By Madyson Fitzgerald, Stateline.org

Self-driving vehicle technology continues to advance, prompting a wave of liability and safety regulations from state lawmakers.

This year, lawmakers in Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada and the District of Columbia enacted legislation to regulate driverless vehicles, according to a database from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

While much of the legislation aims to update existing law to include new definitions for autonomous vehicles, other measures put rules in place regarding insurance, permitting, licensing and road testing.

In total, lawmakers in 25 states introduced 67 bills related to autonomous vehicles, according to the database. California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania currently have bills under consideration. Alaska, Delaware and Washington have bills that will be carried over into the next legislative session.

Governors vetoed two measures this year. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis shot down a measure that would have required a driver to be present in any commercial vehicle being operated by an automated driving system.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a measure that would have put rules in place for “high-risk artificial intelligence systems,” but would have excluded “autonomous vehicle technology” from that category.

As of now, there are no vehicles that have achieved full autonomy, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers’ criteria. But several car companies have introduced automated driving features, allowing drivers to take their hands off the wheel.

Tesla is rolling out its Full Self-Driving feature, a system under which a vehicle can drive itself almost anywhere with minimal intervention from the driver. Tesla Autopilot, which the company made available to the public in late 2024, also helps with basic vehicle maneuvering.

And Waymo, the country’s first autonomous ride-hailing service, is currently operating in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles; Phoenix and San Francisco. The robo-taxi company plans to expand to Miami and Washington, D.C., next.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, vehicle safety is the main benefit of driverless cars. With higher levels of automation, there is less room for human error or driver distractions. The new technology also could improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, according to the agency.

But driverless cars have been involved in hundreds of accidents over the past few years. Between 2021 and 2024, there were 696 accidents reported that involved a Waymo vehicle, according to an analysis by California-based law firm DiMarco — Araujo — Montevideo.

And last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system after multiple reports of crashes that occurred in low-visibility conditions.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Business Writer

BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.

Huang was asked about a possible “B30A” semiconductor for artificial intelligence data centers for China while on a visit to Taiwan, where he was meeting Nvidia’s key manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world’s largest chip maker.

“I’m offering a new product to China for … AI data centers, the follow-on to H20,” Huang said. But he added that “That’s not our decision to make. It’s up to, of course, the United States government. And we’re in dialogue with them, but it’s too soon to know.”

Such chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

The B30A, based on California-based Nvidia’s specialized Blackwell technology, is reported to operate at about half the speed of Nvidia’s main B300 chips.

Huang praised the the Trump administration for recently approving sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China after such business was suspended in April, with the proviso that the company must pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government on those sales. Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, was told to pay the same tax on its sales of its MI380 chips to China.

As part of broader trade talks, Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China approved more permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the U.S., while Washington lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines. After lobbying by Huang, it also allowed sales of the H20 chips to go through.

Huang did not comment directly on the tax when asked but said Nvidia appreciated being able to sell H20s to China.

He said such sales pose no security risk for the United States. Nvidia is also speaking with Beijing to reassure Chinese authorities that those chips do not pose a “backdoor” security risk, Huang said.

“We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors. There are no such things. There never has. And so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” he said.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, recently posted a notice on its website referring to alleged “serious security issues” with Nvidia’s computer chips.

It said U.S. experts on AI had said such chips have “mature tracking and location and remote shutdown technologies” and Nvidia had been asked to explain any such risks and provide documentation about the issue.

Huang said Nvidia was surprised by the accusation and was discussing the issue with Beijing.

“As you know, they requested and urged us to secure licenses for the H20s for some time. And I’ve worked quite hard to help them secure the licenses. And so hopefully this will be resolved,” Huang said.

Unconfirmed reports said Chinese authorities were also unhappy over comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting the U.S. was only selling outdated chips to China.

Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the U.S. strategy was to keep China reliant on American chip technology.

“We don’t sell them our best stuff,” he said. “Not our second best stuff. Not even our third best, but I think fourth best is where we’ve come out that we’re cool,” he said.

China’s ruling Communist Party has made self-reliance in advanced technology a strategic priority, though it still relies on foreign semiconductor knowhow for much of what it produces.

AP Videojournalist Taijing Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

By JIM VERTUNO, SOPHIE AUSTIN, TRÂN NGUYỄN and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — California has landed its counterpunch. The national tug-of-war over redistricting and voters in the 2026 midterm elections shifts once again back to Texas, where it all started.

California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for a special election in November to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year.

That move came a day after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at the urging of President Donald Trump.

Texas lawmakers meet again Friday, when the Republican majority in the Senate could give final approval to their map, sending it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had rallied Democrats in his state to counter Texas’ initial moves, quickly signed the special election bill in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle that is rippling through several states.

“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Newsom said at a press conference, pledging a campaign for the measure that would reach out to Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”

California Republicans have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan. They promise to fight the measure at the ballot box as well.

California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was “wrong” to push for new Republican seats elsewhere, contending the president was just responding to Democratic gerrymandering in other states. But he warned that Newsom’s approach, which the governor has dubbed “fight fire with fire,” was dangerous.

“You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens?” Gallagher asked. “You burn it all down.”

A battle for the US House control waged via redistricting

On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing districts puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. The incumbent president’s party usually loses congressional seats in the midterms.

The president has pushed other Republican-controlled states including Indiana and Missouri to also revise their maps to add more winnable GOP seats. Ohio Republicans were also already scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade, immediately after a census. While some states have their own limitations, there is no national impediment to a state trying to redraw districts in the middle of the decade.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also said the Constitution does not outlaw partisan gerrymandering, only using race to redraw district lines.

Democrats have sought a national commission for redistricting

Republicans and some Democrats championed the 2008 ballot measure that established California’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, along with the 2010 one that extended its role to drawing congressional maps.

Newsom backed the initial redistricting commission ballot measures. On Thursday, he contended his state was still setting a model.

