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Nov. 26 (UPI) — A three-judge panel on Wednesday permitted North Carolina to adopt a redrawn congressional map that is expected to favor the Republican Party.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina unanimously ruled against the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction against legislation approved in October by the state’s General Assembly that critics say threaten one federal congressional district, specifically Congressional District 1, which represented by Democrat Don Davis.

In their 57-page ruling on Wednesday, the three Republican-appointed judges said the plaintiffs failed to prove that the state’s General Assembly enacted the legislation, Senate Bill 249, with the intent to “minimize or cancel out the voting potential” of Black North Carolinians as they had claimed.

The ruling comes in protracted litigation that began in 2023, when the Republican-led state sought to redraw some of the districts for electing representatives to the state Senate and federal Congress.

The plaintiffs, who include the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, sued that December. In October, amid litigation on the maps, the state’s General Assembly passed legislation to swap counties between Congressional District 1 and Congressional District 3.

The plaintiffs again sued the state, alleging the legislation was unconstitutional and asking the court to enjoin S.B. 249.

Earlier this month, the same three-judge panel issued a ruling approving the changes to the map put forward in 2023.

A hearing on S.B. 249 was held Nov. 19, during which the plaintiffs argued that the speed with which the General Assembly passed the 2025 plan was evidence of discriminatory intent.

But the panel of judges disagreed, stating “they have offered no reason to believe that the speed of the 2025 process indicates an intent to discriminate on the basis of race. Nor do they explain what weight we are supposed to assign to what they call ‘the near uniform outcry among North Carolina voters against the map and the process.'”

The ruling comes amid something of a gerrymandering race in the United States that began in earnest when Texas this summer — under pressure of President Donald Trump — sought a mid-decade redraw of its maps to make them more favorable to the Republican Party.

California is in the process of redrawing its maps in retaliation and other states under control of both parties have followed with similar plans.

US president signals major arms deal before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House.

United States President Donald Trump says he will greenlight the sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, signalling a departure in how Washington handles sophisticated weapons transfers to Arab countries.

Trump made the announcement on Monday at the White House, just one day before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to visit. “We’ll be selling F-35s,” the president told reporters, lauding Washington’s ties with Riyadh.

 “Yeah, I am planning on doing it. They want to buy them. They’ve been a great ally,” Trump said.

The decision marks a substantial win for Riyadh as Trump works to persuade Saudi Arabia to establish official ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.

But Saudi officials have repeatedly reasserted the kingdom’s commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions recognition of Israel on the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

The potential arms deal between Washington and Riyadh raises questions about preserving Israel’s qualitative military edge, which is enshrined in US law. Some Israeli officials have already voiced opposition to the transfer of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia.

The US has a decades-old commitment of ensuring Israel retains superior military capabilities over potential regional adversaries.

The principle, first established under President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and formally adopted by President Ronald Reagan, has guided American arms sales in the Middle East for more than four decades.

Every US administration since has pledged to preserve Israel’s ability to emerge victorious against any likely combination of regional forces.

The F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is widely regarded as the world’s most advanced fighter jet, featuring technology that makes it difficult for enemy defences to detect.

Critics in Israel have warned the sale could erode the country’s longstanding military superiority in the region.

Yair Golan, an opposition politician and former deputy chief of the Israeli army, said the move risked opening “an arms race in the Middle East” that could undermine advantages Israel has held for decades. He also blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as being “failure-prone”.

“The qualitative military edge, which has been the cornerstone of Israel’s security for many decades, is being squandered,” Golan said.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also said Israel must maintain its aerial superiority in the region.

“We are in the Middle East – we cannot get confused. We extend a hand to anyone who truly wants to extend a hand and not harm the State of Israel, but we must preserve our superiority,” he told the Jewish News Syndicate on Monday.

The timing of Trump’s announcement, just before Prince Mohammed’s visit to the White House, underscores the US administration’s efforts to deepen ties with Riyadh as part of its broader Middle East strategy.

Washington has historically managed concerns about Israel’s military edge by either downgrading weapons systems sold to Arab states or providing upgraded versions and additional equipment to Israel.

Prince Mohammed’s visit comes as the shaky ceasefire in Gaza continues amid near-daily Israeli violations.

On Monday, when asked about a potential F-35 deal with Riyadh, Trump invoked the US attack on Iran in June, which he said “obliterated” the country’s nuclear facilities.

Saudi Arabia was not involved in those strikes, but the kingdom’s official news agency, SPA, reported on Monday that Prince Mohammed received a handwritten letter from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian before his trip to Washington – without providing details about its content.

If the F-35 sale materialises, Saudi Arabia would become the first Arab country in the F-35 programme.

In 2020, Trump approved the sale of F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates after Abu Dhabi agreed to establish formal ties with Israel. But the deal fell through after Joe Biden succeeded Trump in 2021 amid concerns by US lawmakers over the security of the technology.

The US Congress can disapprove weapon sales authorised by the president and his secretary of state.

WASHINGTON — The House is scheduled to be back in session Wednesday with a vote expected in the evening on a spending package that, if approved and signed by President Trump, will end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The legislation, which the Senate passed Monday night, is expected to narrowly pass the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. House Democrats are largely anticipated to oppose the deal, which does not include a core demand: an extension to Affordable Care Act healthcare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he believes the deal is poised to pass by the end of the day.

“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” Johnson told reporters in Washington. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless.”

