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US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would “pardon” a Colorado official jailed on charges linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Tina Peters, a former official in Colorado’s Mesa County, was sentenced in October 2024 for allowing an unauthorized Trump supporter to access confidential voting information several months after the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden. The man was seeking to prove election fraud as part of a conspiracy theory touted by Trump that the vote was rigged. “Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest,” Trump said in a post on social media Thursday. “I am granting Tina a full Pardon for her attempts to expose Voter Fraud in the Rigged 2020 Presidential Election!” Peters is jailed under state charges, making her ineligible for a presidential pardon. She was sentenced to nine years in prison. Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis criticized the move saying Peters “was convicted by a jury of her peers, prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney, and found guilty of violating Colorado state laws, including criminal impersonation.” “No President has jurisdiction over state law nor the power to pardon a person for state convictions,” Polis said in a social media post Thursday. “This is a matter for the courts to decide, and we will abide by court orders.” Shortly after his inauguration in January, Trump offered pardons to everybody convicted in the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

French indie title “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33″ dominated the annual Game Awards in Los Angeles, winning a record of nine categories including best video game of the year.”What a weird timeline for us,” Guillaume Broche of video game studio Sandfall Interactive quipped, thanking his team as he accepted the top award.”And also I want to extend thanks to the unsung heroes of this industry — the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game — because we had no idea how to make a game before.””Clair Obscur,” Sandfall’s first game, tells the story of a group of characters battling seemingly impossible odds in a post-apocalyptic universe with a distinctively French visual style.It was nominated in a record number of categories, winning many despite squaring up against heavyweights like “Death Stranding 2” from industry legend Hideo Kojima of “Metal Gear Solid” fame and “Donkey Kong Bananza” from Nintendo.”Clair Obscur” began in 2020 as a project of Broche, a developer at French gaming giant Ubisoft.He brought ex-colleague Tom Guillermin on board to create the small studio that same year in the French city of Montpellier.- ‘Thank you to the players’ -They struck a publishing deal in 2022 with UK-based Kepler Interactive, which provided funding for the project.Some 5 million copies of “Clair Obscur” have been snapped up since its release in April of this year.”This is a passion project into which we poured our heart and soul,” Broche said, surrounded by members of his team in a video sent by Sandfall to AFP.”To be rewarded like this is just wonderful!”Broche gave a “massive thank you” to players during the ceremony.The grassroots popularity of “Clair Obscur” has seen fans attend conventions and game fairs wearing a striped mariner’s shirt and red beret — one of the most stereotypically French outfits players can dress their characters in.The action game follows a small group of characters seeking to defeat a powerful entity threatening their home city Lumiere — which bears a striking resemblance to Belle Epoque Paris.Inspired by Japanese games such as the long-running “Final Fantasy” franchise, the French title is a role-playing game offering turn-based combat against monsters inhabiting the world.Its popularity was founded on the story’s emotional depth and endearing characters married with original gameplay, which introduced reactive rhythm-based elements to parry enemies’ attacks.Sandfall “managed to present something really polished and go toe-to-toe with major titles,” industry specialist Benoit Reinier told AFP at the time of the game’s release.The music of “Clair Obscur” stuck in many players’ heads and played an outsized role in their immersion into its universe.Winning categories for the game included narrative, role playing, and music score.French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the team in May, thanking them for “putting the spotlight on French-style boldness and creativity.”There are also plans to bring the “Expedition 33” story to the big screen.The awards show was streamed on 30 platforms, including Amazon Prime for the first time.It was packed with trailers or coming games including “Star Wars” and “Tomb Raider” titles as well as appearances by celebrities including Jason Momoa, who is among the actors in a film based on “Street Fighter” set for release next year.”The games nominated this year were created by teams from all over the world,” said Nicolas Doucet, founder of Team Asobi that won top game last year with “Astro Bot”.”This is a testament that our industry feeds from various world cultures and, in this day and age, is something we should really, really appreciate and celebrate.”

