First Thing: Trump-backed Ken Paxton ousts John Cornyn in Texas primary
Paxton’s win, despite his history of scandals, signals the president’s enduring grip over the state. Plus, one sex educator on why she doesn’t define sex at all
Good morning.
Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Texas attorney general who was backed by Donald Trump, beat the incumbent, John Cornyn, in the Republican primary runoff for senator, signaling how much sway the president still has in the deep red state.
After the race was called, Cornyn said he would “support the GOP ticket” in the midterms, where Paxton will face James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian.
But the Texas attorney general comes with significant baggage: Paxton was impeached in 2023 after being accused of corruption, though he was later acquitted in a trial in the Texas senate where his wife was a state senator (but was not allowed to cast a vote).
He was also indicted on charges of felony securities fraud that could have led to a prison sentence, but the case was dismissed after a 2024 pre-trial diversion agreement. Last year, his wife filed for divorce “on biblical grounds”, citing adultery.
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And Paxton’s new opponent? As a Democrat, Talarico faces long odds in Texas, but he has built a groundswell of popularity through his message of peace and populism. Ahead of the primary, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, a former Democratic candidate for the Senate and a partner at Ascend Strategy Labs, a social justice consulting firm in Austin, said: “If Ken Paxton becomes the candidate, Talarico has a shot.”
War on Iran driving historic levels of global hunger, UN says
The US-Israel war on Iran has exacerbated other global disasters to drive record levels of hunger at a time when funding to combat famine has fallen dramatically, the deputy head of the UN World Food Programme has said.
The WFP says 363 million people around the world are now at risk of acute hunger, 45 million of them as a result of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent oil price spike. It comes against the backdrop of two famines declared in 2025, in Gaza and Sudan.
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How much has funding declined? The WFP’s funding was cut last year by a third, with the US, the largest donor by far, decreasing its contribution by more than half.
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How does the US-Israel war on Iran affect famine? Most directly, it drives up food prices, mostly because of transport costs, but some aid routes have also been blocked.
South Carolina Republicans defy Trump again to reject rapid redistricting drive
Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have defied Donald Trump and rejected an aggressive effort to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts ahead of November’s midterms.
In a 26-18 vote, state senators rejected mid-decade redistricting in a special session of the legislature, shooting down an attempt to split up the Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn’s district.
The proposal would have cancelled the congressional election, for which early voting began on Tuesday, and rescheduled it with new district lines that would have significantly reduced the number of reliably Democratic voters in Clyburn’s district.
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How many Republican senators voted with Democrats? Fourteen of South Carolina’s 34 Republican state senators voted with Democrats against the redistricting bill.
In other news …
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The Trump administration’s war against Iran should not affect arms sales to Taiwan, experts have said, after a US official suggested that a pause in the delivery of a key weapons package was due to the conflict.
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The US military launched another strike on Tuesday on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one man and leaving two survivors. Since the US began its campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin American waters in September, it has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.
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Iceland’s foreign minister has said she fears her country faces a “Brexit moment” in its approaching EU referendum amid warnings over misinformation, foreign interference and AI.
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The Russian government has told top banks they should shoot down Ukrainian drones themselves, as Kyiv’s forces target infrastructure used to carry out and fund the war.
Stat of the day: The average female face is rated more attractive than about 60% of male faces
The average female face is rated more attractive than about 60% of male faces, a global study has found. Both men and women rate the average female face as more attractive than men’s, but the perceived gap declines with age, researchers said.
Well actually: I’m a sex educator – here’s why I don’t define sex at all
Maya Walsh-Little, a sex educator, asks a seemingly simple question at the beginning of her classes: “What is sex?” She argues that no matter how much knowledge you have about sexuality, it can be useful to investigate your ideas about it. “Using a singular definition of sex indirectly affirms that there is a right and a wrong way to have sex, and right and wrong roles to play during sex,” Walsh-Little writes.
Don’t miss this: The agony of losing your furniture as well as your soulmate
Breakups are bad enough, but have you ever also lost all your furniture in the process? For cohabiting couples, dividing the apartment’s furnishings, appliances, as well as decorations and other items can be costly – economically and emotionally.
Climate check: Climate crisis is accelerating antibiotic resistance, study says
The climate emergency is worsening a global rise in antibiotic resistance that poses a serious threat to human health, according to a study showing the crisis was associated with a 10% global increase in salmonella antibiotic resistance genes between 1940 and 2023. While antimicrobial resistance is mainly driven by the overuse of antibiotic drugs, the research suggests that rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns can influence the spread and mutation of bacteria.
Last Thing: How Japan’s feline fixation has become an industry worth billions
The influence of cats is evident across Japanese society, with one neighbourhood in Tokyo even nicknamed “cat town” for its historical association with felines. Now a report has credited the animals with generating an expected 3tn yen ($18.8bn) in value to the Japanese economy this year, in a phenomenon dubbed “catnomics”.
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Think about it: paxton’s win, despite his history of scandals, signals the president’s enduring grip over the state. That speaks volumes.
The bigger issue here is and Paxton’s new opponent? As a Democrat, Talarico faces long odds in Texas, but he has built a groundswell of popularity through his message of peace and populism. That changes the calculation.
363 million. The real figures are likely much higher.
Reading that he was also indicted on charges of felony securities fraud that could have led to a prison sentence, but the case was dismissed after a 2024 pre-trial diversion agreement — hard to argue with the logic there.
The detail about paxton’s win, despite his history of scandals, signals the president’s enduring grip over the state is something people should sit with.
Considering and Paxton’s new opponent? As a Democrat, Talarico faces long odds in Texas, but he has built a groundswell of popularity through his message of peace and populism, it raises some real questions about what happens next.
So the bottom line is he was also indicted on charges of felony securities fraud that could have led to a prison sentence, but the case was dismissed after a 2024 pre-trial diversion agreement. Wonder how this will land.
When you look at he was also indicted on charges of felony securities fraud that could have led to a prison sentence, but the case was dismissed after a 2024 pre-trial diversion agreement, the implications are hard to ignore.
What stands out is paxton’s win, despite his history of scandals, signals the president’s enduring grip over the state. That is the part worth paying attention to.
Considering the WFP says 363 million people around the world are now at risk of acute hunger, 45 million of them as a result of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent oil price spike, it raises some real questions about what happens next.
What stands out is after the race was called, Cornyn said he would “support the GOP ticket” in the midterms, where Paxton will face James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian. That is the part worth paying attention to.
Basically after the race was called, Cornyn said he would “support the GOP ticket” in the midterms, where Paxton will face James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian. What matters is whether anything changes because of it.
In other words the WFP says 363 million people around the world are now at risk of acute hunger, 45 million of them as a result of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent oil price spike. Curious to see how this develops.
45 million. The real figures are likely much higher.
If after the race was called, Cornyn said he would “support the GOP ticket” in the midterms, where Paxton will face James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian, then the bigger picture starts to look very different.