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EMERGENCY crews are battling wildfires across the popular Greek island of Kefalonia, forcing tourists and locals to evacuate homes and holiday accommodation.

Heatwave conditions and gale-force winds have fuelled blazes across the Ionian island, sending thick smoke over holiday regions and putting British travellers on alert.

Here is your guide to where the blazes are located, how they started, and what the latest official advice says for holidaymakers heading to Greece.

Where are the fires in Kefalonia?

Wildfires initially erupted in the dense pine forests and scrubland near Pastra, in the south-east of the island of Kefalonia.

The Greek Fire Service and local municipal authorities issued urgent precautionary evacuation orders via the national emergency alert system after flames threatened nearby homes and tourist lodgings.

Evacuations were triggered for several inland villages as flames moved close to residential zones.

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While precautionary evacuations were ordered, local authorities and ground crews largely brought the fire near Pastra under control.

Though firefighters – supported by specialised water-dropping aircraft and helicopters – still remain on high alert for flare-ups.

While main coastal resorts remain open, drifting smoke plumes and shifting winds have affected air quality and visibility across nearby districts.

How did the fires start?

The outbreak of wildfires on Kefalonia comes amid an intense summer heatwave gripping Greece and wider southern Europe.

While official investigations into the exact ignition points remain ongoing, authorities point to a combination of extreme environmental factors.

Prolonged periods of temperatures exceeding 40C have left vegetation bone-dry, creating conditions where a single spark can instantly trigger a wall of fire.

Strong, unpredictable gusts have also whipped embers across containment lines and made aerial firefighting exceptionally dangerous.

In coastal areas, high sea winds briefly prevented water-scooping aircraft from operating safely.

Greece has suffered dozens of wildfire outbreaks in recent days, including severe blazes in Attica, Halkidiki, and Crete, putting emergency services under heavy strain.

Is it safe to travel to Kefalonia?

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its safety guidance for Britons visiting Greece, but has not advised against travel.

While it has not placed a blanket travel ban on visiting Greece, officials advise all travellers to exercise caution, stay informed, and follow local emergency instructions.

Holidaymaker checklist:

• Monitor Emergency Alerts: Ensure your mobile phone can receive emergency broadcast messages from @112Greece. If an evacuation alert is issued, follow instructions from local authorities immediately.
• Contact Your Travel Provider: Major operators (such as TUI, Jet2 and EasyJet) are monitoring the situation closely. If your accommodation or flight is impacted, contact your provider before travelling.
• Check Travel Insurance: Verify that your travel insurance policy covers natural disasters, trip interruptions, or emergency relocations.
• Emergency Numbers: If you are in immediate danger in Greece, call 112 for emergency services. British nationals requiring urgent consular assistance can contact the Foreign Office on +44 (0)20 7008 5000.

Travellers heading to unaffected resorts on the island can generally proceed with their plans.

But checking live traffic and local authority updates before set-off is strongly recommended.

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

July 31 (UPI) — The U.S. State Department has apologized for using an incorrectly labeled map of Africa during a presentation at the global AIDS conference in Brazil.

The presentation that took place on Sunday had a map that included six incorrectly identified countries and misshapen borders.

The map detailed about $500 billion in potential U.S. funding to Africa.

The State Department said in a statement that it takes “full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners.”

The map included an AI watermark.

Nigeria, Mozambique and Ivory Coast are placed in the completely incorrect locations on the map. Malawi and Uganda are in the generally correct region but the borders are unrecognizable. Cameroon is named on the map but it does not have a line marking its location like the other countries and is in the wrong location..

Mozambique was marked in the eastern horn of Africa, rather than its correct position in the southern part of the continent.

Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire, a coastal nation as its name suggests, was landlocked in eastern Africa rather than its rightful place on the opposite side of the continent.

Cameroon was roughly where Ivory Coast belonged and just over half of its actual size.

Nigeria was in another incorrectly landlocked location, just north of its accurate placement on the western coast bordering Cameroon.

Uganda was the closest to its correct position, needing to be moved a few hundred miles to the west, but the border was completely wrong.

Malawi’s borders were also drawn incorrectly and it was too far to the south.

