“Texas is back to using its 2025 congressional map, at least temporarily, after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted the state’s request to pause a court ruling that would have required using the lines legislators drew in 2021. The high court has not yet decided what map Texas should use while the court battle over the legality of the map plays out over the coming weeks and months; Friday’s ruling is a short-term pause while they make that decision. … President Donald Trump pushed Texas to redraw its map over the summer, hoping to secure five additional GOP seats to shore up the party’s narrow majority in the U.S. House through the midterms. On Tuesday, a federal court barred Texas from using the new map for 2026, saying there was evidence state lawmakers had racially gerrymandered in redrawing the lines.” (11/21/25)
“An Ohio officer who shot and killed a pregnant Black mother in a supermarket parking lot after she was accused of shoplifting has been acquitted of all charges, including murder. Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb could have faced up to life in prison. The Blendon Township police officer had pleaded not guilty to murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the death of 21-year-old Ta’Kiya Young. Bodycam recordings showed Young refusing to exit her car and then turning her steering wheel to the right, before her car began slowly rolling forward against the body of Grubb, who fired one shot into her chest through the windshield.” (11/21/25)
“Nobel laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will be considered a ‘fugitive’ if she emerges from hiding to collect the honor in Norway, Venezuela’s attorney general told Agence France-Presse on Thursday. Machado has expressed interest in attending the ceremony, which will be held in Oslo on December 10. ‘By being outside Venezuela and having numerous criminal investigations, she is considered a fugitive,’ Attorney General Tarek William Saab told the AFP. Saab added that Machado is accused of ‘acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, terrorism,’ and noted that she is under investigation for her support of the United States’ deployment of military forces in the Caribbean. ” (11/21/25)
“The FBI spied on a private Signal group chat of immigrants’ rights activists who were organizing ‘courtwatch’ efforts in New York City this spring, law enforcement records shared with the Guardian indicate. … A ‘joint situational information report’ from the FBI and the New York police department (NYPD), dated 28 August 2025, quoted from a chat on Signal, the encrypted messaging app, and also characterized the court watchers as ‘anarchist violent extremist actors,’ The two-page report was distributed to other law enforcement agencies across the US.” (11/21/25)
“The cryptocurrency market extended a more than a month-long retreat during Asia trading on Friday. Market bellwether Bitcoin dropped as much as 2.1% to below $86,000 for the first time since April, as the market struggled to find new buyers and the momentum that had supported prices earlier in the year evaporated. The pullback comes after weeks of unwinding among fast-moving traders and lingering positioning from October’s record run-up, which has left the market more vulnerable to selling pressure and sharp swings. Bitcoin was trading at $85,474 at 10:59 a.m. in Singapore on Friday.” (11/21/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday removed his 40% tariffs on [American’s purchases of] Brazilian food products, including beef, coffee, cocoa and fruits that were imposed in July to punish Brazil over the prosecution of its former president, Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro. The move follows a similar order by the administration last Friday to remove tariffs on several agricultural products from other countries as the White House makes a U-turn on some tariffs that have increased the cost of food in the United States. … Rising food prices are a major factor behind Trump’s declining approval ratings, which have fallen to their lowest since his return to power, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.” (11/21/25)
“A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to end its months-long deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital. US District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that US President Donald Trump’s military takeover in Washington violates the Constitution and illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct police in the district. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow for an appeal, however. … Cobb found that the president only has the power to call up the Guard ‘through the exercise of a specific power outlined in state law,’ not for ‘whatever reason’ he sees fit. In August, Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army.” (11/20/25)
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received a draft plan aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, his office confirmed Thursday. It said in a statement that he had ‘officially received a draft plan from the American side, which, according to the American side, could activate diplomacy.’ The statement went on to say ‘it was agreed to work on the points of the plan in such a way as to bring the war to a dignified end.’ … The White House official who spoke with CBS News on Thursday said [envoy Steve] Witkoff had been working on a proposal quietly for about a month, and said that he consulted with both the Russians and Ukrainians to take their feedback into account.” (11/20/25)
“Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that the UN’s nuclear watchdog will not be given access to Iranian nuclear sites attacked during the recent war with Israel without a concrete deal ‘The facilities that were attacked have their own story, and until a decision is made and a conclusion is reached between us, the IAEA, and others, cooperation is not possible,’ he says in an interview posted on his Telegram channel today. being agreed.” (11/20/25)
“Convicted Israeli-American spy Jonathan Pollard said that his meeting with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the American Embassy in Jerusalem was a ‘personal’ conversation to express gratitude, not a political exchange, in a phone conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. ‘The meeting, simply put, was a personal affair. That’s it,’ he said. ‘The reason I wanted to meet him was to express my deep and sincere appreciation for everything he had done to help me when I was in prison.’ According to Pollard, the meeting was ‘misinterpreted’ and used by certain figures, both within the US Embassy and the Trump administration, to try to remove Huckabee.” (11/20/25)
