By Joseph Ax and Brad Brooks (Reuters) -Texas legislators on Wednesday took up a new state congressional map intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats in next year's midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked passage.

Texas Republicans are advancing a redistricting plan that could expand GOP seats and create majority-Black districts in Houston and Dallas.

Texas Republicans mandated that Democratic lawmakers not be allowed to leave the state house without a permission slip and a police escort.

The Texas House gaveled in at noon with Democratic members present, marking an official end to the quorum break.

Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier spent the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican demand to be placed under the watch of the state Department of Public Safety.

Republicans in the Texas House forced returning Democrats to around-the-clock surveillance by state Department of Public Safety officers to leave the floor.

President Donald Trump has taken aim at MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace in a bizarre social media rant. The drama started when 79-year-old Trump kicked off his Sunday morning with a cryptic post on Truth Social. “Bela,” he wrote, leaving his followers to debate the meaning of the word.