“What an embarrassment,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wrote on social media. “This is what happens when [the State Department] fires career experts and tries to have AI conduct diplomacy.”

THOUSANDS of locals and British holidaymakers have been evacuated from Crete after deadly wildfires swept through the popular Greek hotspot.

At least three emergency responders have lost their lives during the crisis across Greece, including two firefighters who became trapped in their vehicle near the mountain village of Krya Vrysi in Crete.

Flames fanned by gale-force winds have spread across a 15-kilometre front on the island at the peak of the summer holiday season.

Around 8,000 people were ordered to move to safety as flames closed in on southern resort villages, destroying homes, farms, and livestock in their path.

The crisis comes as severe heatwaves spark wildfires across Southern Europe and parts of the UK, with firefighters battling blazes from Spain and Turkey to Suffolk.

Where are the wildfires in Crete?

The primary fire zone in Crete is located along the island’s southern coast in the Rethymno region, specifically within the Agios Vasileios municipality.

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Villages and coastal areas hit by emergency evacuation alerts include:

• Krya Vrysi, Melambes, and Sachtouria
• Agios Pavlos, Triopetra, and Agia Paraskevi
• Orne and Ligres

More than 200 firefighters, supported by 53 fire engines, have been tackling the south-coast blazes.

Nearby resort areas such as Agia Galini were evacuated as a precaution before conditions stabilised enough for some tourists to return.

Is it safe to travel to Crete?

It remains safe to travel to the vast majority of Crete.

The island’s main transport hubs – including Heraklion Airport and Chania Airport – remain open and operating normally, outside the fire zone.

Popular northern holiday destinations, including Rethymno’s historic Old Town, Chania, Heraklion, Elounda, and Agios Nikolaos, currently remain unaffected and open for business.

If you are due to travel, tour operators advise checking the exact location of your accommodation.

Anyone staying near the active southern fire zone should contact their hotel or package provider before travelling, follow official 112 emergency text alerts, and ensure travel insurance covers natural disaster disruptions.

Holidaymakers on the island are urged to download emergency alert apps, keep mobile devices charged, and strictly observe local fire bans.

How did the fires start?

Specialist arson investigation teams from the Greek Fire Service have launched formal inquiries into the exact ignition points of the Rethymno fires.

While investigations are ongoing, extreme heat and weather conditions created the perfect storm for rapid ignition.

A prolonged summer heatwave pushed temperatures above 40C, thoroughly drying out low vegetation, pine forests, and olive groves across the island.

Strong gusting winds reaching up to 102 km/h (7 on the Beaufort scale) whipped minor ignitions into runaway blazes within minutes.

Authorities across southern Europe have repeatedly warned that even minor human carelessness – like discarded glass, outdoor barbecues, or unextinguished cigarettes – can instantly trigger a major blaze in these dry conditions.

What is the forecast for Crete?

The weather outlook for Crete remains challenging, with forecasters predicting high temperatures to persist near or above 40C across the Aegean region.

But the primary hurdle for emergency crews has been unpredictable wind.

Violent, changing gusts have forced water-dropping planes and heavy helicopters to temporarily ground operations due to turbulence.

Fire crews are reliant on wind speeds dropping in the coming days.

Lower winds wills allow aerial firefighting squadrons to safely scoop seawater and drop targeted payloads on hot spots in Crete’s steep mountain terrain.

While ground teams continue to build containment lines, civil protection authorities maintain a high wildfire alert across Crete and wider Greece.

July 24 (UPI) — A federal court has allowed Tennessee to use a new congressional map that eliminates the state’s only majority-Black district in November’s midterm elections, rejecting a challenge from civil and voting rights advocates.

The three-judge panel on Thursday denied a motion filed by Black Memphis voters for a preliminary injunction against implementing the map, ruling they lacked evidence of racial motivation for the map’s unorthodox mid-decade redistricting, which could be explained by a political motivation.

“The road to a reliably 9-0 map runs through Memphis. Thus, political motivations readily explain the map’s dilutive effects,” the panel, which consisted of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee, wrote in its decision.

With the ruling, Tennessee may use the map in next month’s primaries.

