Democratic Virginia House speaker says legislature will ‘respect’ Supreme court decision
Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House, said that the legislature will “respect the decision” of the state supreme court that rejects a voter approved ballot-measure to re-draw Virginia’s congressional map.
“Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters – exactly where it belongs – and they spoke loud and clear,” Scott said in a statement. “That truth doesn’t change because of a court ruling … We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters – not politicians – have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”
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“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” the defense department said in a statement, “and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”
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The files, now declassified, are unresolved cases. As my colleague Richard Luscombe notes, the first batch released on Friday, incorporating hundreds of pages on a monochrome new defense department website, offered little new or conclusive evidence.
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The Pentagon said it “welcomes the application of private-sector analysis, information and expertise” and “will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute. Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people.”
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The release follows a directive from Donald Trump in February for federal agencies to begin identifying, declassifying and releasing government files related to unidentified flying objects, now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), and the possibility of alien life beyond Earth.
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President Donald Trump is delivering remarks at the White House Rose Garden this afternoon. He arrived to the podium to the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.
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Stay tuned as we bring you the top lines.
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Hakeem Jeffries, the US House minority leader, decried the ruling by the Virginia supreme court today that ultimately struck down a new congressional map, approved by voters.
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“Over three million Virginia citizens cast their votes in a free and fair election, yet the State Supreme Court has chosen to invalidate their voice, disenfranchise them and violate their due process rights,” the top Democrat wrote in a statement. “The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand.”
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He added that his party is “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision” in order for Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House come November.
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“Our fight is not over. We are just getting started,” Jeffries said.
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Donald Trump took to Truth Social to welcome the news from the Virginia supreme court, calling it a “huge win for the Republican Party, and America”.
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He called the new maps, approved by a majority of voters through a ballot measure, a “horrible gerrymander”. However, the president has been pushing lawmakers in deep-red states to re-draw their congressional maps to ensure that the GOP can retain its majority in the US House – currently a narrow five-seat margin.
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Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House, said that the legislature will “respect the decision” of the state supreme court that rejects a voter approved ballot-measure to re-draw Virginia’s congressional map.
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“Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters – exactly where it belongs – and they spoke loud and clear,” Scott said in a statement. “That truth doesn’t change because of a court ruling … We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters – not politicians – have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”
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In a blow to national and state Democrats, the Virginia supreme court struck down a constitutional amendment, approved by voters last month that re-drew the state’s congressional districts.
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The top court ruled that Virginia’s Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before it was put before voters.
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The new map would have likely flipped four Republican seats blue in the upcoming midterm elections, and given Democrats a 10-1 advantage for Virginia’s congressional delegation.
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Stay tuned for more on the decision.
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New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that the US economy added 115,000 jobs in April, down from the 178,000 initially reported in March, which came after a notable contraction the month prior.
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Unemployment in April remained unchanged at 4.3%.
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A Guardian analysis of government records has found that, during the first seven months of Donald Trump’s presidency, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children.
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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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The records do not detail how many of these children were detained or deported with their parents, and how many families were split up. But the data provides one of the starkest views yet of how Trump’s mass deportation scheme has affected parents and children.
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In thousands of cases, DHS sought to deport parents who had a different citizenship or nationality than their children, creating major legal and logistical barriers to keeping families together. You can read more of the investigation by my colleagues, Maanvi Singh and Will Craft, here:
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The US state department has said it will begin to revoke the passports of Americans who owe more than $2,500 in child support payments.
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The revocations would begin on Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more, or about 2,700 American passport holders, the Associated Press reported.
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In a statement, the state department said that the revocation of passports “supports the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law.” It added:
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n
Any American with significant child support debt should arrange payment to the relevant state or states now to prevent passport revocation. Once a passport is revoked, it may no longer be used for travel. Eligibility for a new passport will only be restored after child support debt is paid to the relevant state child support enforcement agency and the individual is no longer delinquent according to HHS records.
n
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Passport revocations for unpaid child support of over $2,500 is permitted within a rarely used provision in Bill Clinton’s Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act law (1996), which tied benefits to work under reforms that have been criticised for driving up the numbers of people living in deep poverty. When the provision in the law has been applied it is typically focused on preventing people with child support debt from renewing or applying for a new passport.
