Maryland leans Democratic, but not as much as the party’s 7-to-1 dominance in the state’s delegation in the House of Representatives suggests. After all, a Republican governor, Larry Hogan, now entering his final year in office, has been elected twice by comfortable margins; GOP voters outnumber Democrats in most of the state’s rural and exurban counties.

For Democrats who control Maryland’s legislature, that inconvenient fact, coupled with brazen Republican gerrymandering in states the GOP controls, seems to have only stiffened their resolve to lock in their advantage by gerrymandering the electoral map, already among the most preposterously partisan in the country. Heedless of public opinion and the recommendations of a citizens commission, Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis appear determined to draw congressional districts even more tilted in their favor than the ones they established 10 years ago.

Granted, it’s rich to hear the righteous indignation of Maryland Republicans, who have been silent as their counterparts in other states are busy in this decennial redistricting year skewing maps in their own partisan favor. Politicians choosing voters of their liking, rather than the other way around, is unquestionably bipartisan.

Large majorities of Americans are fed up with being used as pawns on electoral maps, to be shifted, sliced, severed and rearranged in service of sustaining a majority party’s grip on power. Gerrymandering is also accelerating the nation’s descent into tribal dissolution. Confident that the outcome of general elections in congressional races is a foregone conclusion, the most extreme voices compete with one another in primaries in the sure knowledge that they will never have to pivot to appeal to centrist and swing voters.

French authorities on Wednesday released the man detained the previous day for his suspected involvement in the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi after determining the arrest had been a case of mistaken identity.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the man believed to be Saudi citizen Khaled Aedh Al-Otaibi, 33, one of the 26 Saudi nationals wanted in connection to the killing of Khashoggi, had been released from detention following “thorough checks,” according to The Washington Post.

French authorities on Tuesday had arrested the man at Charles de Gaulle airport, where he was scheduled to board a flight back to Riyadh. Authorities said they were detaining him on an unsettled Turkish arrest warrant, according to the Post.

Nearly 30 hours later, however, the man was released.

Former President Trump’s war with his staunch GOP critics on Capitol Hill is seeping into every corner of the 2022 campaign trail.

Texas GOP congressional candidate Morgan Luttrell recently called Trump foe Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), asking the fellow military veteran to donate to his primary campaign, a GOP source said; Kinzinger did so, sending Luttrell a donation from his anti-Trump Country First political action committee.

But Luttrell, a retired Navy SEAL and the favorite to succeed retiring Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), faced so much backlash from Trump loyalists, he was forced to quickly send back the donation to Kinzinger, GOP lawmakers familiar with the situation told The Hill on Tuesday.

The strange episode highlights just how cautious inexperienced Republican congressional candidates need to be as they navigate a perilous campaign cycle where Trump — the de facto leader of the GOP and its possible nominee in 2024 — is vowing to destroy any fellow Republican who opposes him or anyone who aligns with their cause.

An effort to recall Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant led in Tuesday night’s vote count with about 53% supporting her removal from office, as voters in her district took part in a historic election to decide whether the outspoken socialist politician should be ousted or retained.

Additional votes will be counted in the coming days.

The standalone election is the first-ever recall of a council member to reach a ballot in Seattle and was held just over a month after a general election that saw the city’s voters elect a new mayor, city attorney and two at-large council members.

Henry Bridger II, the campaign manager for the Recall Sawant campaign, called Tuesday night’s results “strong and promising” in a phone interview from the campaign’s Capitol Hill headquarters.

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it would move its weekends to Saturday and Sunday at the start of the new year, in an effort to align with much of the rest of the world. The gulf state has long observed a Friday-Saturday weekend.

The UAE is also implementing a 4½-day workweek, as the weekend will officially start on Friday afternoon, when many Muslims gather for Friday prayers.

The change will affect the public sector. Private companies can choose their work schedules.

“From an economic perspective, the new working week will better align the UAE with global markets, reflecting the country’s strategic status on the global economic map,” read the announcement published Tuesday by state news agency WAM. “It will ensure smooth financial, trade and economic transactions with countries that follow a Saturday/Sunday weekend, facilitating stronger international business links and opportunities for thousands of UAE-based and multinational companies.”

The chief executive of a US mortgage company who fired 900 employees on a Zoom call has apologised for failing to show “respect and appreciation” for the staff he sacked.

The founder and chief executive of better.com, Vishal Garg, expressed contrition in a message posted on his company’s website.

Garg said he was sorry for the way “I handled the layoffs last week” after staff uproar over the video call last Wednesday.

The 43-year-old added: “I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better. I own the decision to do the layoffs but in communicating it I blundered the execution.

Boris Johnson is facing accusations of lying after senior No 10 officials were filmed joking about a lockdown Christmas party that Downing Street insists did not take place.

Johnson and his aides have repeatedly denied that the event, reportedly held for staff at No 10 in December last year, broke Covid rules or took place at all.

In the leaked video of a mock televised press briefing, an adviser to Johnson is seen joking with Allegra Stratton, the prime minister’s then press secretary, about “a Downing Street Christmas party on Friday night”.

The footage, obtained by ITV, was shot on 22 December 2020. The Friday before was 18 December, the date on which multiple sources have said there was a staff party inside Downing Street, which would have contravened strict Covid regulations in place at the time.

Social Democrat Olaf Scholz was sworn in as chancellor of Germany on Wednesday, succeeding Angela Merkel after 16 years and launching a new era of German and European politics.

Why it matters: Scholz, a center-left pragmatist who served as finance minister and vice chancellor in Merkel's last government, will lead Europe's largest economy in a coalition with the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats.

The big picture: Climate change, more progressive social and economic policies, and a stronger European Union are the central planks of the Social Democratic platform.

The experienced former mayor of Hamburg is seen as a continuity figure for Merkel's foreign policy, which has been driven in large part by the interests of Germany's export-driven industry.

Public health officials are warning that the U.S. may be on the verge of a dangerous double whammy: COVID and flu, spreading simultaneously.

The big picture: The Delta variant is still circulating across the U.S., and the Omicron variant isn't far behind. On top of that, experts see potential warning signs of a bad flu season, which could leave millions of Americans vulnerable and strain health care resources.

What they're saying: "If people resume 'life as normal' without masking and without getting flu shots or COVID shots, then I think we're in for a tough winter," said Gregg Miller, the chief medical officer of Vituity, a firm that staffs hospital emergency departments.

"Many of us have been concerned this year may be a worse influenza season, but it's too early to say," Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University and Bellevue Hospital told Axios.