“We’ll be the first state in U.S. history, in the most democratic way, to submit to the people of our state the ability to determine their own maps,” Newsom said before signing the legislation.

Former President Barack Obama, who has also backed a nationwide nonpartisan approach, has also backed Newsom’s bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP’s Texas move.

California’s plan is temporary

The measure would have the California map last only through 2030, after which the state’s commission would draw the next decade’s map. Democrats are also mulling reopening Maryland’s and New York’s maps for mid-decade redraws.

However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California’s or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can’t draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval.

In Texas, outnumbered Democrats left the state for 15 days to block a vote. Once they returned, they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring.

California Republicans didn’t take such dramatic steps but complained bitterly about Democrats muscling the package through the statehouse.

“What you’re striving for is predetermined elections,” Strickland said. “You’re taking the voice away from Californians.”

Riccardi reported from Denver. Austin and Nguyen reported from Sacramento, California.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is searching the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, who served in President Donald Trump’s first administration as national security adviser but later became critical of the president, as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Bolton was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

After the search at Bolton’s home started, he was spotted Friday morning standing in the lobby of the Washington building where he keeps an office and talking to two people with “FBI” visible on their vests. He left a few minutes later and appeared to have gone upstairs in the building. Agents were seen taking bags into the office building through a back entrance.

The searches appear to be the most significant public step the Justice Department has taken against a perceived enemy of the president, and they’re likely to elicit fresh criticism that the Trump administration is using its law enforcement powers to go after the Republican’s foes. The searches of Bolton’s home and office come as the Trump administration has taken steps to examine the activities of other critics, including by authorizing a grand jury investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

Messages left with a spokesperson for Bolton were not immediately returned, and a lawyer who has represented Bolton had no immediate comment.

The White House did not comment and referred questions about the probe to the FBI. The Justice Department also had no comment, but leaders appeared to cryptically refer to the search of Bolton’s home in a series of social media posts Friday morning.

FBI Director Kash Patel, who in a 2023 book he wrote included Bolton in a list of “members of the Executive Branch Deep State,” posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” Attorney General Pam Bondi shared his post, adding: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”

The Justice Department is also conducting mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, and ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith faces an investigation from an independent watchdog office. Schiff and James have vigorously denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers.

In an ABC interview earlier this month, Bolton was asked about whether he was worried about the Trump administration taking action against him. Bolton said Trump had “already come after” him by taking away his security detail, and he added: “I think it is a retribution presidency.”

Bolton served as Trump’s third national security adviser for 17 months and clashed with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. He faced scrutiny during the first Trump administration over a book he wrote about his time in government that officials argued disclosed classified information, but the Justice Department in 2021 abandoned its lawsuit and dropped a separate grand jury investigation.

Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.

On his first day back in office this year, Trump revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials, including Bolton. Bolton was also among a group of former Trump officials whose security details were canceled by Trump earlier this year.

Bolton’s scathing book, “The Room Where It Happened,” portrayed Trump as grossly ill-informed about foreign policy and said he “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.”

Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “crazy” war-monger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”

Bolton served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and also held positions in President Ronald Reagan’s administration. He had considered running for president in 2012 and 2016.

In 2022, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to kill Bolton in presumed retaliation for a January 2020 U.S. airstrike that killed the country’s most powerful general. Bolton had by then left the Trump administration but tweeted, “Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran.”

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Jill Colvin, Nathan Ellgren and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the Supreme Court decided Thursday.

The high court majority lifted a judge’s order blocking $783 million worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health to align with Republican President Donald Trump’s priorities. The high court did keep Trump administration guidance on future funding blocked, however.

The court split 5-4 on the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts was along those who would have kept the cuts blocked, along with the court’s three liberals.

The order marks the latest Supreme Court win for Trump and allows the administration to forge ahead with canceling hundreds of grants while the lawsuit continues to unfold. The plaintiffs, including states and public-health advocacy groups, have argued that the cuts will inflict “incalculable losses in public health and human life.”

The Justice Department, meanwhile, has said funding decisions should not be “subject to judicial second-guessing” and efforts to promote policies referred to as DEI can “conceal insidious racial discrimination.”

The lawsuit addresses only part of the estimated $12 billion of NIH research projects that have been cut, but in its emergency appeal, the Trump administration also took aim at nearly two dozen other times judges have stood in the way of its funding cuts.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer said judges shouldn’t be considering those cases under an earlier Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for teacher-training program cuts. He says they should go to federal claims court instead.

But the plaintiffs, 16 Democratic state attorneys general and public-health advocacy groups, argued that research grants are fundamentally different from the teacher-training contracts and couldn’t be sent to claims court. Halting studies midway can also ruin the data already collected and ultimately harm the country’s potential for scientific breakthroughs by disrupting scientists’ work in the middle of their careers, they argued.

U.S. District Judge William Young judge in Massachusetts agreed, finding the abrupt cancellations were arbitrary and discriminatory. “I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, said at a hearing in June. He later added: “Have we no shame.”

An appeals court left Young’s ruling in place.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. (AP) — Vice President JD Vance pitched President Donald Trump’s sweeping new law as a “working families’ tax cut” during a visit Thursday to a refrigeration facility in swing-state Georgia, a preview of the midterm message that Republicans are expected to campaign on next year.

In his third trip to promote Trump’s tax cuts and spending bill, Vance cited its tax cut extensions as well as tax breaks on overtime and tips that he said “rewards you instead of punishes you for working hard.”

“If you’re working hard, the government ought to leave you alone,” Vance said in his visit to Alta Refrigeration, an industrial refrigeration manufacturing facility in Peachtree City, in metro Atlanta.

