Alabama Republicans ask Supreme Court to allow congressional map found racially discriminatory by lower court

2026-05-27T12:22:00-0400 / CBS News

By

Updated on: May 27, 2026 / 12:55 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Alabama Republicans asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow the state to use a congressional map, crafted in 2023, that would give the GOP an edge in the midterm elections, after a district court found that the redistricting plan was racially discriminatory.

State officials asked the high court for emergency relief on the heels of the district court’s decision that ordered Alabama to use a court-approved map that includes two majority-Black districts for upcoming House contests. The three-judge district court panel found that the redistricting plan adopted by Alabama’s GOP-controlled legislature in 2023, which has one majority-minority district, intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

“Alabama and the public face irreparable harm unless a stay issues because they will be unable to use the State’s ‘duly enacted plans’ for the 2026 election,” Alabama officials wrote in a filing. “Worse still, voters will be forced to vote under a court-drawn racially gerrymandered map that does not meet Alabama’s legitimate districting goals.”

They said the 2023 map “was lawful then, and it is lawful now.”

Alabama Republicans moved to revert back to the congressional lines drawn three years ago after the Supreme Court last month weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. For the 2024 elections in Alabama, House contests were conducted under a plan adopted by the district court, which included two majority-Black congressional districts.

But for the upcoming House elections, Republicans are hoping to flip one of those seats, currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat, by reimposing their 2023 map.

In anticipation of the three-year-old map being put in place, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, set a special primary election for Aug. 11 for the four House districts that would be recrafted under that plan. Primaries for the state’s three other House seats unaffected by redrawing were held last week.

The ongoing battle over Alabama’s congressional map is part of the fallout from the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision. In response to that ruling, which involved Louisiana’s House district lines, several states in the South have rushed to reconfigure their congressional maps to help bolster Republicans’ odds of holding onto their House majority.

The effort is in line with President Trump’s push over the past few months for GOP-led states like Texas, Florida and Missouri to recraft their congressional maps for partisan gain.

Alabama’s congressional map has been ensnared in legal wrangling since 2021, when the state drew new House districts after the 2020 Census. In 2023, after the Supreme Court ruled that earlier redistricting plan likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, state lawmakers drew the map with one majority-Black district out of seven congressional seats, even though Alabama’s population is 27% Black.

But those House lines were invalidated by the district court. It went on to put in place its own congressional map that bolstered Black voting power, and that was used for 2024 House races.

On the heels of the voting rights decision, Alabama officials asked the Supreme Court to set aside the injunction that had blocked the state from using the 2023 map. The high court agreed to do so earlier this month and sent the case back to the district court for more proceedings.

But when the district court took another look at the House districts drawn in 2023, it said there was “undisputed evidence” that the map intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer found.

Talarico says Paxton is “clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption”

2026-05-27T12:35:00-0400 / CBS News

By

Ed O’Keefe Senior White House and Political Correspondent
Ed O’Keefe is CBS News’ senior White House and political correspondent reporting for all CBS News platforms. He’s part of the team covering President Trump and covered all four years of Joe Biden’s presidency. From the White House to the campaign trail, O’Keefe’s reports stretch from the politics of the moment to how policy enacted in Washington affects the nation and the world.

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Gabrielle Ake,
Updated on: May 27, 2026 / 1:35 PM EDT / CBS News

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in the Lone Star State, conceded Wednesday that some past statements during debates over transgender policy “missed the mark,” but accused his Republican opponent Ken Paxton of “intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”

Republicans are “worried about the movement that we’re building here in Texas,” Talarico said, hours after Republicans overwhelmingly chose Paxton, the state attorney general, as their Senate nominee.

“I think national Republicans see the momentum behind this movement, and they’re worried we’re going to win Texas in November,” Talarico told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe in his first network news interview since Tuesday’s runoff.

He told O’Keefe that his campaign has been attracting huge crowds across the state, and he believes his support is expanding beyond the Democratic voter base.

“We’ve had tens of thousands of Texans showing up to rally with us. And I can’t tell you the number of people who’ve come up to me at the end of these events and whisper, ‘I’m not a Democrat,’ like they’re in the witness protection program,” Talarico said. “I think we’re reaching people who don’t normally vote for Democratic candidates. We’re also reaching a lot of first-time voters, a number of young people, who’ve been showing up at our events, who’ve been signing up to volunteer and donate.”

Paxton won the Senate primary runoff for the GOP nomination on Tuesday night in a landslide, defeating Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent senator who has represented Texas since 2002.

