In an extraordinary move to counter Republican redistricting in Texas, dozens of Democrats in the state House of Representatives headed to Illinois to deny a necessary quorum for the GOP to move forward with those efforts.
The roughly 30 Democrats are expected to stay for the week in a plan brokered with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who met with the Texas caucus late last month and has directed his staff to provide logistical support for their stay.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander. We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
Last week, Texas Republicans released a proposed congressional map that would give the GOP a path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections. It followed President Donald Trump’s public pressure for a new map in the state as he works to retain a majority in Congress in what historically is a difficult year for the party holding the White House.
The proposed map would shift district lines in ways that would target current Democratic members of Congress in and around Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as two already endangered Democrats representing South Texas districts that Trump carried last year.
Food trickles into Gaza, but not enough to stop a famine, aid groups say
Humanitarian organizations say the amount of aid that has entered Gaza since Israel said it would pause military action in some areas is insufficient to stop a growing number of Palestinians dying from hunger.
Israel has allowed only a limited amount of aid to enter the enclave since it lifted a total blockade this year. Most of the aid has been distributed by the Israel-backed group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and other humanitarian organizations have said Israeli restrictions have hampered their efforts to distribute aid.
“This is not an adequate response,” Jeanette Bailey, the International Rescue Committee’s global practice lead and director of research for nutrition, said in a phone interview.
A gradual entry of aid “here or there,” she said, “is not going to be adequate to prevent us from entering into a full-blown famine where the numbers of deaths go way, way up.”
- Hamas sparked outcry in Israel over the weekend when it released video appearing to show a visibly gaunt Israeli hostage alongside images of emaciated Palestinian babies.
Meet the Press
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett defended President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, as well as Trump’s claim that weaker-than-expected jobs reports were “rigged,” but he failed to produce any evidence to support the claim.
Hassett said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that installing Trump’s “own people” will help achieve more “transparent and reliable” jobs reports in the future.
“What we need is a fresh set of eyes over the BLS,” Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, told moderator Kristen Welker.
Several Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, questioned the firing.
“We have to look somewhere for objective statistics. When the people providing the statistics are fired, it makes it much harder to make judgments that, you know, the statistics won’t be politicized,” Paul told NBC News on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., accused Trump of trying to “weaponize” labor statistics for his own agenda. Padilla said the Senate would evaluate the “independence” of a new BLS commissioner when it comes time to confirm a new one.
“When [Trump’s] trying to weaponize the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that tells you a lot about their insecurity about the economy and the state of economic affairs,” Padilla told Welker.
Politics in brief
- Investigated: Federal officials are investigating former special counsel Jack Smith after prominent Republicans alleged his investigations into then-presidential candidate Donald Trump amounted to illegal political activity.
- Confirmed: The Senate voted to confirm former Fox News host and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., in a 50-45 party-line vote.
- On a break: As members of Congress prepare to head home for summer recess, Republicans will look to sell the unpopular “big, beautiful bill” in their home states, while Democrats are working on their big brand problem.
- Windy City warning: New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s team hopes to avoid the missteps of Chicago’s progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson as it works to win in November.
- Impeached again? The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will once again mention Trump in an exhibit about presidential impeachments after the removal of a placard noting his two Senate trials sparked concerns.
It’s a good time to be a nostalgic millennial
The Backstreet Boys are playing to sold-out crowds.
Lindsay Lohan is starring in a new “Freaky Friday” movie.
And former “Dawson’s Creek” co-stars and exes Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson were recently spotted filming a new project in New York City.
No, it’s not the early 2000s — but millennials feel like they’re so back.
A recent surge in millennial-focused pop culture serves as “the next level of escapism” for an uncertain generation, said Kate Kennedy, author of “One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In.”
“It returns us to a time when our biggest worry was getting in line for a CD, not whether we would be able to afford a house,” Kennedy said.
“I think we’re a more lonely and isolated generation as adults than we ever anticipated that we would be in our youth,” she said, adding that millennials “straddle two very different eras in terms of technology and information.”
Notable quote
I can’t be doing this forever, just waiting for the dust to settle and things to kind of normalize again — I need a job.
Adam Mitchell, 23, UNEMPLOYED
Recent college graduates searching for jobs are finding that practical degrees, work experience and even connections are no match for sluggish hiring — with a bleak labor market, ghosting employers and a “black hole” into which 1,000 applications can fall unanswered.
In case you missed it
- Amid an ongoing manhunt, authorities warned that Michael Paul Brown, the suspect accused of killing four people Friday in a Montana bar, could return to the town of Anaconda, where the shooting occurred.
- Officials in Tennessee found 14 improvised explosive devices in a man’s home while they were arresting him last week on suspicion of threatening officials.
- A record crowd of 91,032 for a regular-season Major League Baseball game got to see all the pomp and pageantry with the MLB Speedway Classic before the rain washed out the game itself Saturday. The game resumed Sunday, with the Atlanta Braves beating the Cincinnati Reds 4-2.
- Two men described as “associates” of the suspect in a quadruple homicide in Tennessee have been arrested on suspicion of helping the fugitive.
- Yu Zidi, a 12-year-old Chinese swimmer, has become a global sensation with her history-making times, even as observers and fans back home caution against overhyping the young athlete.
- Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies say they have uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices.
- Reigning 100-meter world champion Sha’Carri Richardson was arrested on allegations that she assaulted her boyfriend at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
- Joan Anderson, the woman who introduced the hula hoop to the United States and gave it its iconic name, died last month at age 101.