Less than 20 miles to the northeast, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff was also talking about the tax law but noting provisions that cut Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. He pointed to reports this week from Evans Memorial Hospital, a rural hospital in Claxton, Georgia, where the facility’s CEO is blaming the law for a $3.3 million hole in the hospital’s budget. Bill Lee, the president and CEO of the hospital, told reporters that it might need to cut its intensive care unit.

“To be very blunt, I think it is embarrassing for the vice president to be coming to Georgia to sell a policy that is already resulting in harm,” Ossoff said in Jonesboro at the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce.

The visits encapsulate how both Republicans and Democrats are seeking to capitalize on the president’s signature law before the 2026 elections, where U.S. House, Senate and governor’s seats are up for grabs. The races will give voters nationwide one of their first chances to weigh in on the second Trump presidency.

In Peachtree City, Vance described the cuts to Medicaid as ensuring that people who are in the United States illegally are not receiving benefits meant for low-income people.

“It’s not about kicking people off of health care,” Vance said. “It’s about kicking illegal aliens the hell out of this country, so that we can preserve health care for American families.”

Vance was joined by two members of Congress, Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, and former college football coach Derek Dooley, all of whom who are running in the GOP race to challenge Ossoff next year.

At the Alta Refrigeration facility, Vance stood in a warehouse in front of a large American flag and two banners that said, “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”

As he spoke to several hundred people, the vice president also said he was proud to have gone out in the District of Columbia with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday to visit National Guard troops that Trump has deployed in the city as part of a law enforcement crackdown.

“We’ve got to take America’s streets back for the American people,” Vance said.

He was asked if the administration expected to deploy troops in Atlanta, too. Vance did not directly answer but said the Republican administration has focused on the situation in the nation’s capital.

“We hope the people see what we’re doing in Washington, D.C., and follow our example all across the country,” he said.

Last month, Vance also promoted the new law in visits to areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania that are expected to have competitive U.S. House races next year.

While Georgia will host a competitive U.S. Senate race in 2026, the congressional district where Vance stopped on Thursday is heavily Republican.

It’s represented in Congress by Republican Brian Jack, a former Trump aide who served in the president’s first term as his political director.

Before his stop in Peachtree City, Vance appeared at a closed-door meeting of Republican National Committee members in Atlanta. Vance is the finance co-chair of the RNC and has been leading fundraising efforts for the party.

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — With electricity prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, President Donald Trump has lashed out at renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, blaming them for skyrocketing energy costs.

Trump called wind and solar power “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” in a social media post and vowed not to approve wind or “farmer destroying Solar” projects. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social site.

Energy analysts say renewable sources have little to do with recent price hikes, which are based on increased demand, aging infrastructure and increasingly extreme weather events such as wildfires that are exacerbated by climate change.

The rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence has fueled demand for energy-hungry data centers that need power to run servers, storage systems, networking equipment and cooling systems. Increased use of electric vehicles also has boosted demand, even as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans move to restrict tax credits and other incentives for EV purchases approved under the Biden administration.

Natural gas prices, meanwhile, are rising sharply amid increased exports to Europe and other international customers. More than 40% of U.S. electricity is generated by natural gas.

Trump promised during the 2024 campaign to lower Americans’ electric bills by 50%. Democrats have been quick to blame him for the price hikes, citing actions to hamstring clean energy in the sprawling tax-and-spending cut bill approved last month, as well as regulations since then to further restrict wind and solar power.

Advocates say renewables provide the extra energy needed

“Now more than ever, we need more energy, not less, to meet our increased energy demand and power our grid. Instead of increasing our energy supply Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the clean energy sector, killing jobs and projects,” said New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The GOP bill will cost thousands of jobs and impose higher energy costs nationwide, Heinrich and other critics said.

A report from Energy Innovation, a non-partisan think tank, found the GOP tax law will increase the average family’s energy bill by $130 annually by 2030. “By quickly phasing out technology-neutral clean energy tax credits and adding complex material sourcing requirements,” the tax law will “significantly hamper the development of domestic electricity generation capacity,” the report said.

Renewable advocates were more blunt.

“The real scam is blaming solar for fossil fuel price spikes,” the Solar Energy Industries Association said in response to Trump’s post.

“Farmers, families, and businesses choose solar to save money, preserve land, and escape high costs of the old, dirty fuels being forced on them by this administration,” the group added.

Wind and solar offer some of the cheapest and fastest ways to provide electric power, said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, another industry group. More than 90% of new energy capacity that came online in the U.S. in 2024 was clean energy, he said.

“Blocking cheap, clean energy while doubling down on outdated fossil fuels makes no economic or environmental sense,” added Ted Kelly, director of U.S. clean energy for the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Partisanship anchors debate on rising energy prices

Energy Secretary Chris Wright blamed rising prices on “momentum” from Biden-era policies that backed renewable power over fossil fuel sources such as oil, coal and natural gas.

“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,” Wright told POLITICO during a visit to Iowa last week. About 60 percent of the state’s electricity comes from wind.

Not all the pushback comes from Democrats.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican who backs wind power, has placed a hold on three Treasury nominees to ensure wind and solar have “an appropriate glidepath for the orderly phase-out of the tax credits” approved in the 2022 climate law under former President Joe Biden.

Grassley said he was encouraged by new Treasury guidance that limits tax credits for wind and solar projects but does not eliminate them. The guidance “seems to offer a viable path forward for the wind and solar industries to continue to meet increased energy demand,” Grassley said in a statement.

John Quigley, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said the Republican tax law will increase U.S. power bills by slowing construction of solar, wind, and battery projects and could eliminate as many as 45,000 jobs by 2030.

Trump administration polices that emphasize fossil fuels are “an extremely backward force in this conversation,” Quigley said. “Besides ceding the clean energy future to other nations, we are paying for fossil foolishness with more than money — with our health and with our safety. And our children will pay an even higher price.”

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — A judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.

“I conclude that she is not statutorily eligible to perform the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney and has therefore unlawfully held the role since July 24, 2025,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann wrote.

