‘Ring of fire’ visible in parts of US as crowds gathered to watch annular eclipse

Annular solar eclipse passed over eight states from Oregon to Texas and partial eclipse was visible in other continental states

As the “moment of annularity” was reached, photos were snapped, crowds cheered and the sky darkened – in the areas that the annular solar eclipse could be seen, at least.

Annularity during a solar eclipse is the moment when the moon is fully in front of the sun, creating the ring of fire that is the visual highlight of today’s eclipse. It lasts for only a few minutes.

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US representative files resolution decrying rightwing calls for invasion of Mexico

Joaquin Castro urged fellow House members to reject Republican calls for US military action to stem flow of fentanyl from Mexico

A progressive US congressman from Texas has asked his legislative colleagues to join him in condemning some American conservatives’ calls to invade Mexico – ostensibly to do battle with drug cartels there.

Joaquin Castro says he intends to file a resolution in the US House as soon as Friday reaffirming the federal government’s “commitment to respecting the sovereignty of Mexico and condemning calls for military action without Mexico’s consent and congressional authorization”.

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Family of Black high school student files federal lawsuit over hair discrimination

Darryl George, 17, of Texas has been serving an in-school suspension since 31 August for refusing to cut his dreadlocks

The family of a Black high school student in Texas who was suspended over his dreadlocks filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Saturday against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.

Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill high school in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since 31 August. Officials with the Houston-area school say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code.

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Texas’s impeached attorney general acquitted by fellow Republicans

Ken Paxton, impeached in May, has been found not guilty of bribery and dereliction of duty and may resume office

After a dramatic impeachment trial that lasted more than a week, Ken Paxton, the ultraconservative Texas attorney general, has been acquitted and will be able to resume his work in elected office.

Paxton, who faced 16 articles of impeachment against him in this trial – involving bribery, dereliction of duty and disregard for official duty – and four more separately, avoided becoming Texas’s highest-ranking elected official to be removed from state office. He quickly issued a statement boasting that, in his case, “the truth prevailed”.

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Deadly humid heatwaves to spread rapidly as climate warms – study

Small rise in global temperatures would affect hundreds of millions of people and could cause a sharp rise in deaths

Life-threatening periods of high heat and humidity will spread rapidly across the world with only a small increase in global temperatures, a study has found, which could cause a sharp acceleration in the number of deaths resulting from the climate crisis.

The extremes, which can be fatal to healthy people within six hours, could affect hundreds of millions of people unused to such conditions. As a result, heat deaths could rise quickly unless serious efforts to prepare populations were undertaken urgently, the researcher said.

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Texas ordered to remove buoys meant to block migrants from Rio Grande River

Preliminary order issued by judge David Ezra requires the floaters to be relocated to an embankment on the state side of the river

A US judge ordered Texas to move a line of floating buoys that were placed in the middle of the Rio Grande to block migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border. The ruling is a tentative win for the Biden administration after the Department of Justice (DoJ) sued the state.

The federal judge David Ezra on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction in the state capital of Austin that requires Texas to relocate the controversial buoys, currently near the city of Eagle Pass, to an embankment on the Texas side of the river.

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Impeachment trial of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton begins in Austin

Historic trial in state senate centers on allegedly corrupt relationship with real estate developer Nate Paul

The impeachment trial of the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, began on Tuesday – a rare and historic event in the state.

The ultra-conservative Paxton has a history of ethically questionable conduct that dates back to his first term in 2014, when he was fined by the Texas state securities board for violating financial laws.

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Texas law aims to punish prosecutors who refuse to pursue abortion cases

New law says prosecutors who adopt policy of refusing to go after people for violating abortion bans constitutes ‘official misconduct’

After the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade last year, district attorneys from major counties in Texas vowed not to vigorously prosecute people under the state’s anti-abortion laws.

Now, Texas has a plan to punish them if they don’t fall in line.

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Tesla investigated over funds ‘used to build secret Austin house for Elon Musk’

Reports suggest plans for ‘Project 42’ included a glass structure that contained a residential element for the chief executive

US prosecutors are investigating Tesla over alleged use of company funds for a secret project described internally as a house for Elon Musk, the electric carmaker’s chief executive.

Information sought from Tesla by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York includes personal benefits paid to Musk, how much was spent on the project and its purpose, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Texas judge blocks bill that would allow state to override local water breaks rules

Republicans’ ‘Death Star’ law would have hurt many local labor laws, including paid sick leave and mandated water breaks

A Texas judge has ruled that a controversial bill dubbed “the Death Star law” is unconstitutional, just days before the law was set to take effect when it would have hurt many local labor laws, including paid sick leave and mandated water breaks for some employees toiling outside in a brutal heatwave.

The state district judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued her decision in response to a lawsuit against Texas filed by the cities of Houston, San Antonio and El Paso. Gamble agreed with arguments made by the cities that the bill is vague and unclear on which ordinances the municipalities must cancel before it was set to take effect.

