What happened
Republican redistricting efforts in Alabama and South Carolina were blocked yesterday, stalling President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate as many Democratic-leaning seats as possible in an unusual mid-decade gerrymandering campaign. South Carolina’s GOP-led state Senate thwarted a plan to cancel an ongoing primary and swap in a new map that would erase the state’s lone Democratic and majority Black district. In Alabama, a panel of federal judges temporarily blocked the state GOP’s proposed map, saying it was “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.”

Who said what
The 12 South Carolina GOP senators who “effectively killed” the Trump-backed gerrymander cited “numerous” concerns, from practical and political to procedural, said The Post and Courier. “Neither my conscience or common sense is going to let me stop an election that’s already underway,” state Sen. Richard Cash (R) said before the vote. The “rebuke from fellow Republicans came as a shock to Trump’s political operation,” Politico said. But “even without the extra seat” or two, “Republicans have an overall edge in the redistricting war.” 

What next?
In Alabama, the three-judge panel, which includes two Trump appointees, said the state had to use a court-ordered 2024 map that includes two substantially Black districts. Alabama said it would immediately appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

What happened
President Donald Trump yesterday spent more than three hours at Walter Reed Medical Center for his fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since returning to office last year. The White House did not release any details of the exam, but Trump said on social media that “everything checked out PERFECTLY” in his “6 month physical.” Trump turns 80 next month, and his unusually frequent exams put his health “under renewed public scrutiny after he has worked to dismiss concerns over his age and stamina,” The Associated Press said. 

Who said what
Trump “frequently casts himself as more energetic and fitter than Joe Biden, his Democratic predecessor who left office last year at age 82,” Reuters said. Trump’s “health and fitness have been central to his political identity,” but “as an aging president, he now receives some of the same questions that dogged Biden — namely, whether he is mentally and physically fit” for the job, The Washington Post said. “Independent doctors” have called the White House’s explanations for Trump’s makeup-covered bruised hands, red neck rash, swollen legs and “occasional sleepiness” at meetings “insufficient.”

What next?
It was “not immediately clear whether the White House would release details” from Trump’s clinical exam to “support his claim” of good health, The New York Times said. 

Cuba is rapidly growing its solar infrastructure due to the U.S. oil blockade. But renewable energy access is unequal across the island, and the country still has a long way to go before it can survive without gas.

Cuba’s “energy crisis is chronic,” and the Trump administration's blocked fuel shipments have “pushed an already fragile system to the brink,” said El País. After running out of oil this month, the country has been experiencing regular blackouts. The situation is “critical, harsh” and “approaching the contours of a humanitarian emergency,” said Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, Cuba’s representative to Belgium and the EU, to Jacobin.

But where one door closes, another opens. Cuba is “currently pulling off one of the fastest solar revolutions on the planet, with help from China,” said CNN. “Imports of Chinese solar panels and batteries have soared over the past year.” 

Chinese exports of solar equipment to Cuba “skyrocketed from about $5 million in 2023 to $117 million in 2025 and show no sign of stopping,” said The Washington Post. Beijing “pledged last year to help Cuba build more than 92 solar parks by 2028, and more than half of these projects have come online.” 

The Cuban government announced plans to move completely to renewable energy by 2050. It currently “accounts for some 10% of the island’s electricity, up from 3.6% in 2024,” said The Associated Press. However, “distribution remains limited, and few Cubans can afford such a system.” The “surge may be rapid,” said CNN. But solar power is “not yet available at scale.”