Brann said he’s putting his order on hold pending an appeal.

Brann’s decision comes in response to a filing on behalf of two New Jersey defendants who faced a trial on federal drug-trafficking charges. Their attorney sought to block the charges against his clients, arguing that Habba didn’t have the authority to prosecute the case after her 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney expired in July.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid U.S. visas for any violations that could lead to deportation, part of a growing crackdown on foreigners who are permitted to be in the United States.

In a written answer to a question from The Associated Press, the State Department said all U.S. visa holders, which can include tourists from many countries, are subject to “continuous vetting,” with an eye toward any indication they could be ineligible for permission to enter or stay in the United States.

Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked, and if the visa holder is in the United States, he or she would be subject to deportation.

The U.S. also will stop issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday on X. He said the change was effective immediately.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio posted. The department did not immediately respond to a question about the number of foreign truck drivers working in the U.S.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the United States as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas. The State Department’s new language suggests that the continual vetting process, which officials acknowledge is time-consuming, is far more widespread and could mean even those approved to be in the U.S. could abruptly see those permissions revoked.

The department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility, including people staying past the authorized timeframe outlined in a visa, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity or providing support to a terrorist organization.

“We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility,” the department said.

The administration has steadily imposed more restrictions and requirements on visa applicants, including requiring them to submit to in-person interviews. The review of all visa holders appears to be a significant expansion of what had initially been a process focused mainly on students who have been involved in what the government perceives as pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activity.

Officials say the reviews will include all visa holders’ social media accounts, law enforcement and immigration records in their home countries, along with any actionable violations of U.S. law committed while they were in the United States.

The reviews will include new tools for data collection on past, present and future visa applicants, including a complete scouring of social media sites made possible by new requirements introduced earlier this year. Those make it mandatory for privacy switches on cellphones and other electronic devices or apps to be turned off when an applicant appears for a visa interview.

“As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to protect U.S. national security and public safety, since Inauguration Day the State Department has revoked more than twice as many visas, including nearly four times as many student visas, as during the same time period last year,” the State Department said.

The vast majority of foreigners seeking to come to the U.S. require visas, especially those who want to study or work for extended periods. Among the exceptions for short-term tourist or business visits are citizens of the 40 mainly European and Asian countries belonging to the Visa Waiver Program, which grants those nationals a stay of up to three months without having to apply for a visa.

But large swaths of the world — including highly populated countries like China, India, Indonesia, Russia and most of Africa — are not part of the program, meaning their citizens must apply for and receive visas to travel to the United States.

Earlier this week, the department said that since Trump returned to the White House, it has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations of local, state and federal law, the vast majority of which were assault, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and support for terrorism.

It said about 4,000 of those 6,000 were due to actual infractions of laws and that approximately 200 to 300 visas were revoked for terrorism-related issues, including providing support for designated terrorist organizations or state sponsors of terrorism.

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Just days before national Democrats gather for their annual summer meeting, Iowa’s state party officials on Thursday said it was a mistake for the party to have abandoned Iowa in the 2024 early nominating calendar and opened up the possibility of going rogue the next time around.

In 2022, President Joe Biden ordered a shake-up of the 2024 election calendar, moving South Carolina’s primary ahead of contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. The move forced Iowa Democrats to ditch the five-decade, first-in-the-nation caucus where community members publicly signal their support for a candidate, a process that was plagued with problems in 2020.

The state party’s criticism came with an open threat of defying the national party’s orders in 2028 as Iowa Democrats look to bring the once-competitive, Midwestern state back on the radar of a party questioning its values, direction and future leaders.

“It was a big mistake in the Biden calendar to know that Iowa Republicans are going first here in this state and that, as Democrats, we sat and watched all this attention and the millions of dollars being spent in the state without those kinds of resources to push back on the Republican agenda,” said Rita Hart, state party chair. “That did not help us here in Iowa and it did not help us long term for the national Democratic cause.”

Hart said that would be reflected in her own response to the state party’s new survey, designed to solicit feedback from Democrats across the state on the priorities for 2028, including on the tradeoffs of the traditional caucus process and potential threats from the Democratic National Committee.

Officials in the traditionally four early-voting states — and many others — are readying themselves to campaign for top billing, even though it’s likely still two years before the Democratic National Committee actually solidifies the order. Iowa Democrats said Thursday that Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, might unveil the process for states to make their 2028 pitch at next week’s biannual meetings.

Democratic officials said they expect to have preliminary conversations next week.

But Iowa’s Scott Brennan will no longer be a member of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which deals with the nominating process. That leaves Iowa without a seat at the table for the first time for the better part of 25 years, Brennan said.

Brennan, former state party chair, said Iowans are “rule followers by nature” but reiterated Thursday that last cycle’s process was not fair as he conveyed his own wishes for 2028: “Full speed ahead and damn the DNC.”

Last year, Iowa Democrats held caucuses eight days before any other state’s contest, as is required by Iowa law. But Democratic voters had cast their 2024 presidential preference ballots by mail, with results released that March on Super Tuesday alongside other states.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire rebelled in 2024, holding an unsanctioned primary in January, but the DNC ultimately dropped its threat to not seat the state’s national convention delegates.

Even as the Iowa Democratic Party considers going forward with a first-in-the-nation contest once again, it will still come with logistical questions. The survey includes questions on how the party should handle issues of inclusion and accessibility for the process, which has historically required participants to be registered with the party and physically present, sometimes for hours, in the evening during the heart of the Midwest winter.

While Hart said the survey is designed to better understand Iowa Democrats’ values to guide their approach to 2028, she suggested there are “too many moving pieces” to say now how that approach will look.

For now, 2028 prospects are making visits to the historically early states, including Iowa. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reemerged after the 2024 election loss with a town hall in Des Moines in March; Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who performed well in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, stopped by a VoteVets Action Fund gathering in May; and Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona spoke to hundreds in eastern Iowa earlier this month.

