AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats on Monday prevented their state’s House of Representatives from moving forward, at least for now, with a redrawn congressional map sought by President Donald Trump to shore up Republicans’ 2026 midterm prospects as his political standing falters.
After dozens of Democrats left the state, the Republican-dominated House was unable to establish the quorum of lawmakers required to do business. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made threats about removing members who are absent from their seats. Democrats counter that Abbott is using “smoke and mirrors” to assert legal authority he does not have.
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State Reps. Armando Walle, left, and Ana Hernandez, both Democrats from Houston, speak during a news conference at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu boards a bus with other legislators after speaking at a press conference along side Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Former Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer speaks about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu along with other members of the Texas House are joined by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as they speak about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map office during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu along with other members of the Texas House are joined by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as they speak about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map office during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democrats join Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks about the Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
The Republican-dominated House quickly issued civil arrest warrants for absent Democrats and Abbott ordered state troopers to help find and arrest them, but lawmakers physically outside Texas are beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.
“If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences," House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows said from the chamber floor, later telling reporters that includes fines.
Democrats' revolt and Abbott's threats intensified a fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but now includes Democratic governors who have pitched redrawing their district maps in retaliation — even if their options are limited. The dispute also reflects Trump’s aggressive view of presidential power and his grip on the Republican Party nationally, while testing the long-standing balance of powers between the federal government and individual states.
California Democrats are considering new political maps that could slash five Republican-held House seats in the liberal-leaning state while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts.
The impasse centers on Trump’s effort to get five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas, at Democrats' expense, before the midterms. That would bolster his party's chances of preserving its U.S. House majority, something Republicans were unable to do in the 2018 midterms during Trump's first presidency. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas' 38 seats. That's nearly a 2-to-1 advantage and already a wider partisan gap than the 2024 presidential results: Trump won 56.1% of Texas ballots, while Democrat Kamala Harris received 42.5%.
Speaking Monday on the Fox News show “America's Newsroom,” Abbott essentially admitted to the partisan power play, noting the U.S. Supreme Court has determined “there is nothing illegal” about shaping districts to a majority party’s advantage. He even acknowledged it as “gerrymandering” before correcting himself to say Texas is “drawing lines.”
More than 1,800 miles (2,900 km) away from Austin, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared with Texas Democrats and argued their cause is national.
“We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law breaking cowboys,” Hochul said Monday, flanked by several of the lawmakers who left Texas. “If Republicans are willing to rewrite rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us with no choice: We must do the same. You have to fight fire with fire.”
Abbott insisted lawmakers have “absconded” in violation of their sworn duties.
“I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state Legislature because they are not doing the job they were elected to do,” he said in the Fox News interview, invoking his state's hallmark machismo to call the Democrats “un-Texan.”
“Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said.
Hours after Monday's halted House session, a gaggle of Democrats — state lawmakers who left and members of Congress whose lines would be redrawn — mocked Abbott as the weak figure in this battle.
“I never thought as a Texan ... that I would see the governor of the proud state of Texas bend a knee to a felon from New York,” said U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, a state legislator before voters sent her to Washington.
Legislators themselves showed no plans to heed Abbott's demands.
“He has no legal mechanism,” said state Rep. Jolanda Jones, one of the lawmakers who was in New York on Monday. “Subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so he can’t come and get us. Subpoenas in Texas don’t work in Chicago. ... He’s putting up smoke and mirrors.”
A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. As for his threat to remove the lawmakers, Abbott cited a nonbinding legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton amid an partisan quorum dispute in 2021. Paxton suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.
University of Houston law professor David Froomkin cast doubt on that interpretation. He said it's “baseless” to claim lawmakers abandoned their seats when their absence is clearly tied to current legislative debate.
Still, the Republican response is accelerated compared with the 2021 dispute, when weeks passed before the GOP majority opted for civil arrest warrants. Froomkin said Abbott could be using the mere possibility of legal wrangling over their jobs to intimidate lawmakers into returning.
Legislators who left the state declined to say how long they'll hold out.
