Midterms 2026: US government gives up in dispute with California

The U.S. Department of Justice withdrew its lawsuit against California, according to a court filing. After a clear election result and defeats in court, US President Donald Trump's government is giving up in the legal dispute over 20,000 voters in California.

With the lawsuit, the Justice Department wanted to ensure that those postal ballots that the authority believes were presumably sent in by non-citizens are stored separately. According to the ministry's wishes, these ballot papers should not be counted until the identity of the alleged foreigners has been clarified. Courts rejected the claim before this week's election. The US Department of Justice suspected California of illegally allowing around 20,000 people to vote in the general election.

In California, in addition to the seats in the House of Representatives, decisions were also made about filling the post of governor. Democrat Xavier Becerra won by a large margin over Steve Hilton, who ran for Trump's Republicans.

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will replace his chief of staff Susie Wiles. Her current deputy, Stephen Miller, will take over the post as early as Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Miller is considered the architect of the US President's aggressive migration policy. Trump called him “one of my most trusted advisors.” Wiles has done “excellent work” and will continue to advise him politically.

In the congressional elections, the Republicans lost their majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives to the Democrats. This is a devastating result for Trump, who made the election a vote on his policies. Since then, positional battles have been going on in the Republican Party over its future direction. There was also speculation as to whether Trump would reorganize his cabinet and his circle of power in the Oval Office.

Wiles is now obviously the first case. As chief of staff, she was responsible for organizing the president's day-to-day government. The 69-year-old political strategist is considered extremely loyal and discreet. Wiles was the first woman to hold the post and was previously, among other things, Trump's campaign manager.

After the midterms, there are increasing signs of stronger regulation of artificial intelligence in the USA. The future governor of Texas, Gina Hinojosa, announced new laws that are intended to better protect people in the state from the consequences of the establishment of data centers. “We will pass laws to protect Texans and we must stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections in place,” she said. She called for the affected municipalities to have a say in whether and how data centers operate in their area. During the election campaign, she had already shaken up the industry, which has a strong presence in Texas, with her promise to stop new projects.

The second-largest state after Alaska has become one of the world's leading regions for data centers thanks to large energy reserves, relatively cheap building land and business-friendly policies. The sometimes gigantic systems are essential for the development and use of artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump's administration has made the expansion a national priority. However, resistance is growing among the population due to high electricity and water consumption as well as possible environmental damage.

The Democrat Hinojosa surprisingly prevailed against the Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in the midterm elections on Tuesday. This makes her the first representative of her party to lead the state, which was a safe Republican stronghold for decades, since the mid-1990s. Her victory was all the more remarkable because, according to media reports, Abbott spent almost eight times as much money as Hinojosa during the election campaign. One of his supporters was multi-billionaire Elon Musk, whose companies Space-X and Tesla have their headquarters in Texas.

Hinojosa said Texas could continue to work well with Musk, but it had to be on her administration's terms. She also made the comments in view of media reports that the state, which was governed by Abbott until mid-January, was in talks with Space-X about the sale of the Boca Chica State Park nature reserve. She asked the Texas Nature Conservancy not to make any decisions during the current transition. The company has not yet commented on a request, as reported by the Reuters news agency.

A US judge has suspended work on President Donald Trump's controversial giant triumphal arch. The ban will initially apply for two weeks while the legality of the project is examined. The city of Washington and the neighboring state of Virginia, among others, went to court against the more than 75 meter high structure.

Shortly before Judge Tanya Chutkan's decision, the capital planning commission, which was filled with Trump allies months ago, approved the construction project. In the hour-long video debate beforehand, many residents spoke out against the triumphal arch.

The judge's order initially prohibits any work including the removal of the lawn in the large roundabout where the triumphal arch is to be built according to Trump's ideas. The structure is expected to be larger than the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The height is criticized, among other things, because there is a flight path to Washington's Reagan Airport nearby.

Trump initiated several controversial architectural projects in his second term. Among other things, he had the east wing of the White House demolished to build a massive ballroom, which is also being sued. He also wants to have a traditional golf course in Washington rebuilt.

Harmeet Dhillon has resigned from her position as head of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice. She is the first high-ranking employee of the department to resign after the Democrats' strong electoral success in the midterm elections.