Beijing’s actions are “not conducive to regional peace”, Japan’s defence minister and US counterpart Pete Hegseth agreed during a call after Chinese aircraft locked radar on Japanese jets near Taiwan, Tokyo said Friday.The December 6 radar incident came after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan that infuriated China.It was followed this week by Chinese-Russian air patrols around Japan.Hegseth and Shinjiro Koizumi “exchanged candid views on the increasingly severe security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the radar incident”, the Japanese defence ministry said after the call.They “expressed serious concern over any actions to increase regional tensions, as China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability”, the statement added.Koizumi said on X he told Hegseth that China was “disseminating information that is completely contrary to the facts” about the radar incident.”However, Japan has made clear that it does not seek escalation and that we are responding calmly while making necessary rebuttals, and we are keeping the door open for dialogue,” Koizumi added.Hegseth’s office said they had “discussed… China’s military activities” among other issues including “Japan’s efforts to increase its defense spending and strengthen its capabilities”.- ‘Tactical exercises’ -Takaichi had indicated on November 7 that Japan would intervene with military force in any Chinese attack on Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.Media reports on Friday reinforced suggestions that her comments in a parliamentary debate were unplanned and that she deviated from prepared remarks.Last week, J-15 jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft that had scrambled in international waters near Okinawa, according to Japan.Fighter jets use their radar for fire control to identify targets as well as for search and rescue operations.But China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday accused Japan of sending the jets “to intrude into the Chinese training area without authorisation, conduct close-range reconnaissance and harassment, create tense situations, and… maliciously hype up the situation”.On Tuesday two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country, Japan said.Japan said that it scrambled fighter jets in response.A day later, Japan and the United States air forces conducted their own joint air drills, Tokyo said.The “tactical exercises” over the Sea of Japan involved two US B52 bombers, three Japanese F-35 fighter jets and three Japanese F-15s, Tokyo said.South Korea said Tuesday that Russian and Chinese warplanes also entered its air defence zone, with Seoul also deploying fighter jets that same day.Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

French indie title “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33″ dominated the annual Game Awards in Los Angeles, winning a record of nine categories including best video game of the year.”What a weird timeline for us,” Guillaume Broche of video game studio Sandfall Interactive quipped, thanking his team as he accepted the top award.”And also I want to extend thanks to the unsung heroes of this industry — the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game —  because we had no idea how to make a game before.””Clair Obscur,” the first game from Sandfall Interactive, tells the story of a group of characters battling seemingly impossible odds in a post-apocalyptic universe with a distinctively French visual style.It was nominated in a record number of categories, winning many despite squaring up against heavyweights like “Death Stranding 2” from industry legend Hideo Kojima of “Metal Gear Solid” fame, or Nintendo’s “Donkey Kong Bananza” starring the eponymous gorilla.”Clair Obscur” began in 2020 as a project of Broche, a developer at French games giant Ubisoft.He brought ex-colleague Tom Guillermin on board to create the small studio that same year in the French city of Montpellier.- ‘Thank you to the players’ -They struck a publishing deal in 2022 with UK-based Kepler, which provided funding for the project.Some 5 million copies of “Clair Obscur” have been snapped up since its realease in April of this year.”This was supposed to be a joke; I have no idea what’s happening,” Broche joked.”Just a massive ‘thank you’ to the players.”The grassroots popularity of “Clair Obscur” has manifested in fans attending conventions and video game fairs wearing a striped mariner’s shirt and red beret — one of the most stereotypically French outfits players can equip for their characters.The action game follows a small group of characters seeking to defeat a powerful entity threatening their home city Lumiere — which bears a striking resemblance to Belle Epoque Paris.Inspired by Japanese games such as the long-running Final Fantasy saga, the French title is a role-playing game offering turn-based combat against the monsters inhabiting the world.Its popularity was founded on the story’s emotional depth and endearing characters married with original gameplay, which introduced reactive rhythm-based elements to parry enemies’ attacks.Sandhill “managed to present something really polished and go toe-to-toe with major titles,” industry specialist Benoit Reinier told AFP at the time of the game’s release.At just 30 people for most of its development, the team behind “Clair Obscur” was far smaller than typical blockbuster studios.Broche said they brought everyone from Sandhill to Los Angeles to celebrate the awards.The music of “Clair Obscur” stuck in many players’ heads and played an outsize part in their immersion into its universe.Winning categories for the game included narrative, role playing, and music score.French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the team in May, thanking them for “putting the spotlight on French-style boldness and creativity.”There are also plans to bring the “Expedition 33” story to the big screen.

