Category Archives: Texas

US records more than 1m new Covid cases in past 10 days as infections surge

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Texas becomes first to record a million cases as a state as experts warn White House appears to be doing little to control pandemic

The US has recorded more than 1m new coronavirus cases in just the past 10 days as the national total soared past 10m cases amid a widespread surge – while Texas on Wednesday became the first to record a million cases as a state.

The soaring figures came as experts warned that even though successful vaccines are coming into view the White House appears to be doing little to contain a pandemic increasingly out of control.

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Biden campaign says Trump supporters tried to force bus off highway

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  • President appears to praise threats from his own supporters
  • Biden campaign says bus was nearly forced off road

Trucks with Trump signs and flags surrounded a Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway on Friday and attempted to slow the vehicle down and run it off the road, the Biden campaign said on Saturday.

Several video clips posted on social media by both Biden and Trump supporters showed the trucks surrounding the bus. The trucks then tried to slow the bus down and run it off the road before staff called 911, according to the Biden campaign.

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Americans go to the polls as US suffers worst week for coronavirus infections

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Stakes at the polls are ‘life and death’, epidemiologists say, but responses to the pandemic divide sharply on political lines

The US has suffered its worst week for new infections of the entire Covid-19 pandemic just days ahead of the election, underscoring what some epidemiologists described as “life and death” stakes as Americans head to the polls.

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#EndSars, abolish Ice: the trans activist resisting police violence in Nigeria and the US

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Arriving as a teenager, Ola Osaze was shocked by how the US treats Black LGBTQ+ migrants. Today he fights for their rights amid an international uprising

When Ola Osaze left Nigeria at age 15, one of his first sights in America was a sign at the Greensboro, North Carolina, airport.

“Beware of Nigerian drug smugglers.”

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Black man led on rope by Texas police on horseback sues for $1m

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  • Donald Neely says officers’ conduct ‘extreme and outrageous’
  • Lawsuit accuses Galveston and city’s police force of negligence

A Black man who was led by a rope by two white officers on horseback has sued a south-east Texas city and its police department for $1m, saying he suffered humiliation and fear during his arrest.

Related: Texas police apologise after officers on horseback led black man by rope

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Netflix indicted by Texas grand jury over ‘lewd visual material’ in Cuties

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French film about pre-teen girls who form a dance group is called ‘prurient’ in Tyler County prosecution. Netflix defends story as social commentary against sexualisation

Netflix has defended the controversial film Cuties after it emerged the streaming giant is facing a criminal charge in Texas over the movie’s allegedly “lewd” depiction of children.

Cuties follows an 11-year-old Senegalese girl living in Paris who rebels against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a “free-spirited dance crew”.

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Battle for the suburbs: can Joe Biden flip Texas? – video

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Texas is a rapidly changing state with the fastest growing population in the US. Hispanic Texans are expected to become the majority by 2022, but will this help Joe Biden flip a Republican stronghold? Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to suburban Dallas and the border city of McAllen to look at the political impact of this diversification and the legacy of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies 


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Texas residents warned of tap water tainted with brain-eating microbe

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  • Communities around Houston are potentially contaminated
  • Naegleria fowleri enters body through nose, travels to brain

Texas officials have warned residents of some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Brazosport Water Authority late on Friday of the potential contamination of its water supply by naegleria fowleri.

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I lived the climate crisis every day of my childhood. This November, I’ll vote on it | Jessica Díaz Vázquez

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Chemical headaches, plant sirens – these were the constant background to my home and school life. My community is on the climate frontline

My teacher first taught me about global warming in the third grade. She explained how an increase in greenhouse gases increased the amount of heat that could be trapped in our atmosphere. We discussed how climate change is melting the ice caps polar bears call home, leading to their extinction. We didn’t discuss how the climate crisis was already at our homes.

I grew up with the smell of freshly made salsa from chiles picked from our backyard garden, the bright colors of fruit gifted to us by neighbors, and the sound of off-key singing to Joan Sebastian and Selena Quintanilla. At school, my friends and I slipped between English and Spanish, moving between the topics of our English essay to la quinceañera de nuestra mejor amiga with ease. But looming over my vibrant community was, and is, the fossil fuel industry.

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Hurricane Laura brings 150mph winds to Louisiana with more ‘catastrophic conditions’ to come

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Six fatalities recorded in Louisiana, including a teen girl who died after a tree fell on her home and a man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning

Hurricane Laura, the most powerful hurricane to strike the US this year, moved across Louisiana on a northerly path on Thursday, after threatening an “unsurvivable storm surge” on the coast and tropical force weather as far as Tennessee.

The storm slammed into western Louisiana overnight with gusts of up to 150mph and could cause “catastrophic conditions”, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Not until 11 hours after landfall did it finally weaken.

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‘You can’t get close, yet you can’t stay away’: Latino cultural beliefs clash with pandemic safety

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Tight-knit families, a cornerstone of Latino culture, and economic factors collide to make Covid-19 easily transmissible

Priscilla Garcia checked up on her father after her mother was hospitalized with fainting spells. He wasn’t feeling well, either, so she made him chicken noodle soup with Texas toast, the way he liked it.