November’s midterms have been of increasing concern for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly voiced worries about impeachment proceedings and investigations if Republicans lose the House to Democrats, and has pushed GOP-led states to redraw their congressional maps to create additional Republican-favored districts.

Texas was the first last summer to agree to Trump’s request, sparking a gerrymandering arms race, with at least 10 states have redrawn their maps. All but Democrat-led California and North Carolina, which has a Democratic governor, are Republican-led.

Tennessee’s GOP-majority legislature passed its redistricting map to eliminate the one Democrat-held seat in May, a week after the Supreme Court issued a controversial decision that weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act, by greatly limiting the use of race in drawing electoral districts.

The three Black Memphis voters, along with the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Equity Alliance sued days later, alleging that the new map unlawfully discriminates against Black Memphis voters by dismantling a district where they had long been able to meaningfully participate in the political process.

In its ruling Thursday, the court said that the plaintiffs had to show that the map redraw was racially motivated, which they failed to do.

“The map’s effects — breaking Black Memphians into three separate congressional districts — are readily explainable by political motivations,” the court said.

“It’s no secret (supported by Plaintiffs’ own statements) that city voters prefer Democratic candidates and that rural voters prefer Republican candidates. So, it makes sense that Tennessee’s legislature would split Memphis into thirds when attempting to create a map that favors Republican candidates. And it’s no surprise that the resulting map would also split the Black population of Memphis into thirds.”

Amber Sherman, a plaintiff in the case, said the court’s decision further disenfranchises Black voters in Memphis.

“It’s painful to know we’ll head into another election under a map that was designed to weaken the Black voters in Memphis,” she said in a statement.

“We deserve the same opportunity to shape our future as anyone else.”

FANCY a trip to the beach without having to schlep to the seaside? You’re in luck.

Many cities around the UK are launching their own pop-up beaches this summer – and they’re perfect for those who living inland and have no way of getting to the sea.

They promise family-friendly rides, adult-only beach clubs and of course, buckets and buckets of sand.

Here are 10 of the best that you and the family can enjoy this summer.

1. Northampton’s Market Square

The Market Square in Northampton is about to be transformed into a huge beach this summer.

Along with the sand, there will be everything from deckchairs and buckets and spades to palm trees.

Fairground rides, pop up cinema and live events are also part of the summer season pop up.

Market Square beach runs from July 31 to August 31. Free to visit.

2. Middleton Hall, Milton Keynes

Calling itself the biggest in an indoor shopping centre, the new seaside-esque pop-up The Beach is back at Milton Keynes this year.

There are all the seaside classics such as free Punch & Judy shows, as well as an indoor rollercoaster and rides, although these cost extra from £3 to £6.

Bungees, games, train rides and pop-up stalls are also part of the event.

The Beach run from July 17 to August 31. Free to visit.

3. Costa del Croydon, London

Can’t quite make it to Spain this year? How about going to… Croydon.

Costa del Croydon is back this summer for its third year, opening on the Centrale Shopping Centre.

Alongside the beach and splash park, there is everything from mini go-karts and trampolines to street food and classic seaside games.

Lots of workshops will run too with previous years featuring dance classes and interactive activities.

New this year is an adults only beach club, running every Thursday from 5pm to 8pm.

Costa Del Croydon runs from August 7-31. Free to visit.

4. Summer Fair, Manchester

Returning to Manchester’s Trafford Centre this year is the Summer Fair with a huge beach and splash pool.

It includes fairground rides and activities such as workshops and dance events.

Other free events here this summer include the new Cosmic Carnival – with circus style shows – and a Zero Gravity Disco.

Summer Fair runs from July 18 to August 31. Tickets from £2.50.

5. Nottingham Beach

Found at Old Market Square, Nottingham Beach has brought back its main beach with deckchairs and bucket and spades.

There is even a beach bar and food stalls, along with DJ nights, dance classes and movie nights.

The beach also has a paddling pool to cool down in, and rides like spinning tops and rollercoasters.

Nottingham Beach runs from July 15 to August 31. Free to visit.

6. Big Penny Beach Club, London

The London beach – previously called Walthamstow-on-Sea – is back for the season and it’s had a big revamp inspired by the Balearics this summer.

Also new this year is a gelateria selling ice creams, along with bars and food stalls.

