An explosion lights up the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 2, 2026

Wealthy tech executives have been ratcheting up their political activism in California, sponsoring ballot measures and backing candidates up and down the ticket, often with great success. In the recent primaries, several of them tried for office themselves. Despite spending millions more than their opponents, they failed to win votes.

On May 15, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a new initiative titled “Protect Communities, Not Criminals,” which includes a proposal to create a statewide prosecutor with the authority to override local district attorneys in certain cases.  This proposed role would allow a state-appointed prosecutor to step in when a local prosecutor has not secured an indictment within 90 days, effectively creating a “backstop” to ensure cases move forward.  Supporters of the proposal frame it as a necessary response to what they describe as “rogue prosecutors” local district attorneys who decline to pursue certain categories of crimes based on policy or resource limitations.  The initiative is presented to ensure consistency in enforcement across Texas counties and to prioritize victims’ rights.

The geography of the war has changed. Once, the war in Ukraine was measured in miles of trenches, destroyed towns, and incremental advances across the Donbas steppe. Over the past two years, however, the conflict has expanded both vertically and territorially, carried not only by missiles and aircraft but also by relatively inexpensive drones assembled in workshops across Ukraine. The battlefield no longer ends at the front line. It now stretches hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of kilometers into Russian territory, reaching oil depots, military plants, logistics hubs, and even Moscow itself.

Now three months into his Iran war, President Trump continues to spew so much contradictory nonsense on the conflict that anyone attempting to take the president at his word would be lost in the morass. One moment Trump is threatening to annihilate Iran’s civilization, hurling churlish curses at the country’s leadership for not doing what he wants, the next he’s saying a deal is nearly complete. One minute he’s claiming the goal of regime change, the next he’s abandoning it in favor or “winding down” the war. One hour he’s saying “you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side,” the next he’s gladly accepting a ceasefire.

President Donald Trump may have gotten what he most wanted from the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled on July 1, 2024 – by a 6-3 vote – that former presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution by, essentially, being president. Trump named three justices to the high court during his first term in office – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – and all three ruled in his favor in Trump v. United States (Barrett in part). The latest raft of major SCOTUS rulings, due next month, may continue to largely meet with Trump’s approval, or at least conservative priorities, but by no means is the court’s October 2025 term, as it’s officially known, likely to be a slam dunk for the right.

After the 2020 United States Decennial Census Louisiana was allocated six congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Accordingly the Louisiana State Legislature drew its state congressional map that had five districts with white majorities and one with a black majority.

Missouri, the “Show Me State,” enters the 2026 election cycle as a firmly Republican-controlled state, with all eight U.S. House seats on the ballot and no Senate race this cycle. Democrats currently hold just two congressional districts, MO-01 and MO-05, represented by Wesley Bell and Emanuel Cleaver, respectively. Both districts are anchored in the state’s urban cores of St. Louis and Kansas City and are considered safely Democratic.