“He was so weak and scared here by himself,” Garcia said. “That’s why I came.”

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Covid-19: Florida reports record one-day deaths as concerns grow for other states

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  • 191 people died in Florida in 24 hours and Texas cases rise
  • Pressure on Congress to pass another huge stimulus package

Florida reported another record one-day rise in coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, and cases in Texas passed the 400,000 mark, fueling fear that the United States is still not taking control of the outbreak and adding pressure on Congress to pass another massive economic aid package.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Italy extends state of emergency as WHO warns of 'one big wave'

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Hurricane Hanna moves towards Texas as storm Gonzalo nears Caribbean

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Hanna is first hurricane of 2020 Atlantic season and could bring 6in to 12in of rain through Sunday night

Hurricane Hanna rumbled toward the Texas Gulf coast on Saturday, lashing the shore with wind gusts and rain and threatening to bring storm surge and tornadoes to a part of the country trying to cope with a spike in coronavirus cases.

Related: 'A summer unlike any other': heatwaves and Covid-19 are a deadly combination

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30-year-old dies after attending ‘Covid party’ in Texas

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Patient said: ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not’, according to health official

A 30-year-old patient died after attending a ‘“Covid party”, believing the virus to be a hoax, a Texas medical official has said.

“Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’” said Dr Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer at Methodist hospital in San Antonio.

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Coronavirus report: India reports record spike as cases double in South Africa

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Indian cases pass 800,000; Johannesburg struggles to find vital equipment; Texas warns ‘worst is yet to come’

India reported a record spike in coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the national total to more than 800,000 and pushing several states to bring back lockdowns, despite the punitive economic cost.

Now the world’s third-worst affected country by case load, it reported a spike of 27,114 cases on Saturday, although mortality rates have been lower than in other badly affected countries with confirmed death toll now 22,123.

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Coronavirus US: Florida again breaks one-day record for new cases – live

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The Mississippi state government has started a process that will see the Confederate battle emblem removed from the state’s flag.

Breaking: House passed it with the two-thirds majority it required. It got immediate release, meaning Senate could take it up as soon as they want.

The latest: https://t.co/Jgcddn3i34 #msleg https://t.co/rKwKGkMmWt

The legislature has been deadlocked for days as it considers a new state flag. The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it.
If they send me a bill this weekend, I will sign it. pic.twitter.com/bf3vyzuObt

The Winston-Salem Journal reports on a disturbing development in the Bubba Wallace story. Wallace, Nascar’s only black driver, led a successful campaign to rid the stock-car racing series of the Confederate flag. Last week, a noose was found in his team’s garage although a subsequent investigation found the rope had been there since last fall, and Wallace was not the subject of a hate crime. Here’s what the Associated Press has to say on the latest development:

A North Carolina racetrack has lost some partnerships after its owner advertised “Bubba Rope” for sale online days after Nascar said a noose had been found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace, the top series’ only Black driver.

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‘We opened too quickly’: Texas becomes a model for inadequate Covid-19 response

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State shuts down again after seven weeks with coronavirus cases soaring, after ignoring inconvenient data and fighting party-political turf wars

When Donald Trump welcomed Texas governor Greg Abbott to the White House in May, the US president hailed his fellow Republican as “one of the great governors” and lauded the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and predicted boom times ahead.

“When you look at the job he’s done in Texas, I rely on his judgment,” Trump said.

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European Union reportedly set to ban US travelers over Covid-19 concerns – as it happened

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We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. A summary of some key events:

California’s governor has granted clemency to 21 prisoners as Covid-19 outbreaks have continued to infect thousands behind bars in an escalating public health crisis.

Gavin Newsom, who has faced mounting pressure to release people en masse from state prisons, announced Friday that he is granting commutations to 21 people, a move that reduces their sentences and creates a potential path for their release. He also announced pardon grants for 13 people, a step that restores some rights for those who have already served sentences.

There's growing pressure on @GavinNewsom to grant clemency to elderly + vulnerable women who are domestic violence survivors and at high risk of death in prison.

I spoke directly with some of them. LISTEN to their own words ⬇️ (thread):https://t.co/btI8Ns7wMw #SixNineteen

Patricia Wright has terminal liver cancer, is currently in chemotherapy and likely has months to live. She told me she just wants to see her children and grandchildren before she dies: pic.twitter.com/0ydwwgCem1

Related: California governor grants clemency to 21 prisoners as thousands infected with Covid-19

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Texas Covid-19 cases soar weeks after state lifts lockdown restrictions – video

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Texas reported an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, weeks after the state became one of the earliest in the US to ease its coronavirus lockdown measures. The significant increase in cases has left hospitals in Houston near capacity, with some adult ICU patients treated at Texas Children’s hospital

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Texas Covid-19 cases hit all-time daily high as Houston hospitals near capacity

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Increase in coronavirus infections prompted governor to tighten public health restrictions after resisting calls to slow reopening

Texas recorded an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday as hospitals neared capacity in Houston.

The dramatic increase in cases prompted the governor, Greg Abbott, to tighten public health restrictions after resisting calls to slow the state’s reopening process.

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