There are beach quizzes, volleyball, and you can even book a big cabana.

Big Penny Beach Club runes from May 22 to August 30. Free to visit.

7. Sheffield by the Seaside

Calling it a “full-scale, pop-up coastal resort,” Sheffield by the Seaside has returned to the city this year.

Found in the Peace Gardens, there a huge beach with deckchairs, as well as water fountains for the kids to play in.

There’s also food and drink stalls and fairground rides, although they are an additional fee.

Sheffield by the Seaside runs from July 23 to August 31. Free to visit.

8. Birmingham Beach

Birmingham Beach has it all – sand, deckchairs, beach huts and candy floss.

Found at Digbeth High Street, fairground rides are also part of it as well as an outdoor inflatable pool.

While rides cost extra, the beach pop-up will transport you straight to a retro seaside town.

Birmingham Beach runs from July 17 to August 31. Free to visit.

9. Bath on the Beach

Dip your toes into the sand, settle into a deckchair and watch some live sports at Bath on the Beach.

There are lounge cabanas if you want to book a spot, as well as beach games and even adventure golf.

Found at the Royal Pavilion in Bath, it also serves cocktails, beer and wine, as well as pizzas and kids meals.

Bath on the Beach runs from June 12 to August 2. Free to visit.

10. Pop Up Beach, St Albans

For something a bit smaller, St Albans is bringing back its pop-up beach as well.

Kids can build sandcastles or just play in the sand, found at Civic Close.

Parents can keep an eye from one of the many deckchairs around the outside.

Pop-Up Beach runs from August 8-23. Free to visit.

The 2026 National Pub and Bar Awards has celebrated some of Britain’s best boozers, and winners range from city gastropubs, pubs that embrace their arty heritage, and cosy country pubs found on islands

The UK’s best drinking establishments have been named at the 2026 National Pub & Bar Awards and a wide variety of pubs across the country took home accolades.

Our interactive map shows the winners that took home Pub & Bar of the Year for their region, as well as the overall winner of the prestigious National Pub and Bar of the Year, which went to the Gunton Arms near Cromer in Norfolk.

The Gunton Arms describes itself as “a traditional pub with bedrooms, set within an extensive historic 18th-century estate”, and it offers 16-bedrooms, a luxury four-bedroom thatched cottage, plus a restaurant with a focus on local ingredients. So local, in fact, that the venison cooked over the fire grill is sourced from the deer park that surrounds the pub.

The pub also has an impressive selection of art on the walls from contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, which complements the rustic, cosy décor.

Regional winners included The George in Fitzrovia, which took home the regional award for London. This 18th-century, grade II listed pub has a warm, welcoming feel thanks to the jewel-coloured interiors and gold accents, and in addition to serving “great Guinness”, it has a menu centred around Irish cuisine with international touches.

The Ferry Inn, found on the fishing village of Uig on the Isle of Skye, won the North Scotland Pub & Bar of the Year. This 19th-century island inn has three boutique rooms you can stay in, an impressive selection of gins from Scotland and around the world, plus a curated whisky shelf for a wee dram.

Other winners included Caledonian Heritable, who took the award for Pub Group of the Year, while Bar Group of the Year went to Albert’s Schloss, a chain of German-themed pubs offering live entertainment, Bavarian dining and a wide selection of European beers.

The Tyrrells Tyrrellbly Good Taste Award went to The Welldiggers Arms in Petworth, West Sussex, which describes itself as a “traditional country pub” and has views across the South Down National Park.

The pub has a focus on fresh, locally sourced British cuisine, and it offers a daily menu of pub classics, as well as brunches and traditional Sunday roasts.

