What happened
Democrats not only swept all statewide races in Texas on Tuesday but also flipped the state House, according to results released yesterday. Republicans had won every statewide race since 1994 and controlled the state legislature since 2003. But from Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa (pictured above) to incoming Attorney General Nathan Johnson, Democrats “romped up and down the ballot in Republicans’ most populous stronghold,” The Associated Press said. They also “infiltrated the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals,” The Texas Tribune said, “and were on the brink of taking a majority of the seats on the State Board of Education.” 

Who said what
“Every county in Texas shifted left,” The New York Times said. Exit polls showed that the “stunning Democratic sweep” was driven largely by economic concerns and disapproval of President Donald Trump, NBC News said. But voter “fury” over Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) “handling of education — from private school vouchers and book bans to crackdowns on academic freedom on college campuses” — had “quietly become a potent political force,” too, even in conservative rural areas.

What next?
The unexpected “historic realignment” in Texas will give Hinojosa “far more latitude to operate and impose her agenda than she may have ever imagined,” the Tribune said. Her campaign said she plans to announce “next steps” today following “successful initial conversations” with Abbott.

What happened
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday awarded first lady Melania Trump his country’s Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, for her “significant personal contribution to humanitarian support for Ukraine.” The honor is Ukraine’s “highest award for women,” said the BBC. The first lady “played a pivotal role” in organizing the “longest local pause in fighting” of the Ukraine war in the occupied town of Oleshky, said Reuters. 

Who said what
Trump, “alongside other actors, helped broker” the evacuation of “nearly 800 people” from Oleshky, said The Kyiv Independent. Russia and Ukraine have both “repeatedly thanked” her, though “neither elaborated on the nature or extent of her involvement,” said the BBC. The White House said she had “independently initiated engagement between the two warring nations” to secure the ceasefire, in an “unprecedented diplomatic initiative by an American first lady.”

On Monday, hours after the ceasefire ended, “multiple Russian guided bombs slammed into a former school and nearby shelter” in a village in southern Ukraine as “residents waited for humanitarian aid,” The Associated Press said. The death toll rose to 40 yesterday, and “Zelenskyy said 30 more people could still be buried in the rubble.”

What next?
Trump will “convene Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House” today, her office said. It’s “unusual” for high-level diplomatic meetings “to be convened through an initiative led by a U.S. first lady,” said the BBC. 

The suspected arson attack that razed Adolf Hitler’s mountaintop retreat has “reignited difficult questions” regarding the site’s future, said Smithsonian Magazine. The main dilemma German authorities face: to rebuild it or not?

The Kehlsteinhaus, known in English as the Eagle’s Nest, is perched 6,000 feet atop an Alpine peak. It was built in 1938 to host and impress visiting dignitaries. Unlike the vast majority of Nazi monuments, it survived the war and its aftermath and became a popular landmark and tourist spot. 

The Eagle’s Nest was part of Obersalzberg, a Bavarian mountainside retreat that also included Hitler’s holiday home, the Berghof, which was mostly destroyed in the final months of World War II and later demolished. After the war, the Bavarian state government “wanted to raze Hitler’s favored hideaway” completely, said The Observer, but local officials “made the case to keep it going, at least in part.”

Debate is now raging about “whether and how to rebuild at the toxic site for the next generation of visitors while mitigating the never-quite-banished risk of creating a shrine for neo-Nazis,” said The Guardian. It’s a fraught issue, “particularly given the resurgence of the far right in Germany and in Europe more broadly.”

“For many, Germany has become a model for dealing with the legacies of dictatorship, war and genocide,” historian Gerald Steinacher, an expert on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, said to The Christian Science Monitor. But as the questions over the Eagle’s Nest show, “how best to deal with Nazi buildings and sites remains an ongoing struggle.”