Marco Rubio says US ‘fortunate’ high gas prices are not even worse, with other countries suffering ‘big time’ – live

The US education department is investigating one of the country’s largest women’s colleges over its admittance of transgender women in another escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people.

The department’s office of civil rights announced the investigation on Monday in a press release, saying the Massachusetts college could be violating federal law by “allowing biological males into women’s intimate spaces”, including dorms, bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.

Title IX, the federal law that seeks to prevent sex-based discrimination in education and extracurriculars, includes an exemption for all-male or all-female colleges. But, the department said, that applies only to “biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity”. Admitting transgender students would mean the college no longer qualifies as single sex.

“An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” assistant secretary for civil rights, Kimberly Richey, said in a statement. “Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law. The Trump administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”

Smith’s admission policy allows for “any applicants who self-identify as women”, including “cis, trans and nonbinary women”, according to the college’s website. The college opened in 1875 and counts among its alumni multiple first ladies, elected officials and civic leaders.

We have more pictures coming through of protests outside the Tennessee capitol as Republican state lawmakers weigh new congressional maps.

In Nashville, protests continue outside the Tennessee state capitol as the legislature holds a special session to consider re-drawing congressional maps ahead of the midterm elections. Demonstrators shouted “hands off Memphis” and held up signs that read “protect Black votes”, as the Republican controlled assembly eyes a map that could see the dissolution of the only Democratic district in the state.

Further to my earlier post, Alabama lawmakers heard testimony today on legislation that would allow a special congressional primary, if the US supreme court clears the way for the state to change its US House districts.

In light of the court’s ruling last week on Louisiana’s districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a US House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of black voters and instead let the state revert to a map previously passed by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.

The state’s primaries are scheduled for 19 May. If the supreme court grants the request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter claimed while promoting the Republican plan. “We had three judges determine how five million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”

Before a House committee advanced the plan today, several black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.

“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County, told the Associated Press.

Donald Trump has launched a new operation, dubbed “Project Freedom”, to try to open the strait of Hormuz. Could it spark a re-escalation of the war with Iran and bring an end to the ceasefire?

In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior international correspondent Julian Borger.

Trump also claimed that the US blockade is working very well, adding that, “nobody’s going to challenge the blockade”.

He added that Iran “wants to make a deal”.

They play games, but let me tell you, they want to make a deal.

Trump also downplayed soaring oil prices as a “small price to pay” for eliminating Iran’s nuclear ambitions, adding that he thought the prices would actually have been higher.

I also thought oil would go up to $200, $250, maybe $300, and I know it will be short term.

I look today, it’s like at 102 [$] and that’s a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

The price of oil would “neutralize” when the war ends, he added.

The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4.48, according to AAA, up by roughly 50% since the US and Israel launched this war at the end of February.

Taking questions from reporters, Trump declined to say what Iran would have to do to constitute a violation of the ceasefire, amid rising tensions after both sides exchanged fire in the strait of Hormuz yesterday.

“Well, you’ll find out because I’ll let you know,” Trump said. “They know what to do, or what not to do more importantly.”

He added: “They’re looking around for little boats to try and compete with our great navy.”

In brief remarks, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the “Project Freedom” is ongoing and insisted that the United States has control of the strait of Hormuz.

He added another familiar line:

Ultimately, Iran has a choice to make … We hope they make a wise choice.

Referring to his war on Iran as “a little skirmish”, Donald Trump said that, “Iran has no chance, they never did. They know it.”

“They express it to me when I talk to them and then they get on television and say how well they’re doing,” he claimed.

He then repeated all his usual claims about the supposed decimation of Iran’s military capabilities, adding: “They’re not doing well, that’s why they have no credibility.”

He later added his usual line that, “We can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Donald Trump was due to sign a proclamation in the Oval Office at 10.30am ET, but he’s running a little late. He’ll likely take questions from reporters after the signing, and I’ll bring you all the key lines once that gets under way.

The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin today, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama.

In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new US House districts after the US supreme court last week struck down the state’s current map. Florida signed a new gerrymandered congressional district map into law yesterday that gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.

Last week’s high court ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling severely weakened a key pillar of that law and has given Republicans in various states grounds to try to eliminate majority-black districts that tend to elect Democrats, potentially reversing decades of gains in minority voting rights.

Republican governor Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held US House district, centred on the majority-black city of Memphis.

The move comes after pressure from Donald Trump to get more states to join in redistricting as the GOP seeks to hold on to its narrow House majority in November.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for 6 August.

Clergy members concerned about plans to split Memphis’ congressional district denounced the move yesterday.

“This latest attempt at redistricting is not just about lines on a map. It is about misrepresentation,” the Reverend Earle Fisher, a pastor at the Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church and the founder of Up the Vote 901, referring to the Memphis area code, told the Associated Press.

It’s about whether the voices of black people in this state will be heard or hidden.

The two Senate committees responsible for drafting the reconciliation package to fund parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have released the text of the legislation.

The Senate judiciary committee and the homeland security committee have allocated more than $70bn for immigration enforcement as part of the package, for the remainder of Donald Trump’s second term in office.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would receive more than $38bn, while Customs and Border Patrol would see a $26 billion injection if lawmakers approve the budget bills – which only needs a simple majority to advance.

The package also includes $1bn for the Secret Service, related to “security adjustments and upgrades” for Trump’s White House ballroom project.

This second reconciliation package since Trump returned to the White House is born out of this year’s impasse over DHS funding, after federal immigration officers fatally shot two US citizens amid the crackdown in Minneapolis. The stalemate on Capitol Hill ultimately let to a record-breaking partial government shutdown as Democrats blocked a homeland security appropriations bill in order to demand stronger guardrails on immigration agents. While GOP lawmakers eventually conceded and passed legislation that re-opened the wider DHS but omitted ICE and border patrol funding, Republicans vowed to use reconciliation to avert any further standoffs for the next three years.