If Greg Abbott signs, state would become first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method
A measure that would allow Texas residents to sue out-of-state abortion pill providers advanced to the desk of the governor, Greg Abbott, on Wednesday, setting up the state to be the first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method.
Supporters say it’s a key tool to enforce the state’s abortion ban, protecting women and fetuses.
Continue reading...Leon Gonzalo Jr, 42, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the Houston shooting
A 42-year-old man in Texas has been charged with murder after the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy who was playing a doorbell prank in Houston on Saturday night, authorities said.
The shooting occurred at around 11pm on Saturday, according to Houston authorities, when the boy and his friends were in their neighborhood reportedly playing a game of “ding dong ditch” – an old childhood prank involving ringing a doorbell and running away.
Continue reading...Boy struck several times as he and friends played ‘ding-dong ditch’ which involves ringing doorbell and running
An 11-year-old boy playing a common prank game of ringing doorbells in Houston, Texas, was shot dead on Saturday as he ran away from a house.
Authorities said the boy was struck several times as he and some friends were buzzing doorbells in an Eastside neighborhood.
Continue reading...Carol Alvarado posted on social media: ‘Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back’
The Texas legislature preliminarily approved a redrawn congressional map on Friday that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.
The tentative map adoption passed in an 18-11 party-line vote.
Continue reading...Assembly passes measure 57-20, sending it next to the state senate before on to governor Gavin Newsom
The California assembly on Thursday approved the first in a series of three bills designed to redraw congressional boundaries and create five potential new Democratic US House seats.
The effort in California is an answer to the Republican redistricting push in Texas, sought by Donald Trump and aimed at tilting the map in his party’s favor before next year’s midterm elections.
Continue reading...Law temporarily blocked after group sought preliminary injunction, saying it violated first amendment protections
Texas cannot require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge said on Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new requirement, making it the third such state law to be blocked by a court.
A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders sought a preliminary injunction against the law, which goes into effect on 1 September. They say the requirement violates the first amendment’s protections for the separation of church and state and the right to free religious exercise.
Continue reading...Lawmakers refuse to vacate house chamber to protest surveillance after they left state over GOP attempt to redraw maps
Texas Democrats are tearing up “permission slips” they signed in order to leave the chamber, joining state representative Nicole Collier ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the controversial Texas congressional redistricting maps.
The slips are part of new surveillance protocols set by Texas Republicans in the house chamber, stating that Democrats would “be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Texas department of public safety] officer” who would ensure their return to the chamber.
Continue reading...DoJ agrees to provide Congress documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation, says House lawmaker on Monday
Today will be an arguably quieter day for the president – his only agenda item today is a bill signing at 1pm ET. This won’t be open to the press, but we’ll let you know if that changes.
Otherwise, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing, also at 1pm ET today.
Continue reading...Governor Greg Abbott said he will immediately call another session as Democratic lawmakers signaled return to state
Texas lawmakers will adjourn their first special session without passing new congressional maps on Friday, though Governor Greg Abbott has said he will immediately call another session and Democratic lawmakers signaled they are likely to return to the state.
Abbott has pledged he will call consecutive special sessions until Democrats have returned. More than 50 Democrats left the state last month in order to deny a quorum in the legislature after Republicans announced plans to redraw the state’s congressional maps, at the request of Donald Trump, in order to gain five Republican seats.
Continue reading...Governor revealed the election rigging response act to counter Trump’s push to gain five extra seats in Texas in midterm elections
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, on Thursday said state Democratic lawmakers would move forward with a redistricting plan intended as a direct response to a Republican-led effort in Texas to redraw congressional maps to control of theHouse majority after the midterm elections.
Newsom, joined by congressional Democrats and legislative leaders, unveiled his plan, known as the election rigging response act, to override the state’s independent map-making commission and approve new congressional lines that would aim to “neuter and neutralize” Texas’s proposal.
Continue reading...Governor warns lawmakers who left to foil redistricting plan that he coould call special session to extend battle
Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has stepped up his war of words with Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to foil an aggressive redistricting plan aimed at giving his Republican party five additional seats in Congress, saying on Sunday that the fight “could literally last years”.
Abbott issued his new threat on Fox News Sunday, saying that he would use his powers to call a special session of the Texas legislature to extend the battle indefinitely. The special session lasts 30 days, he said, “and as soon as this one is over, I’m going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one”.
Continue reading...Lawmakers had been sheltering in Illinois after denying Texas Republicans quorum for gerrymandering scheme
Texas Democrats who fled the state say they experienced a bomb threat at their Illinois hotel on Wednesday morning amid an ongoing clash with Republicans over their effort to block a new congressional map from going into place.
