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Instead of Gladiators fighting for our entertainment, the emperors are shadowboxing before an angry populace.

Florida’s legislature on Wednesday approved a new congressional map written by Governor Ron DeSantis’s office that aims to give Republicans four more House seats. The proposal passed 21-17 in the state Senate and 83-28 in the state House of Representatives—the same day that the Supreme Court decided to gut the Voting Rights Act. DeSantis is expected to sign the legislation into law. The Democrats most at risk under the new map are Representatives Kathy Castor, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. While the House session debating the map took less than 90 minutes, Democratic state Representative and U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon tried to disrupt the vote by shouting that the new map “was out of order,” and fellow Democrats tried to argue that the move would violate the state’s Constitution, which bans drawing districts with “the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.”Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell pointed out that the DeSantis staffer who drew the map, Jason Poreda, admitted to using partisan data. “The man who drew this map testified under oath that he used partisan data to draw up every single district,” Driskell said. “Every single one. And when the governor’s attorney was asked whether Democratic voters were being underrepresented in our congressional delegation, his answer was that ‘this is a normative question.’”“Members, if we vote yes on this bill, it’s not just that we’re being misled, we are blessing this mess. The timing tells the rest. The governor announces his intention to redistrict, shortly after the president of the United States asked Republican-led states to do exactly that. There is no neutral explanation for that sequence of events,” Driskell added.The House vote came just an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court destroyed the Voting Rights Act by eliminating a majority-black district in Louisiana. The Florida House voted down a Democratic proposal to delay the vote by two hours to study the Supreme Court decision’s implications. On Wednesday morning, DeSantis posted on X that the high court’s ruling vindicated his move to redraw the state’s map. “Called this one months ago,” DeSantis said. “The decision implicates a district in FL — the legal infirmities of which have been corrected in the newly-drawn (and soon to be enacted) map.”With Republicans polling terribly thanks to President Trump, the new map could still backfire, as the new districts are not entirely safe GOP seats. Democratic-run states like California and Virginia are also seeking to redraw their congressional districts, leaving the outcome of November’s midterm elections wide open.This story has been updated.

Traditional financial metrics like revenue and profit don’t tell you much about who will win the AI race in the long run.

AI tools can now identify the writing of almost anyone with a sizable online presence.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday to defend the mammoth $1.5 trillion budget request submitted by the Department of Defense. But under questioning from Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the Christian nationalist and noted drunkard struggled to provide basic information regarding the DOD’s main money pit: the ongoing Iran war.Hegseth began by saying the U.S. wants to get Iran “to the table” and get them to give up their nuclear capabilities.Smith noted that Iran doesn’t appear ready to do that, and that since the war started, Iran’s nuclear arsenal has “not been weakened in any way.”“Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated,” Hegseth said, apparently referring to the Trump administration’s drone strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025.“Woah, woah, woah,” Smith cut in. “Reclaiming my time for just a quick second here. We had to start this war—you just said 60 days ago—because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying it was completely obliterated?” (Hegseth indeed justified the war back in March by saying Iran was close to having a nuke.)“They had not given up their nuclear ambitions,” Hegseth said. “They had a conventional shield of thousands of missiles—”“So Operation Midnight Hammer,” Smith said, referring to the June 2025 drone strikes, “accomplished nothing of substance?“Hegseth began to waffle: “President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure—in a way that only the United States of America could do, with our Israeli partners—to ensure their conventional shield was brought—”“Yet they still haven’t given up their nuclear [capabilities],” Smith said.Hegseth running into trouble early in today’s hearing Hegseth: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated. Smith: You said we had to start this war because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying it was completely obliterated? pic.twitter.com/Iwaa4fbdub— Acyn (@Acyn) April 29, 2026Hegseth’s flip-flopping over whether Iran was close to nuclear weapons does not give one confidence in the officials managing this unpopular and unauthorized war. Adding financial insult to injury, the Pentagon also announced at the hearing that the Iran war has cost the nation a staggering $25 billion so far.

For the first time since the US began bombing Iran two weeks ago, our military leadership testified before a congressional committee today. The main takeaway: there is no real plan for ending this war. But there is a plan for giving the Pentagon more money.  At today’s House Armed Services Committee hearing, Secretary of War […]

Lawmakers' concerns revolve around the national security risks of sharing wide swaths of data and information with AI companies in China.

Union members in many states and cities are pushing for a stronger voice in pension investments. And sometimes they’re actually winning: They’re holding pension boards accountable and advocating for investments that insure worker protections, climate resiliency, and decent retirement benefits.