US supreme court ‘demolishes’ Voting Rights Act | First Thing

Voting rights rally outside US supreme court in Washington in October. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Voting rights rally outside US supreme court in Washington in October. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images First Thing: US supreme court ‘demolishes’ Voting Rights Act Ruling has gutted provision intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Plus, oil tops $126 a barrel to reach highest level since 2022 The US supreme court has gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act through a landmark decision on Louisiana’s congressional map, in a major upheaval in US civil rights law that threatens to weaken the voting power of minorities. In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court demolished section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting. The supreme court found that Louisiana’s congressional maps violated the equal protection clause. Writing for the majority, the supreme court justice Samuel Alito maintained that section 2, which has been used for decades to challenge maps producing racially discriminatory results, does not require states to draw majority-minority districts. How have lawmakers reacted? Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures, who are now at risk of losing their seats in Alabama’s Black congressional districts, have decried the decision as sending the nation “backwards”. How did the ruling come to pass? It is the culmination of justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito’s joint campaign to roll back civil rights legislation. View image in fullscreen Map of seats gained by possible partisan redistricting plans. Illustration: Guardian Design How could midterm maps be changed by redistricting? While the supreme court decision leaves little time to redraw maps before the midterms, here is what midterm maps could look like if both parties achieve all their current redistricting ambitions. Trump threatens to reduce troop numbers in Germany after Merz’s Iran war criticism View image in fullscreen Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw some US troops from Germany amid an ongoing row with Nato allies. Photograph: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images Donald Trump has threatened to reduce the troop numbers of US troops deployed in Germany, days after the country’s chancellor said the US was being “humiliated” by Iran. In a Truth Social post, the president said his administration was “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time”. Merz sought to downplay the situation on Wednesday, but Trump’s threat is likely to cause concern in Berlin and Europe, coming on the back of his intensifying threats to quit the Nato alliance. What did Merz say? The German leader on Monday suggested Trump’s team was being outplayed by the “skilful” tactics deployed by Tehran, adding that “an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership”. Want the latest on this story? follow our live blog. Combative Elon Musk grilled over battle with Sam Altman View image in fullscreen Elon Musk arriving at court in Oakland on Wednesday. Photograph: Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters After a dramatic first day of opening statements and testimony from the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, in his case against Sam Altman and OpenAI, the trial continued on Wednesday with a cross-examination of the world’s richest man. Musk repeated his accusation that Altman “stole a charity” and would endanger humanity with AI – allegations OpenAI’s lawyers pressed him on, resulting in fraught exchanges and interventions from the judge. Musk often refused to give yes or no answers and at one point told OpenAI’s attorneys: “Your questions are not simple – they are designed to trick me, essentially.” What is Musk’s side arguing? He accuses his OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman of violating the founding agreement of the company to build AI to benefit humanity, changing the non-profit to a for-profit structure and unjustly enriching themselves. What about OpenAI? It has rejected Musk’s claims as “motivated by jealousy”, stating that he was always aware of plans for the business and that he left OpenAI in 2018 only after a failed bid to take it over. In other news … View image in fullscreen King Charles and Queen Camilla with the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the 9/11 memorial in New York City on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters The New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has snubbed King Charles, saying he would not meet the British monarch privately and calling for the return of an Indian diamond taken by the crown in 1849. The Claude-powered AI agent Cursor has wiped a business’s entire database and backups, with the highly marketed coding tool confessing: “I violated every principle I was given.” The ex-FBI director James Comey briefly appeared in court on Wednesday after the justice department indicted him over an Instagram post, in a renewed effort to prosecute one of the president’s political enemies. Stat of the day: Oil price rises above $126 a barrel to reach highest price since 2022 View image in fullscreen Oil prices are rising as the Iran war is about to enter its 10th week, while global oil supplies have dropped by nearly 20m barrels each day the strait of Hormuz has been choked off. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The price of Brent oil jumped more than 13% in 24 hours to climb above $126 a barrel on Wednesday, reaching its highest level since 2022. The surge came after Donald Trump said the US blockade of Iranian ports could last months, amid the stalling of peace talks. The Filter recommends: Ultra-light yet indestructible, our favorite cast-iron pan is finally on sale View image in fullscreen Everything I made in the No 5 pan – eggs, chicken thighs, leafy greens, puff pastries – slid right off, even fresh out of the box. Photograph: Courtesy of Field Company If you’re in the market for a cast-iron pan, now might be a good time to invest: former Bon Appétit food writer Karen Yuan’s favorite cast-iron pan is on sale. She describes it as a “rare cast-iron pan that feels nimble” and having “fixed everything I hated about cast iron”. Strike while the iron is hot! Don’t miss this: How one New York gym built a pipeline away from prison View image in fullscreen A scene from Debra Granik’s Conbody v Everybody. Photograph: Courtesy of Janus Films By the age of 27, Coss Marte, a former drug dealer, had been incarcerated for seven years. But after developing a workout in prison, he came up with a business plan for a gym run entirely by former felons. Debra Granik’s new documentary series, which she likens to an “urban novel”, charts the arbitrary hurdles and prejudices from investors that Marte and his business faced: “The hardest thing that we’re going to face as a society is to embrace the willingness to change, in prison reform and rehabilitation,” he says. Climate check: British ad firm’s billion-dollar greenwash of US oil industry uncovered View image in fullscreen An Extinction Rebellion demonstration at the offices of WPP in London in June 2025. Photograph: Eleventh Hour Photography/Alamy The UK-based advertising corporation WPP helped the oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP spend an estimated $1.5bn on ads in the US since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, an analysis shows. Over the last decade, these companies used “deceptive and misleading” communications strategies to obstruct policies designed to curb the reliance on planet-heating fossil fuels, a congressional investigation concluded in April 2024. Last Thing: The Rendlesham Forest mystery: ‘It’s the perfect storm of a UFO case’ View image in fullscreen Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk. Photograph: Clynt Garnham Suffolk/Alamy In 1980, two US airmen reported a suspected extraterrestrial sighting near a military base in England. What they really saw remains a mystery – one that Daniel Lavelle traveled to the US to try to get to the bottom of. “Maybe it boils down to nothing more than a group of easily excitable Americans getting spooked by a deer, a lighthouse and some stars,” writes Lavelle – but he doesn’t really think so … If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com Explore more on these topics US news First Thing newsletter news Share Reuse this content