Senate GOP leadership had thrown its support behind Cornyn — a prolific fundraiser who has brought in more than $400 million for Republican Senate candidates — and viewed him as a better candidate to take on Talarico in the general election. Now, with Paxton as the nominee, Republicans will have to dump large sums of money into the race to support his lackluster fundraising and combat an onslaught of attacks from the left over a number of ethics scandals.

For his part, Talarico has also flexed his fundraising chops, bringing in $27 million in the first quarter. He defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in March for the Democratic nomination.

Talarico said “Texans are drowning.”

“We can’t afford the basics, we can’t afford groceries or gas or insurance or housing or childcare or prescription drugs, and Ken Paxton clearly has no solutions to offer us,” he said. “So, while he divides us with these same tired culture war fights, I’m going to keep bringing Texans together to take on his corruption and lower our costs.”

To drive down costs in Texas, Talarico proposes ending tariffs, suspending the federal gas and diesel taxes and capping prescription drug prices. He said along with the cost of housing, childcare and insurance, “all of these things are conspiring to hold Texans back.”

Talarico echoed a message he’s shared since the beginning of the campaign — that the fight isn’t left versus right, it’s “top versus bottom.”

“We’re all getting screwed. None of us can afford anything. None of us can get ahead, no matter how hard we work, and that’s because the system, this political system and economic system, are rigged against us,” he said. “It’s been rigged for 50 years by billionaire megadonors and their puppet politicians — like Ken Paxton.”

The Democratic nominee argued that corruption is the “central problem in our country right now.”

“I think we’re living in an era of corruption, and I don’t just mean illegal activity, although we’re certainly going to hear a lot about that, given that Ken Paxton is the nominee. But I’m talking about corruption in the deeper sense, the rotting of our systems from the inside out, the decaying of long-held values and institutions, and we see it everywhere,” he said.

Talarico said “this campaign is really about taking on that corruption head-on.”

The general election is expected to be among the most expensive Senate races in the country. The race could also determine control of the Senate, as Democrats look to flip the chamber. Republicans currently have 53 seats in the Senate, meaning Democrats would need to net four to retake the majority. And despite a difficult map, Democrats see Paxton’s nomination as bringing them one step closer to a long-sought victory in Texas. No Democrat has prevailed in a Senate race in Texas since 1988, when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen won reelection. The Cook Political Report shifted its rating from Likely Republican to Lean Republican after Paxton’s victory.

Talarico hopes to defeat Paxton by adding Cornyn supporters to his base of Democratic voters. He appealed to them Wednesday, thanking Cornyn for his “many years of service to our state” and noting that while they don’t agree on every issue, “we both still believe in public service.”

“We both still believe that these positions of public trust should be about serving our neighbors, not serving ourselves,” Talarico said. “And so to any of Senator Cornyn’s supporters who still believe in that old-fashioned idea of service, I want them to know they have a place in our campaign.”

As the general election fight gets underway, Talarico has faced intense criticism from Paxton and other Republicans, like GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who called Talarico “absolutely extreme” on his podcast overnight, adding, “What makes Talarico dangerous — and that worries me — is he packages it in this very nice ‘aw, shucks’ demeanor, and he sounds like a preacher.”

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who calls himself a progressive Christian, has faced attacks from the right over previous comments, including on veganism and gender.

Pressed on a comment he made that God is nonbinary, Talarico said he was being “intentionally provocative,” but added that “what it means is that God can’t be defined by human categories.” On his comments about gender, Talarico said “I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there’s a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Asked by O’Keefe about the criticism surrounding his diet, Talarico said he is not a vegan, noting that he’s an eighth-generation Texan who’s “been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”

“If all they have is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our chances this November,” he said.

Trump says Iran is ‘negotiating on fumes,’ believes regime thought they could outwait him

2026-05-27T13:56:51-04:00 / Fox News

About three months into Operation Epic Fury, the president says Iran ‘very much’ wants an agreement

By Greg Norman-Diamond Fox News

Published May 27, 2026 1:56pm EDT

Trump says Iran is ‘negotiating on fumes’

President Donald Trump, during Cabinet meeting, says Iran “thought they were going to outwait me.”

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and that the regime thought they could outwait him when it comes to reaching a deal to end the war.

Trump, speaking during a Cabinet meeting about three months after the launch of Operation Epic Fury, said Iran “very much” wants to reach an agreement.

“So far they haven’t gotten there.We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,we will be. Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” the president warned.