Brennan seemed to suggest Iowa Democrats’ future is simple.

“The fact of the matter is is that Iowa law requires that we be a caucus,” he said, “and I think we intend to be a caucus.”

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and JACQUELYN MARTIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to join a Thursday evening patrol in the nation’s capital as federal authorities deploy checkpoints around the city and sometimes ask people for their immigration status after stopping them.

“I’m going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military,” the Republican president told Todd Starnes, a conservative commentator.

Trump’s presence during his controversial crackdown, which has lasted for two weeks, would be the latest show of force from the White House. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers have surged into Washington this month, leaving some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets.

Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday visited some of the troops at Union Station, showing their support while protestors chanted “free D.C.”

Although the city has historically struggled with crime, statistics show the problem was declining before Trump declared there was a crisis that required his intervention.

Immigration enforcement has been a core part of the crackdown, rattling people in some of the city’s neighborhoods. A daycare was partially closed on Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible.

Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement.

Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House. Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, seizing control of the D.C. police department on Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops, mostly from Republican-led states.

Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations.

However, federal agents are operating more widely through the city. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged the proliferation of traffic checkpoints on Thursday.

“The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints,” Bowser said.

Not a normal traffic stop

On Thursday morning, as Martin Romero rode through Washington’s Rock Creek Park on his way to a construction job in Virginia, he saw police on the road up ahead. He figured it was a normal traffic stop, but it wasn’t.

Romero, 41, said that U.S. Park Police were telling pickup trucks with company logos to pull over, reminding them that commercial vehicles weren’t allowed on park roads. They checked for licenses and insurance information, and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came over.

Romero said there were two agents on one side of his truck and three on the other. He started to get nervous as the agents asked where they were from and whether they were in the country illegally.

“We just came here to work,” Romero said afterwards. “We aren’t doing anything bad.”

Two people in his truck were detained and the agents didn’t give a reason, he said. He also saw three other people taken from other vehicles.

“I feel really worried because they took two of our guys,” he said. “They wouldn’t say where they’re taking them or if they’ll be able to come back.”

Romero said he called his boss, who told him to just head home. They wouldn’t be working today.

Enrique Martinez, a supervisor at the construction company, came to the scene afterwards. He pondered whether to call families of the detained men.

“This has never happened to our company before,” Martinez said. “I’m not really sure what to do.”

Checkpoints are legal, to a point

The Supreme Court has upheld the use of law enforcement and government checkpoints for specific purposes, such as for policing the border and for identifying suspected drunk drivers.

But there are restrictions on that authority, especially when it comes to general crime control. Jeffrey Bellin, a former prosecutor in Washington and professor at Vanderbilt Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedures, said the Constitution doesn’t allow “the government to be constantly checking us and stopping to see if we’re up to any criminal activity.”

He said checkpoints for a legally justifiable purpose — like checking for drivers’ licenses and registrations — cannot be used as “subterfuge” or a pretext for stops that would otherwise not be allowed. And though the court has affirmed the use of checkpoints at the border, and even some distance away from it, to ask drivers about immigration status, Bellin said it was unlikely the authority would extend to Washington.

Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the seemingly “arbitrary” and intrusive nature of the checkpoints in the capital could leave residents feeling aggrieved.

“Some of the things could be entirely constitutional and fine, but at the same time, the way that things are unfolding, people are suspicious — and I think for good reason,” he said.

From Los Angeles to D.C.

There are few places in the country that have been unaffected by Trump’s deportation drive, but his push into D.C. is shaping into something more sustained, similar to what has unfolded in the Los Angeles area since early June.

In Los Angeles, immigration officers — working with the Border Patrol and other federal agencies — have been a near-daily presence at Home Depots, car washes and other highly visible locations.

In a demonstration of how enforcement has affected routines, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, formally excused parishioners of their weekly obligation to attend Mass after immigration agents detained people on two parish properties.

Immigration officials have been an unusually public presence, sending horse patrols to the city’s famed MacArthur Park and appearing outside California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s news conference last week on congressional redistricting. Authorities said an agent fired at a moving vehicle last week after the driver refused to roll down his window during an immigration stop.

The National Guard and Marines were previously in the city for weeks on an assignment to maintain order amid protests.

A federal judge blocked the administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in Southern California but authorities have vowed to keep the pressure on.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed reporting.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign after a member of his administration accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud, the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to gain control over the central bank.

Bill Pulte, director of the agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, urged the Justice Department to investigate Cook, who was appointed to the Fed’s governing board by former president Joe Biden in 2022. She was reappointed the following year to a term that lasts until 2038, the longest remaining term among the seven governors.

Pulte, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleged that Cook claimed two homes as her principal residences in 2021 to fraudulently obtain better mortgage lending terms. On June 18 of that year she purchased a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then two weeks later bought a condo in Atlanta, Georgia, the letter said. Before joining the Fed, Cook taught at Michigan State University.

Pulte also charged that Cook has listed her condo in Atlanta, Georgia, for rent. Mortgages for homes used as principal residences typically carry lower interest rates than properties that are purchased to rent, the letter said.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the accusation. A Justice Department spokesperson also declined to comment.

The allegation represents another front in the Trump administration’s attack on the Fed, which has yet to cut its key interest rate as Trump has demanded. If Cook were to step down, then the White House could nominate a replacement. And Trump has said he would only appoint people who would support lower rates.

Just last month, Trump blasted Powell for the ballooning cost of the renovation of two of the Fed’s headquarters buildings, even suggesting that the run-up in costs could constitute a firing offense. He backed off his threats to fire Powell after receiving a tour of the project.

Pulte also suggested that Cook’s alleged actions could constitute a fireable offense. Fed officials are protected by law from being removed by a president, except “for cause,” which is generally seen as some kind of malfeasance or dereliction of duty.

