martin is accused of working to “steer contracts” between associates’ “preferred property owners” for asylum seekers’ shelters.
Lewis-Martin and her son have previously refuted the accusations leveled against them, and their attorneys have argued that the accusations are politically motivated.
The addition of the indictments comes in response to another scandal involving Winnie Greco, one of Adams’ close friends, earlier this week.
Greco was later suspended from Adams’ campaign after giving an article to The City that appeared to be hidden in an envelope of money.
The incumbent mayor’s campaign material claims that Eduardo Munoz “never leaves” [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
Adams in the limelight
Adams has been charged with bribery and campaign finance fraud.
The US Department of Justice released a criminal indictment against the then-president of New York City in September 2024, making him the first city mayor to face federal charges at the time.
Adams allegedly took bribes and solicited illegal campaign contributions, according to the prosecution. He was accused of “using his position as this City’s highest elected official.”
In one case, the prosecution claimed that Adams had pressured the New York City Fire Department to allow the Turkish consulate to open an office in a neighborhood high rise without conducting a fire inspection in order to prepare it for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit.
Adams allegedly received free or reduced-cost airline travel, luxury hotel accommodations, and free food and entertainment while traveling in Turkey.
Adams was also accused of making “straw” donations for his election campaign by passing money through someone else instead of himself.
Adams has defended his innocence and accused the prosecution of trying to thwart his re-election hopes.
He endorsed President Trump as a Republican in the presidential election of 2021, but he has since changed his mind and become more of an independent.
In the run-up to Trump’s inauguration in January, Adams has met with the soon-to-be president several times, including with Tom Homan, the border czar.
Reversal of an indictment
The Justice Department of Trump’s administration immediately imposed a federal court order removing Adams’ charges. In protest, a number of career prosecutors resigned.
When Hagan Scotten left, one of those prosecutors wrote a lengthy letter to his ex. I anticipate that you will eventually locate someone who can make your motion or is sufficiently foolish. However, I never imagined it would be me.
In April, a judge in New York granted the motion because he could not compel prosecutors to take legal action.
However, the Justice Department’s decision to drop its case was skepticismized by that judge, Dale Ho.
In his decision, Ho remarked, “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
Relations between Trump and Adams have gotten more strained since that controversy, particularly in the wake of the contentious immigration arrests at New York City courthouses.
Trump has remained vocal about his opposition to Mamdani, Adams’ main rival in the mayoral election of 2025.
A classified Israeli military database shows the vast majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza are civilians, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian, + 972 Magazine, and Local Call.
Figures reviewed by the outlets revealed on Thursday indicate that, as of May 2025 – 19 months into Israel’s war on Gaza – Israeli military intelligence had listed 8, 900 fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as confirmed or “probably” dead.
Over the same period, Gaza’s health authorities recorded at least 53, 000 deaths from Israeli attacks, meaning that named fighters accounted for just 17 percent of those killed, with civilians at about about 83 percent of the total death toll.
Conflict researchers say that ratio is almost unparalleled in modern warfare. Only the Rwandan genocide, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, and Russia’s 2022 siege of Mariupol recorded a higher civilian death rate, the authors noted.
Rights groups and genocide scholars argue the findings further support claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, pointing to mass civilian deaths alongside deliberate starvation.
When asked to comment by The Guardian, + 972 Magazine, and Local Call, the Israeli military did not deny the existence of the intelligence database or the listed figures for Hamas and PIJ casualties.
Instead, a spokesperson said “figures presented in the article are incorrect”, but did not clarify which numbers were disputed. The statement also claimed the data does “not reflect the data available in the]Israeli military’s] systems”, without explaining what those systems contained.
Israeli politicians and military leaders have long inflated fighter death tolls, at times claiming as many as 20, 000 fighters killed or insisting on a civilian-to-combatant ratio of 1: 1 – figures that the report notes they do not believe in private.
Meanwhile, Israeli rhetoric has increasingly mirrored genocidal language.
In leaked audio recordings aired on Israel’s Channel 12, Aharon Haliva, the former head of military intelligence, claimed, “The fact that there are already 50, 000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations”.
He went further, saying: “For each]victim] on 7 October, 50 Palestinians have to die … There’s no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences”. The Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to the killing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 to make way for the creation of Israel.
By March, Gaza’s death toll had reached 50, 000, it has since risen to beyond 62, 000, according to the enclave’s health ministry. The total number of wounded has now exceeded 157, 000.
