Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday.
Justices seemed open to further limiting the Voting Rights ActThe Supreme Court appeared poised today to weaken a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by limiting the ability of lawmakers to use race as a factor in drawing voting maps. At the heart of the case is a debate over whether Louisiana violated the Constitution when it adopted a new electoral map in 2024, creating the state’s second majority-Black district. The plaintiffs challenged Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed race to be used as a factor in creating electoral maps in an attempt to undo generations of efforts to suppress the power of Black voters. During today’s oral argument, several of the court’s conservative justices appeared focused on whether there should be a time limit to using race as a factor in creating electoral maps. The court may rule that the Voting Rights Act, in seeking to protect minority voters, violates the 14th Amendment, which forbids the government to make distinctions based on race. If the justices determine that lawmakers cannot consider race when drawing districts, the consequences could be sweeping. Republican state legislatures could use the ruling to eliminate around a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South, according to a Times analysis, enough to make Republicans favored to win the chamber even if they lost the popular vote by a wide margin. It is not clear, however, how fast any redistricting could happen. The court typically issues major rulings by late June or early July, so a decision would land just before the 2026 midterms.
The U.S. authorized covert C.I.A. action in VenezuelaThe Trump administration has stepped up its campaign against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, by secretly authorizing the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in the country, including lethal operations. The development comes as the U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela. The president told reporters this afternoon that he is now “certainly looking at" striking Venezuelan land “because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive Maduro from power. In other Trump administration news:
A judge temporarily blocked shutdown layoffsA federal judge, Susan Illston, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting mass federal layoffs during the government shutdown, siding with unions that have argued that the roughly 4,000 planned firings were illegal. The early evidence, Illston said, suggested that the White House had “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore and they can impose the structures that they like.” For more on the shutdown: Meet the lonely House Republican who is still coming into work.
After the truce, Hamas is cracking down in GazaDays after Israel agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza and pulled back some of its troops, Hamas appears to be trying to assert that it is still the dominant force in the territory. Video from Monday showed Hamas fighters executing eight Palestinian rivals on a crowded street in Gaza City. In total, at least 10 members of Hamas and at least 20 members of rival Palestinian groups have been killed in fighting over the last two days. In related news, Hamas said it has returned all of the hostage remains it can recover. With over a dozen bodies unaccounted for, the fragile truce with Israel could be at risk. More top news
Julia Roberts’s ambiguous new filmLuca Guadagnino’s new movie, “After the Hunt,” stars Julia Roberts as a Yale philosophy professor whose tight-knit circle of confidants unravels after her protégée accuses her colleague of sexual assault. The film touches on cancel culture and #MeToo, but Roberts and Guadagnino want to leave its meaning up to debate. “My idea was of an ambiguous movie that lets the audience think for themselves,” the director said.
Malala is ready to reintroduce herselfWhen she was 15 years old, Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for saying that young women should have the right to an education. After she woke from an ensuing coma, she embraced the role of fearless activist. Now, with the release of her second memoir, Yousafzai is hoping to move beyond that period of her life. On today’s episode of the “Modern Love” podcast, she spoke about her search for a normal college experience, her unexpected path to marriage and what it means to continue her activism while living a full life.
Dinner table topics
Cook: This sweet potato layer cake is a delicious riff on the classic carrot cake. Watch: Here are five great theater performances that you can stream from home. Read: Branching plots and dark humor animate Krisztina Toth’s “Eye of the Monkey.” Wear: Take inspiration from our fashion photographer’s look of the week. Exercise: Kinesiology tape might actually improve your workout, but not for the reason you think. Test yourself: Take our quiz to see if you know where these popular books are set. Play: Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here. |