John Bucy III, a Democrat who represents Austin in the state legislature, confirmed the threat on X on Wednesday and said the lawmakers were evacuated. “This is what happens when Republican state leaders publicly call for us to be ‘hunted down’. Texas Democrats won’t be intimidated,” he said.
Continue reading...Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas died while tracking 1.3-ton Cape buffalo on a hunting trip in the country’s Limpopo province
An American game hunter was killed by a buffalo he was stalking during a hunting expedition in South Africa over the weekend, according to multiple reports.
Asher Watkins, 52, of Texas, died on 3 August while tracking a 1.3-ton Cape buffalo in South Africa’s Limpopo province, according to a statement from Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CV Safaris), the company that organized the hunting trip.
Continue reading...Action tees up a state v state battle involving mailing of abortion pills that’s expected to go to US supreme court
Texas has sued a New York official for refusing to take action against an abortion provider, teeing up a state-versus-state battle that is widely expected to end up before the US supreme court.
Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, has petitioned the New York state supreme court to order a county clerk to enforce a fine against Dr Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor accused of mailing abortion pills across state lines.
Continue reading...Democrats are livid over the governor’s plan to redraw districts at a time when Texas officials are supposed to be focused on recovery from the floods
A plan for Texas to redraw its congressional districts and gain five additional Republican seats barrels through flimsy legal arguments and political norms like a rough-stock rodeo bronco through a broken chute.
But the fiddly process of drawing the maps to Republicans’ advantage for 2026 may require more finesse than cowboy politics can produce.
Continue reading...Authorities admit ‘we don’t know how many we lost’ as local officials receive death threats
At least 134 people have now been confirmed to have died during the Texas Hill Country flooding on 4 July, according to an ABC News report.
Crews are continuing to search for the 101 people still missing.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Amid at least 129 deaths and billions of dollars of damage, there has been little reckoning about the part global heating and cuts to public services may have played in the disaster
Good morning. The death toll from the catastrophic floods in Texas has climbed to 129, including at least 27 children and counsellors at Camp Mystic in Kerr County.
With more than 160 people still missing, authorities warn that the number of casualties is likely to rise. On Sunday morning, some search operations were cancelled as heavy rain and strong winds battered the state once again.
Israel-Gaza | An Israeli airstrike has killed at least 10 people, including six children, who were waiting to collect water in Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said. Dozens of others were killed in Gaza over the weekend in a separate strike near a food aid distribution site. Meanwhile, former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has said that a proposed “humanitarian city” would be a concentration camp for Palestinians.
Health | Health officials have urged people to come forward for the measles vaccine if they are not up to date with their shots after a child at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool died from the disease.
UK news | Charlotte Church, veteran peace campaigners, Trade unionists, activists and politicians, are among hundreds who have signed a letter describing the move to ban the group Palestine Action as “a major assault on our freedoms”.
Spain | Several people were hurt in a second night of anti-migrant unrest in the town of Torre Pacheco in south-east Spain after a pensioner was beaten up, authorities said.
NHS | Health secretory Wes Streeting will meet representatives from the British Medical Association this week as he looks to avert five days of strikes by resident doctors.
Continue reading...State authorities believe more than 160 people could still be missing as flash flood warnings remain in Kerr county
More heavy rains in Texas on Sunday paused a weeklong search for victims of catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River and led to high-water rescues elsewhere as officials warned that the downpours could again cause waterways to surge.
It was the first time a new round of severe weather had paused the search since the 4 July floods, which killed at least 129 people. Authorities believe more than 160 people may still be missing in Kerr county.
Continue reading...‘Locally heavy rainfall’ of 1-3in predicted as death toll from the Fourth of July flood rises to nearly 130 people
Texas Hill Country was back under a flood watch on Saturday, with the National Weather Service warning of “locally heavy rainfall” of 1-3in with isolated amounts close to 6in possible.
The flood watch, which continues through Sunday evening, comes as the death toll from the 4 July flood continues to rise – now at nearly 130 people - and authorities continue their search for the 160 more who are missing.
Continue reading...Since disaster that has killed at least 120 people, Trump has remained quiet about promises to axe relief agency
As Donald Trump heads to Texas on Friday for a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding, he has remained conspicuously quiet about his previous promises to do away with the federal agency in charge of disaster relief.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Trump administration has backed away from plans to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but administration officials continue to dodge questions about the agency’s future and many are still calling for serious reforms, potentially sending much of its work to the states.
Continue reading...