“But their navy has gone, as I’ve said a thousand times,their navy is gone. Their air force is gone.Everything’s gone and they’re negotiating on fumes. But we’ll see what happens.Maybe we have to go back and finish it.Maybe we don’t,” he continued.

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP SAYS ‘NOBODY’S GOING TO CONTROL THE STRAIT,’ OR ‘WE’LL HAVE TO BLOW THEM UP’

President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on May 27, 2026, as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth looks on.(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

The president also said Iran’s economy “is in freefall” with surging inflation and money that “has no value.”He mentioned, “They’re just going back to the internet because they’re getting clobbered,” referencing reports on Tuesday that Internet access in Iran was partially being restored following a lengthy blackout.

“They thought they were going to outwait me,you know,‘We’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms.’I don’t care about the midterms.Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms,” Trump added.

IRAN AND HOUTHI TERROR PROXY FACING RED SEA THREAT FROM PRO-US AFRICAN NATION

USS George H.W. Bush transits the Arabian Sea as U.S. forces enforce a naval blockade against Iran and support Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command.(CENTCOM)

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.I’m doing that for the world.I’m not doing it just for us. And we’ve had great support from other nations, by the way. We don’t need it at all. But we’ve had great support from other nations,” Trump also said. “The problem is you always get the support when you don’t need it. When you need it, you don’t get the support. With Operation Epic Fury, our warriors are ensuring that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror never obtains a nuclear weapon. And they won’t.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, following Trump, that diplomacy remains the first option for resolving the war with Iran.

President Donald Trump attends a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington on May 27, 2026.(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

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“There’s an agreement to be made. We want that to be made. I think there’s been some progress and some interest. And we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made,” Rubio said during the Cabinet meeting.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth added, “Whether it is through the efforts of your negotiators that they ensure that they never have a nuclear weapon, or we have to go back to the War Department to finish the job that way,we’re prepared to do that.”

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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Judge dismisses bribery case involving FIFA after DOJ says bribery is not a priority

2026-05-27 1:35 PM ET / CNN

By Kara Scannell

1 hr 59 min ago

PUBLISHED May 27, 2026, 1:35 PM ET

Federal agencies Soccer

FIFA President Gianni Infantino holds the FIFA World Cup trophy following the 2026 FIFA World Cup European Play-Off draw at the FIFA’s Home of Football in Zurich on November 20, 2025.

Fabrice Coffini/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

• A federal judge dismissed criminal charges in a FIFA bribery case after the Justice Department said the case no longer fits its priorities.
• The decision came 11 years after the landmark 2015 takedown that reached the highest levels of global soccer.
• It marks the second high-profile bribery case dropped during President Donald Trump’s second term after charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams were withdrawn.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

A federal judge dismissed criminal charges against a media executive in a long-running bribery case involving FIFA after the US Justice Department said the case no longer fits the Trump administration’s priorities.

The decision came on the 11-year anniversary of DOJ’s takedown and announcement of initial charges in 2015 against 14 defendants for an alleged bribery scheme spanning over two decades. It reached into the highest levels of FIFA, the governing body for global soccer, and other entities associated with the organization. The cases caused a reckoning within FIFA, leading to the resignation of top officials.

It’s the second high-profile bribery case the Justice Department has dropped during President Donald Trump’s second term. Last year, DOJ withdrew charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, which led to an exodus of prosecutors from the Justice Department’s public integrity section in Washington, DC, and the resignation of the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Joseph Nocella, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, appeared in court on Wednesday and told the judge, “The Department of Justice does not want to use its resources to continue to pursue the prosecution.” He added, “It doesn’t fit with the administration’s priorities” which include terrorism, threats to national security, drug and human trafficking, and gangs.

Judge Pamela Chen observed to Nocella that his prosecution team was fully equipped to handle the hearing but noted, “You appear to be here by yourself.”

Nocella said he was there because he signed the motion to dismiss the case.

The prosecution had a source of pride for the federal prosecutors’ office in Brooklyn.

In court filings, DOJ said the decision to dismiss the case against Hernan Lopez, a former 21st Century Fox executive, and Full Play Group, an Argentine sports marketing company, was limited to this case and said it was not seeking to walk back convictions or guilty pleas reached with other defendants. Lopez and Full Play were accused of bribing soccer officials to win media and broadcast rights.

Lopez and Full Play were convicted at trial in 2023, but Chen later overturned the conviction. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision and reinstated the conviction. Lopez asked the US Supreme Court to hear his appeal. In December, the Justice Department took the unusual step of asking courts to dismiss the indictment.

