As Texas continues special session without a quorum, a recap of the day so far:
The redistricting battle in Texas has gone far beyond the state’s borders, as Democrats fled the state to various blue safe-havens (New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois) –breaking quorum and grinding legislative business to a halt. Texas Governor Greg Abbott – incensed by Dems bolting – has vowed to expel lawmakers who fail to return to the Capitol in Austin by 3pm CT. The Texas House Democratic Caucus snapped back in a statement: “Come and take it”.
Abbott has also threatened to pursue legal action if any Texas Democrats solicit campaign donations that are used to pay the $500-a-day fine they’re racking up by leaving the Capitol during a legislative session without permission.
The new mid-decade congressional map by Texas Republicans – redrawn earlier than usual at the behest of Donald Trump – has ignited a counterattack from Democrats. In an effort to offset the five seats that the GOP could pick up in 2026 if Texas successfully passes their map, Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing for a special election to reinstate the California legislature with the power to redraw the state’s own map. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference earlier today that she’s exploring “every option” to redraw New York’s state congressional lines. However, this would require a re-write of the state’s constitution.
In the days since Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer – the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – he has doubled down on his baseless claims that her latest, and last, jobs report was “rigged” and the data was “manipulated”. Despite the lack of evidence, his circle maintain the president “wants his own people” at the BLS.
Also earlier, the president announced a new tariff hike for India – the exact number currently unknown. It comes as a penalty for India continuing to buy and sell Russian oil. A choice, that Trump says, is helping fund “the Russian war machine” in Ukraine. India’s government has responded to the increased levies as “unjustified and unreasonable”.
Key events
The congressional budget office (CBO) informed Jeff Merkley, the Senate budget committee ranking member, in a letter Monday that Trump’s tax and spending cut bill would add $5tn to the deficit over the next decade if its temporary tax relief provisions are extended for 10 years.
The letter comes after the CBO released an analysis last month showing that the bill will add $3.4tn to the debt.
The CBO projects that making temporary provisions like the tax exemption on tipped wages up to $25,000 and the $6,000 senior deduction permanent would increase the debt by an additional $789bn over the next decade.
Including another $718bn in debt-servicing costs, the total price tag for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would approach $5tn over 10 years. Merkely said in a statement:
Each and every analysis from the nonpartisan congressional budget office continues to show the same result regardless of how you look at it: this bill explodes the debt by trillions of dollars to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Republicans can’t spin the fact that this bill is bad policy that kicks more than 15 million people off of their health insurance, will force millions of kids to go hungry, and explodes the national debt by $5 trillion over the next 10 years – pushing the cost of this bill onto future generations to ensure billionaires can pay less in taxes.
Greg Abbott orders the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state
The Texas governor ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial vote on new congressional maps.
“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans,” Abbott said in a statement. “By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty.”
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber. To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas department of public safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”
Abbott said the order will remain in effect until “all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol”.
Texas House reconvenes without quorum as Democrats flee state
George Chidi
Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.
When the legislature gaveled in at 3pm local time on Monday, Republicans fell short of a quorum by eight votes after Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere.
Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.
The Texas speaker, Representative Dustin Burrows, adjourned the house until 1pm on Tuesday after issuing a call for absent lawmakers and threatening their arrest. He cited pending legislation on flood relief and human trafficking – and not the contentious redistricting proposal before the chamber – in his call for Democrats to return.
Instead of confronting those challenges, some of our colleagues have fled the state in their duty. They’ve left the state, abandoned their posts and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent. They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened arrest, fines, felony charges of bribery and expulsion against the lawmakers.
Real Texans do not run from a fight. This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3pm on Monday, August 4, 2025.”
Here’s the full story by George Chidi, The Guardian’s politics and democracy reporter:
Transgender women seeking to compete in women’s sports will now face new visa restrictions under an immigration policy update announced today by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Under the revised policy, USCIS will consider “the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women” as a negative factor when evaluating visa petitions in categories such as the O-1A for extraordinary ability, EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for highly skilled workers and national interest waivers.
“USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” said Matthew Tragesser, a USCIS spokesperson.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee last month updated its policy to align with an executive order signed earlier this year by Trump barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
House Democrats sign on to Palestinian statehood letter
More than a dozen Democratic members of congress have signed on to a letter – addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio – that calls for the United States to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft seen by the Guardian.
Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter, and is joined by several House progressives. Including Congressman Greg Casar of Texas and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
“This is the moment for the United States to officially recognise a Palestinian state,” Khanna said in a statement. “Over 147 countries have recognised a Palestinian state, soon to include France, Britain, Canada and Australia. We cannot be isolated from the rest of the free world.”
