The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration.

No justices dissented from the brief order denying the appeal without explanation, which is common on the court’s emergency docket.

The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower-court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race.

Americans are exceptionally anxious about their political system, according to new international polling from Gallup, a situation that sets the country apart from other rich and powerful nations.

About one-third of Americans rated politics and government as the top issue facing their nation, behind only Taiwan — which faces the prospect of an invasion from China — and on par with Slovenia, Spain and South Korea.

The United States also stands out for the anxiety its younger residents have over economic issues, with younger Americans more likely than young adults in many of the other 107 surveyed countries to say affordability and other pocketbook issues are worrying them

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) on Wednesday announced he will not seek reelection, ending his congressional career after more than a decade and adding to the ranks of Republicans declining to run for another term.

Loudermilk is the 29th Republican member of the House to say they will not seek reelection in 2026 — either for retirement or to seek higher office — as Republicans brace for a tough midterm election. Loudermilk’s northern Georgia district is reliably Republican.

Loudermilk is the chair of Republicans’ Select Subcommittee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, which he pushed with an assist from President Trump. He first joined the House in 2015.

States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn.

Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”.

As the world speeds towards 2C of global heating, the risks of extreme weather disasters and climate tipping points are increasing fast. But current economic models used by governments and financial institutions entirely miss such shocks, the researchers said, instead forecasting that steady economic growth will be slowed only by gradually rising average temperatures. This is because the models assume the future will behave like the past, despite the burning of fossil fuels pushing the climate system into uncharted territory.

Dismantling rules will make children vulnerable to chronic diseases ‘make America healthy again’ wants to eradicate

Donald Trump’s aggressive rollback of environmental protections directly contradicts the promises of his “make America healthy again” campaign, according to new research.

Helmed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s health and human services department has touted pledges to “transform our nation’s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine” and “reverse the childhood chronic disease crisis”. But the president’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pushing the country in the opposite direction, says the new report from the liberal research and advocacy non-profit Center for American Progress (CAP).

Under administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA is dismantling dozens of environmental regulations, weakening efforts to limit pollution and has exempted facilities from clean air regulations. These actions will make children more vulnerable to many of the same chronic diseases the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda says it wants to eradicate, including cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, autism and attention deficit disorder, according to the new report.

While the New Mexico Department of Health said it can't pinpoint the baby's exact cause of death, officials believe it could have been linked to the mother's drinking raw milk during pregnancy.

Health officials in New Mexico are warning against consuming raw dairy products after a newborn baby in the state died from a listeria infection that they say was likely contracted when the baby's mother drank raw milk during pregnancy.

The New Mexico Department of Health in a news release said that officials believe the mother consumed unpasteurized milk while pregnant, which could have led to the listeria infection.

Officials cannot pinpoint the exact source of the listeria that led to the baby's death, the release said, but it noted that "the tragic death underscores the serious risks raw dairy poses to pregnant women, young children, elderly New Mexicans and anyone with a weakened immune system."

China has become the first nation to require a change to make it easier to rescue people from car crashes: Car doors must be able to open from either side mechanically, like by lifting a handle.

The rules, which go into effect in 2027, follow international scrutiny of a futuristic design first popularized by Tesla, but adopted by many other automakers, in which door handles are electrically powered and hidden. They lie flush with the vehicle's exterior until they detect an approaching driver and pop out. They were embraced by automakers for both aerodynamic and aesthetic reasons, but introduced a new kind of vulnerability: They can malfunction after a crash or a battery failure.

As Bloomberg News detailed in an investigative report in September, Tesla's electrically-powered doors could become impossible to open from the outside in an emergency, forcing responders to break windows to extract survivors.

The two journalists had published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group RSF said, adding that the case shows how hostile the country has become to independent reporting.

Two independent journalists were detained by local authorities after they published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, condemning the incident.

Police in Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu on suspicion of making "false accusations" and conducting "illegal business operations."

Authorities said they were placed under "criminal coercive measures," a term typically referring to detention.

Chinese media and RSF identified the two journalists as Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao.

In its annual report, Human Rights Watch warned that civil rights are under threat globally since the reelection of Donald Trump. It called on democratic countries to respond but also highlighted issues in Germany.

The year 2025 may come to be seen as a "tipping point" when democratic institutions were severely damaged and human rights suffered as a result, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In its annual report, released on Wednesday, the New York-based non-profit warned that the reelection of US President Donald Trump has emboldened autocratic regimes across the world, with devastating consequences for vulnerable groups and minorities.

"The global human rights system is in peril," wrote HRW executive director Philippe Bolopion. "Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed."

DNC’s Local Listeners initiative will target one million ‘infrequent’ voters in battleground districts

Democrats are launching an aggressive campaign to win back voters they lost, not to Donald Trump, but to the proverbial “couch,” as they look to regain support ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rolled out a new initiative called Local Listeners with the goal of targeting over one million “infrequent” voters in key battleground districts. Seeking to build on the party’s string of off-year election victories, which extended into 2026 with an upset in Texas last weekend, the DNC is betting that early, localized outreach will be crucial in winning back these voters’ trust – and their ballots – this time around.

“If we want to keep earning back the trust and support of voters, we have to listen to them,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement, shared in advance with the Guardian. “This program modernizes the way we are talking to and hearing from the voters that we need to win elections now and for years to come. The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters – these conversations need to happen early and often.”

Bills mandate ICE cooperation, school status checks and criminalize information release, testing constitutional lines

The power to enforce immigration law rests with the federal government. But Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, has a vision for states working in coordination with federal immigration officials, and he’s attempting to test it out in Tennessee.

Earlier this month, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Miller had been meeting in Washington DC with Tennessee speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, to craft model legislation for states around the country.

A few weeks later, the speaker announced a suite of eight bills that would turn state and local police officers, judges, teachers, social workers and others into an auxiliary extension of the federal immigration system. It makes the presence of an undocumented person with a final deportation order a state crime in Tennessee. And it mandates that officials report the presence of undocumented persons to ICE, while criminalizing disclosure of information about immigration enforcement activities to the public.

A year ago, federal support for scientific research appeared to be crumbling. But thanks to Congress and several lawsuits, scientists’ worst fears haven’t come to pass.

The Trump administration last February cut thousands of workers at federal science agencies, squeezed the flow of grant money to universities and tried to slash funding for the overhead costs of research. In the months that followed, it targeted elite universities over allegations of antisemitism; clawed back grants on topics it saw as related to diversity, equity and inclusion; and proposed a budget with drastic cuts to agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

To many, science appeared under assault. The model the federal government had used to outsource research to universities since World War II seemed to be collapsing.

But a year later, the worst of those fears hasn’t come to pass, thanks to several successful legal challenges and Congress’ recent rejection of many of President Donald Trump’s requested cuts for this year.

An alphabet soup of science, education and civil liberties organizations — the ACLU, the APHA, the AAU, among others — have beaten back some of the Trump administration’s most significant policy changes in court, preserving billions in science funding. And the funding package that Congress has approved, piece by piece, over the past three weeks keeps federal funding for science agencies roughly flat compared with last year.