Dhillon is considered a Trump ally. She has significantly reshaped the Civil Rights Division since taking office. As the Bloomberg news agency reports, she had previously announced to confidants that she wanted to leave the ministry after the midterm elections.

Justice Minister Todd Blanche confirmed in a post on X that he had accepted her resignation. He acknowledged that she had led the department “with conviction” over the past 18 months. “She defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or respect,” Blanche said.

Dhillon leaves behind a civil rights department that has embraced conservative causes. These included, as CBS lists, protecting the rights of gun owners, curbing the use of equality, diversity and inclusion programs at universities and legal positions that oppose civil rights protections for transgender people.

US President Donald Trump has declared the Oval Office, which he decorated extensively with gold ornaments, a national monument. He signed a decree that would be a first step toward designating the rooms in the west wing as a monument. However, this requires congressional approval.

His request would make it “theoretically impossible” for future presidents to radically remodel or significantly redesign their official office without parliamentary approval, he said while signing a corresponding order in the White House. The monument status should also apply to the adjacent cabinet meeting room, in which, among other things, the chandeliers have been renewed.

The interior design of the Oval Office, the presidential study, was always influenced by the respective incumbents. Trump, however, redesigned the room particularly boldly in his second term and had lots of gold ornaments added to the walls. This always caused ridicule: Former President Barack Obama recently said in a campaign speech that Trump's Oval Office looked "as if Saddam Hussein had opened a cheesecake factory." He was referring to a US restaurant chain known for its rather kitschy decor.

The Democrats achieve a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. From now on, you can block the Trump administration's projects more and exert more pressure. He also loses the opportunity to push through his preferred candidates for vacant positions on the Supreme Court.

In the Senate race, the Democrats captured several Republican seats: Former Governor Roy Cooper won in North Carolina, and in South Carolina the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Darline Graham, had to admit defeat. In the state of Kansas, the first Democratic candidate in almost a hundred years will prevail; from Texas, James Talarico will be the first Democrat to enter the Senate since 1988. Republican seats also previously went to Democrats in Ohio, Iowa and Maine. In Georgia, Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff retains his seat, and in Florida, Republican Ashley Moody wins after a neck-and-neck race.

In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first Black and first woman governor. In Florida, Trump ally Byron Donalds was elected as the first black governor.

The Senate races are still open in Alaska and Mississippi. It's particularly close in Mississippi: There is a neck-and-neck race between Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Alaska and Mississippi are the last two Senate elections of the midterms, the outcome of which is not yet certain. Now US President Donald Trump is intervening and is calling for the procedure to be changed in favor of the Republican candidate in the ongoing counting of the senatorial election in Alaska, where a tight race is looming. From Trump's point of view, this should include votes that were not cast for him, but for his namesake. They should go to the “real” Dan Sullivan immediately, Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.

Trump thus renewed the accusation that the Republican candidate Dan J. Sullivan was put on the ballot so that the Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan would lose votes due to the risk of confusion. Republicans accuse Democrats of instigating this; the Democrats reject this.

The race for the Senate seat between incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola is close: Peltola is currently only 0.3 percentage points ahead of Sullivan, according to the AP news agency. His namesake Dan J. Sullivan received 1.7 percent of the vote. The count could take several days because there are many remote areas in the northernmost state.

The Republicans had lost the US general election resoundingly. In the Senate, the Democrats have so far secured 54 of a total of 100 seats.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in an open letter that he would commute the sentences of 548 death row inmates in the state to prison terms. It is the largest mass commutation of death sentences in modern American history.

Newsom said he made this decision because he believes the death penalty is morally reprehensible. He commuted every death sentence to life in prison without parole - a sweeping move that will require review by the state's highest court in some cases and could prompt legal challenges.

“State-sanctioned killing is inconsistent with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our justice system, and diminishes the dignity of each of us,” Newsom wrote in his open letter to California residents. “I know that in our imperfect legal system we cannot execute people while remaining true to our core values ​​– above all, justice and human dignity.”

Newsom is not the first governor to empty his state's death row, and California has not executed anyone in 20 years. Nor was it expected to happen any time soon, as Newsom's successor has committed to maintaining the moratorium on the death penalty. However, California has more inmates on death row than any other state, and Newsom's measure accounts for about a quarter of all deaths