The 2026 National Pub & Bar Awards winners by region

• East Midlands Pub & Bar of the Year: The Tollemache Arms
• East of England Pub & Bar of the Year: The Gunton Arms
• London Pub & Bar of the Year: The George, Fitzrovia
• North East Pub & Bar of the Year: The Kirkstyle Inn and Sportsman’s Rest
• North West Pub & Bar of the Year: Church Inn, Mobberley
• Northern Ireland Pub & Bar of the Year: Guildhall Taphouse
• North Scotland Pub & Bar of the Year: The Ferry Inn, Isle of Skye
• South Scotland Pub & Bar of the Year: The Noble, Glasgow
• South East Pub & Bar of the Year: The Mason’s Arms, Clanfield
• South West Pub & Bar of the Year: The Bath Arms, Warminster
• Wales Pub & Bar of the Year: George III, Dolgellau
• West Midlands Pub & Bar of the Year: The Bull’s Head, Craswall
• Yorkshire and the Humber Pub & Bar of the Year: The Woolly Sheep Inn, Skipton
• National Pub & Bar of the Year: The Gunton Arms

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Like the other Silicon Valley monopolies, Google habitually takes the side of Israeli occupation and war crimes in Palestine – the very term Palestine is not used by their highly influential maps app.

A new report by a Palestinian human rights group last month exposed the depths of Google’s dedication to the Israeli occupation.

With a known history documented back more than 3,200 years, the name “Palestine” is the only term continuously used for the entire territory of the country lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Palestine is the most historically accurate term. But since 1948, when Zionist militias expelled the majority of the Palestinian population from the country by force, a new state, “Israel”, was established.

That state has never declared its borders.

Consequentially, when speaking about “Israel” it is unclear exactly what territory is being referred to. But Zionists of both the right and the “left” commonly claim the entire historic territory of Palestine as the “Land of Israel.”

The new report, by 7amleh (Hamleh), a Palestinian organisation advocating online rights, details how Google seems to almost go out of its way to eradicate the reality of Palestinian life.

In 2016, Google came under fire from Palestinians on social media when the terms “West Bank” and “Gaza” disappeared from Google Maps. Google said that the removal of these terms was down to a glitch and that they had never used the word Palestine in the first place.

(The West Bank and Gaza Strip are regions of Palestine that are important, since they represent the remaining Palestinian territories which Israel failed to occupy in 1948. In 1967, however, Israel took over those too.)

“Through its mapping and labelling,” the 7amleh report explains, “one can deduce that Google Maps recognises the existence of Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital, but not Palestine.”

There are further aspects of the way Google has wiped Palestinian life off the map though. As the 7amleh report maps in some detail, Palestinian villages in the Naqab (Negev desert) deemed “unrecognised” by Israel (inside of what is sometimes termed “Israel proper” – the territories of Palestine occupied in 1948) are not properly mapped by Google.

These villages are only visible in Google Maps “when zooming in very closely,” the report explains, “but otherwise appear to be non-existent. This means that when looking at Google Maps, these villages appear to be not there.”

The report details how small Israeli villages are “displayed even when zoomed-out, while unrecognised Palestinian Bedouin villages, regardless of their size are only visible when zooming in very closely.”

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This is despite the fact that there “are in total 46 Bedouin villages in the Naqab, the majority of which existed before Israel’s creation in 1948. Some claim to have existed since the 7th century.”

Israel has repeatedly attempted to physically remove these villages, but has repeatedly failed, thanks to the resistance of the Palestinians who live there, and thanks also to national and international solidarity shown to those villages.

Their Israeli (lack of) status as “unrecognised” also means that the state refuses to connect the villages to basic services like water and electricity – despite the fact that nearby Israeli-Jewish settlements are given all the support possible.

As Basma Abu-Qwaider, one Palestinian Naqab villager, explains in the report:

Google Maps acts in a discriminatory manner towards the unrecognised village the same [way] as the Israeli government does. Google ignores the existence of these villages just like Israel and for me if you do not exist on the map it means that you are invisible and that’s exactly what Israel wants us to be.

This solidarity with Israeli racism expressed by Google’s helpful attitude towards Israel’s wiping of Palestinians quite literally off the map extends across the 1967 “Green Line” ceasefire boundary.

Palestinian villages even within the “West Bank” area of the Jordan Valley are not properly mapped by Google either. The report documents that while Israeli settlements “can be seen when looking at the larger area of the map” some Palestinian villages are only visible when zoomed in – and even that only as a result of pressure being put on by a human rights organisation.

Google also refuses to recognise or map the reality of Israel’s apartheid roads system for Palestinians.