House Democrats were scheduled to meet ahead of the floor vote to discuss their vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday night that there is a “strong expectation” that Democrats will be “strongly opposed” to the shutdown deal when it comes to final vote.

If the tax credits lapse, premiums will more than double on average for more than 20 million Americans who use the healthcare marketplace, according to independent analysts at the research firm KFF.

The spending bill, if approved, will fund the government through Jan. 30 and reinstate federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown. It will also guarantee back pay for federal employees who were furloughed or who were working without pay during the budget impasse.

Passage of the bill would mark a crucial moment on the 43rd day of the shutdown, which left thousands of federal workers without pay, millions of Americans uncertain on whether they would receive food assistance and travelers facing delays at airports across the country.

A vote is expected to begin after 4 p.m. EST — after Johnson swears in Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who was elected seven weeks ago. Once sworn in, Grijalva is set to become the final vote needed to force a floor vote on a petition demanding the Trump administration release files connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

The swearing-in ceremony will soon lay the groundwork for a House vote that Trump has long tried to avoid. It would come as the Epstein saga was reignited on Wednesday morning when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new emails in which the late sex trafficker said Trump “knew about the girls” that he was victimizing.

The emails are part of a trove of documents from Epstein’s estate released to the committee.

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Republicans narrowly defeated a bipartisan bill in the Senate requiring congressional approval for military action against Venezuela as the Trump administration continues a military buildup in the region and attacks on alleged drug boats in nearby waters.

The GOP lawmakers rejected Senate Joint Resolution 90 in a 51-49 vote on Thursday evening, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska casting ballots in favor of the measure with their Democratic colleagues.

The resolution was introduced by Paul, and Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia in response to reporting that President Donald Trump was considering military ground strikes against Venezuela.

Venezuela has long been a target of Trump, who, during his first administration, launched a failed multiyear pressure campaign to oust its authoritarian leader, President Nicolas Maduro.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his executive powers to target drug cartels, including the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Trump has claimed, without providing evidence, that TdA has “invaded” the United States at Maduro’s direction, despite his own National Intelligence Council concluding in May that the regime “probably does not have a policy of cooperating” with TdA.

The vote was held as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a 17th known military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in Caribbean international waters. Since Sept. 2, the United States has killed around 70 people in the attacks.

The attacks have drawn domestic and international criticism and allegations of war crimes, murder and extrajudicial killings. Some Democrats called on the Trump administration to answer questions over the legality of the strikes without gaining proper congressional approval.

Following the Thursday vote, Kaine said the Trump administration told some members of Congress that it lacked legal authority to launch any attacks into Venezuela. Some worry that an attack could devolve into a full-scale war.

“Trump’s illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean and threats of land strikes in Venezuela recklessly and unnecessarily put the U.S. at risk of war,” Kaine said in a statement.

In a separate statement, he criticized his Republican colleagues, stating: “If the U.S. is going to put our nation’s sons and daughters into harm’s way, then we should have a robust debate in Congress in front of the American people.”

Sen. Todd Young, a Republican of Indiana, voted against the bill on Thursday, and explained in a statement that he has been informed of the legal rationale behind the strikes and does not believe the resolution is appropriate right now, but that could change.

“My vote is not an endorsement of the administration’s current course in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. As a matter of policy, I am troubled by many aspects and assumptions of this operation and believe it is at odds with the majority of Americans who want the U.S. military less entangled in international conflicts,” he said.

Shareholders approved the pay package with as much as 75 percent support on Thursday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has scored a resounding victory as shareholders have approved a pay package of as much as $878bn over the next decade, endorsing his vision of morphing the electric vehicle (EV) maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.

Shares of Tesla rose more than 3 percent in after-hours trading after the shareholders voted on Thursday. The proposal was approved with more than 75 percent support.

Musk took to the stage in Austin, Texas, along with dancing robots. “What we are about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,” he said. “This really is going to be quite the story.”

He added: “Other shareholder meetings are like snooze fests, but ours are bangers. I mean, look at this. This is sick.”

Shareholders also re-elected three directors on Tesla’s board and voted in favour of a replacement pay plan for Musk’s services because a legal challenge has held up a previous package.

The vote, analysts have said, is a positive for Tesla’s stock, whose valuation hangs on Musk’s vision of making vehicles drive themselves, expanding robotaxis across the United States and selling humanoid robots, even though his far-right political rhetoric has hurt the Tesla brand this year.

A win for Musk was widely expected as the billionaire was allowed to exercise the full voting rights of his roughly 15 percent stake after the carmaker moved to Texas from Delaware, where a legal challenge has held up a previous pay rise.

The approval comes even after opposition from some major investors, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.

Tesla’s board had said Musk could quit if the pay package was not approved.

The vote will also allay investor concerns that Musk’s focus has been diluted with his work in politics as well as in running his other companies, including rocket maker SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI.

The board and many investors who lent their endorsement have said the nearly $1 trillion package benefits shareholders in the longer run, as Musk must ensure Tesla achieves a series of milestones to get paid.

Goals for Musk over the next decade include the company delivering 20 million vehicles, having one million robotaxis in operation, selling one million robots and earning as much as $400bn in core profit. But in order for him to get paid, Tesla’s stock value has to rise in tandem, first to $2 trillion from the current $1.5 trillion, and all the way to $8.5 trillion.

Under the new plan, Musk could earn as much as $878bn in Tesla stock over 10 years. Musk would be given as much as $1 trillion in stock but would have to make some payments back to Tesla.