Category Archives: Texas

Weather tracker: Mexico and southern Texas brace for torrential rain

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Disturbance in south-west Gulf of Mexico has 60% chance of developing into a hurricane over next seven days

A weather system is set to move over southern Texas and Mexico through this week, bringing vast quantities of rain. The National Hurricane Center noted a tropical disturbance in the south-west Gulf of Mexico that has a 60% chance of developing into a tropical depression during the next seven days. This potential tropical depression, essentially an area of low pressure, may be in a spot where the environmental conditions are good for its gradual development, and could end up moving towards hurricane status.

But even if it does not turn into a hurricane, heavy rain is expected to affect southern Texas and Mexico. Southern Texas may experience up to 100mm (3.9in) of rainfall on Wednesday through to Friday, and some Mexican states bordering the gulf may have up to 150mm. Rainfall totals of this magnitude, especially within such a small time frame, can cause catastrophic, life-threatening flooding.

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Elon Musk’s $45bn Tesla pay package not a done deal, say legal experts

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Although shareholders have backed chief executive’s remuneration deal, doubts remain over whether he will be able to access share-based package

Tesla’s battle to reinstate Elon Musk’s $45bn (£35bn) pay package is far from over, according to legal experts, despite shareholders backing the chief executive’s remuneration deal.

Investors in the electric carmaker re-ratified the pay deal on Thursday after it had been struck down by a judge in the US state of Delaware. The company’s chair, Robin Deynholm has already pledged to “put it back in front of the court”.

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Appeals court tells Texas it cannot ban books for mentioning ‘butt and fart’

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Conservative-dominated court restores books denounced by officials as ‘pornographic filth’ to school libraries

An appellate court has ruled that Texas cannot ban books from libraries simply because they mention “butt and fart” and other content which some state officials may dislike.

The fifth US circuit court of appeals issued its decision on Thursday in a 76-page majority opinion, which was written by Judge Jacques Wiener Jr and opened with a quote from American poet Walt Whitman: “The dirtiest book in all the world is the expurgated book.”

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At least four people die crossing US-Mexico border amid brutal heatwave

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El Paso, Texas, saw temperatures of 106F, with border patrol identifying ‘heatstroke and dehydration’ as cause of death

At least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west.

Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people – from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada – were under heat alerts.

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Biden’s migrant order is recipe for chaos at US border: ‘It will only cause suffering’

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With high levels of people seeking asylum, and after failed attempts to pass reforms, Biden has presented his most aggressive restrictions yet

Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an aggressive new immigration order suspending asylum rights, signalling that “securing the border” was a central tenet of his re-election bid.

At the southern US border, the policy is set to cause chaos and hardship for those seeking the protection of the United States.

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Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

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Texas representative says treatment may require her to be ‘occasionally absent’ from Capitol Hill

Democratic US congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee revealed that she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and said her treatment may require her to be “occasionally absent” from Capitol Hill.

In a prepared statement published on X on Sunday that alluded to her Christian religious beliefs, the 74-year-old Texas representative acknowledged that “the road ahead will not be easy” yet added: “I stand in faith that God will strengthen me.”

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Texas curriculum overhaul would increase biblical content in elementary schools

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Two million Texas kids could see new curriculum emphasizing Bible stories to instruct them in the ‘American cultural experience’

Texas elementary school students would get a significant dose of Bible knowledge with their reading instruction under a sweeping curriculum redesign unveiled on Wednesday.

From the story of Queen Esther – who convinced her husband, the Persian king, to spare the Jews – to the depiction of Christ’s last supper, the material is designed to draw connections between classroom content and religious texts.

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At least 21 people dead as storms leave path of destruction across central US

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Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas saw hundreds injured and homes obliterated as storms move into Georgia and South Carolina

Powerful storms were moving into the eastern half of the US on Monday, after killing at least 21 people, injuring hundreds, obliterating homes, and leaving a path of destruction that spread across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas over the Memorial weekend.

As the weather system moved into Georgia, the Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch for more than 7 million people in the state and South Carolina. Heavy rain is expected to drench parts of the East Coast, where damage from strong winds is also possible. Intense heat will also hit parts of the south.

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Five dead after powerful storms tear through rural Texan community

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Storms began on Saturday night as tornado overturned vehicles and shut down an interstate north of Dallas

A Texas sheriff has said at least five people died after powerful storms tore through a rural community, obliterating homes and leaving thousands of people without power.

The Cooke County sheriff, Ray Sappington, told the Associated Press the victims included three family members who were found in one home near Valley View, a rural community near the border with Oklahoma.

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Uvalde families sue Instagram and Call of Duty maker over deadly school attack

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‘Unholy trinity’ of Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense accused of ‘working to convert alienated boys into mass shooters’

Families of children who were killed in the 2022 Uvalde mass shooting have filed wrongful death lawsuits accusing Instagram, game maker Activision and weapons manufacturer Daniel Defense of enabling the massacre.