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As part of Israel’s ongoing settler-colonisation of Palestine, large parts of the West Bank – which is ruled by Israeli military decree – are prohibited access for Palestinians. Many roads are reserved for the use of Jews only.

Despite the illegality of these practices under international law, Google’s route-planning apps do not designate Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.

7amleh’s report concludes: “Google Maps, as the largest global mapping and route planning service, has the power to influence global public opinion and therefore bears the responsibility to abide by international human rights standards and to offer a service that reflects the Palestinian reality.”

Google should be compelled to end its complicity with Israeli racism and apartheid.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

In the race for Los Angeles mayor, incumbent Karen Bass secured a place on the November ballot. But who will challenge her is yet to be determined, as votes are still being tallied.

With 62% of the expected vote counted, reality television personality Spencer Pratt sits in second place and City Councilmember Nithya Raman trails in third. Although Pratt has declared victory, the Associated Press, which estimates the expected votes in, has not called the race.

This story is based on a snapshot of precinct-level results provided by the L.A. County registrar on Wednesday. The Times analyzed the 525,326 votes processed so far. This story will be updated when winners are finalized in early July by the secretary of state.

This map shows the margin and density of votes by precinct. Areas where a candidate leads by a wide margin, such as Brentwood for Pratt, appear darker on the map. More densely populated neighborhoods — such as Bass strongholds in Baldwin Hills and Hyde Park — appear in brighter colors. As of Wednesday, an estimated 710,000 ballots were yet to be counted, according to L.A. County officials.

The preliminary results show narrow margins among precincts on the Eastside, with some precincts showing an almost 30% split across the top 3 candidates.

Bass retained a strong lead in precincts across South L.A. compared with her 2022 race against Rick Caruso. Pratt has garnered heavy support from his neighbors in Pacific Palisades, as well as precincts in Bel-Air and Shadow Hills.

Raman, who represents Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills, Sherman Oaks and Encino on the city council, has so far underperformed in her home 4th District. She led in 12 of the 66 precincts, particularly in parts of Los Feliz. A few precincts in East Hollywood swung heavily for Pratt; but Bass led much of CD-4.

To win the race outright, Bass needs to secure at least 50% of the vote. She currently holds 35% of the vote and a five-point lead over Pratt. A Berkeley IGS poll released last week found that Bass and Raman would likely defeat Pratt by double digits in the event of a runoff.

Mail-in ballots with a June 2 postmark will be accepted by county election officials through Tuesday.

May 29 (UPI) — Louisiana’s Republican-led legislature on Friday voted to approve a new congressional map that eliminates one of two majority-Black districts in favor of Republican-leaning districts, pushing forward the national redistricting race.

The new map contains one majority-Black district — in a state with a population that is one-third black — that covers an arc running from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, covering a smaller section of the state, NBC News and The New York Times reported.

Louisiana is the latest state to enact rare mid-decade congressional redistricting efforts, which were kicked off when President Donald Trump last year started pushing Republican led states to do so, leading to Democratic-led states to join in a year-long tit-for-tat contest.

The new map follows a Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana vs. Callais case earlier this month that invalidated a 2024 map because the state’s legislature was not justified in using race to construct the districts.

The map, based on voting records, is expected to send five Republicans and one Democrat to the House from Louisiana, compared to the old map’s four-to-two split.

“We focused on Democrat numbers, not the racial numbers, when drawing,” Republican state Rep. Beau Beaullieu said during debate over the map.

“We focused in this case on partisanship, which is what Callais said, and I mentioned in my intro, is clear permissible,” Beauillieu said.

Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law.

Landry had pushed off the state’s May 16 congressional primaries, for which some mail-in votes had already been cast, and delayed it until Nov. 3 so that the legislature could produce a new map for use in this year’s federal elections.

During the debate on the Thrusday, Democratic state Rep. Kyle Green Jr. pointed out that the map reduced Black Louisianians’ “minority opportunity representation to a single seat out of six, from 33% of the population to 16% of the representation numbers.”

The map is expected to be challenged in court, but members of both parties in the state legislature said that the map is unlikely to change again before November’s elections.

Louisiana lawmakers have passed a new map of congressional districts designed to help Republicans pick up a seat in the United States House of Representatives.

