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South Carolina Republicans defy Trump, tank redistricting, for now
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats’ redistricting map
Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares explains why the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Democratic redistricting map was a «win for the rule of law.» Miyares notes the proposed map would have drastically shifted power for Democrats, citing the court’s emphasis on adhering to the state’s constitutional amendment process.
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A handful of Republican state senators in South Carolina on Tuesday derailed an effort in the GOP-dominated legislature to redraw their state’s congressional district map which aims to erase the only Democrat-dominated U.S. House seat ahead of the midterm elections.
Five Republican state senators broke with their party and teamed up with Democrats to defeat a proposal that would have allowed the chamber to vote on redistricting after the South Carolina legislative session comes to a close later this week.
The move came hours after President Donald Trump warned on social media that he’d be «watching closely» as lawmakers met to move forward with changing their state’s map.
The setback means it will be much harder for South Carolina to join Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana, which are altering their maps to eliminate Democrat-controlled congressional districts in time for the midterms, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin House majority. The southern states are the latest battleground in the nationwide redistricting showdown. At stake is which party will control the House during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.
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The South Carolina Statehouse, in Columbia, S.C. (Getty Images)
The efforts by Republicans in the southern states come in the wake of a decision by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to slash a key protection in the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. The justices ruled that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps.
South Carolina Republicans were trying to advance a new map that could put longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state’s seven-person House delegation, out of a job.
Clyburn this past week remained optimistic he can still win re-election.
«I don’t know why people think I could not get re-elected if they redistrict South Carolina,» Clyburn said in a CNN interview. «I have a district that’s about 45 percent African-American. I have no idea what the number will be after the legislature finishes, but whatever that number is, I will be running on my record and America’s promise.»
ALABAMA REPUBLICANS PLOW FORWARD ON REDISTRICTING
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., speaks during the 2024 Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
Trump, in a social media post Monday night, urged «South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS.»
«Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!» he emphasized.
Trump’s message came a week after five Indiana Republican state senators who in December helped sink congressional redistricting in the solidly red Midwestern state were ousted by Trump-backed challengers in GOP primaries.
Shane Massey, the South Carolina Senate’s Republican majority leader, argued in a floor speech that following Trump’s lead on edistricting would be against the interests of the Palmetto State.
«South Carolina has always punched above their weight,» Massey said. «Doing this will diminish that influence.»
Republican South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey speaks during a debate on redistricting on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (Jeffrey Collins/AP Photo)
But he also acknowledged that he will likely face political payback from Trump and the president’s allies.
«There are likely consequences for me, personally, taking the position that I am right now,» Massey said. «I’m comfortable with that. I may not like it, but I’m comfortable with it…My conscience is clear on this one.»
Other South Carolina Republicans had raised concerns that carving up the district represented by Clyburn could backfire on their party in the midterms.
The top four Republicans running for governor this year, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, Attorney Gen. Alan Wilson, and Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman all criticized the lack of legislative action, with Evette describing it as «a betrayal of the people of South Carolina» and in «direct defiance» of Trump.
The current governor, Republican Henry McMaster, a top Trump ally, could still call the legislature back into special session to try and push through redistricting, but his office has so far said that scenario is unlikely.
WHAT’S ON THE LINE AS THESE STATES HOLD PRIMARIES TODAY
The GOP-dominated Tennessee legislature on Thursday quickly adopted a new map that would eliminate the only Democrat-controlled congressional district in the state, and would likely give Republicans control of all nine districts.
GOP Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed the new maps into law.
Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents the majority Black district that’s being carved up, vowed legal action.
«Trump knows he HAS TO rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful,» Cohen wrote on social media. «Next stop is the courts.»
Trump praised Tennessee Republicans in his social media post and urged GOP lawmakers in South Carolina to act «just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week.»
President Donald Trump has urged Republican-controlled states to redraw their congressional district maps in time for this year’s midterm elections. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
It’s back to the future in Alabama, after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ideological ruling, cleared the way for the state to put in place a map Republicans drew up in 2023 that had been blocked by lower courts. The map would eliminate one of the state’s two blue-leaning congressional seats.
