Donald Trump is pulling hard on the levers of power to strengthen Republicans through redistricting in Texas and other states — the latest offensive in escalating moves by both sides to shape the battlefield of US democracy for the midterm elections.The president’s efforts have lit a fuse in multiple states, triggering a high-stakes tussle over election law that could upend what is expected to be a fierce fight for control of the House of Representatives in 2026.Partisan redistricting — or gerrymandering — operates under a principle that has become known as “packing and cracking.”Officials redrawing the districts in any given state “pack” opposition voters together so that they win big in a tiny number of districts. Then they “crack” the rest more thinly across the remaining districts to ensure losses there.It isn’t inherently illegal at the federal level unless electoral districts are redrawn along racial lines and both parties have been guilty of excessive manipulation to maximize their vote.”I’d be happy to outlaw gerrymandering,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former top aide to 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, posted on X.”I think it’s ridiculous for politicians to draw their own maps, but I’m not for unilateral disarmament when Republicans are trying to rig the midterms.”Redistricting typically happens once a decade after the census, but lawmakers have increasingly been inclined to break with that tradition.While Trump coasted to victory in 2024, his success wasn’t contagious, and his party was left clinging to the House by a threadbare 219–212 margin. Historically, the party in the White House loses ground in midterms, and Trump’s team knows the clock is ticking. To tighten his grip, the president has leaned on Texas to redraw its congressional map to create five new Republican-friendly seats.  But Trump and his party are not stopping with the Lone Star State, according to US media.Republicans in Missouri and Ohio are planning their own redistricting to boost their representation in Washington, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made noises about addressing the “raw deal” conservatives got in the last Sunshine State redistricting round.- Democratic counteroffensives -Meanwhile, Democratic governors are preparing their own counteroffensives.In California, Gavin Newsom has floated a potential special election to redraw the map — a dramatic reversal in a state where redistricting power has belonged to an independent commission since the 2010s. In Illinois, JB Pritzker recently hosted a delegation of Texas Democrats to talk strategy. And in New York, Kathy Hochul hinted at a redistricting push of her own, telling a Buffalo crowd, “If other states are violating the rules, I’m going to look at it closely.”Gerrymandering is hardly a new phenomenon in US elections, but the latest escalation has sparked fears of what Hochul cast as a nationwide partisan “war.”Opponents say gerrymandering entrenches politicians, pushes candidates toward ideological extremes and erodes public trust in the democratic process.It is also a risky business, and even the best-laid maps can collapse under the shifting ground of demographic changes and political overreach that tends to spark a legal backlash. The term “gerrymandering” dates back to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a salamander-shaped district that sparked the term.As the salamander digs in for 21st century elections, the consequences are more far-reaching.According to the Cook Political Report, just one in 16 House seats were competitive in 2024 — 12 held by Democrats and 15 held by Republicans, out of a total of 435.Democrats believe Trump’s latest push may have crossed a legal line by coordinating with local Texas officials, citing the president’s July 15 comment that with “just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.” They also point to reports that senior Trump aides met with Texas Republicans to finalize plans.But Daron Shaw, a politics professor at the University of Texas, said it was “curious” to blame Trump for the problem, given that deeply Democratic California is the country’s most “egregious gerrymander.” Liberal Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts were also at fault, he told AFP.”It’s especially kind of rich coming from people in California and Illinois that have gerrymander significantly more egregious than exists in Texas,” he added.

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is to be sentenced in October for his conviction on prostitution-related charges, is seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.”It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” Nicole Westmoreland told CNN in an interview.Trump has indicated, however, that he is unlikely to grant a pardon to the 55-year-old Combs.”I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great and he seemed like a nice guy,” Trump said in an interview on Friday with Newsmax. “I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”Asked if that meant he was not inclined to pardon Combs, Trump said: “I would say so, yeah.”A New York jury found Combs guilty last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges after a marathon trial in which he was accused of harrowing abuse.Sentencing has been set for October 3.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced it would terminate 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines, questioning the safety of a technology credited with helping end the Covid pandemic and saving millions of lives.The announcement, made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., marks his latest effort to weave vaccine skepticism into the core of US government policy.”We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” Kennedy said in a statement.The health department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is “terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he added.”We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”The changes affect Moderna’s mRNA bird flu vaccine — a move the company itself disclosed in May — as well as numerous other programs, including “rejection or cancellation of multiple pre-award solicitations” from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Sanofi.In total, the affected projects are worth “nearly $500 million,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said. Certain late-stage projects were excluded from the move “to preserve prior taxpayer investment.””Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Secretary Kennedy said.”That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions.”Since taking office, Kennedy, who spent two decades sowing misinformation around immunization, has overseen a major overhaul of US health policy — firing, for example, a panel of vaccine experts that advise the government and replacing them with his own appointees.In its first meeting, the new panel promptly voted to ban a longstanding vaccine preservative targeted by the anti-vaccine movement, despite its strong safety record.He has also ordered a sweeping new study on the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism.Unlike traditional vaccines, which often use weakened or inactivated forms of the target virus or bacteria, mRNA shots deliver genetic instructions into the host’s cells, prompting them to produce a harmless decoy of the pathogen and train the immune system to fight the real thing.Though in development for decades, mRNA vaccines were propelled from lab benches to widespread use through President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed — a public-private partnership led by BARDA that poured billions into companies to accelerate development.The technology’s pioneers, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, asked a judge on Tuesday to reject a US Justice Department request to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case and that of the late notorious sex offender.”Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” Maxwell’s lawyers said in a filing with the federal judge in New York who is considering the government request.”Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain,” the attorneys said.Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.President Donald Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said last month that the wealthy financier had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”In a bid to calm the furor, the Justice Department is seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts from the cases against Epstein and Maxwell.US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, also met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed.Trump was asked on Tuesday about the meeting and said it was “not an uncommon thing” and was “totally above board.””I think (Blanche) probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved, or aren’t involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people,” he said.Trump also told reporters that he was not aware of Maxwell’s recent move from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas until after it happened.- ‘Firestorm of false reporting’ -Trump, 79, was once a close friend of Epstein, and The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the so-called “Epstein files,” though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the newspaper after it reported that he had penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young girls for VIPs and other elites.In their filing with Judge Paul Engelmayer, Maxwell’s lawyers said she was “convicted in a media firestorm of false reporting” and noted that she has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court.”The government seeks to unseal the grand jury transcripts, citing ‘historical interest’ without regard for how that release will affect Maxwell’s privacy interests, her pending (Supreme Court) Petition, and any future litigation,” they said.Her lawyers also said Maxwell has not been been allowed to review the transcripts even though the government has not opposed her request to do so.