Walt Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal Thursday that will allow users to create short videos featuring beloved Disney characters through artificial intelligence.The deal marks the first time a major entertainment company has embraced generative AI at this scale, licensing its fiercely protected characters—from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes and Star Wars’s Darth Vader—for AI content creation.The partnership represents a dramatic shift for an industry that has largely been battling AI companies in court.Disney and other creative industry giants have been suing AI firms like OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic, accusing them of illegally using their content to train their technology.The entertainment giant continued that legal campaign on Wednesday, separately sending a cease-and-desist letter to Google over the illegal use of its intellectual property to train the search engine giant’s AI models.For OpenAI, the deal comes as it faces increasing questions about the sustainability of its business model, with costs skyrocketing far faster than revenue—despite nearing one billion users worldwide.Under the agreement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated content featuring more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises on OpenAI’s Sora video generation platform and ChatGPT.Launched at the end of September, Sora aims to be a TikTok-like social network where only AI-generated videos can be posted.From the outset, many videos have included characters directly inspired by real cartoons and video games, from South Park to Pokémon.Facing license-holder anger, CEO Sam Altman promised OpenAI would offer rights holders more control to put a stop to these AI copies.The partnership includes a $1 billion equity investment by Disney in OpenAI, along with warrants to purchase additional shares in the ChatGPT maker.Disney shares rose more than 2% Thursday after the announcement.Disney CEO Robert Iger said the collaboration would “thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling.”Characters available for fan creations will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Elsa from Frozen, and Marvel heroes like Iron Man and Captain America, as well as Star Wars icons including Darth Vader and Yoda.The agreement excludes talent likenesses and voices from actors amid deep concern in Hollywood about the impact of AI.”This does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all—in fact the opposite. I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there’s a license fee associated with it,” Iger told CNBC.Hollywood’s leading actors union, SAG-AFTRA, said it would “closely monitor” the deal’s implementation, while the Writers Guild of America said it will meet with Disney to probe the terms and underlined that OpenAI had stolen “vast libraries” of studio content to train its technology.- 30 seconds -Iger, in a joint interview with Altman on CNBC, insisted the deal only includes videos no longer than 30 seconds and the technology wouldn’t be used for longer-form productions.Beyond licensing, Disney will deploy OpenAI’s technology to build new products and experiences for Disney+, the streaming platform.”Disney is the global gold standard for storytelling,” Altman said. “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly.”Both companies emphasized their commitment to responsible AI use, with OpenAI pledging age-appropriate policies and controls to prevent illegal or harmful content generation.In Disney’s complaint against Google, OpenAI’s biggest rival in the AI space, the entertainment giant accuses Google of infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale by copying a large corpus of content without authorization to train and develop AI models and services.”We’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have not valued it, and this is another example of us doing just that,” Iger told CNBC.