“We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who has served in the Legislature since 2001.
Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Gene Wu said members “will do whatever it takes” but added, “What that looks like, we don’t know.”
Legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021, when many Democrats left Texas for 38 days to protest proposed voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans passed that measure.
Lawmakers cannot pass bills in the 150-member House without two-thirds of members present. Democrats hold 62 seats in the majority-Republican chamber, and at least 51 left the state, according to a Democratic aide.
The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders could “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served. Republicans answered by adopting $500 daily fines for lawmakers who don't show.
Abbott, meanwhile, continues to make unsubstantiated claims that some lawmakers have committed felonies by soliciting money to pay for potential fines for leaving Texas during the session.
The lack of a quorum will delay votes on disaster assistance and new warning systems after last month’s catastrophic Texas floods that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.
On Fox, Abbott attempted to turn that issue back on Democrats, suggesting their absences would become the reason for a delayed flood response.
Beyond Texas, some Democrats want to leverage the fight.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender and outspoken Trump critic, welcomed Texas Democrats to Chicago on Sunday after having been in quiet talks with them for weeks. Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential 2028 contender, held public events about the Texas fight before the quorum break.
“This is not just rigging the system in Texas,” Pritzker said Sunday. “It's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas urged other Democratic governors to join Pritzker, Newsom and Hochul. Democrats, Veasey said, have too often “shown up to a gunfight with good intentions, no knives.” But “that era is over," Veasey declared Monday from Illinois. “We are not going to unilaterally disarm.”
The Texas House is scheduled to convene again Tuesday afternoon.
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, also contributed to this report.
State Reps. Armando Walle, left, and Ana Hernandez, both Democrats from Houston, speak during a news conference at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu boards a bus with other legislators after speaking at a press conference along side Illinois Governor JB Pritzker at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Former Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer speaks about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu along with other members of the Texas House are joined by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as they speak about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map office during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu along with other members of the Texas House are joined by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as they speak about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map office during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
Texas House Democrats join Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks about the Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)
The U.N. Security Council in an emergency meeting Thursday discussed Iran's deadly protests at the request of the United States, even as President Donald Trump left unclear what actions he would take against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran appeared to make conciliatory statements in the lead up to the meeting in an effort to defuse the situation after Trump threatened to take action to stop further killing of protesters, including the execution of anyone detained in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said before the meeting, “All options remain on the table for the president.”
Iran’s crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The sound of gunfire faded Thursday in the capital, Tehran. The country closed its airspace to commercial flights for hours without explanation early Thursday and some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate. The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait also ordered its personnel to “temporary halt” travel to the multiple military bases in the small Gulf Arab country.
Here is the latest:
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Moscow stands in solidary with Iran and backs its view that “hostile external forcers are attempting to exploit the current situation in order to overthrow a government they find objectionable and destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran as a sovereign and independent state.”
Russia called on the U.S. “to stop making themselves out to be a global judge and put an end to their escalatory actions,” he said. Moscow also called on the U.N.’s 193 member nations “to prevent a new large-scale escalation.”
Nebenzia said U.S. actions “risk plunging the region into even bloodier chaos — chaos that could easily spill beyond its borders.”
He said what happened on Iranian streets in recent days went far beyond peaceful protests, pointing to the use of firearms, the killing of civilians and law enforcement officers and arson attacks on medical facilities and public institutions.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by the United States that “The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republic’s brutal history.”
He said the U.S. message is clear: “President Donald J. Trump and the United States of America stand by the brave people of Iran.”
“President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” Waltz said. “He has made it clear, all options are on the table to stop the slaughter, and no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.”
Waltz dismissed Iranian allegations that the protests are “a foreign plot” and precursor to military action saying: “Everyone in the world needs to know that the regime is weaker than ever before, and therefore is putting forward this lie because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets.”
“They are afraid,” he said. “They are afraid of their own people.”
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the Islamic Republic is behaving like the Islamic State militant group, “and deserves to be treated like" the group.
She said: “That is how you save innocent lives.”
