Texas Republicans set to approve Trump-backed new congressional map after lengthy fight
Texas Republicans on Wednesday will take up a new state congressional map intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked its passage.
Republican state legislators have undertaken a rare mid-decade redistricting at the behest of president Donald Trump, who is seeking to improve his party’s odds of preserving its narrow US House of Representatives majority despite political headwinds.
The gambit has triggered a national redistricting war, with governors of both parties threatening to initiate similar efforts in other states, Reuters reported.
Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom is advancing an effort to neutralize Texas’ move by redrawing his state’s map to flip five Republican seats, pitting the nation’s most populous Democratic state against Texas, its most populous Republican one. The Texas map aims to flip five Democratic seats.
Other Republican states including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic states such as Maryland and Illinois.
Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years after the US Census to account for population changes, and mid-decade redistricting has historically been unusual. In many states, lawmakers manipulate the lines to favor their party over the opposition, a practice known as gerrymandering.
Key events
The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, as Donald Trump continues to permit the Chinese-owned platform to operate in the US despite a law requiring its sale.
“America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?” read a caption on the account’s first post, a 27-second clip, on the popular video-sharing app.
The account had about 4,500 followers an hour after posting the video. Trump’s personal account on TikTok meanwhile has 15.1 million followers, though his last post was on 5 November 2024 – election day.
Trump has a soft spot for the popular app, crediting it with helping him gain support among young voters when he defeated Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, in the November 2024 presidential election.
“The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said as the account went live.
A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or a ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.
Dharna Noor
Household electricity bills have increased by 10% since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, a new report has found, with its authors highlighting the impact of the president’s datacenter boosterism and cuts to clean energy projects as part of the cause.
The analysis comes as the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said he knows rising energy prices could be a political challenge for the GOP ahead of next year’s midterm elections, but claimed Democrats were to blame for the cost increases.
“The momentum of the Obama-Biden policies, for sure that destruction is going to continue in the coming years,” he told Politico in an interview published on Tuesday. “That momentum is pushing prices up right now. And who’s going to get blamed for it? We’re going to get blamed because we’re in office.”
Trump has repeatedly promised to lower utility bills. And in his Politico interview, Wright insisted that the Trump administration’s war on renewable energy is not inflating electricity costs.
But studies have found that Trump’s pro-fossil fuel, anti-renewable energy policies will raise prices. A July report from climate thinktank Energy Innovation, for instance, found that the Republicans’ spending megabill that the president signed last month could increase wholesale electricity prices by as much as 74%, largely due to its repeal of many Biden-era green energy incentives.
Texas Republicans set to approve Trump-backed new congressional map after lengthy fight
Texas Republicans on Wednesday will take up a new state congressional map intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked its passage.
Republican state legislators have undertaken a rare mid-decade redistricting at the behest of president Donald Trump, who is seeking to improve his party’s odds of preserving its narrow US House of Representatives majority despite political headwinds.
The gambit has triggered a national redistricting war, with governors of both parties threatening to initiate similar efforts in other states, Reuters reported.
Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom is advancing an effort to neutralize Texas’ move by redrawing his state’s map to flip five Republican seats, pitting the nation’s most populous Democratic state against Texas, its most populous Republican one. The Texas map aims to flip five Democratic seats.
Other Republican states including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic states such as Maryland and Illinois.
Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years after the US Census to account for population changes, and mid-decade redistricting has historically been unusual. In many states, lawmakers manipulate the lines to favor their party over the opposition, a practice known as gerrymandering.
Dani Anguiano
A southern California community is calling for the release of a high school student whom US immigration agents arrested earlier this month while he was walking his dog.
Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz was supposed to be starting his senior year of high school at Reseda charter high school this month. But just days after his 18th birthday, masked Ice agents detained him as he walking his dog in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys in what his family described as a kidnapping.
The agents allowed his dog to run loose, and treated Guerrero-Cruz like a criminal and joked while arresting him, his family said in a GoFundMe.
“He is more than just a student – he is a devoted son, a caring brother, a loyal friend, and a valued member of our community,” the family wrote, adding that he helps care for his younger brothers. “He is a good student, with a kind heart, who has always stepped up for his family.”
Educators and advocates held a rally to bring attention to Guerrero-Cruz’s detention, demand his release, and call for answers from local officials, such as the Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, about the unmarked vehicle and plainclothes, masked men who took him on the morning of 8 August.
Joseph Gedeon
Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Washington DC police systematically manipulated crime statistics to make the city appear safer than it actually is.
The probe, anonymous sources tell the Washington Post, NBC News and Fox News, being conducted by the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia under Jeanine Pirro, is the latest escalation between the Trump administration and DC officials over federal control of local policing.
The justice department did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation.
Trump somewhat confirmed the investigation on Monday, writing on social media that DC provided “fake crime numbers” to create a “false illusion of safety” and officials were “under serious investigation”.
Trump again attacks Fed chair, says Powell ‘hurting’ the housing industry
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is “hurting” the housing industry “very badly” and repeated his call for a big cut to US interest rates.