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Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district as GOP lawmakers scramble to improve their fortunes ahead of the November midterms.
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The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts.
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The majority-Black district being eliminated in the Memphis area has long been represented by Rep. Steve Cohen, the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative. All nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are now Republican-leaning.
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Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton claimed that the new districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.
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against redistricting efforts in TennesseeDemonstrators protest inside the Tennessee state Capitol on 7 May 2026.”,”caption”:”Protest against redistricting efforts in Tennessee
Demonstrators protest inside the Tennessee state Capitol on 7 May 2026.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
But Democrats dismissed these claims and have argued that dividing up Memphis effectively deprives the Black community of representation in Congress.
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“These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump,” said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the US House.
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Democrats say the redistricting effort, which prompted fierce protests, was a cynical attack on the hard-fought gains for equal representation won in the civil rights movement in a state that was forged by slavery and segregation.
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The redraw comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s landmark Callais v Landry decision supreme court ruling, which invalidated swaths of the Voting Rights Act which had restrained state governments from drawing congressional districts that left Black voters at a political disadvantage.
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Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, is reportedly due to sign the map into law imminently.
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Key events
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Pentagon releases previously unseen UFO files
The Pentagon has released a trove of “never-before-seen” files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) – the modern term for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO).
“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation,” the defense department said in a statement, “and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.”
The files, now declassified, are unresolved cases. As my colleague Richard Luscombe notes, the first batch released on Friday, incorporating hundreds of pages on a monochrome new defense department website, offered little new or conclusive evidence.
The Pentagon said it “welcomes the application of private-sector analysis, information and expertise” and “will continue to conduct separate reporting on resolved UAP cases, as mandated by statute. Under this Administration, we will pursue the truth and share our findings with the American people.”
The release follows a directive from Donald Trump in February for federal agencies to begin identifying, declassifying and releasing government files related to unidentified flying objects, now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), and the possibility of alien life beyond Earth.
In their legal challenge against the re-drawn congressional maps, the Republican party in Virginia claimed that the constitutional amendment that was struck down by the state’s supreme court did not follow proper legislative procedures.
According to Virginia state law, a proposed amendment to the constitution can only be approved by two consecutive state legislatures – with a state election in between them.
Part of the GOP’s argument included the fact that the Democratic legislative majority approved this particular amendment in October, just days before the November state elections, and since early voting had already begun when the amendment was first passed, Republicans claimed this did not meet the standards of the overall process. During those elections, Democrats won additional legislative seats. They then passed the amendment for a second time in January and scheduled the referendum for April.
Trump on Friday afternoon again said that the “cartels rule Mexico”, amid heightening tensions between the US and Mexican governments.
Last week, the justice department announced an indictment against a governor in Mexico, accusing him of collaborating with a Mexican criminal group. The US is pushing for the Mexican government to turn the governor over to the US, who has temporarily stepped down. The Mexican government is requesting the evidence against the governor.
Late last month, two CIA officials were killed in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, following a counternarcotics operation in coordination with state officials. The Mexican federal government grew furious, since the CIA officials did not have approval to operate in Mexico, in an alleged violation of Mexico’s national security law.
Trump claimed without proof on Friday afternoon that “they emptied the prisons of the Congo, into the area of the southern border and they told them to just walk in”, referring to the Biden administration.
“These were hard, mean, vicious criminals they allowed into the country”, Trump added.
In honor of “Angel Moms”, Trump said they’ve rapidly turned “the most dangerous border in the history of our country into the strongest border in American history”.
“We have no people come in, during the last 11 months – we’ve had zero, zero”, Trump said.
Trump is referring to the number of border encounters by US border officials. The number of border encounters has reduced, due to the strong limits to asylum put in place in an executive border this past year.