She warned that “brutal slaughter” in Iran will get much worse if the world doesn’t take “serious action.”
Alinejad said all Iranians are united in seeking freedom and in the face of Iranian military weapons they want action, not “empty words and empty condemnations.”
The U.N. warns possible military strikes on Iran would add “volatility to an already combustible situation” in an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Thursday.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres “urges maximum restraint at this sensitive moment and calls on all actors to refrain from any actions that could lead to further loss of life or ignite a wider regional escalation,” Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee said at the meeting.
Guterres urges maximum restraint and remains convinced that all issues regarding Iran, including its nuclear program, should be addressed through diplomacy and dialogue, she said.
The U.N. chief reaffirms the U.N. Charter’s principles that disputes must be settled peacefully and prohibit the threat or use of force, Pobee said.
Masih Alinejad, one of the most vocal Iranian dissidents in the U.S., accused the United Nations and the Security Council of failing “to respond with the urgency this moment demands” at the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday.
In October, two purported Russian mobsters were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hitman to kill Alinejad at her Brooklyn home on behalf of the Iranian government.
Sitting across the table from the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., Alinejad, who came after an invitation from the U.S., said that “the members of this body have forgotten the privilege and responsibility of sitting in this room.”
In a stunning moment, even for Security Council standards, Alinejad addressed the Islamic Republic’s representative seated at the council directly.
“You have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassin with my own eyes in front of my garden, in my home in Brooklyn,” she said while the Iranian official looked directly ahead, without acknowledging her.
Ahead of the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Secretary-General António Guterres
spoke by phone to discuss the recent deadly protests and Iran’s request for the world body to do more to condemn what they call foreign influence in the Islamic Republic, according to a readout of the call posted on Iranian state TV.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi implored the top U.N. official to live up to the “serious expectation” that Iran’s government and its people have of the U.N.s’ role in condemning what the officials called “illegal U.S. interventions against Iran.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that U.S. President Donald Trump and his team had communicated to Iranian officials that there would be “grave consequences” if killing continues against protesters in Iran.
“The president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday, were halted,” she said.
But Trump continues closely watching the situation, she said.
“All options remain on the table for the president,” Leavitt said.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, said on Thursday that “criminal gangs” were responsible for the situation in Iran, accusing them of carrying out an “American-Israeli” scheme.
“Criminal gangs in Iran killed Iranian citizens, security forces and burned mosques,” he said without providing evidence. “What’s being committed by criminal gangs in Iran is horrific, bearing an American stamp as it includes slaughter and burning some people alive.”
He also said that the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Iran to create a crisis leading to the current issues in the country with the end goal of controlling Iran.
Yet he said the U.S. has “failed in Iran” and that Iranians “will not yield to America.”
The president of the European Union’s executive arm says the 27-member bloc is looking to strengthen sanctions against Iran as ordinary Iranians continue their protests against Iran’s theocratic government.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday following a meeting of the EU’s commissioners in Limassol, Cyprus that current sanctions against Iran are “weakening the regime.”
Von der Leyen said that the EU is looking to sanction individual Iranians —apart from those who belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard — who “are responsible for the atrocities.”
She added that the people of Iran who are “bravely fighting for a change” have the EU’s “full political support.”
Canada’s foreign minister says a Canadian citizen has died in Iran “at the hands of the Iranian authorities.”
“Peaceful protests by the Iranian people — asking that their voices be heard in the face of the Iranian regime’s repression and ongoing human rights violations — has led the regime to flagrantly disregard human life,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posted on social media Thursday.
“This violence must end. Canada condemns and calls for an immediate end to the Iranian regime’s violence,” she added.
Anand said consular officials are in contact with the victim’s family in Canada. She did not provide details.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced Thursday that a local staff member was killed and several others were wounded during the deadly protests in Iran over the weekend.
Amir Ali Latifi, an Iranian Red Crescent Society worker, was working in the country’s Gillan province on Jan. 10 when he was killed “in the line of duty,” the organization said in a statement.
