Revelers Pack Cheung Chau Island for the Celebration of Bun Festival, a Century-Old Tradition

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's iconic bun festival drew throngs of revelers to the densely populated city's outlying island, Cheung Chau, to celebrate a century-old tradition that is rooted in prayers for peace and blessings.

Residents and tourists braved the heat to watch children in costumes take part in a parade, called “Piu Sik,” which translates as “floating colors.” Children dressed as legendary deities, historic characters or local politicians were carried on stands above the crowds, moving through the island’s narrow lanes.

The festival highlight is the “bun-scrambling” competition around midnight, where participants climb a tower covered with plastic buns. They have to collect buns, which carry different scores depending on their locations, within a time limit. The one who earns the highest total score wins. But the participant who gets the greatest number of buns in the time allotted will receive the “Full Pockets of Lucky Buns” award.

The race was suspended for decades after bun towers collapsed in 1978, injuring dozens of people. The tradition resumed in 2005.

According to Hong Kong's Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, legends say Cheung Chau was once devastated by a plague and some residents then invited monks and Taoist priests to set up a sacrificial altar near a temple to pray to deities. They also paraded deity statues along village lanes. After the ritual, the plague ceased and Cheung Chau residents have since been organizing the event, also known as the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival, to dispel disaster and pray for blessings for peace and safety, the office said.

The festival has become one of the most popular events for tourists in Hong Kong in recent years. Many people like to buy steamed buns carrying the Chinese characters for “peace” and “safety” or souvenirs modeled on the buns.

Participants collect buns from a tower covered with plastic buns during the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A participant performs a lion dance in the Piu Sik Parade at the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

"Ping On" buns are prepared for sale for the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A child participates in the Piu Sik Parade with a replica gas station price sign model at the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A child is hoisted up during the Piu Sik Parade at the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A child is hoisted up as participants take part in the Piu Sik Parade at the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional district in hopes Republicans could gain an additional seat in the midterm elections.

Senators had political concerns, worrying that any map in a state where Democrats got at least 40% of votes in the past eight presidential elections couldn’t guarantee Republican wins in all seven districts.

And there were logistical worries. Statewide primaries are June 9, with early voting starting Tuesday. The plan had called for throwing out any congressional votes already cast and holding another statewide primary just for U.S. House races in August.

Election officials said holding three statewide elections in five months would require employees to work around the clock to prepare voting machines and ballots and to meet legal requirements.

The proposal passed the South Carolina House last Wednesday after two days of long debate.

Trump’s push in South Carolina was part of his broader effort to get Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps in hopes of retaining the party’s slim majority in the November elections.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Early in-person voting began Tuesday in South Carolina’s primaries, as state senators considered whether to cancel the congressional votes and instead schedule a new primary under revised districts designed to help Republicans oust a longtime Democrat.

Among the first to cast an early ballot in the small city of Orangeburg was U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Democrat whose district Republicans are trying to reshape in their quest for a clean sweep of South Carolina's seven congressional seats. A defiant Clyburn insisted he would run for reelection, regardless of what the district looks like.

“I’m OK if it’s Trump plus 20,” Clyburn said while describing the potential Republican advantage in a reshaped district. “I would be running where I live.”

The political drama in South Carolina is part of a Republican strategy — propelled President Donald Trump — to redraw voting districts to the GOP's advantage in an attempt to hold on to a slim House majority in the midterm elections. Republicans have been moving quickly to try to leverage a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act.

But the GOP also suffered a setback Tuesday in Alabama, where a three-judge federal panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from using a Republican-drawn congressional map that could help the GOP win an additional seat. The court said the Republican plan “intentionally discriminated based on race” by including only one Black-majority district and ordered the continued use of a court-imposed map that includes two districts with a significant proportion of Black residents.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, vowed a quick appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and predicted an eventual victory.

Democrats, who have suffered their own share of setbacks in the national redistricting battle, praised the turn of events in Alabama.

The “fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color,” said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

Voting districts typically are redrawn after a census at the start of a decade. But Trump has urged Republican-led states to redistrict ahead of the November elections to try to rebuff political headwinds, which typically result in lost congressional seats for the president’s party in midterms.

Since Trump first urged Texas to redraw its voting districts last summer, Republicans also have enacted new House districts in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. Meanwhile, voters in California adopted new Democratic-drawn districts, and a court imposed a favorable map for Democrats in Utah. Democrats suffered a setback in Virginia, where the state Supreme Court invalidated a voter-approved redistricting plan that could have helped Democrats win additional seats.

Redistricting discussions are ongoing in Louisiana following an April high court ruling that struck down a majority-Black congressional district as an illegal partisan gerrymander. The Louisiana House could vote later this week on a new map that could eliminate a seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields and improve Republicans' chances of winning six out of the state's seven seats.

The Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday called on major corporations across the U.S., including those that previously expressed support for voting rights and racial justice, to oppose redistricting efforts by Republican-led states that seek to eliminate majority-Black U.S. House districts. That comes after the caucus last week called for Black athletes to boycott public universities in states that are gerrymandering congressional maps to eliminate districts held by Black lawmakers.

More than 26,000 votes were cast in South Carolina by noon Tuesday on the first day of early voting for the June 9 primary after Democrats called for people against a proposed new map to turn out in force. In 2022, about 125,000 early votes were cast the entire two weeks.

The Republican-led House already has passed a plan that would reconfigure Clyburn's district, void the results of current congressional primaries and instead hold new U.S. House primaries in August.

Trump has lobbied for the plan, making at least two phone calls to Republican state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey and also phoning in to a private meeting of Republican senators earlier this month. He also has maintained the pressure on social media.

Debate has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats are staunchly opposed and some GOP lawmakers have concerns that an aggressive redistricting could backfire by making some Republican-held seats susceptible to losses because of the addition of Democratic voters.

Clyburn noted that when state lawmakers last redrew congressional districts, after the 2020 census, they spent months holding meetings across the state to gather public suggestions. Although that map resulted in a 6-1 seat advantage for Republicans over Democrats, the process was orderly and fair, he said.

“When the map was challenged, the U.S. Supreme Court said, yes, this is constitutional,” Clyburn said. But now, “this White House says, to hell with the process, to hell with the Constitution, just do what we want done.”

Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri.

Republican South Carolina Sen. Carlisle Kennedy, left, Democratic Sen. Ronnie Sabb, middle, and Republican Sen. Jeff Zell, right, watch a video during a session on redistricting on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., center, joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, stands with members of the Congressional Black Caucus during an event outside the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)