After court, Lopez said, “Six years later a case they never should have started is finally over.”

“I am relieved,” he said.

By

Margaret Brennan,

Margaret Brennan Moderator, “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan;” Chief foreign affairs correspondent

Margaret Brennan is moderator of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on CBS. Based in Washington, D.C., Brennan is also the Network’s chief foreign affairs correspondent and a contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes. Additionally, she appears regularly on the “CBS Evening News,” leading coverage from Washington when news breaks on the political and foreign affairs fronts.

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Margaret Brennan,
James LaPorta

James LaPorta National security coordinating producer

James LaPorta is the national security coordinating producer for the CBS News’ Washington bureau. He is a former U.S. Marine veteran infantryman and veteran of the Afghanistan war.

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James LaPorta

May 27, 2026 / 1:25 PM EDT / CBS News

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Washington — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine urged President Trump and Congress to expand deliveries of Patriot missile systems in a letter written on Memorial Day, warning that Russia is preparing a broader campaign of ballistic missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.

CBS News obtained the five-page letter, which framed Ukraine’s fight against Russia not simply as a regional war, but as a test of American leadership and the durability of Western alliances.

“And when it comes to defending against ballistic missiles, we rely almost exclusively on the United States,” wrote Zelenskyy. “Patriot systems remain the most effective defense against every type of Russian ballistic missile.”

He added: “And it is in Ukrainian hands that Patriot systems have proven something extremely important: the majority of Russian missiles can be stopped.”

The appeal comes as Ukraine faces mounting pressure from intensified Russian aerial bombardments and growing uncertainty over the pace of Western military assistance. Zelenskyy described a massive Russian assault carried out on the eve of Memorial Day, saying Moscow launched dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles, including hypersonic weapons, alongside roughly 600 drones.

The strikes killed at least two people, and nearly 100 people were injured. More than 350 residential buildings were damaged, among them schools and museums in Kyiv, including the Chornobyl Museum, which had recently been renovated ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. The museum was destroyed by a direct missile strike, according to Zelenskyy’s letter.

The letter appeared calibrated not only to secure military aid, but also to reinforce Ukraine’s strategic value to the U.S. at a moment when Washington is balancing commitments in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

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Zelenskyy underscored that Patriot interceptors are incredibly difficult to obtain quickly enough to counter Russia’s expanding ballistic missile campaign. The embattled president said while he’s “grateful” for the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, the NATO-backed procurement mechanism created to keep U.S.-made weapons flowing to Ukraine, the “current pace of deliveries through the PURL program is no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face.”

The Kviv Independent first reported on the letter Wednesday.

NASA chief pulls back curtain on Trump UFO files after bizarre finds surface in buried fed records

Released files include infrared footage, Apollo-era astronaut accounts and military pilot testimony from combat zones

2026-05-27 12:20pm EDT / Fox News

By Ashley J. DiMella Fox News

Published May 27, 2026 12:20pm EDT

NASA chief Jared Isaacman says no alien bodies found but some sightings defy explanation

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman says declassified UAP files show real unexplained phenomena but no alien bodies or crashed ships have been found. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the Trump administration’s newly declassified UAP files are exposing years of strange aerial sightings that government agencies failed to seriously dig into — even if the records do not point to recovered alien remains or ships.

“What’s being surfaced isn’t crashed ships or alien bodies, but real unexplained phenomena,” Isaacman told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday.

The disclosures come after the Trump administration released two waves of declassified UAP files as part of a broader transparency effort directing agencies to search internal databases for decades-old reports involving unexplained aerial activity after years of public skepticism surrounding government secrecy and UFO investigations. Officials say additional file releases from agencies including the CIA could soon follow.

TRUMP ADMIN RELEASES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED FILES DOCUMENTING UFOS, ‘EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE’

The ongoing release of declassified files is part of Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program, which made a second batch of documents public on Friday.(Getty Images Creatives)

Isaacman framed the disclosures less as proof of extraterrestrial life than as a public test of unexplained evidence, saying modern cameras, military sensors and newly released government records are giving Americans more material to examine than ever before.

“Everybody’s got a camera phone, a doorbell camera. Every military aircraft flying has a million sensors,” Isaacman said. “You’re gonna pick up things. Pick up things that flew at a different angle, you know, across the lens that maybe if you had a better angle on, you’d be like, oh, that’s a balloon, or that might be a missile in a combat region. But because we caught it at an angle, it’s an unexplained phenomenon.”