GOP Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday called for a special primary election in August in the four U.S. House districts altered by the new map.
Last week, the Supreme Court said that its decision declaring Louisiana’s map unconstitutional should go into effect immediately.
That cleared the way for the GOP-controlled state legislature to begin the process of reshaping the map, and hearings got underway on Friday.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, took swift action in the immediate aftermath of the high court’s ruling, when he delayed the May 16 U.S. House primary elections in Louisiana.
Louisiana Republicans are aiming to erase one or both of the two Black-majority House seats, which are represented by Democrats.
BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT VOTING RIGHTS RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WAR ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed into law a new congressional district map that may create up to four more right-leaning U.S. House seats (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service)
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last week signed a bill by the GOP-dominated state legislature that overhauls the red-leaning state’s congressional districts, adding four more right-leaning seats by eliminating districts currently controlled by Democrats.
Republicans currently control Florida’s U.S. House delegation by a 20-8 margin.
Democrats are fighting back.
On Monday, Democrats filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt a Virginia state Supreme Court ruling invalidating a ballot measure that would have given their party an additional four left-leaning U.S. House seats.
Last week’s ruling in Virginia means the map used in the 2024 elections will stay in place for the 2026 ballot box showdowns. Democrats currently control the state’s U.S. House delegation by a 6-5 margin. The now overturned map could have resulted in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in the blue-leaning but competitive state.
How we got here
The battle over the maps ignited last spring when Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.
The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, «Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.»
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country. Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That led to five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office in Sacramento on Nov. 4, 2025. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)
But the fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.
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But in blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.
And as mentioned, Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.
midterm elections, republicans, south carolina, democrats, house of representatives, donald trump
Donald Trump llega este miércoles a China en una visita histórica en la que buscará estabilizar las siempre difíciles relaciones con Beijing bajo el fantasma de la guerra en Irán.
El presidente estadounidense arribará al país a última hora del miércoles hora local (la mañana en la Argentina), pero el plato fuerte de su viaje se cumplirá el jueves y el viernes con sendas reuniones con su par chino, Xi Jinping.
La agenda oficial prevé una visita al Templo del Cielo y una cena de Estado, pero todas las miradas estarán puestas en el conflicto en Medio Oriente, el comercio internacional, la inteligencia artificial y la situación en Taiwán, aliado militar y estratégico de Washington y considerado una provincia rebelde por Beijing.
Será el primer encuentro bilateral desde octubre pasado cuando ambos líderes se reunieron en Corea del Sur y pusieron fin a una desgastante guerra comercial tras la imposición de elevados aranceles mutuos.
¿Qué está en juego en la visita de Donald Trump a China?
Trump no viaja solo. Lo acompaña una amplia delegación de funcionarios y un “dream team” empresarial integrado, entre muchísimos otros, por Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone), Larry Fink (BlackRock) y Jane Fraser (Citigroup).
El presidente Donald Trump se subió al Air Force One en la Base Aérea Andrews de Maryland, para iniciar su viaje a China, el 12 de mayo de 2026. (AP foto/Mark Schiefelbein)
Jorge Malena, director del Comité de Asuntos Asiáticos del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI), dijo a TN que el viaje de Trump a China “parece orientado más a estabilizar la relación bilateral que a producir avances profundos”.
“Tanto Washington como Beijing reconocen que las diferencias estructurales -comerciales, tecnológicas y geopolíticas- seguirán vigentes, por lo que el principal objetivo será evitar una nueva escalada de tensiones. En este contexto, la reunión con Xi Jinping buscará preservar canales de diálogo y reducir riesgos de crisis, más que redefinir la relación entre ambas potencias», indicó.
La visita estaba prevista para marzo pasado, pero se postergó por la guerra en Irán.
Precisamente el conflicto estará en la mesa de diálogo bilateral, aunque Trump se esforzó por minimizar la importancia del tema antes de viajar a Beijing. China es el principal comprador del petróleo iraní y la Casa Blanca buscó en las últimas semanas que Xi Jinping presionara a Teherán para acordar una salida al conflicto que lleva ya dos meses y medio.
