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(WASHINGTON) -- The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday overturned the state's redistricting ballot measure, delivering a major setback to Democrats who hoped the new map would allow them to flip up to four congressional seats.

In a 4-3 ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court said the Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when referring the measure to the ballot. Virginia voters approved the ballot measure in an election last month.

The state's Supreme Court said Virginia will need to use its congressional map from 2021 instead.

The decision is a win for Republicans, who are now currently set to net more seats than Democrats in the ongoing, nationwide mid-decade redistricting scramble.

President Donald Trump celebrated the ruling in a post on his social media platform.

"Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia," Trump wrote. "The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats' horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Virginia currently has six Democratic members of the U.S. House and five Republicans, a balance that will likely stay in place instead of the 10 Democratic and 1 Republican delegation Democrats were hoping to elect under the new map.

The newly passed Republican-favoring congressional maps in Tennessee and Florida are undergoing their own separate legal challenges. The ruling on Friday is specific to Virginia and does not impact those maps.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, wrote that his team is working to pursue "every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people and protect the integrity of Virginia's elections."

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers missed the deadline to place the redistricting referendum on the ballot because early voting for the 2025 election had already started.

Under Virginia’s constitution, lawmakers must approve a constitutional amendment twice and have an election in between.

Democrats argued that requirement referred only to Election Day itself and not the early voting period. The court said early voting is legally part of the election, meaning the process had already begun before lawmakers acted.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger expended significant political capital on supporting the measure, which became a flashpoint just a few months into her governorship, although it was first championed by the state legislature and during her time on the campaign trail she indicated not being interested in redistricting.

“More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum. They made their voices heard,” Spanberger wrote in a statement on Friday.

“I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.”

In a dissent, three justices wrote, "Today the majority has broadened the meaning of the word 'election,' as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election."

The redistricting measure had prompted multiple notable Democrats -- including former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troye and former first lady of Virginia Dorothy McAuliffe -- to launch runs for Congress. The fact that they'd have to now run under the old map may change their plan.

ABC News' Emily Chang contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) -- The monthslong war in Iran is inflicting economic pain across the country as many Americans report struggling with higher costs, particularly the record rise in gas prices.

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last week found that half of Americans expect gas prices to increase more in the next year, and that 4 in 10 Americans say they are not as well off as they were when President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Nearly a quarter said they are falling behind financially.

In callback interviews with several of the poll's participants, people emphasized they are struggling to pay for basic necessities and that they are unsatisfied with the country's leadership.

In an interview with ABC News, Jacob Olson, 28, from Beebe, Arkansas, said rising gas and food prices have made life challenging. After he was laid off from his position as a warehouse manager for a solar company that went bankrupt, Olson became a self-employed maker of custom wood projects like storage racks. He said he spends a lot on gas while driving around to his customers.

"One day at a time," Olson said. "One foot in front of the other. ... That's about the way to sum it up."

The ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found that in addition to the 50% of Americans who said they expect gas prices to get worse over the next year, another 15% expect gas prices to stay about the same.

Olson agreed that prices for gas and other goods will continue to go up.

"I don't really do anything, you know, for leisure or luxury anymore," Olson said. "It's all kind of just getting the bills paid ... I have a 1-year-old, and I just had another baby about a month ago, so I've got two little ones, and every day it's getting harder."

Brenda Howard, 66, from Lubbock, Texas, said she can't afford luxuries like trips or meals out either, and since she does not own a car she has to rely on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft for errands and transport to her job as a cleaner.

She said using Uber or Lyft to take a trip to the grocery store costs her around $30.

"This is not the way I thought my retirement was gonna turn out," Howard said. "I never dreamed that it would be a day-to-day struggle, sometimes hour to hour."

The poll found some Americans said they were changing their behaviors because of higher gas prices. Over 4 in 10 have cut back on driving (44%) or cut household expenses (42%). Another 34% said they have changed travel or vacation plans.

Those in lower-income households have been hit even harder by the gas price spike. More than half of people with household incomes of under $50,000 a year said they have cut down on driving and household expenses.

Martha Davis, a 66-year-old Texan who works as a caretaker for her disabled son, said she's struggling to pay for essentials, including gasoline and rent. She has to travel, sometimes as much as 60 miles from where she lives in Tool, Texas, to get to medical appointments.

"I used to get back and forth on like $20, $25, but now it's almost 70 bucks," Davis said.

Four in 10 Americans reported that they are less well off than they were at the beginning of Trump's second presidential term according to the ABC News/Post/Ipsos poll. Some of those who said they are doing worse still support the president.

Andy Breedlove, 51, from West Virginia said he believes both that Trump is doing well in his second term and that gasoline prices are too high.

"But with the price of everything else, it kind of evens out a little," said Breedlove, who is not working due to a disability. Breedlove suspects gas prices will continue to climb because of the war with Iran.

The Iranian government's retaliatory blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for the oil market, has led to severe trade disruptions. Around 20% of oil traded on global markets normally passes through the strait.

A 61% majority of Americans said in the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll that the Trump administration's decision to go to war against Iran was a mistake.

"He hasn't made a clear statement on why ... we're actually participating at all," said Olson, the woodworker with a young family. "From what I know, there's been a lot of just lying and, you know, not being transparent, and ... a big lack of professionalism, which I don't appreciate coming from the president."