Isaacman said the biggest surprise was not evidence of extraterrestrials, but how little attention federal agencies had historically given to unexplained aerial records, calling the renewed disclosure effort under the Trump administration “citizen science.”

UFO INSIDER CLAIMS US HAS BODIES OF 4 DIFFERENT ALIEN SPECIES FROM DOWNED SPACECRAFT IN GOVERNMENT CUSTODY

The newly surfaced material includes infrared footage from 2023 that appears to show a U.S. F-16 shooting down a diamond-shaped object over Lake Huron.(US Department of War via Getty Images)

“Government agencies really didn’t take this quite as seriously in the past until President Trump put out the tweet, basically giving an order to government agencies and going out and saying, look, this time you better go through the files, you better start searching your databases and bring things up,” said Isaacman.

“I think the president has really got government agencies now taking this seriously, to go look at the files and bring the data to light, and he’s putting it all out for everyone to analyze,” he added. “This is citizen science right now. Take a look at our files, tell us what you think.”

The newly surfaced material includes infrared footage from 2023 that appears to show a U.S. F-16 shooting down a diamond-shaped object over Lake Huron, along with reports documenting unexplained aerial objects spotted near military operations in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Greece and other parts of the Middle East. The records also include astronaut and NASA-related accounts from the Apollo and Gemini eras describing strange lights and unidentified objects observed in space.

UFO EXPERT SAYS TRUMP’S DECLASSIFICATION COULD EXPOSE POSSIBLE ‘COVER-UP’ SPANNING DECADES

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration is directing agencies to revisit long-buried UAP records in the name of transparency, while Isaacman said additional “big file tranches” from intelligence agencies could soon become public.

“I think the president has really got government agencies now taking this seriously, to go look at the files and bring the data to light, and he’s putting it all out for everyone to analyze,” said Isaacman.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“There’s nothing I’m aware of in terms of alien bodies or spaceships,” Isaacman said. “But observations from decades past — from some of our adversaries and potentially some of our allies — essentially saying, ‘We saw something, we documented it, and we kept it buried in a file somewhere,’ are now being made public.”

The documents also contain testimony from intelligence officers and military pilots who said they could not explain encounters they witnessed during operations and training exercises.

Isaacman said he personally believes life likely exists elsewhere in the universe and argued that searching for it remains central to NASA’s long-term mission.

“I think if we go and bring samples back from Mars, you’ve got better than a 90% chance of former microbial life,” he said.

DECLASSIFIED APOLLO MISSION UFO FILES CHALLENGE LONG-RUNNING MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Isaacman also pointed to Saturn’s moon Titan and Jupiter’s moon Europa as locations scientists believe may contain conditions capable of supporting microbial life or biosignatures — chemical indicators associated with living organisms.

Officials say additional UFO and UAP files will continue to be released in future batches as part of the administration’s ongoing disclosure effort.(Guvendemir/Getty Images)

“Things that could indicate perhaps that there was microbial life there or some other form there of which it changes the whole equation from surely there is life out there somewhere to what if it’s everywhere,” said Isaacman.

Isaacman also argued that broader public disclosure could help reduce skepticism at a time when advances in artificial intelligence and digital manipulation are making it increasingly difficult for people to distinguish authentic footage from fabricated material.

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“I would say that some of the most interesting data that NASA has provided as part of the UAP disclosure was taken on the surface of the moon from Apollo 12 and 17,” he said. “You can’t be a moon landing denier and also believe that those photos captured unexplained phenomenon.”

Officials say additional UFO and UAP files will continue to be released in future batches as part of the administration’s ongoing disclosure effort.

Ashley J. DiMella reports on politics for Fox News Digital.

Trump’s domestic shipping waiver has not cut gasoline prices by much, data shows

2026-05-27T16:01:31.619Z / Reuters

Waiver’s limited use due to high freight rates and small volumes moved, data shows
California received most shipments, but overall effect on US gasoline prices likely minimal
Jones Act vessel could also reroute to international markets, limiting ship availability

HOUSTON, May 27(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s waivers allowing foreign-flagged ships to move oil and fuel between U.S. ports have had little impact ​on high domestic gasoline prices due to elevated shipping rates and the relatively small fuel volumes transported so far, a Reuters analysis found.

In March, Trump issued a ‌waiver to the Jones Act, a century-old law that requires shippers to use vessels built, owned and crewed by Americans to transport commodities between U.S. ports.

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The policy, aimed at supporting the domestic maritime industry and national security, has also resulted in higher shipping costs within the U.S.