“Could somebody please inform Jerome “Too Late” Powell that he is hurting the Housing Industry, very badly? People can’t get a Mortgage because of him. There is no Inflation, and every sign is pointing to a major Rate Cut,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Inflation is well off the highs seen during the pandemic, but some recent data has given a mixed picture and inflation continues to track above the Fed’s 2% target range.
Trump’s latest salvo against Powell comes ahead of the Fed chair’s Friday speech at the annual Jackson Hole central banking symposium, where investors will cleave to his every word for hints on his economic outlook and the likelihood of a coming reduction to short-term borrowing costs.
The Fed’s next policy meeting will be held on 16-17 September.
President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday he will pressure the Smithsonian Institution – a premier museum, education and research complex for US history and culture – to accept his demands, just like he did with colleges and universities by threatening to cut federal funding, Reuters reports.
In a social media post, Trump complained about what he called excessive focus on “how bad Slavery was.”
“I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The Smithsonian, which was established in 1846 and includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo, had no immediate comment. Most of its museums are in Washington, DC.
The White House said last week it will lead an internal review of some Smithsonian museums after Trump earlier this year accused it of spreading “anti-American ideology” and raised alarm among civil rights advocates.
Musk quietly puts brakes on plans for new political party, WSJ says
Billionaire Elon Musk is quietly putting the brakes on plans to start his new political party, telling allies he wants to focus on his companies, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the plans.
Musk, without commenting further on the report, said in an X post: “Nothing @WSJ says should ever be thought of as true”.
Musk, the world’s richest man, unveiled the ‘America Party’ in July after a public dispute with president Donald Trump on the tax cut and spending bill.
He has recently been focused in part on maintaining ties with vice-president JD Vance, the paper said, and has acknowledged to associates that forming a political party would damage his relationship with Vance.
Musk, the world’s richest man, and his associates have told people close to Vance that the billionaire is considering using some of his financial resources to back Vance if he decides to run for president in 2028, the paper said.
Norwegian and Swedish-Danish postal groups Posten Bring and PostNord are pausing parcel shipments to the United States ahead of the scrapping of a US customs tax loophole that allows duty-free entry for low-value packages, they said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration said last month it would suspend the global “de minimis” exemption, which also allows minimal paperwork, for international shipments under $800 from 29 August.
“Due to the short time-frame to adapt to the new requirements, PostNord is temporarily halting shipments,” the company owned by the Swedish and Danish governments said in a statement.
Under the executive order suspending the “de minimis” exemption, low-value packages sent to the US will face “all applicable duties”, according to the White House.
Gabbard strips security clearance from dozens of intelligence officials
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard said on Tuesday that she had stripped security clearances from 37 current and former national security officials, including some who worked on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
In a memo posted on X, Gabbard accused the targeted individuals of having engaged in “politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards”.
This move is the latest in a series of retributions by the Trump administration against national security officials and political opponents he views as adversaries.
“These are unlawful and unconstitutional decisions that deviate from well-settled, decades-old laws and policies that sought to protect against just this type of action,” Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer whose own clearance was revoked by the Trump administration, said in a statement.
He called it hypocritical for the administration to “claim these individuals politicized or weaponized intelligence.”
In March, Trump revoked security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and several other Democrats and critics. The order also stripped access from former secretary of state Antony Blinken, former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, New York attorney general Letitia James – who prosecuted Trump for fraud – and Biden’s entire family.
In other developments:
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will open a new migrant detention facility in Nebraska as part of President Trump’s ongoing efforts to bolster Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (Ice) detention network. The facility, located in the southwest part of the state, has been called “Cornhusker Clink” by the department and will hold undocumented migrants arrested by Ice. The project is a partnership between the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Ice, adding up to 280 new detention beds.
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National guard members from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana began arriving in Washington on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports, to help with President Donald Trump’s federal crackdown on crime and homelessness. The Joint Task Force District of Columbia, the military unit overseeing the Guard, told the news wire that those troops will perform similar duties to local Guard members already on the streets. These tasks include protecting landmarks and crowd control.
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The White House launched an official TikTok account, joining the social platform with more than 150 million US users. Reuters first reported the move. The first video posted by the White House on TikTok shows a video montage with a Trump voiceover saying: “Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice.” More here.
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Texas Democrats are tearing up the “permission slips” they signed in order to leave the chamber, joining state representative Nicole Collier ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the controversial Texas congressional redistricting maps. The slips are part of new surveillance protocols set by Texas Republicans in the House chamber, stating that Democrats would “be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Texas department of public safety] officer” who would ensure their return to the chamber.
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Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Washington DC police systematically manipulated crime statistics to make the city appear safer than it actually is. The probe, anonymous sources tell the Washington Post, NBC News and Fox News, being conducted by the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia under Jeanine Pirro, is the latest escalation between the Trump administration and DC officials over federal control of local policing. More here.
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The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it will look for “anti-American” views, including on social media, when assessing the applications of people wanting to live in the United States. In an announcement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles requests to stay in the United States or become a citizen, said it would expand vetting of the social media postings of applicants and that “reviews for anti-American activity will be added to that vetting”. More here.
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