But to do so, the map eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, both of which are represented by Democrats.

Approval in Louisiana’s legislature came on Friday. It follows an April decision from the US Supreme Court striking down Louisiana’s current map as an illegal racial gerrymander because it was drawn to include two majority-Black districts.

That ruling, in the case Louisiana v Callais, weakened the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, meant to prevent discrimination against minorities at the ballot box.

It also intensified a national redistricting battle fuelled by President Donald Trump’s efforts to protect the Republicans’ slim House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several Southern states now redrawing their maps to help Republicans.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s US House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democrats to Republican-held districts, which could have potentially backfired with Republican losses.

Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six congressional seats, and they are slated to pick up a fifth with the newly passed map.

It was approved on Friday by the Louisiana state Senate in a 28-to-10 vote.

‘Vicious race to the bottom’

Republican Governor Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law, even as threats of more litigation emerged Friday.

A half-hour Senate floor debate revolved around Democrats contending that the proposed map is racially gerrymandered to squeeze more Black voters, who tend to be registered Democrats, into a single district.

Democratic state Senator Royce Duplessis pointed out that some fellow Southern states, such as South Carolina, had refused to redraw their maps in the middle of an election year.

He warned that Louisiana is participating in a “vicious, vicious race to the bottom” by participating in the redistricting push.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Senator Jay Morris, repeatedly insisted that party affiliation, not race, drove the new district boundaries.

“I purposely put more Democrats into District 2 to make the remaining districts better performing for Republicans,” Morris said at one point.

Morris said he instructed the map demographers to avoid including any data on race or including those statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.

Democratic state Senator Sam Jenkins told Morris, “I think it’s a racially gerrymandered district that’s going to get us into a lot of trouble here.”

“Agree to disagree,” Morris told Jenkins.

More litigation expected in Louisiana

Louisiana is currently using a map ordered by a lower court in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act. It includes a second district with a majority-Black population.

That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Landry has postponed the state’s closed US House primary slated for May 16 to allow for the new congressional map to be implemented.

He later signed a law making the US primary open and shifted the date to November 3 to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will be on the ballot for voters in their district.

The proposed map redraws a district currently represented by Democratic Representative Cleo Fields, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans, represented by Democratic Representative Troy Carter.

More lawsuits are expected over the new map.

Democrats say the proposed map could draw a legal challenge over racial gerrymandering, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana suggested Friday that it could sue, calling the map a “racial gerrymander hiding behind the thin veneer of partisanship”.

“This fight is just beginning,” the ACLU branch added.

Meanwhile, the victorious plaintiffs in the US Supreme Court’s decision criticised the legislature’s map for leaving a majority-Black district in place.

Nationwide battle over district lines

In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon the weakened federal Voting Rights Act to redraw their own congressional districts.

So far, Republicans are winning the nationwide redistricting contest, passing more partisan maps to gain House seats than Democrats.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win in the narrowly divided US House in November.

Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from their redistricting efforts so far, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Meanwhile, a court decision in Wisconsin on Friday could give Democrats a new avenue to pick up seats in 2028.

The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal of a case filed by a bipartisan coalition of business executives that seeks to redraw the state’s Republican-friendly congressional districts. Republicans hold six of the state’s eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive.

A three-judge panel dismissed the case in April. Those who filed the lawsuit weren’t seeking a ruling in time for the 2026 election. Instead, they asked the state Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court for a trial on their claims, which would likely not take place until 2027.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana lawmakers passed a new congressional map Friday designed to pick up a Republican seat while leaving the state with just one of its two majority-Black House districts represented by Democrats.

Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. That decision intensified a national redistricting battle fueled by President Trump’s efforts to protect the Republicans’ slim House majority in the midterm elections.

Louisiana Republicans had considered drawing a map giving the party a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. But that would have required adding more Black voters to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring with losses. Some Republicans said a 5-1 map better protects U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from facing a difficult reelection.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law.

In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states have seized upon a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try to redraw their own congressional districts. It’s the latest flare-up in a heated national redistricting battle heading into the November elections, spurred along by Trump.

So far, Republicans are winning the redistricting contest. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they will win a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. So far, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from their redistricting efforts, while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.