Christopher Mosley, 43, a former Walmart employee from Fort Smith, Arkansas, described Trump as "reckless" on foreign policy.

Trump's messaging on gas prices has been mixed. When asked in early April whether he thought prices would decrease before the upcoming midterm elections, Trump said they might stay steady or get higher. On May 1, Trump said gas prices would come "tumbling down" once the conflict was resolved. Iran is reviewing the latest proposal from the U.S. government aimed at winding down the war, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said.

The financial strain felt by voters has the potential to significantly impact the midterm elections, a cycle in which Democrats are already positioned to make gains. Trump has framed the prospect of a change in the power dynamics of Congress as an existential threat to his presidency.

Jim Piper, a 36-year-old from Portage, Indiana, said he wishes Trump had more latitude to pursue his policy goals. Since the start of the second Trump administration, Piper said he has been doing worse financially, but he thinks political deadlock between Democrats and Republicans is to blame for rising prices. Since Piper has a disability and relies on a fixed income, inflation is hard on his wallet.

"I got to pay more, even though I'm not making more," Piper said.

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(WASHINGTON) -- When President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing next Thursday, he'll be the first U.S. president to set foot in China in nearly a decade. The last visit was Trump's own, in 2017.

He arrives in a very different position than he expected: the trip was originally scheduled for earlier this spring, then postponed because of the Iran war.

Trump had said the war would only last four to six weeks. Instead, there’s no end in sight with the the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed and U.S. gas prices surging -- as the president faces record-low approval ratings.

That backdrop has flipped the leverage dynamic, according to experts who study the region.

The leverage flip

Beijing would have preferred this war never started -- the energy disruption and the hit to global demand are real headaches for an export-dependent economy, experts say. But they say the conflict has handed Xi a relative advantage: Trump now has too many fires to put out at home and abroad to risk another escalation cycle with China.

"China is a relative bright spot in Trump's foreign policy right now," said Jon Czin, a former director for China at the National Security Council.

The longer the Iran war drags on, Czin argued, the more it minimizes the chance of another economic confrontation -- Beijing has also already demonstrated it can retaliate -- as it did with tariffs and rare earth export controls -- and the administration backed down before.

Both sides are still trying to eke out an edge in the run-up. The Treasury Department recently sanctioned Chinese oil refiners and shipping firms tied to Iranian crude to cut off funding. In an unprecedented move, Beijing invoked a "blocking rule" for the first time, directing Chinese companies not to comply with sanctions on Chinese oil refiners.

Daniel Shapiro, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, points out the war has reduced the U.S. military posture in the Indo-Pacific with long-term consequences for deterring China and defending Taiwan.

"Trump's position and leverage at the summit is considerably weaker if he goes to Beijing with the war still unsettled, or even with renewed escalation. And the Iranians know that. So they are whittling down the terms to end the war to something much more modest than what Trump originally envisioned," Shapiro wrote in a post on X.

What Trump wants

The administration clearly wants Beijing to use its influence over Tehran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week urged Beijing to use the Iran's foreign minister's visit to China earlier this week to press Tehran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

"I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told," Rubio said when asked about China’s top diplomat meeting with Iran’s foreign minister. "And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated. You're the bad guy in this."

Beyond the war in Iran, Trump will be looking for wins on trade and investment: For instance, Chinese commitments to buy Boeing planes and U.S. agricultural goods as well as an extension of the trade truce reached during the last Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea last year, according to experts.

The administration also wants China to continue its pause on rare earth export controls, analysts say. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has also proposed a “Board of Trade” to manage economic ties between the countries and goods the two sides are trading.

What Beijing wants -- and what it doesn't

Here's the gap between the administration's public framing and what analysts who study China most closely are saying: Beijing doesn't actually plan to deliver much on Iran or get deeply involved.

Beijing’s statement after the meeting with the Iranian Foreign Ministry was carefully worded to not blame Iran for the crisis while also calling for greater efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz.

"The Chinese are not interested in assuming any kind of direct role in the conflict," according to Patricia Kim, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "They see this as a problem that the United States needs to solve, and they have no interest in intervening on Tehran’s behalf."

Czin’s read is similar. While Beijing's meeting with the Iranian foreign minister this week let it "posture as peacemakers," he says the Chinese don’t want Iran to take up too much summit time. His analog: even on North Korea, right on China's doorstep, Beijing rarely puts real pressure on Pyongyang.

China's energy buffer is part of why the urgency is lower than the Trump administration assumes. Beijing has built strategic oil reserves, invested heavily in green energy, and can shift to domestically produced coal. The bigger risk for China isn't the energy crunch itself.

"The bigger issue for China is the secondary and tertiary effects from this conflict," Czin said -- such as a war-driven global slowdown that hits the Southeast Asian and European consumers that Chinese exports depend on.

What Beijing actually wants from the summit is more stability: lock in the trade truce, push back on U.S. export controls on advanced technology and ease restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S.

What’s unclear is how hard Xi will push Trump on Taiwan. Any small shift in U.S. declaratory language on Taiwan would be significant, though Czin is skeptical Trump would stick with new wording even if he agreed to it.

Bottom line

Expect fanfare, expect deliverables on the margins -- purchase commitments or a possible Board of Trade announcement -- and don't expect breakthroughs on the hard issues, experts say.

The summit's significance is less in what it produces than in what it preserves: a tenuous stability that both leaders, for different reasons, want to keep intact through the rest of the year.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.