Morning Report

TODAY’S ELECTIONS story

Trump DOJ sues to block California redistricting

What happened
The Justice Department yesterday joined a federal lawsuit seeking to block California’s new congressional map, drawn by state Democrats to flip as many as five Republican-held House seats to counteract a gerrymander in Texas. The lawsuit “sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight” between President Donald Trump, who sparked the unusual redistricting battle, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a “likely 2028 presidential contender,” said The Associated Press.

Who said what
Federal courts are “prohibited from policing partisan gerrymandering following a sweeping 2019 Supreme Court ruling,” Politico said, so DOJ officials argued that California’s map “violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act by factoring in racial demographics,” specifically Latino voters. No GOP-led state has yet “faced federal legal action after revamping district lines following Trump’s call for new maps to expand GOP numbers in the House,” the AP said. A Democratic takeover of the chamber next year would “imperil Trump’s agenda.”

California’s new congressional map was approved by nearly 65% of state voters last week. Newsom’s “redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “These losers lost at the ballot box,” countered Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards, “and soon they will also lose in court.”

What next?
A DOJ victory in the suit would “scramble Democrats’ plan to push back” against the GOP’s “rare, mid-decade redistricting ploys,” CNN said. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have already followed Texas in drawing new GOP-friendly maps, and another handful of red, blue and purple states are considering joining the gerrymander race.

TODAY’S SPACE Story

Blue Origin launches Mars probes in NASA debut

What happened
Blue Origin yesterday launched its massive New Glenn rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, carrying small twin spacecraft toward Mars as part of NASA’s Escapade mission. It was Blue Origin’s first NASA mission and only the second launch of the 321-foot New Glenn. Unlike the orbital rocket’s inaugural launch in January, its booster successfully touched down on Blue Origin’s landing barge, a feat previously accomplished only by Elon Musk’s rival aerospace company SpaceX.

Who said what
New Glenn’s flight “was a complete success,” The Associated Press said, and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos appeared “ecstatic” as the booster landed upright. That was a “major step forward” in the company’s “bid to rival SpaceX as a reliable provider of reusable rockets,” said Scientific American. Reusing boosters cuts costs and allows for more frequent launches.

Blue Origin, founded in 2000, “has long been seen as sluggish and disappointing when compared with SpaceX,” The New York Times said. But with a few more successes, that perception “could totally flip pretty quickly,” University of Central Florida space commercialization expert Greg Autry told the newspaper. SpaceX has never sent anything to Mars, and if Blue Origin can “land something on the moon successfully in the first half of next year, then they can even claim to be ahead of SpaceX in some ways.”

What next?
The Escapade mission’s satellites, named Blue and Gold, are scheduled to start orbiting Mars in 2027 to “study the Martian atmosphere and magnetic fields and take other readings” that “could help researchers understand why the planet lost its atmosphere and inform future crewed missions,” The Wall Street Journal said. Blue Origin’s ambitious launch schedule for next year includes sending a prototype lunar lander to the moon.

It’s not all bad

Through his nonprofit Freedom Reads, poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts makes books accessible to prison inmates across the U.S. Betts read “The Black Poets” while incarcerated as a teenager, and it “radically” changed his life, he told The Washington Post. Since launching in 2020, Freedom Reads has installed 500 prison libraries, with the latest at Connecticut’s York Correctional Institution. “We put millions of people in prison,” Betts said. “I want to put millions of books in prisons.”

Under the radar

Taps could run dry in drought-stricken Tehran

Decades of mismanagement and environmental exploitation — coupled with an unprecedented drought — have left Iran teetering on the edge of a water crisis. The reservoirs are nearly empty, and officials are “pleading with citizens to conserve water,” said the BBC. The 10 million inhabitants of Tehran are “facing the real possibility of their taps running dry.” Authorities warned this week that the five main dams supplying the capital were at “critical levels.”

With no rain on the horizon, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that citizens might have to start rationing water. “If rationing doesn’t work,” he said, “we may have to evacuate Tehran.”

Water scarcity is “a major issue throughout Iran,” said Al Jazeera. Authorities blame shortages on “mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources,” but Tehran has also had no significant rain since May, a situation one official said was “nearly without precedent for a century.”

The crisis is also fuelling conspiracy theories: some Iranians are claiming on social media that neighboring countries are “stealing” their rain clouds, said Forbes. Authorities have made similar assertions, accusing Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia of “diverting clouds away from Iran to their own skies.” Iran’s Meteorological Organisation had to clarify that “stealing clouds and snow” isn’t possible.

Studies point to “decades of mismanagement, including excessive dam construction, illegal well drilling and unsustainable agriculture,” said The New York Times. Iran’s Ministry of Energy recently turned to “cloud seeding,” which involves “dispersing particles like silver iodide into existing clouds to encourage rainfall.” But clouds need to contain at least 50% moisture for that to work. “With no relief in sight, some officials have called on the population to pray for rain.”

On this day

November 14, 1972

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time, finishing the day at 1,003.16. The milestone came 76 years after the Dow was first established, and the index — which closed at 47,457 yesterday — is still widely viewed as a major indicator of Wall Street’s health.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Epstein debacle grows’

“Trump strikes a nerve in MAGA,” drawing “rare resistance from faithful base,” The Washington Post says on Friday’s front page. “Epstein debacle grows for Trump,” says the Los Angeles Times. “Epstein vote in House on fast track,” says the Chicago Tribune. “Things are looking up as government reopens,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Impacts of shutdown are likely to linger,” says the Arizona Republic. “Spending bill caps THC in products,” could “snuff Texas hemp industry,” says the Houston Chronicle. “THC firms are preparing to fight federal ban,” The Minnesota Star Tribune says. “Democrats may win shutdown’s long game,” says USA Today.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Walk on the wild side

Queensland, Australia, is considering changes to its biosecurity laws that would allow residents to keep dingoes as pets. The wild canines are currently classified as an invasive animal, but if the plan to reclassify them as domestic dogs moves forward, they may soon be seen “frolicking with dachshunds and labradoodles” in dog parks, said Australia’s ABC News. Wildlife groups, rescue organizations and scientists oppose the idea, warning it could lead to “negative outcomes for dingoes and people.”

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.