Por Fredreka Schouten, CNN

La gobernadora de Alabama, Kay Ivey, anunció este viernes que la legislatura estatal controlada por los republicanos celebrará una sesión especial la próxima semana para allanar el camino hacia la redistribución de distritos, convirtiéndose así en el segundo estado en tomar medidas tras la decisión de la Corte Suprema que debilita aún más la Ley de Derecho al Voto.

Los legisladores se reunirán a partir del lunes para establecer una elección primaria especial tanto para los distritos de la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos como para los del Senado estatal “cuyas líneas de límites sean alteradas por una acción judicial”, declaró Ivey, republicana, en su proclamación.

La elección primaria del estado está prevista para el 19 de mayo.

Inmediatamente después del fallo emitido el miércoles por el alto tribunal —el cual anuló un distrito congresional de mayoría negra en Louisiana—, Ivey había indicado que su estado no intentaría rediseñar sus líneas. Actualmente, Alabama se encuentra bajo una orden judicial que prohíbe al estado realizar una redistribución de distritos hasta después del censo de 2030.

Sin embargo, Ivey y otros funcionarios han enfrentado una intensa presión para actuar. El fiscal general de Alabama, Steve Marshall, presentó el jueves mociones solicitando al alto tribunal que actúe con rapidez para levantar las órdenes de suspensión, de modo que Alabama pueda proceder con la redistribución de distritos.

Los esfuerzos estatales por rediseñar sus líneas antes de las elecciones de mitad de mandato de noviembre tienen mucho en juego para ambos partidos políticos.
Los republicanos actualmente tienen una mayoría mínima en la Cámara de Representantes, y ambos partidos han librado durante meses una guerra de redistribución de distritos a mitad de década, buscando obtener una ventaja partidista.

La redistribución de distritos suele ocurrir una vez por década, después del censo.

El fallo de la Corte Suprema de esta semana —que hace significativamente más difícil impugnar los planes de redistribución de distritos bajo el argumento de que son discriminatorios— ha desatado una nueva y frenética carrera por la redistribución.

En un comunicado, Ivey afirmó que convoca la sesión especial con la esperanza de que el estado prevalezca en los tribunales. Actualmente, Alabama está representado en la Cámara por cinco republicanos y dos demócratas, después de que los tribunales ordenaran la creación de un segundo distrito congresional con una población negra considerable.

La medida de Ivey se produce un día después de que funcionarios republicanos en Louisiana anunciaran que estaban retrasando las elecciones primarias del estado para la Cámara de Representantes de EE.UU., aunque las boletas para el extranjero ya han sido enviadas por correo. Funcionarios de Louisiana dicen que no contarán los votos emitidos en la elección del 16 de mayo para escaños de la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos, mientras la legislatura busca trazar un nuevo mapa.

Votantes, organizaciones de derechos civiles y otros grupos han presentado impugnaciones legales, buscando bloquear el plan de Louisiana.

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The post Alabama se convierte en

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) — A federal appeals court temporarily reinstated a nationwide requirement that abortion pills be obtained in person, undermining access to the method of abortion that has only grown more widespread since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Friday’s ruling from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals is a major victory in the anti-abortion movement’s war against medication abortion, which now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Louisiana last year against the US Food and Drug Administration, after President Donald Trump’s administration refused to act on calls to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills through the regulatory process.

The opinion was written by Trump-appointed Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, and joined Circuit Judges Leslie Southwick and Kurt Engelhardt, who were appointed by President George W. Bush and Trump, respectively.

Referring to Louisiana abortion prohibitions, they wrote that the current federal regulations create “an effective way for an out-of-state prescriber to place the drug in the hands of Louisianans in defiance of Louisiana law.”

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, abortion-seekers have been able to obtain mifepristone – one of the two drugs in the medication abortion regimen – through telehealth appointments. President Joe Biden’s administration finalized rules that ended the requirement that the pills be obtained through an in-person doctor’s visit in 2023, after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe precedent protecting abortion rights nationwide.

Louisiana alleged that regulatory maneuver was aimed at undermining the abortion ban that went into effect in the state with the reversal of Roe and says that now hundreds of abortions are occurring every year within its borders because women are able to obtain pills via telehealth visits with providers.

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the appeals court wrote Friday.

The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong legal battle over access to abortion pills. The issue reached the Supreme Court two years ago, in a case where the justices ruled that anti-abortion doctors lacked standing to challenging the regulations.

A CNN analysis of mifepristone that years of data show the drug is overwhelmingly safe and has fewer reported side effects than Viagra or penicillin. Mifepristone is also safer than procedural abortions, which are banned or heavily restricted in more than a dozen states.

“This decision defies clear science and settled law and advances an anti-abortion agenda that is deeply unpopular with the American people,” Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project of the ACLU said in a statement. “For countless people, especially those who live in rural areas, face intimate partner violence, or live with disabilities, losing a telemedicine option will mean losing access to this vital medication altogether.”

