President Donald Trump’s bid to lock in Republican rule in next year’s US elections with an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting sweep could be coming undone — and threatening to gift Democrats an unexpected advantage.Breaking with political tradition, the president has pressed conservative states to redraw their congressional maps years before the next census, arguing that Republicans are “entitled” to grow their thin majority in the US House of Representatives.His party initially seemed well positioned — they control more state legislatures and map-drawing processes — but the strategy has stumbled.Democrats, once bracing for losses in a redistricting arms race, are now hopeful of netting around five seats — and possibly more — as courts and state officials weigh in.The biggest blow came last week when a federal court struck down Texas’s new map, which would have generated up to five additional Republican-friendly seats for the 2026 midterm elections.Democrats’ momentum was partially checked Friday when the conservative-majority US Supreme Court allowed Texas to put its disputed map back into effect while justices review the case. But the effort remains mired in uncertainty.”No one is going to win the redistricting battle,” said Republican political writer Patrick Payton, a pastor and business leader who has served as the mayor of the Texan city of Midland.”It’s a zero-sum game where the executive and legislative branches both seek to manipulate outcomes by re-drawing maps rather than leading and governing in such a way as to gain trust and votes.”The Texas ruling followed a court defeat in Utah and resistance from Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Kansas and New Hampshire who have balked at White House pressure. – Playing with fire? -Frustration is rising, with some arguing Republicans should be concentrating on campaigning, not cartography.”Donald Trump and (Governor) Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” California Governor Gavin Newsom declared after the Texas map began running into problems.The Lone Star State’s quick appeal could be viewed favorably by the US Supreme Court, which has previously overturned some rulings that blocked Trump policies.But for now, Democrats are advancing.Voters approved a new map drawn by the party in California, adding as many as five US House seats. In Virginia, Democratic leaders are pushing a plan that could yield two or three more.Combined with the Utah ruling, analysts believe Democrats could be up by nine seats when the maps are all finalized, if Texas goes their way.Republicans have logged their own successes — North Carolina may have added a conservative-leaning seat, and Missouri redrew its map, at Trump’s urging, to eliminate a Democratic district. But both face legal challenges.Elsewhere, progress is slow. Florida’s legislature meets December 4 to consider whether to begin redistricting, and Governor Ron DeSantis has urged voters to “stay tuned.” But the tit-for-tat is accelerating, prompting Democratic countermeasures in blue states.”They started this redistricting fight. We’ll end it,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed to reporters.Time is short, as candidates need boundaries before party primaries early next year. The Supreme Court’s full ruling on Texas could still come within weeks. Filing deadlines begin December 8, and primaries start in March.- ‘Years of litigation’ -Meanwhile, the high court is weighing a major Voting Rights Act challenge from Louisiana that could shrink the number of Black and Latino majority districts nationwide, potentially giving Republicans a dozen seats.Whether that drama affects the midterms will depend on timing.Lower courts are reviewing maps in multiple states, and voters in New York have sued to change a Staten Island–based district that could hand Democrats another seat.Tensions are also rising in Republican-led states. In Indiana, after Trump attacked local officials over their hesitancy to act, state Senator Greg Goode was “swatted” — a dangerous hoax that summoned armed police to his home.With control of the US House at stake — Republicans hold a narrow 219–213 majority — the risks are enormous. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, and both parties fear each aggressive move provokes another.”Betting on maximal maps in as many states as possible made sense if courts kept to the sidelines, but… there is a line on racial gerrymandering,” political analyst Michael Ashley Schulman said.”And once you cross it you invite years of litigation that can boomerang into less favorable redistricting.”

