Protests Erupt as Tennessee Republicans Erase Only Democratic District

Most Recent Post On Thursday, Tennessee Republicans forced through a new congressional map that eliminates the state’s only majority-Black and only Democratic district, prompting protests in the state Capitol. In a special session, the Tennessee state House of Representatives voted 64–25–3 to approve the new map, which had only been released to the public the day before. Every Democrat voted against the bill along with Republican Representatives John Gillespie and Mark White, whose districts include parts of Memphis divided in the new congressional map. Three other Republicans abstained. During and after the vote, protesters filled the crowded chamber, shouting and using loud horns. Democratic Representative Justin Jones burned a Confederate flag after leaving the House chamber. Democratic Representative Justin Pearson’s brother, KeShaun Pearson, was arrested by Tennessee State Troopers during the legislative session. ⚡️ WATCH — JUST NOW — 99% white Tennessee House Republicans pass a racist 9-0 map stripping majority Black Memphis of congressional representation pic.twitter.com/OYwTWZK2i1 — The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 7, 2026 The Senate later passed the new map 25–5, with every Democrat voting against the bill except state Senator Charlane Oliver, who protested the vote by standing at her desk, unveiling a banner reading “No Jim Crow 2.0, stop the TN steal.” WATCH: The racist Republican map stripping Memphis of representation passes the senate 25-5 — with Senator Charlane Oliver standing on her desk in protest (From WSMV) pic.twitter.com/DcRLiD20Cu — The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 7, 2026 The new map comes after the Supreme Court gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act last week, allowing racial gerrymandering to take place. It now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Bill Lee, who will sign it into law. Share This Story Editor’s Pick: The Supreme Court Is Lying About Racism in America Most Recent Post The Trump administration wants to take $2 billion away from global health programs to pay to finish closing USAID. CNN reports that the administration wants to use the money to pay for legal costs, invoices, and asset sales resulting from its closure of the aid agency last year. Congress originally appropriated $1.2 billion of the funds to go to international development, and the rest to go to programs that take on malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, HIV/AIDS, and other world health issues. Taking away that $2 billion could lead to 121,000 preventable tuberculosis deaths and 47,600 preventable deaths from malaria, according to estimates from the Health Security Policy Academy . It could also lead to 22.9 million children under 5 losing critical nutrition, and 5.7 million women losing safe places for childbirth, according to a CNN source. This would add to the rising death toll resulting from the closure of USAID. As of November, an estimated 762,000 people have died because of USAID cuts, including over 500,000 children. The Trump administration told Congress last month that it has reserved over $19.1 billion of USAID funds to shutter the agency. Democrats are demanding that the White House “put the funds to their intended use to save lives and advance U.S. interests as directed by Congress last year.” “The Administration should immediately begin using these foreign assistance funds to deliver results for the American people. There is no reason for this FY25 funding to be withheld to cover the wasteful costs this Administration has incurred because it chose to dismantle USAID,” 17 Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, and acting USAID administrator Eric Ueland. Share This Story Editor’s Pick: The Ex-MAGA Influencer Who Now Hates All Things MAGA—and Herself Too Most Recent Post Nearly 30 crew members aboard a Disney Magic cruise were detained by ICE after the ship docked in San Diego late last month, according to immigrant rights groups. The federal agents “stormed onto the vessel” following the five-day trip, wrote The Independent on Wednesday. The arrests were part of a sprawling investigation into child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), according to ICE. “After boarding the vessel and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed that 27 of the 28 subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of CSEM or child pornography,” ICE told The Independent in a statement. The harbor police department told a local NBC outlet it had no part in the raid. Two days after the raid on the Disney cruise, immigrant rights groups said four crewmembers aboard the MV Zandaam, operated by Holland America, were captured by ICE. “This is not an isolated incident,” Benjamin Prado of the advocacy group Unión del Barrio said at the Tuesday news conference. “It has become a growing pattern, not only here in San Diego, but throughout this country.” Prado alleged that the crewmembers were being denied due process and access to their national consulates, crimes the Trump administration has been accused of before . This story has been updated. Share This Story Read more about ICE: How ICE Withheld Info From a Federal Judge—and Then Smeared Her for It Most Recent Post An analysis from the CIA has seriously undermined President Donald Trump’s claims about Iran’s economic resilience. A confidential CIA analysis delivered to policymakers this week found that Iran can survive three or four months of the U.S. military’s blockade before facing more severe economic hardship, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Iran also retains significant ballistic missile capabilities, three U.S. officials familiar with the report told the Post . Despite weeks of bombing by U.S. and Israeli forces, Iran still has 70 percent of its prewar stockpile of missiles and 75 percent of its mobile launchers, one official said. Iran has also been able to recover its underground storage facilities, repair damaged missiles, and assemble new ones. The analysis suggests that Iran can survive the U.S. blockade for another 90 to 120 days, casting serious doubt on Trump’s repeated claims about Iran’s supposedly crashing economy. “They’re failing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday. “They’re currency is worthless, their inflation is probably 150 percent, the real number is 150 percent, they aren’t paying their soldiers, they can’t pay their soldiers, their money is worthless.” In fact, Trump has been claiming Iran’s economy is in shambles for weeks. “I think Iran is in very bad shape. I think they’re pretty desperate,” he said last month, a week after the blockade was first installed. The White House has touted the combination of the U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports and the so-called Operation Economic Fury, a series of sanctions on Iran, as rendering serious damage to the country’s economic situation. But “it’s nowhere near as dire as some have claimed,” one person familiar with the CIA’s analysis said of Iran’s economic situation. Tehran has been storing its oil on tanker ships that would otherwise be empty, they told the Post . Another U.S. official suggested that Iran could extend its economic resilience even further by smuggling oil through overland routes. “There’s a belief they could begin moving some oil via rail through Central Asia,” the official told the Post . This news comes as Trump has paused Project Freedom, the U.S. military’s plan to help ships travel through the Strait of Hormuz, after losing the support of Saudi Arabia. Share This Story Read more about the war: Why Trump Suddenly Dropped His Latest Strait of Hormuz Plan Most Recent Post Florida is moving to close the infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Everglades because it has grown too expensive to operate, according to The New York Times . The embattled facility—which has cost the state of Florida $1 million a day to run—has been beset with allegations of unsafe living conditions, abusive treatment , and protests from Native American groups over its environmental harms . Now the facility that was framed as a huge success by President Trump and Governor DeSantis may collapse in failure. Homeland Security officials have also deemed the facility too costly to keep running, according to a federal official who spoke with the Times although no official decisions to close it have been made. Part of this failure can be attributed to Trump leaving DeSantis without any federal funding for the facility’s construction. While the federal government promised to reimburse Florida for hosting the detention center, no payments have yet been made. The swampy location, cruelly touted by Trump as a buffer for detained immigrants, also made it harder for workers to get supplies, sewage—and themselves— to and from the center. And while there has been no official announcement, the closure of Alligator Alcatraz would be an embarrassing development symbolic of the changing public opinion of Trump’s widely unpopular immigration crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security and DeSantis’s office have yet to comment on the report. Share This Story Editor’s Pick: The Grand Opening of an American Concentration Camp View More Posts Share This Story Read More: Politics Law Supreme Court Constitution Foreign Policy Health Care Economic Inequality Taxes Washington