‘Christy’
Black Bear
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Texas GOP lawmakers released their first draft of the state’s new congressional map Wednesday, proposing revamped district lines that attempt to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The new map targets Democratic members of Congress in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas. The draft, unveiled by Corpus Christi Republican Rep. Todd Hunter, will likely change before the final map is approved by both chambers and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Democrats have said they might try to thwart the process by fleeing the state.
This unusual mid-decade redistricting comes after a pressure campaign waged by President Donald Trump’s political team in the hopes of padding Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House.
Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. Trump carried 27 of those districts in 2024, including those won by Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen.
Under the proposed new lines, 30 districts would have gone to Trump last year, each by at least 10 percentage points.
The districts represented by Cuellar and Gonzalez — both of which are overwhelmingly Hispanic and anchored in South Texas — would become slightly more favorable to Republicans. Trump received 53% and 52% in those districts, respectively, in 2024; under the new proposed lines, he would have gotten almost 55% in both districts.
Also targeted are Democratic Reps. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch — whose Dallas-anchored district would be reshaped to favor Republicans — and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, whose nearby district would remain solidly blue but drop all of Fort Worth — Veasey’s hometown and political base. That seat — now solely in Dallas County — contains parts of Johnson’s, Veasey’s and Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s current district, raising the prospect of a primary between Veasey and Johnson.
The map’s newly proposed GOP seat in Central Texas also triggers the prospect of Austin Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett facing each other in a primary for the area’s lone remaining blue district. To avoid that scenario, one of the two would have to step aside or run an uphill race for a new Central Texas district, based in San Antonio, that Trump would have won by 10 points.
In the Houston area, the proposed map would remake four Democratic districts. The biggest upheaval would be in the 9th Congressional District, a majority-minority seat represented by Rep. Al Green that currently covers the southern part of Harris County and its direct southern neighbors. It would shift to the eastern parts of Houston, where no current member of Congress lives. Instead of being a seat that Vice President Kamala Harris won by 44 percent under the current boundary, Trump would have won it by 15 percent.
Texas’ Republican-dominated Legislature last drew these maps in 2021, with an eye toward protecting incumbents by making their seats as safe as possible. Trump won every Republican-held Texas district in 2024 by double-digit margins, as did every GOP incumbent who received a Democratic opponent. Edinburg Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s 14-point victory was the closest of any winning Republican.
To pick up new seats, Republicans have proposed to pack more Democratic voters into districts in the state’s blue urban centers, giving Democrats even bigger margins in districts they already control, such as those represented by Crockett, Rep. Joaquin Castro in San Antonio and Rep. Sylvia Garcia in Houston. And they’re looking to disperse Republican voters from safely red districts into several districts currently represented by Democrats, such as the ones held by Johnson and Casar.
No Republican incumbents’ districts were made significantly more competitive.
The map-drawers managed to move more Republican voters into Democratic districts around Dallas and Houston without imperiling the nearby seats of GOP Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving and Troy Nehls, R-Fort Bend. Both faced competitive races in 2020 before their districts were redrawn in 2021 to become solidly Republican, and neither was made to sacrifice those gains in the state House’s initial map.
The changes would create two more districts in which white residents make up a majority of eligible voters, or citizens who are old enough to vote, hiking the number of such districts from 22 under the current map to 24. Hispanic residents — the state’s largest demographic group, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates — currently form the majority of eligible voters in seven districts, a total that would rise to eight under the new plan.
Four of the five districts that Republicans have drawn with the intention of flipping are now majority-Hispanic — though the Hispanic populations in the new seats in Houston and Central Texas are almost exactly 50%.
The proposed map would also create two majority Black districts, where previously there were none. Among them is the Houston-centered 18th Congressional District, which has been represented by a decades-long run of renowned Black Democratic members, including Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Sheila Jackson Lee and, most recently, Sylvester Turner, whose death in March left the seat vacant. The map proposes to pack even more Democratic voters into the solidly blue seat: Harris won the district with 69% in 2024 and would have carried it with 76% under the new boundaries.
Crockett’s Dallas seat would also become majority Black.
The 18th District was among Texas’ four majority-minority congressional seats flagged by the U.S. Department of Justice as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, a charge Texas Republicans have interchangeably denied in court and cited as the basis for pursuing mid-decade redistricting.
