🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 An MQ-4C Triton surveillance UAV suffered damage while carrying out a recon mission over the Persian Gulf on April 27th.

Probably the airframe 169661 which is deployed in Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Commission just told all 27 member states to hurry up with rolling out online age verification, demanding deployment before the end of 2026.

Asked today how the system stops anyone bypassing it with a VPN from outside the EU, Vice-President Virkkunen said only that it is "an important part of the next steps."

🔗 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_26_921

🇲🇱🇷🇺⚔️🏳️🏳️🏴 Situation in Mali as of April 29th 2026.

FLA and JNIM are preparing to assault Timbuktu/Tomboctou and Gao.

The Islamic State in the Sahel Province (ISSP) took advantage of the power vacuum and seized the town of Labbezanga on the Niger border and tried to seize the city of Ménaka only to be repulsed.

Various sources mention that a coup against the sitting Malian president was foiled by Russia's Africa Corps.

🔗 War Mapper

🗳 🇺🇸 🏦 Trump's nominee for Federal Reserve Chair, Kevin Warsh, has been approved by the Senate Banking Committee, 13-11

He now moves forward to a full vote in the US Senate, and Sen. Fetterman has already said he'll vote for Warsh

📎 Nick Sortor

⚖️ 🇺🇸 🗳 The Supreme Court has ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional, paving the way for Republicans to redistrict the South and save the House.

With the 2030 Census, this will be a dramatic shift in power balance.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5754657/supreme-court-louisiana-redistricting

📎 AF Post

✏️ 🇺🇸 🗳 Potential map of the south without the VRA restrictions Per NYT

Current map:
🔴 Republicans: 65
🔵 Democrats: 24

Potential map:
🔴 Republicans: 77 (+12)
🔵 Democrats: 12 (-12)

📎 OSZ

🇺🇸🛢 The U.S. commercial petroleum inventories are emptying at a rate never seen before thanks to the U.S. blockade on Iran.

Asian buyers who now can't access Iranian oil are following President Trump's advice to buy American oil. The side effect of this is that Americans will see gas prices skyrocket and may soon face physical shortages of fuel at gas stations and airports, the same way every Southeast Asian country has been seeing for the past two months.

@CIG_telegram

✅️ 🇺🇸 🗳 The Florida Senate has passed the proposed congressional map by a vote of 21-17, potentially netting Republicans 4 more seats.

The map now heads to Governor DeSantis’s desk for signature.

📎 VoteHub

✏️ 🇺🇸 🗳 Christian Heiens on X: Here's what I expect to happen on the Left over the next few years as Red states in the South begin to dismantle all the DEI congressional seats that Democrats had previously been given for free every two years:

>We may see California again redistrict, this time with the intention of dismantling the remaining four GOP seats that Prop 50 drew last year. This would be extremely hard to do without drawing the most hideous map imaginable, but if we see enough Red states redraw their maps, it's not out of the question.

>In Oregon, Dems already control a trifecta. There's pretty much nothing stopping them from dismantling the 2nd District by drawing it into Portland. The only thing they'd have to worry about is upsetting the existing 5-1 Democrat delegation.

>Washington Democrats are constitutionally barred from redistricting, but we've already seen how that doesn't stop Dems in California and possibly Virginia. I expect Dems to introduce an amendment that would give the legislature the power to redraw the state's congressional map. Considering Washington's partisan lean, this would almost certainly pass, and Dems will likely dismantle the 4th district and possibly make the 3rd even bluer.

>Colorado Democrats are going to probably angle for a 7-1 or even 8-0 map of their own, using California and Virginia as a template to destroy the state's redistricting commission. Colorado is blue enough already that it would likely pass.

>Democrats in New York will take another shot at redistricting as well. The Hochulmander in 2022 was struck down by the New York Court of Appeals, but since then, the court's balance has shifted to the Left. I can see Dems getting a 22-4 or even 23-3 map in time for 2028.

>There is nothing stopping Democrats in Illinois from drawing an even more egregious gerrymander than the 14-3 map they already have. The only problem they is diminishing returns. They could try to go for a 17-0 map, but it would be dangerous with the massive GOP vote sink downstate. A 16-1 map is more likely.

>There's also an outside shot that Dems will sue in Wisconsin to draw a 4-4 map, or at least a 5-3 map. The Supreme Court there has gotten significantly more liberal in recent years. They just need the right lawsuit to make it happen much like they did in PA back in 2018.

Of the remaining Blue states, there are just no other options left:

>New Mexico, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Maine already have unanimous Dem delegations.
>Vermont and Delaware only have one seat.
>They've already gerrymandered Nevada to the breaking point.
>It's too dangerous to redraw in Maryland because Larry Hogan's appointees will continue to control the Supreme Court until 2030.
>They've already drawn almost a maximalist map in New Jersey after hijacking the commission there
>They don't have the ability to redraw Minnesota.
>Michigan and Pennsylvania have fair maps as they are, so lawsuits will likely go nowhere.

At best, they've got another 10-19 seats they can flip, in addition to the 9 they're trying to peel off this cycle.

This is a maximalist map. It's not what I think will happen, but it shows how we're probably going to continue to see more back-and-forth jockeying until the 2030 census.

Republicans have more to squeeze out of their states than Democrats, though. Texas and Florida both can be more aggressive than they already have been. You can draw a 35-3 map in Texas and a 26-2 map in Florida. You can also draw an 11-3 map in Georgia, and a 13-2 map in Ohio.

As I've said before, the road ahead is long and chaotic, but we are going to win this thing. Redistricting wars are not fought in a matter of weeks or months. They unfold over years. The simple fact is we have more targets than they do.

We just need leaders with the courage to do what must be done.