A US court sentenced cryptocurrency tycoon Do Kwon to 15 years in prison Thursday over fraud linked to his company’s failure, which wiped out $40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets.Kwon, who nurtured two digital currencies central to the bankruptcy, was sentenced at the New York court where he pleaded guilty in August after an international manhunt spanning Asia and Europe.He still faces fraud charges in his native South Korea.The 34-year-old’s Terraform Labs created a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD that was marketed as a “stablecoin,” a token that is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations.Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investments and global hype.He was flooded with praise in South Korean media, which described him as a “genius” as thousands of private investors lined up to pour cash into his company.And in 2019, Kwon featured in Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 Asia list.But despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and its sister token Luna went into a death spiral in May 2022.Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified pyramid scheme, in which many investors lost their life savings.He left South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run.The crypto tycoon was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, while preparing to board a flight to Dubai, in possession of a fake Costa Rican passport.He was extradited last year from Montenegro to the United States. – ‘Elaborate schemes’ -After Kwon’s sentencing Thursday, US prosecutors detailed how he made fraudulent claims about his business to lure in buyers, including American investment firms. At its peak in the spring of 2022, the total market value of TerraUSD and Luna exceeded $50 billion. “Do Kwon devised elaborate schemes to mislead investors and inflate the value of Terraform’s cryptocurrencies for his own benefit,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.When it all came crashing down, Clayton’s office said in a press release, Kwon sought to obtain “political protection” from several countries.It cited a recorded conversation in which he told an associate that his strategy of dealing with authorities investigating the collapse was to “tell them to fuck off.” Alongside his prison term, Kwon was ordered to forfeit over $19 million in proceeds from his illegal schemes.The US Justice Department said in a court filing that he could be allowed to complete his sentence in South Korea, provided at least half of it is served in the United States.Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators after a string of controversies in recent years, including the high-profile collapses of exchanges.Kwon’s impressive rise and precipitous fall has been compared to convicted American fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the medical technology startup Theranos.

His only official job title at the White House is son-in-law. But Jared Kushner has staged a remarkable — and sometimes controversial — comeback to President Donald Trump’s inner circle.Four years after Kushner left the White House, Trump has handed the husband of his daughter Ivanka a key role in the Gaza and Ukraine peace talks.This week, the 44-year-old also emerged as an investor in a bid by Paramount to buy Hollywood giant Warner Bros., which if successful could mean the Trump family partially owning CNN, the president’s most-hated news channel.Kushner and Ivanka served as special advisors in Trump’s first term. But after his 2020 election loss they decamped to Florida and Kushner vanished into the private sector, insisting he would not return for a second administration.Since then, Kushner has founded an investment company largely funded by the same Middle Eastern countries that he dealt with in the first Trump term — and has become a billionaire, according to Forbes.That has raised ethical questions about possible conflicts of interest, which Kushner has denied and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has branded “frankly despicable.” But it has not stopped Trump, who has long mixed business and politics with family, from bringing him back in from the cold. “We called in Jared,” Trump told the Israeli parliament in October after the Gaza ceasefire deal. “We need that brain on occasion. We gotta get Jared in here.”- ‘Trusted family member’ -The White House said that Kushner was giving “valuable expertise” while stressing that he working as an “informal, unpaid advisor.””President Trump has a trusted family member and talented advisor in Jared Kushner,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP, citing Kushner’s “record of success” in the Middle East.Trump and his roving global envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, “often seek Mr. Kushner’s input given his experience with complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in lending his valuable expertise when asked.”The slim, softly-spoken scion of a property empire — whose father was jailed for tax evasion and later pardoned by Trump — Kushner faced accusations of inexperience when he joined Trump’s first team.But he ended up playing a key role in Trump’s signature diplomatic achievement, the Abraham Accords that saw several Muslim nations recognize Israel.During that time Kushner, who is Jewish, built enduring relationships with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.As Trump sought a Gaza ceasefire in his second term, he turned again to his son-in-law.Kushner began to be seen around the White House again, and Trump dispatched him and Witkoff to negotiate with Israel, Hamas and Middle Eastern powers.After the Gaza deal, Kushner said his role was only temporary — and joked that he was worried Ivanka would change the locks of their Florida mansion and not let him back in if he stayed on.Yet the following month, Kushner turned up at the Kremlin with Witkoff to meet President Vladimir Putin. Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Kushner “turned out to be very useful.”- Paramount bid role -Kushner’s business interests hit the headlines again this week when it emerged that his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was among the investors backing Paramount’s battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros.It added a political twist to the story, as not only has his father-in-law said he would get “involved” in approving any deal, but Trump also appears determined to clamp down on CNN, which is part of Warner.Kushner founded Florida-based Affinity in 2021, with much of its funding coming from foreign sources, particularly the Middle Eastern governments he’d done business with.Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) gave $2 billion in 2022, the New York Times reported. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together gave around $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said in a podcast last year.Kushner’s firm now manages $5.4 billion, according to a press release in September.A US Senate finance committee launched an inquiry last year into whether Affinity was effectively being used as a foreign influence-buying operation with the Trump family ahead of the 2024 election, saying it had won millions in fees from foreign clients without returning any profits.Affinity Partners did not reply when contacted by AFP.Kushner hasn’t commented on the Paramount deal, but he has previously rejected any suggestions of ethical breaches, particularly regarding his Gulf ties.”What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships,” he told the CBS program “60 Minutes” when it interviewed him and Witkoff in October on the Gaza deal.

The White House on Thursday intensified its attacks on CNN, the news network at the center of a financial battle that President Donald Trump is tied up in politically and through family.Echoing the president’s frequent anti-media barbs, senior members of his administration lashed out. “CNN = Chicken News Network,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X Thursday, calling CNN cowardly for not inviting Trump advisor Stephen Miller to be interviewed “presumably because they are scared Stephen will school them.”Vice President JD Vance then shared the post, adding: “If CNN wants to be a real news network it should feature important voices from our administration.”A CNN spokesperson said Miller would be welcome back on the channel, Fox News reported Thursday.”As a news organization, we make editorial decisions about the stories we cover and when, and that depends on the news priorities of the day. We look forward to having Stephen on again in the future as the news warrants,” the CNN spokesperson was quoted as saying.The harshest attack on CNN from the Trump administration came from an official White House account called Rapid Response 47, which went after Kaitlan Collins, one of the network’s most prominent correspondents, saying she “is not a journalist. She is a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party.”On Wednesday, the president confronted another CNN journalist similarly, and said “you know you work for the Democrats, don’t you? You are basically an arm of the Democrat Party.”CNN has yet to comment publicly on those allegations. In the past, the network has responded to criticism of political bias by asserting that it is committed to objective journalism and fairness.- CNN for sale -Founded in 1980 to provide global television news coverage, CNN is currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate at the heart of a bidding war between streaming giant Netflix and Paramount Skydance, the latter of which is led by CEO David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has joined Paramount’s bid through his investment firm. And Trump has already indicated he intends to get involved in the government’s decision to approve or block a sale, which would typically involve the Justice Department.Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into Ellison’s hands.  Under the Netflix deal, Warner Bros. Discovery would sell off CNN and other cable news properties separately before closing the sale of its studio and streaming operations.The 79-year-old president said Wednesday he wants to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery sale, seeming to favor a Paramount purchase.”I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” Trump said.

