Trump news at a glance: Republicans dominating redistricting fight across several states before midterms

In win for Republicans, Virginia court blocks new congressional maps

The decision in Virginia comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to redraw their congressional maps following a US supreme court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and allowed lawmakers to break up majority-Black districts, whose voters tend to favor Democrats.

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US awaiting response from Iran over proposals for ceasefire deal, says Rubio

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said that Washington is expecting a response from Iran on Friday to its proposals for an interim deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, as Iran accused the US of breaching the increasingly fragile ceasefire announced last month.

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Supreme court’s Voting Rights Act ruling cited misleading data from DoJ

Exclusive: The claims Samuel Alito, a supreme court justice, made about voter turnout in Louisiana in a landmark Voting Rights Act case were based on a misleading data analysis, a Guardian review has found.

In his opinion gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act last week, Alito said that Black voter turnout had exceeded white voter turnout in two of the five most recent presidential elections, both nationally and in Louisiana. Alito’s claim was copied almost verbatim from a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the justice department. It was a critical data point Alito used to make the argument that the kind of discrimination that once made the Voting Rights Act necessary no longer exists. But a review of turnout and racial data in Louisiana reveals that assertion relies on an unusual methodology.

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Trump administration arrested parents of 27,000 kids in seven months

The US government has targeted thousands of parents like LT for deportation since Donald Trump took office in January 2025. A Guardian analysis of government records has found that, during the first seven months of his presidency, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children. During this period in 2025, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was deporting about twice as many parents each month compared with 2024.

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Trump administration relaxing hunting restrictions in US parks and refuges

Donald Trump’s administration is quietly pushing national park, refuge and wilderness area managers to dramatically scale back hunting restrictions, raising questions about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife.

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Pentagon releases previously secret files on UFOs

The Pentagon on Friday released an initial group of previously secret files documenting reports of UFOs – a move sought for decades by some.

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said in a statement posted on X.

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