Any new map will inevitably be challenged in court. Courts have found that at least one of Texas’ maps violated the Voting Rights Act every decade since it went into effect in the mid-60s. The current map is still being challenged in federal court in El Paso, with no verdict yet reached.
The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!
TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Week 2 of the 2025 college football season begins Saturday with a handful of intriguing matchups in the early window, and the main event — which happens to be the only ranked-on-ranked game of the entire weekend — coming later in the day.
After losing its season-opener to Ohio State on the road, Arch Manning and No. 7 Texas will look to bounce back in a showdown against San Jose State. In the same window, College Football Playoff hopeful No. 11 Illinois travels to Durham, North Carolina, to face Duke. And if you like rivalry games, this window has that, too, as No. 16 Iowa State hosts Iowa with the Cy-Hawk Trophy on the line.
During the afternoon window, No. 6 Oregon faces Oklahoma State on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET. No. 8 Clemson is coming off a loss to LSU and will look to record its first win of the season against Troy.
The top game on this weekend’s slate is a matchup between No. 15 Michigan and No. 18 Oklahoma in the evening window. The Sooners are coming off a blowout win over Illinois State, while Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood led his team to a victory over New Mexico.
CBS Sports will be here every step of the way to update you with the latest scores, highlights and storylines throughout the evening. All times Eastern
No. 11 Illinois at Duke — ESPN — GameTracker
Iowa at No. 16 Iowa State — Fox — GameTracker
San Jose State at No. 7 Texas — ABC — GameTracker
Oklahoma State at No. 6 Oregon — 3:30 p.m. on CBS — Expert picks, preview
Grambling at No. 1 Ohio State — 3:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network
No. 20 Ole Miss at Kentucky — 3:30 p.m. on ABC — Expert picks, preview
South Florida at Florida — 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
Bethune-Cookman at No. 5 Miami — 7 p.m. on ESPN+
No. 12 Arizona State at Mississippi State — 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2
Louisiana Tech at No. 3 LSU — 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+
No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma — 7:30 p.m. on ABC — Expert picks, preview
Check out the entire Week 2 scoreboard
Sydney Sweeney‘s latest performance in the David Michôd-helmed boxing biopic Christy has premiered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews.
The 2x Emmy nominee stars as boxer Christy Martin, who never imagined life beyond her small-town roots in West Virginia—until she discovered a knack for knocking people out. Fueled by grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win, she charges into the world of boxing under the guidance of her trainer and manager-turned-husband, Jim (Ben Foster). But while Christy flaunts a fiery persona in the ring, her toughest battles unfold outside it, as she confronts family, identity, and a relationship that just might become life-or-death.
While some critics have praised Sweeney for disappearing into the role of the professional boxer, others say that’s all the movie has going for it.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond said Christy is an “overlong (at 135 minutes), somewhat repetitive and finally, in the third act, excruciating-to-watch movie,” although he admitted, “Sweeney delivers, and then some, putting her all into this sometimes extremely dark tale, and really does show she has the acting chops to pull it off, as if we didn’t already know.”
“If only the movie didn’t feel like we have seen this before because Martin’s personal story … is worthy of it being told to as many people as possible,” adds Hammond. “Let’s hope Christy, despite its flaws, gets an audience for that reason alone.”
‘Christy’
Black Bear
In IndieWire‘s review, Kate Erbland wrote that Sweeney “disappears into the role, not just changing her hair color, eye color, accent, and way of moving, but her general air, her overall mien, the space she takes up in a room.”
The New York Post‘s Johnny Oleksinski called Sweeney “a knockout” in her performance, adding that the film is “a major step to showing there’s much more to her than rom and com.”
Meanwhile, Nick Schager wrote for The Daily Beast that Sweeney “gives a believable performance that almost transcends her role’s derivativeness. This manipulative hybrid of Rocky, Million Dollar Baby, and Monster, however, is so rote that even an A.I. wouldn’t dare try to pass it off as original.”
TheWrap‘s Chase Hutchinson wrote, “It succeeds about half the time, making for a split decision where Sweeney and Christy both emerge as champions while the film itself can’t quite go the distance.”
