Republicans Race to Redraw Southern Maps After Supreme Court Ruling

US Eyes First Hypersonic Strike on Iran

Mills Exits Maine Race as Democrats Eye Narrow Path to Senate Control

Apple Posts Record Quarter on iPhone 17 Demand

First US-Venezuela Direct Flight in Six Years Lands in Caracas

Republicans Race to Redraw Southern Maps After Supreme Court Ruling

Republican leaders are pushing Southern states to rapidly redraw congressional maps before the midterm elections, following a Supreme Court decision that sharply curbed the use of race in crafting electoral districts. The ruling extends a cycle of tit-for-tat redistricting in which Republican- and Democratic-led states have scrambled to create new districts that could give their party an edge in the fight for control of the House of Representatives in November. On Thursday, Louisiana, the subject of the Supreme Court case, suspended congressional primaries that had been scheduled for May 16. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said in an executive order that using the current map was a nonstarter after the high court rejected it. The Louisiana GOP currently holds four of six congressional seats but could pick up at least one more with newly drawn lines. Landry called on the Louisiana Legislature to pass a new congressional map and schedule elections using it as soon as practical. Filing deadlines have passed in many states and primaries have been held or early voting is underway, posing significant obstacles to broader Southern redrawing this cycle. Only a few Southern states, including Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee, have a clear path to redistrict before primary voting without endangering Republican incumbents, potentially yielding up to four Republican seats this year.

The longer-term stakes will sharpen in 2027, when incentives point toward escalation ahead of a closer 2028 election. Democrats will have every incentive to retaliate if remaining Southern states redistrict as expected, with one Democratic House member floating a 52-0 Democratic map in California and a 17-0 map in Illinois. In theory, such extreme gerrymanders would give Democrats a path to canceling out Republican efforts even beyond the South. But Democrats face significant legal obstacles, as many blue states have state constitutional limitations on gerrymandering that would require amendments or voter approval to override. To draw unanimously Democratic maps in California or Illinois, Democrats would need to construct multiple pinwheel-like districts stretching from Democratic cities into the countryside. Nearly every large state has some opportunity to redraw its maps, and the legal, political and electoral question marks make it difficult to predict outcomes by 2028. It is possible each side's gerrymanders will roughly cancel out, as they do today, creating a narrow opportunity for both parties to agree to limit gerrymandering before 2032. Absent compromise, the country may end up with only a handful of competitive districts, mostly concentrated in purple states with nonpartisan redistricting processes such as Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

WSJ / NYT

US Eyes First Hypersonic Strike on Iran

US Central Command has asked to send the Army's long-delayed Dark Eagle hypersonic missile to the Middle East for possible use against Iran, seeking a longer-range system to hit ballistic-missile launchers deep inside the country. Hypersonic weapons travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver mid-flight to evade interception, capabilities Russia and China have already deployed but the United States has not. If approved, the move would mark the first US combat deployment of the system, which has run far behind schedule and is not yet declared fully operational. The request justifies the deployment by noting Iran has moved its launchers beyond the 300-mile range of the Precision Strike Missile, while Dark Eagle has a reported range exceeding 1,725 miles. A US-Iran ceasefire has been in place since April 9, but the request suggests Washington is preparing for further strikes if President Trump decides to proceed, with both sides using the lull to rearm. Each Lockheed Martin missile costs roughly $15 million and the Army holds no more than eight, while the Government Accountability Office estimates each battery will cost about $2.7 billion.

Bloomberg

Mills Exits Maine Race as Democrats Eye Narrow Path to Senate Control

Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced Thursday she is dropping out of her race to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, saying she had run out of money to compete. Mills, 78, was a top recruit of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer but lost ground quickly to Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer who had never held elected office before but has drawn large crowds with blunt talk of confronting the establishment. Platner, endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, entered the race last summer while Mills was still equivocating, building momentum before her launch. The primary became a referendum on the Democratic establishment, and Platner is now all but certain to face Collins in the fall.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning Democrats must net four seats in November to take control. According to political analyst Mark Halperin, the competitive landscape begins in Maine, where Collins remains one of the most vulnerable Republicans on the map, and extends to North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis faces a tough re-election in a perennial swing state. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is the most exposed Democrat, defending his seat in a state Trump carried in 2024, and Michigan presents an open-seat fight Democrats must hold after Sen. Gary Peters announced his retirement. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan round out the Republican-held targets Halperin identifies as in play, though all three would represent significant reaches under normal conditions — Alaska less so given the state's ranked-choice voting system. To flip control, Democrats would need to hold Georgia and Michigan while sweeping Maine and North Carolina and winning at least two more in GOP-leaning territory, a path observers across the spectrum describe as narrow but not closed.

Washington Post

Apple Posts Record Quarter on iPhone 17 Demand

Apple reported revenue from iPhones rose nearly 22% to almost $57 billion in the second quarter compared with the prior year, as customers excited by the iPhone 17 lineup continued to upgrade at a brisk pace. The company posted total quarterly sales of $111.2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations, and projected revenue would jump between 14% and 17% in the current quarter, well above analyst forecasts of 10%. Shares rose 2% in after-hours trading. Results would have been stronger but for a shortage of advanced computer chips that power Apple's devices, Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said, and the company also underestimated demand for Mac computers, leading to longer wait times for customers. Apple's profit margin reached 49.3%, a record for the iPhone era. CEO Tim Cook's eventual successor will inherit strong iPhone and Mac sales but also rising costs.

WSJ

First US-Venezuela Direct Flight in Six Years Lands in Caracas

An American Airlines jet bearing America's 250th-anniversary logo landed in Caracas on Thursday, completing the first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela since 2019. The 76-seat American Eagle flight was hailed as the most visible symbol yet of President Trump's rapid normalization of ties with Venezuela, with officials from both countries calling the resumption of direct travel a milestone. "Direct flights are back," said John Barrett, the top American diplomat in Caracas, adding that commerce is flowing and Venezuela's economic engine is ramping up. The festivities began before American Flight 3599 left Miami International Airport, where Venezuelan and US officials, lawmakers, Miami influencers and journalists mingled over cafecitos and arepas as a DJ played reggaeton. Airport workers waved Venezuelan flags as officials and airline executives cut a ribbon at the gate. The three-hour flight, which at $1,700 round-trip remains out of reach for most Venezuelans in Miami or their homeland, was greeted in Caracas with another round of celebrations.

WSJ

May 1, 1958: First “Law Day” Observed in the United States

On this date, the United States marked its first official observance of Law Day, following President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s proclamation to honor the role of law in the nation’s creation and civic life. The event, first proposed by the American Bar Association, was also intended to counter the pro-labor, often communist-associated May Day celebrations by shifting public focus to Americans’ constitutional rights and the rule of law.

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Sources

1. WSJ — Republicans Rush to Redraw Maps After Supreme Court Race Ruling / NYT — Gerrymanders, Redistricting, Democrats, Republicans
2. Bloomberg — US Seeks to Deploy Hypersonic for the First Time Against Iran
3. Washington Post — Mills, Maine, Senate, Collins, Platner
4. WSJ — Apple Q2 Earnings Report 2026
5. WSJ — A Jet to Caracas Becomes the Face of Trump's Venezuela Reset