By JIM VERTUNO and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

The national redistricting battle enters its next phase Thursday as California Democrats are scheduled to pass a new congressional map that creates five winnable seats for their party, a direct counter to the Texas House’s approval of a new map to create more conservative-leaning seats in that state.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has engineered the high-risk strategy in response to President Donald Trump’s own brinkmanship. Trump pushed Texas Republicans to reopen the legislative maps they passed in 2021 to squeeze out up to five new GOP seats to help the party stave off a midterm defeat.

Unlike in Texas, where passage by the Republican-controlled state Senate and signature by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott are now all that’s needed to make the maps official, California faces a more uncertain route. Democrats must use their legislative supermajority to pass the map by a two-third margin. Then they must schedule a special election in November for voters to approve the map that Newsom must sign by Friday to meet ballot deadlines.

The added complexity is because California has a voter-approved independent commission that Newsom himself backed before Trump’s latest redistricting maneuver. Only the state’s voters can override the map that commission approved in 2021. But Newsom said extraordinary steps are required to counter Texas and other Republican-led states that Trump is pushing to revise maps.

“This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country,” Newsom said Wednesday on a call with reporters. “And we’re going to fight fire with fire.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Texas Democratic lawmakers, vastly outnumbered in that state’s legislature, delayed approval of the new map by 15 days by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest. They were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday’s session.

That session ended with an 88-52 party-line vote approving the map after more than eight hours of debate. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month.

A battle for the US House control waged via redistricting

In a sign of Democrats’ stiffening redistricting resolve, former President Barack Obama on Tuesday night backed Newsom’s bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP’s Texas move.

“I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,” Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party’s main redistricting arm.

The incumbent president’s party usually loses congressional seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes.

Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He’s pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland’s and New York’s maps as well.

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.

The struggle for — and against — Texas redistricting

Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party’s interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes.

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There was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice.

House Republicans’ frustration at the Democrats’ flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable during the Wednesday vote.

House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later.

Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.

Associated Press journalists John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but U.S. layoffs remain in the same historically healthy range of the past few years.

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Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 16 rose by 11,000 to 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s slightly more than the 229,000 new applications that economists had forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic more than three years ago.

The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week swings, rose by 4,500 to 226,500.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 9 jumped by 30,000 to 1.97 million, the most since November 6, 2021.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and the European Union on Thursday issued a joint statement that frames the ongoing deal between the trading partners and solidifies some trade commitments.

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“This Framework Agreement will put our trade and investment relationship — one of the largest in the world — on a solid footing and will reinvigorate our economies’ reindustrialization,” the document reads.

Together, the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy.

Key points in the letter include a 15% U.S. tariff rate on most European goods, with specifics on auto tariffs tied to EU legislative actions.

In addition, the EU agrees to eliminate tariffs on industrial goods and many agricultural products, while the U.S. will reduce tariffs accordingly. The agreement also covers $750 billion in energy purchases and $600 billion in EU investments by 2028. The agreement also addresses non-tariff barriers, digital trade and environmental regulations.

In July, President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland and announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump’s threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1.

Before the Republican U.S. president returned to office for his second term, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with about $2 trillion, around 1.7 trillion euros, in annual trade.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart Inc. reported increases in second-quarter profits and sales Thursday as it continues to pull in price-sensitive shoppers for everyday essentials like groceries despite a challenging tariff environment.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company, the nation’s largest retailer, also increased its annual profit and sales outlook. It’s among the first group of major U.S. retailers this week to report quarterly results that should shed more light on how consumers are coping with rising prices because of higher tariff costs.

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The company said Thursday that it earned $7.03 billion, or 88 cents per share, for the three-month period ended July 31. That compares with $4.50 billion, or 56 cents per share, a year ago.

Sales rose nearly 5% to $177.40 billion.

A growing list of companies including Procter & Gamble, e.lf. Cosmetics, Black & Decker and Ralph Lauren have told investors in recent weeks that they plan to or have already raised prices because of tariffs, though modestly.

None of that has derailed consumer spending. Shoppers spent at a healthy pace in July, particularly at the nation’s auto dealerships, even as President Donald Trump’s tariffs start to take a toll on jobs.

However, some of that spending could have been shoppers buying furniture and other items to get ahead of the expected price increases, analysts said.

On Tuesday, Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement retailer, reported improved sales during its latest quarter as consumers remained focused on smaller projects amid cost concerns and economic uncertainty.

But its performance missed Wall Street’s expectations. The Atlanta-based company also said shoppers should expect modest price increases in some categories as a result of rising tariff costs, though they won’t be broad-based.

Target, which has been struggling to reverse a persistent sales malaise, announced a new CEO to take over in February. It reported another decline in comparable sales and said would only raise prices as a last resort. Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez said shoppers are focusing on value and so the discounter is leaning more into its store label brands, which tend to be less expensive than its national labels.

But it’s Walmart that serves as a barometer of spending given its outsized power in the retailing landscape. Walmart maintains that 90% of American households rely on the retailer for a range of products, and more than 150 million customers shop on its website or in its stores every week.

Walmart had said back in May that prices had started to increase in late April and got higher in May. But it said a bigger sting would start to be felt in June and July when the back-to-school shopping season went into high gear.

Analysts were expecting 73 cents per share on sales of $175.93 billion for the quarter, according to FactSet.

Per share results, excluding effects of charges related to certain legal matters and from business restructuring, was 68 cents.

Walmart’s U.S. comparable sales — those from established physical stores and online channels — rose 4.6% in the latest quarter, slightly higher than the 4.5% gain in the fiscal first quarter. The business was fueled by groceries and health and wellness items, the company said.

Global e-commerce sales rose 25%, above the 22% growth in the fiscal first quarter.

The company said Thursday it expects earnings per share to be in the range of 58 cents to 60 cents for the current quarter. Analysts expect 57 cents per share, according to Factset.

Walmart also expects sales to be anywhere from 3.75% to 4.75% for the current period.

For the year, Walmart is raising is per share estimates to a range of $2.52 to $2.62, up from the previous estimate of a $2.50 to $2.60 range. Analysts are expecting $2.62 per share, according to FactSet.

Sales are anticipated to increase to 3.75% to 4.75% up from 3% to 4% growth it projected in May.