The US Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use redrawn congressional districts for the 2026 midterm elections, boosting the hopes of President Donald Trump’s Republicans to retain control of the House of Representatives.The push by Texas, which carves out five more Republican-friendly districts and came at the behest of Trump, launched a series of similar efforts in states around the country.The decision by the conservative-dominated high court stayed a lower ruling which had said the redrawn maps “unconstitutionally” sort voters based on race.”Texas needs certainty on which map will govern the 2026 midterm elections, so I will not delay the Court’s order,” Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on the bench, wrote in his concurring opinion.The three liberal justices all dissented with the order, which was unsigned.”The District Court conducted a nine-day hearing… And after considering all the evidence, it held that the answer was clear. Texas largely divided its citizens along racial lines to create its new pro-Republican House map,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent.While the ruling is technically only a temporary halt to the lower court ruling, with a candidate filing deadline next week in Texas, it effectively ensures that the Republican-favored map will be in effect for the 2026 midterms.- ‘We won!’ -US electoral districts are traditionally drawn following the national census, taken once per decade to reflect the changing population.The next census is not scheduled until 2030, but Republican-ruled Texas, under pressure from Trump, decided to redraw its congressional maps mid-decade to yield more Republican districts.Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the decision.”We won! Texas is officially — and legally — more red,” he wrote on X.Democrats voiced disappointment with the ruling.”The right-wing Supreme Court majority has once again shredded its credibility by rubber-stamping a racially gerrymandered map in Texas,” US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.”Republicans know the extremists can only win by cheating. The people of California and beyond will prevent that from happening.”The US Supreme Court has previously permitted so-called partisan gerrymandering, but the situation becomes more complicated when a person’s race is involved due to civil rights legislation.Democratic-run California has also approved a new electoral map that would also create five districts more likely to vote for the left-leaning party.But those maps have also been challenged in court by the Republican Party of California, in a lawsuit that has received the backing of the Trump administration and which claims race was also unlawfully used.US Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Justice Department filed a brief supporting the new Texas maps, hailed Thursday’s ruling.”Federal courts have no right to interfere with a State’s decision to redraw legislative maps for partisan reasons,” Bondi said in a statement on X.Republicans in North Carolina have also redrawn that state’s map, while efforts are underway in Indiana, Missouri, and elsewhere.

The Pentagon said Thursday it has endorsed the tripartite AUKUS security pact with the United Kingdom and Australia, which would involve Canberra’s acquisition of at least three Virginia-class nuclear submarines within 15 years.The administration of Donald Trump said earlier this year it was reviewing a 2021 deal for the nuclear-powered attack subs signed under his presidential predecessor Joe Biden.The Department of Defense completed its five-month review, which endorsed the AUKUS agreement and determined it is “in alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.”Consistent with President Trump’s guidance that AUKUS should move ‘full steam ahead,’ the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing.”Congressman Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on a US House subcommittee on sea power, said the review’s completion assures that the pact’s “framework is aligned with our country’s national security interest.””With its completion, it is important to note that the 2021 AUKUS agreement has now survived three changes of government in all three nations and still stands strong.”Courtney is a vocal champion of AUKUS in Congress, and represents a Connecticut district that is home to the primary submarine manufacturing facility in the United States.The AUKUS pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the United States and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies.- Long-range strike -The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of improving its long-range strike capabilities in the Pacific, particularly against China.The deal could cost Canberra up to US$235 billion over the next 30 years, and also includes the technology to build its own vessels in the future.Australia’s defense industry minister, Pat Conroy, said Friday he was pleased the US review had confirmed that AUKUS was “full steam ahead.””We’ll engage constructively with its findings and its recommendations on how to improve AUKUS even further.”Conroy said it was up to Washington to decide whether to release the document publicly. “We’re working through the review right now, and we’ve said publicly over the last two years where we can improve delivery, improve performance of AUKUS, we will do that.”AUKUS is a “living agreement”, Conroy said.”It will go for 30 or 40 years at a minimum. We’re going to see changes. We’re going to see improvements in it.”Australia had a major bust-up with France in 2021 when it canceled a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from Paris and go with the AUKUS program instead.