The suits were filed on the second anniversary of the school shooting, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, and accuse the “unholy trinity” of Instagram, Call of Duty, and Daniel Defense of “working together to convert alienated teenage boys into mass shooters”.

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Texas appoints vocal anti-abortion activist to maternal mortality committee

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Dr Ingrid Skop has argued in favor of forcing rape and incest victims as young as nine or 10 to carry pregnancies to term

One of the US’s leading anti-abortion activists has been appointed to a Texas health committee tasked with reviewing maternal deaths.

The move worries reproductive justice advocates who say the state’s abortion ban – among the strictest in the US – has placed pregnant women’s lives in jeopardy. The appointment could undermine the committee’s ability to accurately examine the impact of the law on deaths during and in the immediate aftermath of pregnancy, they say.

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Trump attends Houston lunch to ask oil bosses for more campaign cash

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Invitation-only meeting comes on heels of controversial dinner at Mar-a-Lago where Trump reportedly offered $1bn quid pro quo

Donald Trump was continuing to ask fossil-fuel executives to fund his presidential campaign on Wednesday, despite scrutiny of his relationship with the industry.

The former president attended a fundraising luncheon at Houston’s Post Oak hotel hosted by three big oil executives.

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Houston power outages persist amid sweltering heat

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Some residents forced to wait until Wednesday for lights and air conditioning to be restored after major storm in US south

Houston in Texas is still grappling with the effects of a massive storm that swept through the US south last week, including widespread power outages that have persisted for days in increasingly hotter weather.

More than 200,000 Houstonians have been without power, and thus air conditioning, for more than four days already, and may have to wait even longer since CenterPoint Energy, the utility company which primarily services the city, has failed to restore power in many parts. Although more than 75% of residents have had their power turned back on, many will still have to wait until at least Wednesday.

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‘Scary’: public-school textbooks the latest target as US book bans intensify

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A school district in Houston has voted to redact chapters on vaccines and climate change, and parents and educators are worried

The wave of book bans sweeping the US, typically reserved for works of fiction deemed controversial, has hit textbooks used in public schools, marking the next step in Republicans’ war on education.

The board of trustees for the Cypress Fairbanks independent school district in Houston voted 6-1 earlier this month to redact certain chapters in science textbooks, including those about vaccines, human growth, diversity, and climate change.

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Severe storms kill at least four in Houston and shatter windows in high-rise buildings

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Fast-moving thunderstorms strike in Texas for second time this month, knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes

Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled south-eastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.

Officials urged residents to keep off roads following Thursday’s storms, as many were impassable and traffic lights were out. The storm system moved through swiftly, but flood watches and warnings remained on Friday for Houston and areas to the east.

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Texas governor pardons man who killed Black Lives Matter protester in 2020

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Greg Abbott on Thursday pardoned Daniel Perry, who has been serving a 25-year sentence since 2023 murder conviction

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued a full pardon on Thursday to a former US army sergeant convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice.

Abbott announced the pardon just minutes after the Texas board of pardons and paroles disclosed it had made a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored. Perry has been held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023.

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Congressman Henry Cuellar in court accused of receiving $600,000 in bribes

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Texas Democrat says he and his also accused wife are innocent amid claims they took money from Azerbaijan and Mexican bank

The US justice department on Friday accused the Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, of accepting about $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.

The Cuellars had made their first appearance before a federal magistrate judge in Houston by the afternoon, but it was not clear how they pleaded. Earlier, the congressman, who has represented a swath of Texas’s border with Mexico in the US House since 2005, issued a statement denying unspecified “allegations” against him.

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More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses

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Police arrest more than 200 students at UCLA as law enforcement clears camp at Dartmouth, arresting more than 90 students

More than 2,000 people have now been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses in recent weeks.

Police arrested more than 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, pushing the total past 2,000, according to an Associated Press tally.

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Police arrest more Gaza protesters at University of Texas-Austin

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Republican governor says on social media ‘no encampments will be allowed’ as videos show police using pepper spray

Protesters who returned to the University of Texas at Austin on Monday were greeted by dozens of law enforcement officers, many in riot gear. At least 43 protesters were arrested as police and campus security used pepper spray and flash-bang charges on the crowd.

The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, on social media reposted video of troopers arriving on the 50,000-student campus. “No encampments will be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made,” Abbott posted.

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Dozens arrested in California and Texas as campus administrators move to shut down protests – as it happened

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More than 60 people, including a journalist, arrested at University of Southern California and University of Texas at Austin. This blog is now closed.

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will visit Columbia University today to speak to Jewish students and hold a press conference “regarding the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses”, his office has said.

New York House Republicans have called on Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to resign immediately for failing to end the protests.

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