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Texas carves out narrow exception to abortion ban in new Republican strategy

Law allows for termination if patient’s water breaks too early or in cases of ectopic pregnancy, but critics say it is not enough

A Texas law about to take effect on Friday carves out exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.

In June, the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, quietly signed HB 3058, allowing doctors to provide abortion care when a patient’s water breaks too early for the fetus to survive, or when a patient is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy.

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Texas judge blocks ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors

Ruling comes on same day Missouri judge rules similar law can take effect, prohibiting doctors giving crucial care to trans youth

A Texas judge on Friday blocked the state’s upcoming ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, the latest in a legal fight over efforts by conservatives to restrict such care around the country.

The decision came on the same day a Missouri judge ruled that a similar law can take effect.

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Thousands lose power as Texas braces for deluge from Tropical Storm Harold

About 1.3 million people under warning as storm moves inland over south Texas and governor deploys state’s national guard

The skies began to darken over southern Texas on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Harold hurtled toward the state, just as California began cleanup from the historic storm system Hilary.

Texas, still grappling with the effects of one of the hottest and driest summers on record, is now bracing for a deluge. As Harold continued on its westward trajectory after sweeping through the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters warned it could drop up to 7in of rain in some areas with risks of flash flooding.

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‘Inhumane’: judge hears arguments about anti-migrant buoys in Rio Grande

Court to decide whether to remove them as Greg Abbott and other Republican governors defend militarization of border with Mexico

A federal judge heard arguments on Tuesday about whether state authorities should remove huge buoys installed to stop migrants crossing the river that divides Texas from Mexico.

The court hearing in Austin came a day after Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, and a group of hardline Republican governors gathered on the riverbank to defend local militarization of the US-Mexico border – while also acknowledging that the 1,000ft (305-meter) floating barrier had been adjusted after complaints that it had mostly drifted into Mexican territory.

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Texas questions rights of fetus in prison guard lawsuit despite arguing opposite on abortion

Officials argue ‘unborn child’ may not have rights under US constitution in lawsuit defense over prison guard stillbirth

In defending themselves against a lawsuit, Texas officials have argued that an “unborn child” may not have rights under the US constitution, putting them in tension with arguments made by the state’s attorney’s general’s office as well as Republican lawmakers to support restrictions to abortion.

A guard at the state prison in the community of Abilene filed the lawsuit in question after she asserted that her superiors barred her from going to the hospital while she experienced intense labor pains and what she suspected were contractions while seven months pregnant and on duty.

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Three-year-old asylum seeker dies after being bussed from Texas to Chicago

From Venezuela, the child died at a local Illinois hospital on Thursday evening after showing signs of illness

A three-year-old girl from Venezuela being transported to Chicago from Texas by bus with other migrants died at a local Illinois hospital after showing signs of illness, the Texas department of emergency management said on Friday.

“Once the child presented with health concerns, the bus pulled over and security personnel on board called 9-1-1 for emergency attention,” the TDEM said in a written statement.

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Texas hiker found dead in Utah planned to scatter father’s ashes on mountain

Body of Jimmy Hendricks, 66, from Austin, was found after he announced on Facebook plan to hike in Arches national park

A Texas man found dead while hiking in Utah was on the way to scatter his late father’s ashes, according to family members.

Jimmy Hendricks, 66, left his Austin home in mid-July for Nevada, where he planned to scatter the ashes on a mountain. Along the way, he made stops at Guadalupe Peak in Texas and the Grand Canyon.

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Texas judge rules abortion ban too strict for risky pregnancies

State attorney general immediately appeals against ruling that says doctors must be allowed to end unsafe pregnancies

A judge in Texas has ruled that the state’s abortion ban is too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and must allow exceptions without doctors fearing the threat of criminal charges.

The ruling in Austin was the first to undercut the law since it took effect in 2022 and delivers a major victory to abortion rights supporters, who see the case as a potential blueprint to weaken restrictions elsewhere that Republican-led states have rushed to implement.

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Black US journalism professor wins $1m over botched university appointment

Kathleen McElroy, whose history of promoting diversity caused pushback, receives damages and apology from Texas A&M

A Black journalism professor who was hired by Texas A&M University before objections in some quarters over her history of promoting diversity foiled the job offer has secured a $1m settlement from the institution.

Kathleen McElroy also received an apology from officials at Texas A&M, the largest public school in the US, who in a statement Thursday acknowledged “mistakes … made during the process”.

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Body caught in Rio Grande floating barrier, says Mexico

Texas government installed barrier to deter migrants – Mexican and US governments want it removed as dangerous and illegal

A body has been found stuck in a floating barrier installed by Texas authorities in the Rio Grande river on the US border, Mexico’s foreign ministry has said

Authorities were working to identify the body found in the river and determine the cause of death, said Mexico’s foreign ministry, as it reiterated safety concerns.

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