Either way, if Trump seeks to fire Cook, it could lead to a court battle over a president’s power to remove Fed governors.

Senate Democrats, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, expressed support for Cook and slammed Trump’s actions.

“Trump is a liar. Lisa Cook—stand tough and don’t let Trump intimidate you,” Schumer wrote in a post on social media platform X.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that Trump “has been scrambling for a pretext to intimidate or fire Chair Powell and members of the Federal Reserve Board while blaming anyone but himself for how his failed economic policies are hurting Americans.”

“The President and his administration should not weaponize the Federal government to illegally fire independent Fed Board members,” Warren added.

Trump will be able to replace Chair Jerome Powell in May 2026, when Powell’s term expires. Yet 12 members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee have a vote on whether to raise or lower interest rates, so even replacing the Chair doesn’t guarantee that Fed policy will shift the way Trump wants.

But the more members of the Fed’s governing board that Trump can appoint, the more control he will be able to assert over the Fed, which has long been considered independent from day-to-day politics.

All seven members of the Fed’s governing board are able to vote on rate decisions. The other five voters include the president of the Fed’s New York branch and a rotating group of four of the presidents of the Fed’s other 11 regional branches.

Trump appointed two members of the Fed’s board in his first term, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman. Both dissented July 30 from the central bank’s decision to keep its rate unchanged, in favor of a rate cut.

Another Fed governor, Adriana Kugler, stepped down unexpectedly Aug. 1, and Trump has nominated one of his economic advisers, Stephen Miran, to fill out the remainder of her term until January.

If Trump is able to replace Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, as well as Kugler, that would give him a clear majority on the board of governors. If Powell leaves the board when his term as chair ends next May, then Trump will be able to fill a fifth spot. However, Powell could stay on the board until early 2028 after finishing his term as chair.

The presidents of the regional Federal Reserve banks are selected by the boards of directors of those banks, but are subject to the approval of the Fed’s board of governors. The terms of all 12 of the regional Fed presidents end next February.

Trump has for months demanded that the Federal Reserve reduce the short-term interest rate it controls, which currently stands at about 4.3%. He has also repeatedly insulted Powell, who has said that the Fed would like to see more evidence of how the economy evolves in response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs before making any moves. Powell has also said the duties threaten to raise inflation and slow growth.

Trump says that a lower rate would reduce the government’s borrowing costs on $37 trillion in debt and boost the housing market by reducing mortgage rates. Yet mortgage borrowing costs and other interest rates, including many of the ones the government pays, do not always follow the Fed’s rate decisions.

The Trump administration has made similar claims of mortgage fraud against Democrats that Trump has attacked, including California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

By JANIE HAR, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court’s order that had kept in place temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal.

This means that the Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose Temporary Protected Status designations expired Aug. 5. The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire Sept. 8, at which point they will become eligible for removal.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the emergency stay pending an appeal as immigrants rights advocates allege that the administration acted unlawfully in ending Temporary Protected Status designations for people from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

“The district court’s order granting plaintiffs’ motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court,” wrote the judges, who are appointees of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary, preventing migrants from being deported and allowing them to work. The Trump administration has aggressively sought to remove the protection, thus making more people eligible for removal. It’s part of a wider effort by the administration to carry out mass deportations of immigrants.

Secretary Kristi Noem can extend Temporary Protected Status to immigrants in the U.S. if conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions.

Immigrants rights advocates say TPS holders from Nepal have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade while people from Honduras and Nicaragua have lived in the country for 26 years, after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 devastated both countries.

“The Trump administration is systematically de-documenting immigrants who have lived lawfully in this country for decades, raising U.S.-citizen children, starting businesses, and contributing to their communities,” said Jessica Bansal, attorney at the National Day Laborer Organization, in a statement.

Noem ended the programs after determining that conditions no longer warranted protections.

In a sharply written July 31 order, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco kept the protections in place while the case proceeds. The next hearing is Nov. 18.

She said the administration ended the migrant status protections without an “objective review of the country conditions,” such as political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua.

In response, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at DHS, said, “TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

The Trump administration has already terminated TPS designations for about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Noem’s decisions are unlawful because they were predetermined by President Donald Trump’s campaign promises and motivated by racial animus.

But Drew Ensign, a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, said at a hearing Tuesday that the government suffers an ongoing irreparable harm from its “inability to carry out the programs that it has determined are warranted.”

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS designations for Venezuelans. The justices provided no rationale, which is common in emergency appeals, and did not rule on the underlying claims.

By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — At least 600 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from layoffs but not others.

The notices went out this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at CDC.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AFGE officials said they are aware of at least 600 employees being cut.

But “due to a staggering lack of transparency from HHS,” the union hasn’t received formal notices of who is being laid off,” the federation said in a statement on Wednesday.

The permanent cuts include about 100 people who worked in violence prevention. Some employees noted those cuts come less than two weeks after a man fired at least 180 bullets into the CDC’s campus and killed a police officer.

“The irony is devastating: The very experts trained to understand, interrupt and prevent this kind of violence were among those whose jobs were eliminated,” some of the affected employees wrote in a blog post last week.

On April 1, the HHS officials sent layoff notices to thousands of employees at the CDC and other federal health agencies, part of a sweeping overhaul designed to vastly shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans’ health.

Many have been on administrative leave since then — paid but not allowed to work — as lawsuits played out.

A federal judge in Rhode Island last week issued a preliminary ruling that protected employees in several parts of the CDC, including groups dealing with smoking, reproductive health, environmental health, workplace safety, birth defects and sexually transmitted diseases.

But the ruling did not protect other CDC employees, and layoffs are being finalized across other parts of the agency, including in the freedom of information office. The terminations were effective as of Monday, employees were told.