Trump said on Friday afternoon that many “strong” mothers were joining them at the White House Rose Garden during lunch. He gave a special shout-out to “Angel Moms”, which is the term used to refer to mothers whose children were killed by undocumented immigrants.
“Among those with us this afternoon are a number of the ‘Angel Moms’, who saw their precious children stolen from them by the open border policies of the radical left”, Trump said. “Open borders? I call them stupid borders. Not open. Stupid borders. By stupid people that put them there”.
Trump speaks at the White House
President Donald Trump is delivering remarks at the White House Rose Garden this afternoon. He arrived to the podium to the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.
Stay tuned as we bring you the top lines.
Tim Kaine, a Democratic US senator from Virginia, spoke out today in opposition to the Virginia supreme court’s decision that struck down a new congressional map, according to reporting from NOTUS.
“The timing of this ruling speaks volumes”, senator Kaine said. “If the Virginia Supreme Court had legitimate concerns about this referendum, the time to stop it would have been before three million Virginians cast their ballots”.
Top US House Democrat says party is ‘exploring all options’ to overturn Virginia supreme court decision
Hakeem Jeffries, the US House minority leader, decried the ruling by the Virginia supreme court today that ultimately struck down a new congressional map, approved by voters.
“Over three million Virginia citizens cast their votes in a free and fair election, yet the State Supreme Court has chosen to invalidate their voice, disenfranchise them and violate their due process rights,” the top Democrat wrote in a statement. “The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand.”
He added that his party is “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision” in order for Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House come November.
“Our fight is not over. We are just getting started,” Jeffries said.
Trump heralds Virginia supreme court decision as ‘huge win’ for GOP
Donald Trump took to Truth Social to welcome the news from the Virginia supreme court, calling it a “huge win for the Republican Party, and America”.
He called the new maps, approved by a majority of voters through a ballot measure, a “horrible gerrymander”. However, the president has been pushing lawmakers in deep-red states to re-draw their congressional maps to ensure that the GOP can retain its majority in the US House – currently a narrow five-seat margin.
Democratic Virginia House speaker says legislature will ‘respect’ Supreme court decision
Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House, said that the legislature will “respect the decision” of the state supreme court that rejects a voter approved ballot-measure to re-draw Virginia’s congressional map.
“Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters – exactly where it belongs – and they spoke loud and clear,” Scott said in a statement. “That truth doesn’t change because of a court ruling … We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters – not politicians – have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”
The ruling out of Virginia today could now bolster Republican hopes of keeping their majority in the US House in the midterms, particularly as a number of southern states, like Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana have expedited re-drawing their congressional maps in favor of GOP majorities.
A reminder that the US supreme court’s decision last week to gut section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has essentially pushed GOP legislatures to quickly re-draw their maps ahead of November.
Virginia supreme court strikes down new congressional map
In a blow to national and state Democrats, the Virginia supreme court struck down a constitutional amendment, approved by voters last month that re-drew the state’s congressional districts.
The top court ruled that Virginia’s Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before it was put before voters.
The new map would have likely flipped four Republican seats blue in the upcoming midterm elections, and given Democrats a 10-1 advantage for Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Stay tuned for more on the decision.
Richard Luscombe
The White House has branded Star Wars actor Mark Hamill “a sick individual” after an AI-generated image showing Donald Trump in a shallow grave, with the words “If Only” as an overlay was posted to one of star’s social media accounts.
Hamill, who played the lead character of Luke Skywalker in six movies of the iconic science fiction franchise and is a longtime critic of the US president, apologized and removed the post from his Bluesky account on Thursday.
The American actor replaced it with another message clarifying that he was not advocating the president’s demise.
“Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologize if you found the image inappropriate,” Hamill wrote, adding that Trump “should live long enough to be held accountable for his crimes”.
The White House, through its Rapid Response 47 account on X, immediately seized on Hamill’s original post, which portrayed the president lying beneath a gravestone inscribed with “Donald J Trump, 1946-2024”.
“Mark Hamill is one sick individual,” the post said. “These Radical Left lunatics just can’t help themselves. This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”
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