Leé también: “Una guerra inconclusa”: Irán y Estados Unidos llevan el conflicto a un peligroso estancamiento
La sucesión de sanciones internacionales impulsadas por Washington obligó a Irán a concentrar sus exportaciones petroleras en Beijing en los últimos años. Así, hoy China compra alrededor del 80% del total de las exportaciones de crudo iraní. En 2025 esta cifra representó 1,38 millones de barriles diarios. En contrapartida, el 13% de las importaciones petroleras de China proviene de Irán a través del bloqueado estrecho de Ormuz.
En ese marco, el presidente estadounidense dijo que no necesita pedirle ayuda a China para resolver la guerra. “Tenemos muchas cosas que discutir. Para serle franco, no diría que Irán sea una de ellas, porque tenemos a Irán muy bajo control. O bien llegaremos a un acuerdo, o (los iraníes) serán diezmados; de una forma u otra vamos a ganar”, dijo Trump a periodistas antes de partir hacia China.
Además, calificó su relación con Xi como “inmensa”.
“Siempre nos hemos llevado bien. Nos va muy bien con China, y trabajar con ellos ha sido muy positivo. Por ello, esperamos con entusiasmo esta reunión. Como saben, el presidente Xi vendrá aquí hacia finales de año, lo cual también será muy emocionante”, dijo.
Seguridad energética, comercio y Taiwán
Para Malena, “uno de los temas centrales será la seguridad energética, especialmente por la inestabilidad en el estrecho de Ormuz y el papel de China en el mercado petrolero iraní. Aunque Washington y Beijing mantienen posiciones diferentes respecto de Irán y las sanciones, ambos comparten el interés en evitar una interrupción de los flujos energéticos globales”, indicó.
El especialista en temas chinos dijo que “también ocuparán un lugar relevante las negociaciones económicas y comerciales, aunque no se esperan avances significativos en cuestiones sensibles como restricciones tecnológicas, cadenas de suministro o tierras raras”.
Según afirmó, “la visita reflejará además la competencia entre ambas potencias por el liderazgo internacional. Trump buscará mostrar capacidad de negociación y fortaleza política ante el escenario interno estadounidense, mientras Xi Jinping intentará consolidar la imagen de China como un actor responsable y estabilizador”. El secretario del Tesoro de Estados Unidos, Scott Bessent, estrecha la mano del vicepremier chino He Lifeng durante una reunión bilateral en Ginebra, Suiza, el sábado 10 de mayo de 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone vía AP)
“Por ello, la cumbre probablemente representará un ejercicio de administración de la rivalidad sino-estadounidense, con resultados limitados pero útiles para evitar un deterioro mayor de la relación”, concluyó el analista.
Leé también: Escándalo en California: una alcaldesa fue acusada de ser una agente secreta del gobierno chino
Según The New York Times, Trump pondrá sobre la mesa las compras por parte de China de aviones Boeing, carne vacuna y soja estadounidenses, así como la creación de una junta de inversiones y otra de comercio.
China, a su vez, priorizará tres ejes: aranceles, tecnología y la situación en Taiwán. Además, buscará prorrogar la tregua comercial alcanzada el año pasado y suavizar los controles a la exportación de semiconductores avanzados que China necesita para modernizar su sector industrial.
El resultado más probable de la cumbre, concluyó el periódico, es un conjunto de acuerdos modestos sobre inversión y una extensión de la tregua comercial.
China, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping
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The church bells still ring in Rmeish on the Lebanon-Israel border.
While much of southern Lebanon has suffered destruction during the war between Israel and the terror group Hezbollah, the predominantly Christian border town close to Israel remained largely untouched. Churches are still standing. Homes remain intact. Residents say the village avoided Israeli strikes because locals refused to allow Hezbollah fighters to operate from inside the town.
«There was more than one attempt for them to come to the outskirts or the entrance of the village to launch rockets from there,» one resident told Jusoor News. «The young men of Rmeish confronted them and prevented them from entering.»