Khanna’s office told the Guardian that the letter will be sent out after 16 September.
As Texas continues special session without a quorum, a recap of the day so far:
The redistricting battle in Texas has gone far beyond the state’s borders, as Democrats fled the state to various blue safe-havens (New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois) –breaking quorum and grinding legislative business to a halt. Texas Governor Greg Abbott – incensed by Dems bolting – has vowed to expel lawmakers who fail to return to the Capitol in Austin by 3pm CT. The Texas House Democratic Caucus snapped back in a statement: “Come and take it”.
Abbott has also threatened to pursue legal action if any Texas Democrats solicit campaign donations that are used to pay the $500-a-day fine they’re racking up by leaving the Capitol during a legislative session without permission.
The new mid-decade congressional map by Texas Republicans – redrawn earlier than usual at the behest of Donald Trump – has ignited a counterattack from Democrats. In an effort to offset the five seats that the GOP could pick up in 2026 if Texas successfully passes their map, Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing for a special election to reinstate the California legislature with the power to redraw the state’s own map. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference earlier today that she’s exploring “every option” to redraw New York’s state congressional lines. However, this would require a re-write of the state’s constitution.
In the days since Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer – the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – he has doubled down on his baseless claims that her latest, and last, jobs report was “rigged” and the data was “manipulated”. Despite the lack of evidence, his circle maintain the president “wants his own people” at the BLS.
Also earlier, the president announced a new tariff hike for India – the exact number currently unknown. It comes as a penalty for India continuing to buy and sell Russian oil. A choice, that Trump says, is helping fund “the Russian war machine” in Ukraine. India’s government has responded to the increased levies as “unjustified and unreasonable”.
Tariff increase is ‘unjustified and unreasonable’, says Indian government
India’s foreign ministry has responded to the tariff hike that Donald Trump announced on Truth Social today.
In a statement, the Ministry of External affairs said that “the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable”.
The Indian government also claimed that the increased purchase of Russian oil was because “traditional supplies were diverted to Europe”, and at that time the US “actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets’ stability”.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) will deny federal aid for natural disaster preparedness if a US state or city boycotts Israeli companies, according to Reuters.
This would apply to “$1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search-and-rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems among other expenses”, according to the grant notices reviewed by Reuters.
California congressman to introduce redistricting legislation
Republican representative Kevin Kiley plans to introduce a bill that would prevent mid-decade redistricting across the country.
It’s in response to the push from California governor Gavin Newsom to redraw the state map to counter the ensuing redistricting battle in Texas.
California currently has a special commission that oversees the congressional map, so Newsom would need California voters to restore those powers to the legislature.
In a statement announcing his proposed legislation, Kiley called Newson’s plans “a brazen scheme” that will “undo the will of voters, and return line-drawing power to himself and other partisan politicians”.
Given the president’s pressure for Texas lawmakers to pass the newly proposed congressional map early, it’s unlikely that the bill will get much, if any, support in the House.
Some tourists and business travelers may face up to $15,000 bond to enter US
Michael Sainato
The US state department has prepared plans to impose bonds as high as $15,000 for some tourism and business visas, according to a draft of a temporary final rule.
The bonds would be issued to visitors from countries with significant overstay rates, under a 12-month pilot program.
It renews an initiative issued by the first Trump administration in November 2020, the month that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential election. That rule would have required a $15,000 bond for tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries with 10% or higher overstay rates, mostly in Africa.
The new federal registry notice of the visa bond pilot program is scheduled to be published on 5 August.
“The Pilot Program will enable the Department to assess the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds, in coordination with the Department of the Treasury (‘Treasury’) and the Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’), and to inform any future decision concerning the possible use of visa bonds to ensure nonimmigrants using these visa categories comply with the terms and conditions of their visas and timely depart the United States,” it states.
It said it would announce the countries in question at the “Travel.State.Gov” website no fewer than 15 days before the pilot program takes effect. It also said the list might change, again with 15 days’ notice.
Tourists and business travelers would receive their bonds back when they depart the US, are naturalized as a citizen or die, according to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement regulations.
The original six-month pilot program was never implemented.
The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration to the US, including terminating temporary protected status for many people living in the US, and banning immigration visas outright for 12 countries.
The state department last month also unveiled new guidance directing US diplomats to review the online activity of foreign students before issuing educational and exchange visas. Students who refuse to unlock their social media profiles will be suspected of hiding the activity from US officials.
The Pentagon said that the under secretary for research and engineering has directed a reduction in personnel within the defense technology information center, Reuters reports.