An oil tanker seized by American forces off the Venezuelan coast will be brought to a port in the United States, the White House said Thursday, as fears mount of open conflict between the two countries.Washington took control of the tanker in a dramatic raid that saw US forces rope down from a helicopter onto the vessel in an operation that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was aimed at leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s “regime.”President Donald Trump’s administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela for months with a major naval build-up in the region that has been accompanied by strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed close to 90 people.Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed support during a phone call with his ally Maduro, but with Moscow’s forces tied down in a grinding war in Ukraine, its capacity to provide aid is limited.”The vessel will go to a US port and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists of the tanker.”We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black-market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world.”Earlier on Thursday, Noem told a congressional hearing that the tanker operation was “pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs” — a reference to US allegations of narcotics smuggling by Maduro’s government.A video released Wednesday by US Attorney General Pam Bondi showed American forces descending from a helicopter onto the tanker’s deck, then entering the ship’s bridge with weapons raised.Bondi said the ship was part of an “illicit oil shipping network” that was used to carry sanctioned oil.- ‘Blatant theft’ -Venezuela’s foreign ministry said it “strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” “They kidnapped the crew, stole the ship and have inaugurated a new era, the era of criminal naval piracy in the Caribbean,” Maduro himself said at a presidential event on Thursday, adding: “Venezuela will secure all ships to guarantee the free trade of its oil around the world.”UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed concern over the escalating tensions and urged restraint.”We are calling on all actors to refrain from action that could further escalate bilateral tensions and destabilize Venezuela and the region,” his spokesperson said.US media reported that the tanker had been heading for Cuba — another American rival — and that the ship was stopped by the US Coast Guard.Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday he questioned the legality of the tanker seizure and that “any president, before he engages in an act of war, has to have the authorization of the American people through Congress.””This president is preparing for an invasion of Venezuela, simply said. And if the American people are in favor of that, I’d be surprised,” Durbin told CNN.Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a “narco-terrorist” organization last month, and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture.The US Treausury also imposed new sanctions Thursday targeting three of Maduro’s relatives as well as six companies shipping the South American country’s oil.Trump told Politico on Monday that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and declined to rule out a US ground invasion of Venezuela.The Trump administration alleges that Maduro’s hold on power is illegitimate and that he stole Venezuela’s July 2024 election.Maduro — the political heir to leftist leader Hugo Chavez — says the United States is bent on regime change and wants to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

The conservative US state of Indiana on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a congressional map championed by President Donald Trump that would have wiped out two Democratic-held districts — denting Republican hopes for a nine-seat sweep in next year’s midterm elections.Democrats need to flip only three seats to reclaim the US House of Representatives in 2026, and the vote in the Hoosier State’s senate was supposed to be the latest step in Trump’s push for an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting drive aimed at cementing Republican control.Breaking with long-standing political custom, Trump has urged Republican-run states to redraw their maps years before the next census, hoping to capitalize on Republican dominance in state legislatures and map-making bodies.The president had spent significant political capital on the Indiana push — but the ruling state Senate Republicans delivered him a humiliating defeat as more than half voted against the new map, bristling at pressure from the White House.US House Speaker Mike Johnson had told reporters he had been personally calling state lawmakers to shore up support, while Trump mounted his own characteristically forceful intervention, blasting out a social-media tirade demanding a Republican gerrymander.The president had threatened primary challenges against dissenting lawmakers, and after they bucked Trump Thursday he lambasted the state Senate’s top Republican Rodric Bray and said he hopes he loses his next election.”I’m sure he’ll go down,” Trump said at the White House, speaking of Bray after being asked about the failed Indiana redistricting effort. “I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against him.”Bray, after earlier Trump criticism, had countered that Washington Republicans were misreading the situation, insisting his caucus simply did not have the votes to pass the map. More than a dozen Republican senators had publicly broken with the effort ahead of the vote.Several Indiana Republicans — including lawmakers Trump had singled out — reported being targeted by swatting incidents or pipe-bomb threats after speaking out against the redistricting plan.The Trump defeat in Indiana comes with Democrats pursuing their own mid-cycle gains.California voters last month approved a Democratic-drawn map projected to add as many as five House seats — a move seen as offsetting Texas’s mid-decade redistricting, which the Supreme Court allowed to proceed despite legal challenges.There are also efforts afoot in Virginia, while Maryland and Illinois are mulling similar action.Beyond their five-seat gain in Texas, Republicans have secured small redistricting wins in North Carolina and Missouri, while Florida Republicans have signaled they may move to revise their map.