Author: Reporter

Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau or in response to a court ruling. Now, Texas Republicans want to break that tradition, and other states could follow suit. President Trump has asked the Texas Legislature to create districts, in time for next year’s midterm elections, that will send five more Republicans to Washington and make it harder for Democrats to regain the majority and blunt his agenda. The state has 38 seats in the House. Republicans now hold 25 and Democrats 12, with one seat vacant after the death of a Democrat. “There’s...

Imagine getting the day off work for Donald Trump’s birthday. Receiving a $100 bill with Trump’s portrait on it. Touching down at Donald J. Trump International Airport near the nation’s capital. And taking in a show at the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts. All would be possible under a flurry of bills Republican lawmakers have sponsored this year. Trump is six months into his second term, but some Republicans are ready to elevate him into the pantheon of American greats, proposing an ever-growing list of bills paying tribute well before his second term ends. One lawmaker even...

The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert on July 29, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action. The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. International pressure led Israel recently to announce limited measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops. The U.N. and Palestinians on the ground say little has changed, and...

The Anti-Defamation League said the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States reached a record high last year and noted that 58% of the 9,354 incidents related to Israel, specifically chants, speeches, and signs at rallies protesting Israeli policies. In a report released in April, the ADL, which has produced annual tallies for 46 years, said it is the first time Israel-related incidents — 5,422 of them in 2024 — comprised more than half the total. A key reason is the widespread opposition to Israel’s military brutal response in Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October...

During World War II, within the walls of the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, a Jewish prisoner secretly penned a short note and hid it inside a violin he had crafted under harrowing circumstances. It was a message to the future that would remain undiscovered for more than 80 years. “Trial instrument, made under difficult conditions with no tools and materials,” the worn note read. “Dachau. Anno 1941, Franciszek Kempa.” The origins of the violin, built in 1941 by Franciszek “Franz” Kempa while imprisoned by the Nazis at Dachau in southern Germany, remained unnoticed for decades. It was not...

Eighty years after the Holocaust, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive, but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. Meaning, time is running out to hear the voices of the last generation who suffered through one of the worst atrocities in history. Currently, the survivors’ median age is 87, and more than 1,400 of them are over 100 years old, a new report said in April. “We have known that this population of survivors would be the last, our final opportunity to hear their first-hand testimonies, to spend time with them, our last...