“The IFRC is deeply concerned about the consequences of the ongoing unrest on the people of Iran and is closely monitoring the situation in coordination with the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” the statement continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed as “good news” reports that the death sentence has been lifted for an Iranian shopkeeper arrested in a violent crackdown on protests.
Relatives of 26-year-old Erfan Soltani had said he faced imminent execution.
Trump posed Thursday on his Truth Social site: “FoxNews: ‘Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”
Iranian state media denied Soltani had been condemned to death. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
Trump sent tensions soaring this week by pledging that “help is on its way” to Iranian protesters and urging them to continue demonstrating against authorities in the Islamic Republic.
On Wednesday Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying he had been told that “the killing in Iran is stopping.”
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union’s main foreign policy chief said the G7 members were “gravely concerned” by the developments surrounding the protests, and that they “strongly oppose the intensification of the Iranian authorities’ brutal repression of the Iranian people.”
The statement, published on the EU’s website Thursday, said the G7 were “deeply alarmed at the high level of reported deaths and injuries” and condemned “the deliberate use of violence” by Iranian security forces against protesters.
The G7 members “remain prepared to impose additional restrictive measures if Iran continues to crack down on protests and dissent in violation of international human rights obligations,” the statement said.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has spoken with his counterpart in Iran, who said the situation was “now stable,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Abbas Araghchi said “he hoped China will play a greater role in regional peace and stability” during the talks, according to the statement from the ministry.
“China opposes imposing its will on other countries, and opposes a return to the ‘law of the jungle’,” Wang said.
“China believes that the Iranian government and people will unite, overcome difficulties, maintain national stability, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” he added. “China hopes all parties will cherish peace, exercise restraint, and resolve differences through dialogue. China is willing to play a constructive role in this regard.”
“We are against military intervention in Iran,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told journalists in Istanbul on Thursday. “Iran must address its own internal problems… They must address their problems with the region and in global terms through diplomacy so that certain structural problems that cause economic problems can be addressed.”
Ankara and Tehran enjoy warm relations despite often holding divergent interests in the region.
Fidan said the unrest in Iran was rooted in economic conditions caused by sanctions, rather than ideological opposition to the government.
Iranians have been largely absent from an annual pilgrimage to Baghdad, Iraq, to commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, one of the twelve Shiite imams.
Many Iranian pilgrims typically make the journey every year for the annual religious rituals.
Streets across Baghdad were crowded with pilgrims Thursday. Most had arrived on foot from central and southern provinces of Iraq, heading toward the shrine of Imam al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district in northern Baghdad,
Adel Zaidan, who owns a hotel near the shrine, said the number of Iranian visitors this year compared to previous years was very small. Other residents agreed.
“This visit is different from previous ones. It lacks the large numbers of Iranian pilgrims, especially in terms of providing food and accommodation,” said Haider Al-Obaidi.
Europe’s largest airline group said Thursday it would halt night flights to and from Tel Aviv and Jordan's capital Amman for five days, citing security concerns as fears grow that unrest in Iran could spiral into wider regional violence.
Lufthansa — which operates Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings — said flights would run only during daytime hours from Thursday through Monday “due to the current situation in the Middle East.” It said the change would ensure its staff — which includes unionized cabin crews and pilots -- would not be required to stay overnight in the region.
The airline group also said its planes would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace, key corridors for air travel between the Middle East and Asia.
Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for several hours early Thursday without explanation.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Airport Authority, which oversees Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was operating as usual.
Iranian state media has denied claims that a young man arrested during Iran’s recent protests was condemned to death. The statement from Iran’s judicial authorities on Thursday contradicted what it said were “opposition media abroad” which claimed the young man had been quickly sentenced to death during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.
State television didn’t immediately give any details beyond his name, Erfan Soltani. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Thursday that his government was “appalled by the escalation of violence and repression” in Iran.
“We condemn the brutal crackdown being carried out by Iran’s security forces, including the killing of protesters,” Peters posted on X.
“Iranians have the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression, and access to information – and that right is currently being brutally repressed,” he said.
Peters said his government had expressed serious concerns to the Iranian Embassy in Wellington.
Women cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