«That led to the protection of Rmeish from any Israeli attacks,» the resident said. «The Israelis do not target aimlessly. They target launch sites.»
HEZBOLLAH DISARMAMENT DEADLOCK RISKS CIVIL WAR, ANALYSTS SAY, AS US PREPARES FOR ISRAEL–LEBANON TALKS
Churches in the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish remained standing throughout the conflict, as residents say the community resisted Hezbollah attempts to launch rockets from the area. (Jusoor News)
The account offers a rare public glimpse into open resistance to Hezbollah inside southern Lebanon, where criticism of the Iranian-backed terrorist group is often met with accusations of treason or collaboration with Israel.
Tarek, a Christian social activist from Rmeish who spoke by phone with Fox News Digital, said residents of the town have long-faced pressure because they refused to align with Hezbollah.
«After 2000, when Israel left, we were always labeled as collaborators of Israel,» Tarek said. «We suffered a lot from this stigma.»
He said Hezbollah supporters accused the town of cooperating with Israel simply because it escaped the destruction seen in neighboring villages.
The interviews come as the Trump administration brokers talks between Israel and Lebanon aimed at stabilizing the border and addressing Hezbollah’s military presence in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem recently rejected any discussion about disarming the group, while U.S. officials continue pushing to strengthen the Lebanese state over the armed terror group.
Hezbollah worked to build facilities below private residential buildings and houses in southern Lebanon. (Benoît Durand / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
Tarek argued Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon cannot be separated from Iran.
«The Lebanese government has been ruled by Hezbollah for almost 36 years,» he told Fox News Digital. «They are deeply entrenched in all arms of the government, security, army and institutions.»
«If the president or prime minister says they want peace, Hezbollah will resist that,» he added.
Tarek said weakening Iran is the key to weakening Hezbollah.
IRAN COULD ‘ACTIVATE’ HEZBOLLAH IF US TARGETS REGIME, TRUMP’S INNER CIRCLE TO DECIDE: EXPERT
Residents of the Christian border town of Rmeish in southern Lebanon say the village remained largely untouched during the war after locals prevented Hezbollah fighters from operating inside the town. (Jusoor News)
«It’s about cutting the head of the octopus, which is the Iranian regime,» he said. «Once you cut the head, Hezbollah will no longer function.»
Another resident said many in the town increasingly believe «Hezbollah’s project is an Iranian project, not a Lebanese one.»
Another woman from the village described living surrounded by war while trying to keep the town outside the fighting.
‘WAR FOLLOWED US’: A SYRIAN FAMILY FLED BEIRUT AFTER ISRAELI BOMBARDMENT TO FACE REPRESSION, BOMBING AT HOME
A landscape view of Rmeish, a predominantly Christian town near the Israel-Lebanon border whose residents say they worked to keep Hezbollah fighters out of the village during the war. (Jusoor News)
«We are in the middle, and the war surrounds us from all sides,» she said. «This makes us live in a state of fear, anxiety, insecurity and instability.»
A man from the village said residents had endured decades of wars that they have nothing to do with.
«We decided to remain steadfast,» he said. «Where would we go?»
An older resident said his family has suffered from violence along the border since the 1970s.
«We are tired of wars,» he said. «We want nothing but peace.»
Despite accusations from Hezbollah supporters, residents insisted they do not regret standing up to the terrorist group.
«All accusations of treason are rejected,» one resident said. «The people of Rmeish want to live safely on their land.»
Another resident added: «Just because I don’t believe in your project doesn’t mean I’m a traitor.»
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A view of the southern Lebanese border town of Rmeish near Israel. (Jusoor News)
Ahed Al Hendi, a senior fellow at the Center for Peace Communications, told Fox News Digital that, «The defiance shown by Christians in southern Lebanon reflects a major shift in the country’s internal dynamics. For more than two decades, many Christians living near the border suffered under Hezbollah’s dominance, yet were stigmatized and often afraid to speak openly against it.»
«Today,» Al Hendi added, «with the changing balance of power, they are increasingly confronting Hezbollah publicly and speaking out against what they see as its tyranny.»
lebanon, wars, terrorism, iran, israel
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