In other cases, several other states with anti-abortion laws are making claims similar to Louisiana’s. Joining Louisiana as a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the FDA is a woman who alleges she was coerced into terminating a pregnancy by taking abortion pills that were shipped in from out of state.

Previously, the judge o

By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

(CNN) — The annual Met Gala, which takes place this year on Monday, May 4, is always a lightning rod for controversy. Was Karl Lagerfeld too problematic to serve as a 2023 theme? Was TikTok, which had just been deemed a national security threat by the US government, an appropriate sponsor for 2024’s gala? And just how small can designers make Kim Kardashian’s waist? (This one comes up almost yearly.)

But the 2026 gala, celebrating the accompanying exhibition, “Costume Art,” that gathers examples of clothed bodies from across the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s curatorial departments, has proven especially contentious.

Elected amid growing public anxiety over income inequality, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he will skip the A-list gathering. “My focus is also on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable, and that’s what I’m looking to spend a lot of my time focused on,” he told news site Hell Gate last month.

Then there is the matter of the evening’s sponsors. While fashion brands or tech behemoths like Instagram typically underwrite the affair, this year Amazon co-founder and executive chair, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are the event’s main benefactors. They are also honorary chairs. (Co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Vogue’s Anna Wintour remain the official hosts, while Saint Laurent is sponsoring the exhibition catalog.)

After the Met announced the Bezoses’ participation, many social media users — who are the Met Gala’s most enthusiastic promoters, tuning into Vogue’s livestream and analyzing looks for days afterwards — called for a boycott. This has materialized as actual protests from groups including Everyone Hates Elon (as in Musk), which over the past few weeks has papered New York City with posters also urging a boycott. “The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by worker exploitation,” reads one, in reference to the allegations of labor violations that have long swirled around Amazon’s e-commerce business.

The recurring criticism has not stopped the gala from raising enormous funds: last year, it brought in a record $31 million. (By contrast, the New York Philharmonic’s Opening Gala raised $3.3 million in 2025.)

Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive officer, said he saw the Met Gala as part of “the history of American philanthropy,” where people across the political spectrum support culture and other causes. “Right now, maybe there’s an added layer of scrutiny, an added layer of attention to that,” he said. “But we will always be grateful for that support from various different sources.”

The Met Gala is the primary fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, which houses over 33,000 objects spanning seven centuries. (It is oft-repeated that the Costume Institute is the only museum department that raises its own funds, although that is not accurate; every department receives money from the museum’s overall operational budget, and supplements that with fundraising.)

The gala’s funds support acquisitions of garments and accessories, but also the institute’s reference library, which holds over 800 periodicals and 1,500 designer files pertaining to the history of fashion and clothing, dating back to the sixteenth century. The funds also support a conservation lab and storage space, as well as the Costume Institute’s gallery spaces, including the 4,300-square-foot Anna Wintour Costume Center and the brand-new nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries. Salaries for its 29-person staff also come from gala funds. The new galleries, located just off the mus

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By Chris Isidore, Donald Judd, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Friday that the administration will likely make an announcement on its decision whether or not to bail out Spirit Airlines “today or tomorrow.”

The long-troubled budget airline carrier is preparing to stop operations, according to reports on Friday, a move that could leave millions of Spirit passengers trapped across the country and 17,000 employees out of work.

“Well, we’re looking at it– but if we can’t make a good deal, no institution’s been able to do it,” Trump said on Friday. “I’d like to save the jobs, but we’ll have an announcement sometime today. We gave them, we gave them a final proposal.”

Earlier Friday, a Spirit Airlines spokesperson told CNN it had no direct comment on possible shutdown reports.

“Spirit is operating as usual,” said the spokesperson. As of the time of publication, Spirit Airlines appeared to be operating normally.

Soaring jet fuel prices derailed Spirit’s plans to emerge from its second bankruptcy, and negotiations with the federal government on a possible $500 million bailout or government purchase haven’t yielded a result acceptable to the government and all of Spirit’s creditors.

CNN reported earlier this week Spirit Airlines was having trouble reaching a deal with a group of its creditors on the proposed federal government bailout, according a source familiar with negotiations. An attorney for Spirit told a bankruptcy court last week that the airline was in “very advanced discussions” with the administration on a rescue package.

Other airlines have said they will step in and help any stranded Spirit passengers or employees.

But removing the airline’s flights is likely to raise fares across the entire US airline industry, as flyers compete for fewer available seats.

All air carriers have been struggling with higher jet fuel costs, which have nearly doubled since the start of the war in Iran. Jet fuel is the second greatest cost for airlines, behind only labor.

To help compensate, airlines have been raising fares and increasing fees, such as for checked bags. But fierce competition for travelers has kept them from passing along all of the costs to customers. And discount carriers like Spirit have a harder time raising fares due to its dependence on bargain hunting customers.

Spirit has about 9,000 flights scheduled from May 2 through the end of the month, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. That works out to an average of 300 flights and 60,000 potential passengers a day affected in just the next month should the airline shut down.

What happens to passengers?

If the airline ceases operations, passengers with tickets for upcoming Spirit flights should file claims with the issuer of the credit or debit card used to purc