Clashing court rulings plunged Missouri’s congressional elections into uncertainty less than two months before the November midterms that will decide which party controls a closely divided Congress. Conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the emergency request from Missouri officials to use a congressional map in November that was redrawn with Donald Trump’s support to give Republicans an edge in the midterms, but a ruling by a federal judge in Missouri temporarily prevented the state from using its old congressional maps. Why is there legal action over the maps?
The Missouri supreme court has previously ruled that the new map must go before voters to approve or reject the new districts, meaning it cannot be used in time for the November election. The president and Republicans had fumed over the decision, with Trump calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unconstitutional”. What are the significant changes to the map intended to favor Republicans?
The revised map targeted the fifth congressional district, held by longtime Democratic representative Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver’s district far eastward into rural Republican areas. The UK government has entered a diplomatic row with Israel after it announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements.
In the country’s starkest condemnation since the founding of the Israeli state, the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband – whose mother, Marion Kozak, was a Holocaust survivor who fled to Israel – said settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, claimed the ruling UK Labour party Miliband belongs to was gripped by “Jew hatred”. What has the British prime minister said?
Writing in the Guardian, Andy Burnham said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, and that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”. We are not imposing sanctions on Israel as a whole.” How has Israel reacted? Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem among retaliatory measures including entry bans on several UK lawmakers.
The Israeli government added that longstanding British involvement in the training of Palestinian security forces on the West Bank would be terminated. Britain will also be excluded from the US-led Gaza coordination mission. The US military on Tuesday said it had “destroyed” several Iranian tankers after Iran attempted to strike a US navy warship with ballistic missiles, as violence once again surged across the region, pushing the price of oil past $100 a barrel.
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