Affected projects included work to prevent rape, child abuse and teen dating violence. The laid-off staff included people who have helped other countries to track violence against children — an effort that helped give rise to an international conference in November at which countries talked about setting violence-reduction goals.

“There are nationally and internationally recognized experts that will be impossible to replace,” said Tom Simon, the retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By AAMER MADHANI, ERIC TUCKER and ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than $700 million annually, the Trump administration announced Wednesday.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement, “Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence.”

She said the intelligence community “must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers.”

The reorganization is part of a broader administration effort to rethink its evaluation of foreign threats to American elections, a topic that has become politically loaded given President Donald Trump’s long-running resistance to the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election.

In February, for instance, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election systems.

Gabbard’s efforts to downsize the agency she leads is in keeping with the cost-cutting mandate the administration has employed since its earliest days, when Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency oversaw mass layoffs of the federal workforce.

It’s the latest headline-making move by a key official who just a few months ago had seemed out of favor with Trump over her analysis of Iran’s nuclear capabilities but who in recent weeks has emerged as a key loyalist.

She’s released a series of documents meant to call into question the legitimacy of the intelligence community’s findings on Russian election interference in 2016, and this week, at Trump’s direction, revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former government officials.

The ODNI in the past has joined forces with other federal agencies to debunk and alert the public to foreign disinformation intended to influence U.S. voters.

For example, it was involved in an effort to raise awareness about a Russian video that falsely depicted mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania that circulated widely on social media in the weeks before the 2024 presidential election.

Notably, Gabbard said she would be refocusing the priorities of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which her office says on its website is “focused on mitigating threats to democracy and U.S. national interests from foreign malign influence.”

It wasn’t clear from Gabbard’s release or fact sheet exactly what the changes would entail, but Gabbard noted its “hyper-focus” on work tied to elections and said the center was “used by the previous administration to justify the suppression of free speech and to censor political opposition.”

The Biden administration created the Foreign Malign Influence Center in 2022, responding to what the U.S. intelligence community had assessed as attempts by Russia and other adversaries to interfere with American elections.

Its role, ODNI said when it announced the center’s creation, was to coordinate and integrate intelligence pertaining to malign influence.

In a briefing given to reporters in 2024, ODNI officials said they only notified candidates, political organizations and local election offices of disinformation operations when they could be attributed to foreign sources. They said they worked to avoid any appearance of policing Americans’ speech.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, hailed the decision to broadly revamp ODNI, saying it would make it a “stronger and more effective national security tool for President Trump.”

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors in the nation’s capital will no longer bring felony charges against people for possessing rifles or shotguns in the District of Columbia, according to a new policy adopted by the leader of the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office.

That office will continue to pursue charges when someone is accused of using a shotgun or rifle in a violent crime or has a criminal record that makes it illegal to have a firearm. Local authorities in Washington can prosecute people for illegally possessing unregistered rifles and shotguns.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that the change is based on guidance from the Justice Department and the Office of Solicitor General and conforms with two Supreme Court decisions on gun rights.

Pirro, a former Fox News host, has been a vocal critic of local officials’ crime-fighting efforts since Republican President Donald Trump installed her in office in May. Her policy shift means federal prosecutors will not purse charges under the D.C. law that made it illegal to carry rifles or shotguns, except in limited cases involving permit holders.

The change also overlaps with Trump’s declaration of a crime emergency in the city, flooding the streets of Washington with patrols of hundreds of federal agents and National Guard members. The White House says 76 firearms have been seized since the crackdown started this month.

The new policy also coves large-capacity magazines, but it does not apply to handguns.

“We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms, and to vigorously prosecute all crimes connected with them,” Pirro said, adding that she and Trump “are committed to prosecuting gun crime.”

Pirro said a blanket ban on possessing shotguns and rifles violates the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2022 that struck down a New York gun law and held that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. She also pointed to the high court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller striking down the city’s ban on handguns in the home.

By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press

Former President Barack Obama has waded into states’ efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to alter his state’s congressional maps, in the way of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans’ position in next year’s elections.

“I believe that Gov. Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach. He said this is going to be responsible. We’re not going to try to completely maximize it,” Obama said at a Tuesday fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, according to excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. “We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect.”

While noting that “political gerrymandering” is not his “preference,” Obama said that, if Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy.”

According to organizers, the event raised $2 million for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates, one of which has filed and supported litigation in several states over GOP-drawn districts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, who served as Obama’s attorney general and heads up the group, also appeared.

The former president’s comments come as Texas lawmakers return to Austin this week, renewing a heated debate over a new congressional map creating five new potential GOP seats. The plan is the result of prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives. Texas Democratic lawmakers delayed a vote for 15 days by leaving the state in protest, depriving the House of enough members to do business.

Spurred on by the Texas situation, Democratic governors including Newsom have pondered ways to possibly strengthen their party’s position by way of redrawing U.S. House district lines, five years out from the Census count that typically leads into such procedures.

In California — where voters in 2010 gave the power to draw congressional maps to an independent commission, with the goal of making the process less partisan — Democrats have unveiled a proposal that could give that state’s dominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight to control of Congress next year. If approved by voters in November, the blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation’s most populous state, with Democrats intending to win the party 48 of its 52 U.S. House seats, up from 43.

A hearing over that measure devolved into a shouting match Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker clashed with Democrats, and a committee voted along party lines to advance the new congressional map. California Democrats do not need any Republican votes to move ahead, and legislators are expected to approve a proposed congressional map and declare a Nov. 4 special election by Thursday to get required voter approval.

Newsom and Democratic leaders say they’ll ask voters to approve their new maps only for the next few elections, returning map-drawing power to the commission following the 2030 census — and only if a Republican state moves forward with new maps. Obama applauded that temporary timeline.

