First Thing: Indiana Republicans reject effort to redraw voting maps in rebuke to Trump | Donald Trump

Good morning.

Indiana Republicans rejected an effort to redraw the state’s boundaries on Thursday, rebuking Donald Trump and Republican efforts to add two more Republican-friendly seats to Indiana’s congressional districts.

The measure failed 19-31, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in rejecting the new maps. State senator Greg Goode, one of the leading figures of the Republicans against the bill, said that he voted against the map to reflect the will of his voters.

The rejection came despite Trump’s pressure tactics to pressure Indiana Republicans, including his vice president, J.D. Vance, who has made multiple trips to the state capital to meet with lawmakers, to pass the map.

• How might management react to the vote? Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, posted on social media: “President Trump made it clear to Indiana leaders: If the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, the state will be cut off from all federal funding. Roads will not be paved. Conservation bases will close. Major projects will be halted. These are the risks, and every NO vote will be blamed.”

• What are Democrats doing about redistribution? They retaliated against Texas’ initial push to add five more likely Republican seats by redrawing maps in California.

Trump expands Venezuela sanctions as Maduro condemns new ‘age of piracy’

Trump expanded sanctions and made new threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, while South American dictator Nicolás Maduro accused him of ushering in a new “era of criminal piracy” in the Caribbean.

Late Thursday, the United States imposed restrictions on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil supertankers and shipping companies associated with them. The US treasury department alleged that the ships “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.”

Trump officials ‘conspired to illegally intimidate’ non-citizens through new VA report, lawmakers say

More than 20 members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and national security officials after the Guardian reported that the VA had prepared a report on all non-US citizens “employed by or affiliated with” a government agency to be shared with federal agencies, including immigration authorities.

Lawmakers, led by congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Illinois, congressman Mark Takano of California and U.S. senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, wrote a group letter to be sent Friday to VA secretary Doug Collins and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem.

The report, due to be completed this month, “will sow fear among non-citizens serving our nation’s veterans” amid the Trump administration’s aggressive and far-reaching immigration crackdown, the letter said.

• Who would be on this list? The VA’s leaked memo implies that non-citizen doctors, nurses, researchers, medical students, contractors and more will be included in the report. Lawmakers, veterans and VA employees have warned that compiling this data solely on noncitizens could lead to qualified employees quitting and worsen existing staffing shortages.

In other news…

• Dozens of people died in a military attack on a hospital in MyanmarAccording to local sources and media reports, the country’s western Rakhine state. Rakhine is almost entirely controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic separatist minority force.

• Senate rejects proposed health bills Addressing expiring Obamacare tax credits greatly increases the risk that health care will soon become unaffordable for millions of Americans.

• Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing states from regulating artificial intelligence. although as an order it lacks the force of law.

• Papua New Guinea fights HIV epidemic As we battle stigma and U.S. aid cuts that affect hundreds of clinics.

Status of the day: 80 cents of every dollar spent in the Caribbean will go abroad

Most hotel chains, cruise lines and airlines in the Caribbean are not locally owned; This means that only a small part of the money spent by tourists in the region remains in the local economy. For every dollar spent in the Caribbean, 80 cents will go abroadBecause foreign companies repatriate their profits. As part of the Cotton Capital series, Eleanor Shearer looks at the legacy of British colonialism on the region’s tourism industry.

Culture Pick: A strong dose of ‘weak sauce’: Paul Dano’s best films – ranked!

After Quentin Tarantino described Paul Dano’s acting in There Will Be Blood as “weak sauce” (just… right?), we’re ranking the actor’s best performances. Here’s Dano’s best work, including the likes of 2014’s Love and Mercy, in which he played Brian Wilson, as well as his breakthrough performance in LIE (2001).

Don’t miss this: Why are gay male pop stars excluded from the music industry?

Just a few years ago gay male pop stars like Lil Nas X and Olly Alexander were everywhere. But since then their success has stalled. Jeffrey Ingold covers what’s going on, contextualizing their rise against the “golden age” of gay pop in the 1980s – though few of the biggest stars were out at the time – and draws a comparison with gay female pop stars.

Climate control: The Paris climate agreement changed the world. Here’s how

Rebecca Solnit on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement us most countries Negotiations began with the expectation of reaching the threshold of a two-degree increase in global temperature. 1.5 degrees was a gain, and while not enough is being done to stop deforestation or cut fossil fuel subsidies, there are reasons for hope, including the boom in renewable energies. “For decades and perhaps centuries it has been too late to save everything, but it will never be too late to save anything,” he writes.

Latest Thing: A week in the wild – an urban opossum, a baby echidna and a 600lb alligator

Here’s a palette cleanser: The week’s best wildlife photos, including a cheeky opossum sneaking onto a Chicago homeowner’s deck for a snack and a baby echidna found in Victoria, Australia. Another notable is the bull and horse that entered an Australian man’s house when he left the sliding door ajar for his dogs. The animals took food from the trash can and drinks from the aquarium.

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