The move will save taxpayers more than $25m and 40 “mission-essential personnel” will be retained, the Pentagon said in a statement. It did not elaborate on the reduction.
Illinois governor says Texas Democrats who left will be protected amid arrest threats
Anna Betts
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, has vowed to protect the Democratic members of the Texas house of representatives who left the state in an attempt to block Republican efforts to redraw Texas’s congressional maps.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that – ’cause we know they’re doing the right thing, we know that they’re following the law,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Sunday in Illinois alongside some of the the Texas Democratic lawmakers.
The Texas Democrats fled the state on Sunday in an effort to prevent the Texas house from reaching the quorum on Monday needed to vote on a newly proposed congressional map.
In response to the Democrats’ actions, Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, threatened to expel the Texas Democrats from the state house if they do not return by Monday at 3pm CT – when the legislature is set to resume. Ken Paxton, Texas’s Republican attorney general, also condemned their actions on Sunday and threatened their arrest.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he said in a statement. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
But Pritzker, who said he will support the Texas Democrats, described their actions as “a righteous act of courage”, saying that they “were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents”.
Hundreds of ex-Israeli security officials urge Trump to help end war in Gaza
William Christou
Some 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding his assault.
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer prime minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,” they wrote.
They added that they thought Hamas no longer posed a strategic threat to Israel.
An expansion of the war would be contrary to what Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of hostages over the weekend was the US position. Steve Witkoff said Washington was backing a comprehensive end to the Gaza war that would bring hostages home and assured the families that would not mean more fighting.
Any expansion of the conflict would risk worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. A UN-affiliated humanitarian body said the territory was experiencing famine, as the approximate 2.1 million people who live there experience mass starvation.
Marjorie Taylor Greene suggests she may abandon the Republican party
Joseph Gedeon
Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most prominent voices in Donald Trump’s Maga movement, has declared in an interview that she feels that the Republican party has lost touch with its base, and suggested she may abandon the party entirely.
The Georgia congresswoman told the Daily Mail this week she was questioning whether she still belongs in the Republican fold and expressed resounding frustration with GOP leadership. She said:
I don’t know if the Republican party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican party as much any more. I don’t know which one it is.
Greene, who boasts 7.5 million followers on X and commands one of the largest social media audiences of any Republican woman, accused party leaders of betraying core conservative principles.
She did not criticize Trump himself, instead preferring to express her ire for what she attempted to paint as political elites.
“I think the Republican party has turned its back on America First and the workers and just regular Americans,” she said, warning that GOP leadership was reverting to its “neocon” past under the influence of what she termed the “good ole boys” network.
In the roughly six-month mark following Trump’s return to the White House, Greene said she was particularly frustrated with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, saying: “I’m not afraid of Mike Johnson at all.”
On Monday, Greene, 51, used social media to criticize the lack of accountability over what she deems key issues to the base, sharing a table showing no arrests for the “Russian Collusion Hoax”, “Jan 6th”, and “2020 Election”.
“Like what happened all those issues? You know that I don’t know what the hell happened with the Republican Party. I really don’t,” she said in the interview. “But I’ll tell you one thing, the course that it’s on, I don’t want to have anything to do with it, and I just don’t care any more.”
Her recent bills have targeted unconventional Republican territory: preventing cloud-seeding, making English the official US language, and cutting capital gains taxes on homes. She is also the first Republican in Congress to label the crisis in Gaza a genocide, and has called for ending foreign aid and using the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to cut down fraud and waste in the government.
Greene acknowledged her isolation within the party, saying: “I’m going alone right now on the issues that I’m speaking about.”
Richard Luscombe
A Doge-style audit launched by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into Democratic-run cities and counties he accuses of wasteful spending could soon be known by an offensive new name: FAFO, universally known as a meme for the phrase “fuck around and find out”.
In a post to X on Monday, DeSantis said the acronym – which he claims actually stands for a Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight he has yet to formally commission, had “a nice ring to it” and that he “might need to work up an executive order and make it official”.
Under the guise of ensuring “transparency and accountability” in local government, DeSantis sent audit teams last week into the city of Gainesville, and Broward county, two pockets of Democratic strength in a largely Republican state.
It is part of a wider initiative the governor trumpeted earlier this year to replicate Elon Musk’s Doge (the so-called “department of government efficiency”) efforts at state level in support of his ambitious longer-term goal of eliminating property taxes.
Taking credit for the FAFO handle is Florida’s new chief financial officer Blaise Ingoglia, a staunch DeSantis ally whose X profile includes the words “If you’re looking for snark, you’ve found it.”
He posted on Monday an assertion that he got “a rave reception” when he rolled out the new nickname at a party event over the weekend.