Trump waived the act to facilitate fuel transport around the U.S. coastline, primarily from Gulf Coast refiners to the East and West coasts, regions that rely on imports due to insufficient local ​refineries and pipeline connections to meet demand. The waiver represents the broadest suspension of the Jones Act in its history and offers a real-world test of whether easing the ​restrictions can reduce fuel transportation costs.

Gasoline prices have spiked higher since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, and the waiver is one of several ⁠measures Trump has taken to try to control fuel prices, which are feeding inflation. Pain at the pump could hurt Republicans campaigning to retain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

National gasoline prices averaged $4.49 ​per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA, compared to under $3 before the war. California prices averaged $6.11 per gallon.

“This waiver is not delivering on what (Trump) was told it would do: lower prices at the ​pump, and materially increase the flow of product across the country,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president of the pro-Jones Act group American Maritime Partnership.

The White House said data compiled since the initial Jones Act waiver showed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster. Administration officials are pleased with the waiver’s results and have told the oil industry they are open to future extensions if conditions require it, two sources said.

During the first ​two months of the waiver, refiners including Valero
VLO.N
and Phillips 66
PSX.N
used the exemption about 50 times, moving 2.6 million barrels of crude and 7.5 million barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet ​fuel, federal data showed.

Those volumes were only a fraction of daily U.S. consumption, and rates for available foreign-flagged tankers were high because many ships were trapped inside the Strait of Hormuz.

“Freight rates are much, much higher than they typically ‌would be,” ⁠said Ryan Kellogg, an energy policy professor at the University of Chicago. “International vessels were just really hard to get.”

Jones Act critics say the law creates inefficiencies and that the use of international ships under the waiver signals demand for more tankers.

“The fact that waivers have been used 50 times to move energy suggests that this was the best option, and if this didn’t exist, a more expensive, costlier option would have had to be used,” said Colin Grabow at the conservative think tank Cato Institute, which has long called for the law to be repealed.

California, the nation’s top oil ​and fuel importer, received over 60% of gasoline ​and blendstock cargoes moved under the waivers — about ⁠3 million barrels, or 2.1 million gallons a day. That is roughly just 6% of the 36 million gallons Californians consume daily.

Foreign vessels also carried gasoline to Alaska, Florida, South Carolina and Oregon, data showed. Combined, shipments totaled about 84,000 barrels per day, a fraction of the 8.75 million barrels consumed daily ​nationwide.

Shipping on an international vessel from the U.S. Gulf Coast to the West Coast would have saved about 6.6 cents a gallon, or ​1% of California’s current ⁠prices, compared with a Jones Act tanker, according to price reporting firm Argus. On the East Coast, high demand for foreign ships to Asia meant it was actually cheaper to ship on a Jones Act tanker.

As international tanker rates fall, companies are likely to use the waivers more in coming weeks, industry experts said.

The waiver also appeared to reshape shipping patterns, raising concerns about tight U.S. tanker markets. At least one U.S. ⁠tanker shipped ​Alaskan crude to South Korea in April, its first recorded international voyage since 2014. Valero recently sought a Jones Act ​tanker to move fuel to Mexico, two sources said.

Industry sources said that could be an unintended consequence of the waiver: If foreign vessels undercut domestic routes, more U.S. ships could pursue international business, straining domestic tanker availability. Tax uncertainty over waiver voyages ​also deterred companies from chartering foreign tankers for U.S. routes, a shipping source said.

Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, Jarrett Renshaw, additional reporting by Shariq Khan in New York; Editing by David Gregorio

Breaking down Democrats’ chances to beat Ken Paxton in Texas

2026-05-27T17:45:54.004Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/breaking-down-democrats-chances-to-beat-ken-paxton-in-texas

It’s a question that has been asked for a very long time now: Can Democrats finally end their decadeslong statewide losing streak in Texas?

And every few years, the answer comes back the same: No. Lucy has yanked the football away, yet again. Texas Democrats still haven’t won a statewide race since 1994 or a Senate race since 1988, the year before James Talarico was born.

But it’s a question that’s clearly legitimate in 2026. That’s because Democrats got their coveted opponent in the state’s US Senate race: the baggage-ridden Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Paxton drubbed Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff Tuesday after a late endorsement from President Donald Trump.)

“I got a message to Republicans in Texas and nationwide: Do not take this general election for granted,” GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said on a new episode of his podcast. “It is easy to say it’s Texas, it’s red, we’re going to win — and I believe we are going to win — but I also think the Democrat nominee James Talarico is a dangerous candidate.”