For The Guardian, Benjamin Lee concluded, “Christy Martin’s life was filled with devastating blows but in her biopic, we barely feel the impact.”
Producers are Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Teddy Schwarzman, Brent Stiefel, Justin Lothrop, Michôd and Sweeney, and the movie premieres Nov. 7 in theaters via Black Bear.
Google I/O 2025. Samsung Galaxy Unpacked. Made By Google. All these big launch events had one thing in common — new artificial intelligence tools were the headline act.
Now, Apple has announced its next big event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Will we finally see the newer, smarter, AI-er Siri? Unfortunately, probably not. We, along with the rest of the tech world, would be shocked if it did.
It’s no secret — Apple Intelligence isn’t quite what we expected it to be, and the pressure is on Apple to add new AI-focused features to its products. That’s not to say that there aren’t some Apple Intelligence features that come in handy, but the long-awaited AI version of Siri has yet to make it to the public.
Apple’s next big event is set to be huge, and we’ll get a number of awesome new Apple devices that iPhone fans will love. So, why isn’t the AI-powered Siri ready for its primetime moment?
That’s the billion-dollar question.
Apple’s release cadence usually takes the following form: in June, Apple holds its Worldwide Developers Conference, which is its major software event for the year, and where it shows off the big new software features that will ship to customers in September. This year, Apple revealed iOS 26, and we’re eagerly awaiting the iOS 26 release date. On Sept. 9, Apple is set to debut devices, with the new iPhone being the headliner.
However, recent hardware launches from Google and Samsung have focused heavily on new AI tools.
Credit: Apple
Apple has a rocky history with AI features, especially after the company failed to ship many of the promised Apple Intelligence features that it announced at WWDC 2024. Since then, reports in the New York Times and Bloomberg have revealed that Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri with generative AI capabilities, and that the company has fallen far behind rivals like Google and OpenAI in the AI arms race.
In the meantime, Apple has turned to OpenAI and ChatGPT to power some Siri features. A recent report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple is also in talks with Anthropic and Google to help power new Apple Intelligence and Siri features. But according to all reports, AI Siri still isn’t done cooking.
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Regardless, most of these reports point toward Apple making early business decisions, not readying a new Siri for the iPhone 17 launch. In fact, Apple forecasters don’t expect to see the revamped Siri until at least 2026 – potentially around the time of WWDC 2026.
We do expect Apple to show off plenty of new AI toys at the Apple Event 2025, and there are plenty of Apple Intelligence rumors going around.
Technically, it’s still possible that Apple will surprise everyone and announce the new, revamped Siri. But in all likelihood, we expect to hear about iterative improvements to existing Apple Intelligence features.
Credit: Apple
Notably, Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac that it plans on supporting Siri using OpenAI’s new GPT-5 large language model. This builds on existing features, though. You can already sign into your OpenAI account on your iPhone and have Siri direct certain questions to ChatGPT as needed.
Other Apple Intelligence announcements should include improved real-time language translation on AirPods and iPhones, new photo editing tools, and more advanced Genmoji options. Some of these features were already teased during WWDC 2025 and should arrive with iOS 26.
Rumors aside, there are plenty of AI-based features that we know for a fact are coming in iOS 26, which we do expect to be released alongside the iPhone 17. We know this because Apple has announced them already. The beta version of iOS 26 has been available since June, after Apple announced all of the new operating systems at WWDC 2025.
So what new AI features are there? For starters, there’s a new feature in Visual Intelligence that allows users to ask questions about screenshots in addition to what your camera sees.
Credit: Christian de Looper
There are also new live translation features built into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, which use AI to provide real-time translations in communication. And there are some features that work a little more in the background, like AI-powered reminder suggestions, order tracking within Apple Wallet that uses information from emails in your inbox, and more.
Yes, Apple will probably focus heavily on other changes to iOS, like the new Liquid Glass design language, rather than on AI-based features, but that doesn’t mean that AI won’t be a big part of the new release.
It’s very clear that Apple is indeed still working on building the all-new generative AI Siri. We’ve seen plenty of reports highlighting executive team changes at the company meant to speed up AI development. But these kinds of developments take time, and most experts think the company will finally ship major new AI features in 2026.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
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