“And we’re going to do it in a temporary basis because we’re keeping our eye on where we want to be long term,” Obama said, referencing Newsom’s take on the California plan. “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”

By BARRY HATTON and KATIE MARIE DAVIES, Associated Press

The second Oval Office meeting in six months between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off smoothly Monday, in sharp contrast to their disastrous encounter in February.

European leaders joined the discussions in a show of transatlantic unity, and both they and Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump for his efforts to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine.

“I don’t want to hide the fact that I wasn’t sure it would go this way,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Washington. “But my expectations were not just met, they were exceeded.”

Zelenskyy said Tuesday: “We have taken an important step towards ending this war and ensuring security for Ukraine and all of Europe.”

But despite the guarded optimism and friendly banter among the leaders, there was little concrete progress on the main obstacles to ending the war — and that deadlock likely favors Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces continue to make steady, if slow progress on the ground in Ukraine.

“Putin cannot get enough champagne or whatever he’s drinking,” Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former foreign minister of Lithuania, said of Monday’s meeting.

As NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told The Ingraham Angle on Fox News: “All the details have to be hammered out.”

Here is a look at the issues that must be resolved:

Security guarantees for Ukraine

To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin’s forces.

That means, Zelenskyy says, a strong Ukrainian army that is provided with weapons and training by Western partners.

It could potentially also mean offering Ukraine a guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate, which sees an attack on one member of the alliance as an attack on all. How that would work is not clear.

Additionally, Kyiv’s European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement in Ukraine.

A coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative, although the role that the U.S. might play in such a force is unclear.

European leaders, fearing Moscow’s territorial ambitions won’t stop in Ukraine, are keen to lock America’s military might into the plan.

Trump said he’ll help provide protection but stopped short of committing American troops to the effort, instead promising U.S. “coordination.”

Russia has repeatedly rejected the idea of such a force, saying that it will not accept NATO troops in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired an online meeting Tuesday of the coalition countries.

Once officials have discussed proposals in more detail, Rutte said, a virtual meeting will take place with Trump and European leaders.

Agreeing on a ceasefire

Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a ceasefire while peace talks are held.

Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement.

Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened Russia with “severe consequences” if it didn’t accept a ceasefire. Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a comprehensive peace deal — as Putin has pushed for.

Trump said in Monday’s Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was “unnecessary.” But after his closed-door meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump told reporters that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.”

Where Trump ultimately falls on that issue is important because it could affect how much Ukrainian land Russia has seized by the time the two sides get around to hammering out how much it could keep.

Occupied Ukrainian territory

Zelenskyy and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up the Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely.

Moscow’s forces also hold Crimea as well as parts of six other regions — all adding up to about one-fifth of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has long noted the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits breaking up his country. He has also suggested the demand for territory would serve as a springboard for future invasion.

Rutte said the possibility of Ukraine ceding occupied territory to Russia in return for peace wasn’t discussed in Monday’s talks. That is an issue for Zelenskyy and Putin to consider together, he said to Fox News.

A Putin-Zelenskyy meeting

Zelenskyy has repeatedly suggested sitting down with Putin, even challenging the Russian leader to meet him as part of direct peace talks between the two sides in Turkey in May. Putin snubbed that offer, saying that significant progress on an agreement would have to be made before the pair met in person.

On Monday, Trump appeared to back Zelenskyy’s plan. “I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump said in a social media post.

He said he would join the two leaders afterward.

But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between Trump and the Russian leader, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine had been agreed.

European leaders know that Putin doesn’t want to meet Zelenskyy and that he won’t allow Western troops in Ukraine — but they’re expressing optimism that these things could happen in the hopes of forcing Putin to be the one to say no to Trump, according to Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“Europeans hype up expectations to create a reality in which Putin disappoints,” he wrote on X.

Associated Press writers Sam McNeil in Brussels and Emma Burrows in London contributed.

By BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t going to risk being accused of being ungrateful this time.

With peace talks on the table and a chance to rebound from his disastrous White House scolding six months ago, Zelenskyy made sure to show his gratitude to U.S. President Donald Trump during Monday’s meeting in the Oval Office.

In fact, he said thanks nine times to Trump and others in the first minute of their brief public meeting that preceded a short news conference.

“Thanks so much, Mr. President,” he said. “First of all, thank you for the invitation and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you.”

In February, Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump quickly spiraled into a public relations disaster when Vice President JD Vance berated him for not being sufficiently thankful.

“You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance said in a moment that caught Zelenskyy off guard. “Have you said thank you once? In this entire meeting? No, in this entire meeting, have you said thank you?”

Zelenskyy tried to defend himself, saying he had always expressed his appreciation to the U.S. for the military and financial support it provided after Russia invaded it in 2022. But the damage was done.

World leaders took their cue and learned that flattery is the way to winning over the unpredictable Trump.

With a chance to make a second impression in the same setting, gratitude diplomacy was front and center for Zelenskyy and his peers.

In addition to thanking the president six times, Zelenskyy extended gratitude to Melania Trump for personally writing to Russian President Vladimir Putin to think about the Ukrainian children and urge peace.

And he twice thanked his European allies who had arrived as reinforcements in Washington to present a unified front to push for a ceasefire and security guarantees if there is a peace deal with Russia.

In a second meeting with top leaders from Europe, Zelenskyy expressed his thanks at least seven times, including two mentions of a map Trump had presented him.

“Thank you for the map, by the way,” he said.

He was not alone.

Trump himself used the T-word about a dozen times in the later meeting and heaped praise on his fellow leaders from Europe.

He called Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a great leader with a long career ahead, said he liked French President Emmanuel Macron even more since he’s gotten to know him — something he noted was unusual for him — and he complimented German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s tan.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer thanked the president four times, noting that after three years of fighting, nobody else had been able to bring the conflict as close to a possible end.

“So I thank you for that,” Starmer said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who addressed Trump as “dear Donald” during the meeting, later called the president “amazing.”