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it was ending temporary protections shielding immigrants from Myanmar from deportation from the United States.The move affects around 4,000 people from the Southeast Asian nation who have been living in the United States under what is known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).TPS protects its holders from deportation and allows them to work.It is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return to their home countries, because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.President Donald Trump, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has removed TPS for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.Trump announced on Friday that he would also withdraw TPS from Somalis.TPS was extended to Myanmar nationals after a 2021 military coup. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the decision to withdraw it was made after a review of conditions in the country.Myanmar continues to face “humanitarian challenges due in part to continued military operations against armed resistance,” Noem said.But, she added, there have been improvements in “governance and stability at the national and local levels.”Noem noted the July lifting of a state of emergency and the announcement that “free and fair elections” will take place beginning in December.The move drew fierce criticism from nongovernmental advocacy organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Homeland Security’s misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them,” John Sifton, HRW’s Asia advocacy director, said in a statement.The group noted that “Myanmar’s supposedly revoked state of emergency in July was immediately replaced with a new state of emergency and martial law in scores of townships across nine states and regions.”Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said it is “unfathomable” for Myanmar to hold free and fair elections under current circumstances.”How can anyone say that they’re free and fair,” Turk said in a recent interview with AFP.”And how can they even be conducted when considerable parts of the country are actually not in anyone’s control, and with the military being party to the conflict and having suppressed its population for years?” he added.Rights groups have said the election cannot be legitimate, with democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi deposed and jailed in the coup, and her popular National League for Democracy party dissolved.The junta seized power making unsubstantiated claims of fraud in a 2020 election that the NLD won in a landslide.A many-sided civil war has since consumed Myanmar, with the junta having lost swathes of the country to pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic-minority armed factions.The US State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Myanmar due to “armed conflict, the potential for civil unrest” and “wrongful detentions.”  

Elon Musk’s X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account’s location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform — including in support of Donald Trump.X’s head of product Nikita Bier launched the feature over the weekend, allowing users “to see the country or region where an account is based,” in a bid to boost transparency on a platform that tech experts say is rife with disinformation.”This is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square,” Bier wrote on X.The launch triggered a wave of online sleuthing.Almost immediately, the platform flooded with posts flagging dozens of right-wing internet personalities — promoters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) or “America First” political slogans — whose location data showed they were in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Eastern Europe.Influential pro-Trump accounts that present themselves as US-based but actually operate overseas have circulated 31 false claims over the past 15 months — including allegations of Democratic corruption — according to a NewsGuard analysis using the location feature.The feature also seemed to vindicate researchers who warned during last year’s US presidential election that a network of MAGA accounts — posing as “Trump-supporting independent women” and using stolen photos of European models and influencers — was operating overseas.”X’s new account info showed many of these ‘American’ women were actually based in Thailand, with some tied to Myanmar,” Benjamin Strick, the London-based director of investigations at the Centre for Information Resilience, told AFP.”Before this change we could show these profiles were fake, but we had almost no visibility on where they were run from, and often had to rely on ‘slip ups’ posted by the accounts, time posting patterns and irregularities in language.”Now we can see that many of the accounts in this specific network are linked to Southeast Asia, which brings us closer to understanding who might be behind them,” Strick added.- ‘Rough edges’ -Reflecting a hyperpolarized political climate, some right-wing personalities also pointed fingers at left-wing users seemingly posting from suspicious locations.X, however, cautioned that the location data “may not be accurate and can change periodically.”When users clicked on an account’s location, a pop up noted: “The country or region that an account is based can be impacted by recent travel or temporary relocation.”Some users may also be connected via a VPN that can mask their real location.”There are a few rough edges that will be resolved by Tuesday,” Bier wrote after the feature’s launch.Late Sunday, Bier said an “upgrade” was upcoming that will ensure “accuracy will be nearly 99.99%”Some users criticized the launch, warning that it could expose the locations of dissidents and protestors in autocratic states. Bier, however, said that for users in countries “where speech has penalties,” the feature includes privacy toggles that reveal only the region.Soon after the launch, some apparent imposter accounts with vast followings were suddenly taken down.One X handle posing as a fan account for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was suspended after users noted that its location was listed as Nigeria.The account, which had amassed one million followers, regularly posted pro-Trump content as well as Islamophobic and anti-immigration messages.As tech platforms scale back content moderation and reduce their reliance on human fact-checkers, disinformation researchers warn of a growing threat from Russian and Chinese actors seeking to sow political chaos in Western countries — as well as from overseas influencers driven by the prospect of monetary gain.The new feature “shines a light on a fundamental problem with social media today: paid actors are deliberately inflaming difficult issues because controversy attracts attention,” Amy Bruckman, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told AFP.”It’s a difficult situation, and I believe we need more trustworthy platforms that don’t allow people to behave badly.”Last month, X laid off half of its engineering team responsible for fighting influence operations, spam, and illegal content on the platform, reflecting a push to replace staff with artificial intelligence, The Information reported on Monday.X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.burs-ac/jgc