Texas Democrats leave the state to block vote on redrawn House map backed by Trump

Democrats in the Texas House left the state Sunday in a last-resort bid to block new congressional maps sought by President Donald Trump that would give Republicans a better chance of preserving their narrow U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterm elections.

The dramatic revolt came before the GOP-controlled state House was set to vote Monday on the proposed maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable congressional seats. In response to Texas' rare mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic governors have floated the possibility of redrawing their own state's maps in retaliation, but their options are limited.

Many of the Texas Democrats were bound for Illinois and a welcoming from Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, who in recent weeks has offered them support. It was not clear how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas or whether the gambit would succeed — four years ago, House Democrats left Texas for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions that still wound up passing once the holdout ended.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.

Lawmakers can't pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 were leaving the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. In addition to the Illinois group, five lawmakers headed to New York and another group went to Boston, Rush Nisenson said.

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Texas Democrats fleeing state to block redistricting vote follows strategy that's had mixed results

Texas Democrats fled the state Sunday in an effort to hinder Republicans from approving a new U.S. House map that could boost their slim congressional majority in 2026.

The walkout lets the minority party keep Republicans in charge from having enough votes for maps that would add five new Republican-leaning congressional districts. The proposed boundaries slice up Democratic-leaning urban centers where most of the state’s 30 million people live.

Though such theatrics are uncommon, both parties have used walkouts to deny quorum in state Legislatures from Oregon to New Hampshire. In some places, walking off the job, whether for a day or months at a time, has led to punishments like fines, arrest threats or being booted from the ballot.

“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement Sunday. “We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent.”

Here’s a closer look at how lawmakers around the country have used walkouts.

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Israeli minister prays at flashpoint holy site as officials say 33 aid-seekers killed in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A far-right Israeli minister visited and prayed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Sunday, triggering regional condemnation and fears that the provocative move could further escalate tensions. The visit came as hospitals in Gaza said 33 more Palestinians seeking food aid were killed by Israeli fire.

With Israel facing global criticism over famine-like conditions in the besieged strip, Itamar Ben-Gvir 's visit to the hillside compound threatened to further set back efforts by international mediators to halt Israel’s nearly two-year military offensive in Gaza.

The area, which Jews call the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and was home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims call the site the Noble Sanctuary. Today it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Visits to the site by Israeli officials are considered a provocation across the Muslim world and openly praying violates a longstanding status quo. Jews have been allowed to tour it but are barred from praying, with Israeli police and troops providing security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said after Ben-Gvir's visit that Israel would not change the norms governing the site.

Ben-Gvir visited following Hamas’ release of videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused an uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home the remaining 50 hostages who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, in the Hamas-led attack that triggered the war.

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Popular 1980s actor Loni Anderson of the hit TV series 'WKRP in Cincinnati' has died

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Loni Anderson, who played a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died Sunday, just days before her 80th birthday.

Anderson died at a Los Angeles hospital following a prolonged illness, said her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.

“WKRP in Cincinnati” aired from 1978 to 1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself with rock music. The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, whose good looks were matched by her intelligence.

As the station’s receptionist, the blonde and high-heeled Jennifer routinely deflected unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr. Carlson. Her efficiency often kept the station running in the face of others’ incompetence.

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Boeing workers who build fighter jets plan to go on strike

NEW YORK (AP) — Boeing workers who build fighter jets are planning to go on strike Monday at midnight Central Daylight Time.

About 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday.

“IAM District 837 members build the aircraft and defense systems that keep our country safe,” said Sam Cicinelli, Midwest territory general vice president for the union, in a statement. “They deserve nothing less than a contract that keeps their families secure and recognizes their unmatched expertise.”

The vote followed members’ rejection last week of an earlier proposal from the troubled aerospace giant, which had included a 20% wage increase over four years.

At the time, union leaders had recommended approving the offer, calling it a “landmark agreement” and saying the offer would improve medical, pension and overtime benefits.

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The Justice Department seeks voter and election information from at least 19 states, AP finds

NEW YORK (AP) — The requests have come in letters, emails and phone calls. The specifics vary, but the target is consistent: The U.S. Department of Justice is ramping up an effort to get voter data and other election information from the states.

Over the past three months, the department’s voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state election administrators in at least 15 states, according to an Associated Press tally. Of those, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission.

In Colorado, the department demanded “all records” relating to the 2024 election and any records the state retained from the 2020 election.

Department lawyers have contacted officials in at least seven states to propose a meeting about forging an information-sharing agreement related to instances of voting or election fraud. The idea, they say in the emails, is for states to help the department enforce the law.

The unusually expansive outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government.

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Former US soldier suspected of killing 4 in Montana remains at large

The former U.S. soldier suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar was still at large early Sunday and may be armed after escaping in a stolen vehicle containing clothes and camping gear, officials said.

Authorities believe 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown killed four people on Friday morning at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Missoula in a valley hemmed in by mountains.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said at a news conference Sunday that Brown committed the shooting with a rifle that law enforcement believes was his personal weapon.

The victims ranged in age from 59 to 74 and were a female bartender and three male patrons.

Knudsen warned residents in the town of just over 9,000 people that Brown, who lived next door to the bar where he was a regular, could come back to the area.

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The UN says 68 African migrants were killed when a boat capsized off Yemen

CAIRO (AP) — A boat capsized Sunday in waters off Yemen's coast leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the U.N.’s migration agency said.

The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen that have killed hundreds of African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab countries.

The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen told The Associated Press.

He said the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen's southern coast.

Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said.

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Men charged in Tennessee case involving 4 dead family members of abandoned infant

TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities searching for a man wanted in the murders of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found alone and alive in Tennessee have charged two other men in connection with the killings.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation charged Tanaka Brown, 29, and Giovonte Thomas, 29, with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Investigators allege both men “assisted” 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond in the murders.

Authorities have left many questions unanswered, including how the men allegedly helped Drummond, the manner in which the relatives were killed and how the baby ended up in a car seat in the Tigrett area, roughly 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) from the bodies.

Law enforcement officers were still searching for Drummond.

“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” the bureau said in a Saturday news release announcing charges against Thomas. Brown, who also faces one count of tampering with evidence, was arrested a day earlier.

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Ukrainian drone attack sets Russian oil depot on fire as Zelenskyy announces prisoner exchange

An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi sparked a major fire, Russian officials said Sunday, as the two countries traded strikes and the Ukrainian president announced a prisoner exchange.

More than 120 firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze, which was caused by debris from a downed drone striking a fuel tank, Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram. Videos on social media appeared to show huge pillars of smoke billowing above the oil depot.

Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, temporarily stopped flights at Sochi’s airport.

Farther north, authorities in the Voronezh region reported that four people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone strike.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 93 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight into Sunday.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025