Indeed, the data suggest Democrats’ chances are as good as — or better than — ever in the last three decades. History and logic suggest it’s still worth being circumspect.

First, the basics.

The case for Paxton being a problematic candidate for Republicans is self-evident, while the case for Talarico being a strong candidate for Democrats makes theoretical sense but is untested.

CNN’s Patrick Svitek recaps some of Paxton’s not-so-greatest hits:

• He was indicted on felony securities fraud charges a decade ago. Eventually in 2024 he reached a pretrial agreement involving community service and restitution.
• He also faced a civil case on similar allegations brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, though that case was thrown out in 2016.
• His own aides reported him to the FBI in 2020 for alleged corruption. No case was brought, but Paxton’s firing of the aides was ruled improper in a $6.6 million judgment.
• The GOP-controlled state House impeached him in 2023, though he was later acquitted by the state Senate.
• He has the kinds of mortgage problems that the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed could be serious crimes — at least when they involved Trump’s foes.
• He has faced allegations of infidelity, including when his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”

As for Talarico, it remains to be seen how he’ll play.

Democrats love that he speaks openly and comfortably about his Christian faith and hope he can make a play for conservative-leaning religious voters.

But he also has something of a Kamala Harris problem. That’s because, like Harris, he said some rather “woke” things in recent years when that was more en vogue on the left — things like that there are six biological sexes and that “God is nonbinary.” He has called the American flag a “complicated symbol.” And while Republicans have falsely accused Talarico of being a vegan, he did in 2022 talk about reducing meat consumption and said he was running a “non-meat” campaign for the state House.

Those kinds of comments shouldn’t be undersold in this race. They could be real hurdles with culturally conservative voters — signals to them that maybe Talarico, despite all his talk about his faith in God, is far from one of them.

But at least for now, there are some real reasons for Democrats to be optimistic.

That’s because the environment is increasingly good for their party, and the data back up the idea that Paxton could be a drag on Republicans.

The national “generic ballot” keeps trending toward Democrats, to the point that some recent polls show them with a double-digit lead. And with Trump’s approval rating falling lower than ever before, it’s increasingly conceivable the environment could be better for Democrats than in 2018, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke lost to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz by just 2.6 points.

And crucially for Texas, Trump has lost huge ground with Latino voters, who look like they’ll revert to a strong Democratic constituency after trending Republican in recent years.

The polls of this specific race are also quite good for Democrats right now.

An April University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll actually showed Talarico leading Paxton by eight points among registered voters, 42%-34%. That’s even as GOP Gov. Greg Abbott led his race by 6 — a whopping 14-point gap between Paxton’s and Abbott’s performances.

A more recent Texas Southern University/YouGov poll showed a tied Senate race among registered voters, 45%-45%. But again, Paxton underperformed other statewide candidates like Abbott (who again led by 6).

These are the kinds of polls you basically never see in Texas. In fact, even O’Rourke — Democrats’ most successful Senate candidate in decades — polled consistently behind Cruz through all of 2018.

Paxton has also proved he underperforms other Republicans in actual elections, at least somewhat. In 2022, he notched the smallest margin of any statewide Texas Republican that cycle, winning by 9 points even as others won by between 11 and 15 points.

A deeper dive into the new polls also suggests Paxton has work to do in patching things up after a brutal GOP nominating contest.

For instance, while exit polls showed O’Rourke ran about even with Cruz among independent voters (50%-47%) in 2018, Talarico currently leads among them by more than 20 points with independent registered voters in both polls mentioned above.

Both polls also show Talarico’s image is significantly better than Paxton’s. While Talarico’s net favorable rating is 10-11 points positive, Paxton’s is between 6 and 9 points negative.

The University of Texas poll actually showed only 1 in 10 independents liked Paxton, while half disliked him. It also showed Paxton winning just 63% of Republicans, with 11% going for Talarico and 20% undecided.

Paxton did better with Republicans in the Texas Southern poll, taking 85% of them. But that was still less than Talarico’s 96% of Democrats.

But the other way to look at all that is that Paxton has plenty of upside right now.

One thing you’ll notice from these same polls is that Paxton wasn’t doing much worse than Cornyn was. He did maybe 1 or 2 points worse on average, even though Cornyn was supposedly the much more broadly acceptable candidate.

If you’re a Republican, you look at that and think maybe the current polls are just a temporary reflection of the brutal GOP nominating contest. It was one of the most expensive in history, after all, and the runoff lasted more than two months.

