Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 4

Southern Republicans press ahead with election-year redistricting of US House despite protests

Republicans in several Southern states pressed ahead with an aggressive election-year redistricting effort Wednesday, undeterred by demonstrations and objections to their plans to reshape majority-Black congressional districts that have suddenly become susceptible because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

In Tennessee, protesters interrupted legislative hearings on the redistricting plans, prompting lawmakers to temporarily suspend their work while state troopers cleared the room.

Despite passionate pleas from Black Democratic lawmakers, Republicans in the Alabama House approved a measure to upend the state’s congressional primaries if courts allow them to switch their U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, Democrats chided Republican colleagues for abiding by President Donald Trump’s desires as they took initial steps toward redrawing a district long held by a Black Democratic lawmaker.

Trump is lifting restrictions on hunting in national parks, refuges and wilderness areas

Time to add the Day-Glo orange vests to your hiking kit and dog walking gear in U.S. national parks, folks. It's an annual event for random people to get shot by drunk hunters during deer season in my neck of the woods, but the national parks used to be quieter places. I guess the U.S. is fully committed to democratizing bloodshed and spreading our values both abroad and at home.

The scandals and disasters of the Trump presidency will be felt by the world for decades. The war in Iran is currently the most visible.

Checkmate in Iran
Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war.

Some supporters of the war are therefore calling for the resumption of military strikes, but they cannot explain how another round of bombing will accomplish what 37 days of bombing did not. More military action will inevitably lead Iran to retaliate against neighboring Gulf States; the war’s advocates have no response to that, either. Trump halted attacks on Iran not because he was bored but because Iran was striking the region’s vital oil and gas facilities. The turning point came on March 18, when Israel bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field and Iran retaliated by attacking Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest natural-gas-export plant, causing damage to production capacity that will take years to repair. Trump responded by declaring a moratorium on further strikes against Iran’s energy facilities and then declaring a cease-fire, despite Iran’s not having made a single concession.

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The American defeat in the Gulf will have broader global ramifications as well. The whole world can see that just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power have reduced American weapons stocks to perilously low levels, with no quick remedy in sight. The questions this raises about America’s readiness for another major conflict may or may not prompt Xi Jinping to launch an attack on Taiwan, or Vladimir Putin to step up his aggression against Europe. But at the very least America’s allies in East Asia and Europe must wonder about American staying power in the event of future conflicts.