In Louisiana, Republicans currently hold four of six congressional seats on a court-ordered map drawn in 2024 to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population.

That map, however, was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court responded on April 30 by striking it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Landry postponed the state’s U.S. House primary, scheduled for May 16, until later this summer to allow time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map.

The proposed map redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields’ district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic, majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

More lawsuits were expected over the new map.

Democrats say the proposed map could still constitute a racial gerrymander because it packs Black voters into a single congressional district. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision criticized the Legislature’s map for leaving a majority-Black district in place.

Several other Southern states also have acted on redistricting since the Supreme Court’s decision.

Florida’s Legislature passed new congressional districts just hours after the ruling, completing a redrawing that was in the works in anticipation of the decision. It could yield Republicans as many as four additional seats in the midterm elections.

Tennessee adopted new U.S. House districts a week after the ruling, carving up a majority-Black district based in Memphis in a Republican attempt to win an additional seat.

In Alabama, Republicans are attempting to pick up another seat by redrawing two districts where Black residents compose a majority or close to it. Democrats hold both seats, and the proposal is mired in a court battle.

South Carolina’s Senate, meanwhile, decided against redistricting, despite pressure from Trump.

Brook and Levy write for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Alabama on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, despite a lower court’s ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

The state’s Republican leadership filed an emergency appeal with the justices a day after a three-judge court refused to let the state use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts.

The judges instead required Alabama to continue using a court-ordered map that was put in place for the 2024 elections that includes two districts where Black residents comprise a majority or close to it.

Atty. Gen. Steve Marshall told the court that the state did not intentionally discriminate against Black residents and should be allowed to hold elections this year under a map chosen by lawmakers, not judges.

The appeal is the latest development in the fallout from last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The redistricting frenzy is part of a broader push by President Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections.

The Alabama cases stretches back several years. The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it. The court-selected map was used in 2024.

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map’s use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, voters cast ballots in Alabama’s May 19 primaries, and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey set new special primaries for Aug. 11 in four congressional districts affected by the map switch.

Upon further review, the judicial panel said it was standing behind its initial finding that there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination, a holding that was independent of and unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The use of the court-ordered map led to the 2024 election of U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. State Republicans are seeking to use a map that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim the south Alabama seat.

The state is asking for Supreme Court action by Monday as it makes preparations for the special vote in August.

Sherman writes for the Associated Press.

May 26 (UPI) — South Carolina’s state Senate adjourned Tuesday without acting on a new congressional map that would have redrawn voting districts in favor of Republicans.

President Donald Trump has called on states to redraw their voting maps to favor Republicans, especially after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that badly weakened a part of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 that helped protect minority voting power.

However, as voters started heading to the polls Tuesday for the first in-person voting in primaries, state senators said it was just too late. If the state Senate pushed the map through Tuesday, the state would have had to throw out tens of thousands of ballots that had already been cast that day and schedule a new primary.

“Neither my conscience nor my common sense would allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said during the vote, The BBC reported.

The new congressional map pitched for South Carolina would do away with the state’s only majority Black district, which is represented by Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat. Clyburn is seeking his 18th term in office this year.

Republicans have a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Trump and other conservatives are calling for district changes to hold on to that majority during the midterm elections in November. Other states, including Tennessee, have already redrawn and approved new maps eliminating majority Black districts.

CNN reported that Trump called Republican state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey at least twice about the plan, and the president has posted regularly on social media about the matter as well.

“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” the president wrote in a post earlier this month.

South Carolina state senators will likely pick up the matter again after the primary voting ends June 9. State Sen. Brad Hutto, a Democrat, said his party members worked all weekend to make voters headed out to the polls today, The New York Times reported.

“The people in South Carolina were sending us a message that their vote mattered,” he said. “It was important, and they didn’t want us to cancel their vote.”

Democrats had another win in the redistricting wars on Tuesday, with a federal court temporarily blocking Alabama from using its newly redrawn congressional map, which includes only one Black majority district out of seven. The population of Alabama is about 27% Black.

The South Carolina map in question, meanwhile, would have resulted in no Black majority districts out of the state’s seven. The state is about 26% Black, based on 2025 U.S. Census numbers.