We do tend to overestimate how much brutal primaries actually matter by the time the general election rolls around. And the polls suggest many of the undecided voters in this race lean to the right — and thus they could ultimately come home to Paxton and the GOP.

History also suggests voters tend to behave in a more partisan fashion in Senate races than governor’s races because a senator is a vote for one side or the other. So even if a significant chunk of conservative-leaning Texans don’t like Paxton, they might vote for him to foreclose a Democratic-majority Senate.

And to be clear, this race could matter significantly in that majority math. Democrats need to win at least two states that Trump carried by double digits in 2024 in order to flip the Senate.

Alaska and Ohio might be the better opportunities, given the proven candidates they have running in those races.

But Texas is now pretty clearly on the map, at least.

U.S. setting up Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya, officials say

May 27, 2026 1:31 PM EDT / CBS News

By Michael Kaplan Reporter and Producer

Michael Kaplan is an award-winning reporter and producer for the CBS News Investigative Unit. He specializes in securing scoops and crafting long-form television investigations. His work has appeared on “60 Minutes,” CNN and in The New York Times.

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Kristin Brown

The U.S. is in the process of setting up a quarantine facility in Kenya for Americans who were exposed to Ebola or infected with the deadly illness, multiple officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday.

A Trump administration official told CBS News the facility is designed to provide access to high-quality care for Americans who would need to quickly get out of Congo and quarantine without the risks of a lengthy trip back to the U.S.

The effort to set up the Kenya facility was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The move will potentially lead to U.S. citizens being kept from reentering the U.S. A former CDC official who previously worked on the Ebola response told CBS News, “It would be unbelievably unethical and irresponsible to maroon Americans given Kenya doesn’t have a proper Level 4 containment facility or much experience” dealing with Ebola.

Over 230 people in Congo are believed to have died from Ebola in the latest outbreak of the disease.

At the White House on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a meeting of President Trump’s Cabinet that multiple government agencies were working hard to contain the outbreak to where it’s currently located.

“We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” Rubio said.

The Trump administration official said the Kenya facility will enable Americans in the region who contract Ebola to receive lifesaving care as quickly as possible without having to spend over 12 hours on a medevac flight.

Treatment capabilities at the facility are expected to be able to care for the full spectrum of the disease, including critical care needs, though each case will be evaluated for forward transport for more advanced care as appropriate in order to maximize patient outcomes, the Trump administration official said.

An American doctor was infected with Ebola while working with a medical missionary organization in Democratic Republic of Congo. After being evacuated, he said last week he’s feeling “cautiously optimistic” as he fights the virus at a hospital in Germany.

Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

FAA orders SpaceX to investigate Starship booster mishap

2026-05-27 16:31:39 UTC / Reuters

By David Shepardson

May 27, 2026 4:31 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

The SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Booster lifts off on its 12th test flight from the SpaceX launch complex in Starbase, Texas, U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS/Steve Nesius Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate ​why its Starship booster suffered a mishap and crashed into the Gulf ‌of Mexico during a test flight last week, the agency said on Wednesday.

The FAA said it determined the SpaceX Starship Flight 12 launch on May 22 resulted in a mishap that ​involved its Super Heavy booster as it flew back to the Gulf ​of Mexico after stage separation.

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SpaceX did not immediately respond to a ⁠request for comment.

The FAA added there were no reports of injuries to members ​of the public or damage to public property. The FAA said it will oversee ​the SpaceX-led investigation, be involved in every step of the process, and approve the company’s final report, including any corrective actions.

SpaceX’s 12th test flight of a Starship prototype since 2023, and the first ​of its V3 iteration, was successful on most counts on Friday. It deployed ​a clutch of mock satellites and executed a controlled splashdown of the spacecraft in the Indian ‌Ocean. ⁠But it failed to achieve a controlled landing of the Super Heavy booster, which tumbled into the Gulf.

The probe is designed to boost public safety, determine the cause of the mishap, and identify actions to prevent it from happening again, the FAA ​said.

The FAA will ​approve a return ⁠to flight of the Starship-Super Heavy vehicle after ensuring any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect ​public safety.

Starship is critical to lowering SpaceX’s launch costs, expanding ​its Starlink ⁠satellite business – its cash engine – and supporting future undertakings such as space-based computing, deployment of orbital AI data-center satellites and human missions to the moon and potentially Mars.

The company ⁠has ​spent more than $15 billion developing what it hopes ​will become a fully reusable rocket capable of carrying far larger payloads than existing launch systems.

Reporting by David ​Shepardson and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Paul Simao, Rod Nickel

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