Category Archives: Texas

US supreme court refuses to block radical Texas abortion law

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Court voted 5-4 to deny emergency appeal from abortion providers against law that bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity

A deeply divided supreme court has allowed a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.

The court voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday.

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Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas – video

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The US state of Texas has enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country, banning all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy – before most women know they are pregnant. The law gives private citizens the power to sue abortion providers and anyone who 'aids or abets' an abortion after six weeks. Citizens who win such lawsuits would be entitled to at least $10,000. There is concern this will spur abortion ‘bounty hunters’

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White House calls Texas abortion law an ‘extreme threat’ – video

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‘This is not the first threat to Roe we've seen in a state across the country. It's an extreme threat,' the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said after one of the most restrictive state abortion laws went into effect in Texas. Psaki said the Biden administration would fight to protect the constitutional right to abortion as laid out in the landmark Roe v Wade case

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Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas

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US supreme court fails to act to block near-total ban that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers

The most radical abortion law in the US has gone into effect, despite legal efforts to block it.

A near-total abortion ban in Texas empowers any private citizen to sue an abortion provider who violates the law, opening the floodgates to harassing and frivolous lawsuits from anti-abortion vigilantes that could eventually shutter most clinics in the state.

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Texas legislature gives final approval to sweeping voting restrictions bill

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Bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed last week, gives poll watchers more power and prohibits 24-hour and drive-thru voting

The Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state.

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Forget the Alamo review: dark truths of the US south and its ‘secular Mecca’

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Three Texas authors expose the myth that the 1836 battle at a San Antonio mission was about freedom. It was about slavery

As the ancient American struggle over how much truth to tell about the traditional oppression of minorities bubbles over, with arguments over everything from the teaching of Critical Race Theory to the mention of anything gay in the presence of anyone under 18, this engaging new book about the history of the Alamo arrives at the perfect moment.

Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump

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‘Racist and flat out wrong’: Texas Republican blames Black Americans for Covid surge

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Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January

Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, has refused to apologise for blaming rising Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths on unvaccinated African Americans, comments one Black Houston official called “racist and flat out wrong”.

Related: Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to bypass ban

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‘Don’t go down without a fight’: Texas Democrats’ effort to block voting restrictions sputters

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Some Texas Democrats dismayed their colleagues returned to make a quorum, but others hope their protest has drawn attention to voting rights

A last-ditch effort to stall Texas Republicans from passing sweeping voting legislation effectively ended on Thursday evening after enough Democrats returned to the state capitol in Austin to allow lawmakers to proceed on legislation.

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Ted Cruz’s campaign may have spent $150,000 on copies of his book

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Following One Vote Away’s publication, the Republican senator’s campaign spent large sums of money at US chain Books-A-Million

Ted Cruz’s campaign spent more than $150,000 at US book chain Books-A-Million in the months after the Texas senator’s book was published, Forbes has reported.

Cruz, who was prominent among the Republicans trying to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election, published One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History in September. A financial disclosure he filed on Monday, reported on by Forbes, shows he received almost $320,000 as an advance in 2020 from the book’s publisher Regnery Publishing.

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Texas governor who opposed masks tests positive for Covid – video

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The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds. The Republican is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing symptoms, his office said. 

Texas has once again emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus, with only 314 available intensive care unit beds statewide. Paediatric ICUs are running out of space while children head back to class.

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Texas governor Abbott, who fought mask mandates, tests positive for Covid

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Greg Abbott, who was vaccinated in December, is at least the 11th governor to contract the virus

Texas governor Greg Abbott tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, after weeks spent banning local mask requirements and meeting maskless crowds.

Related: Texas officials ask US government for mortuary trucks as Covid cases rise

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Coronavirus live news: weekly deaths up by a third in England and Wales; Singapore prepares to reopen for business

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Covid mentioned in 527 deaths last week compared to 404 the week before; Singapore experts say there may be hundreds of deaths each year from endemic Covid-19

The king of Malaysia has ruled out a new general election in the country, after the resignation of the government amid mounting anger over its handling of the pandemic, because of concerns over the spread of Covid.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation yesterday after less than 18 months in office comes as Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection and death rates per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.

India has administered more than 8.8m doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the past 24 hours, government data showed, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inoculate all eligible adults by December.

India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drives and has so far administered 554m doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944m adults. Only about 13% of the population have had the required two doses.

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Texas mask mandate ban can stay as Covid court challenges proceed

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• State supreme court temporarily backs governor’s order

• Local hearings in Dallas and San Antonio aim to protect children

The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, will temporarily be allowed to enforce an order banning mask mandates, the state supreme court ruled on Sunday.

Related: Texas anti-vaxxers’ calls for personal freedom dismiss my nearly fatal bout with Covid

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Texas anti-vaxxers’ calls for personal freedom dismiss my nearly fatal bout with Covid

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Since my hospitalization, and as Hidalgo county sees a surge in cases, protests against the vaccine are triggering

I was stunned by the comment as I walked into a recent press conference to warn our south Texas community that, after all we’ve been through for the past 18 months, we need to remain vigilant as new variants of Covid-19 are causing a surge in hospitalizations.

“You were pretty sick last year,” said a doctor at the press conference, a friend who had treated me when I was hospitalized for 10 days with Covid-19 last July. “I didn’t think you were going to make it. You almost died.”

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The Texas Covid crisis worsens – why is the governor resisting masks?

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Greg Abbott is turning to out-of-state medics to help – but has expressly prohibited Texans from requiring masks or vaccines

On Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of customers flowed into Austin’s famed music store, Waterloo Records. Aisle after aisle, everyone wore masks. No mask, no vinyl.

Related: Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 40% of US Covid hospitalizations last week

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Republican leaders fiddle while Covid burns through their own supporters

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Governors of states such as Florida and Texas, where the Delta variant is surging, have made masks and vaccines a partisan issue, in a lethal mix of ignorance, irrationality and nihilism

The crowd gathered under a tent at the water’s edge, their tables decorated with the Stars and Stripes and checked tablecloths. In their midst in Austin county, Texas, last Saturday was the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, laughing with delight and playing the fiddle.

With the coronavirus roaring through the state and hospitals near breaking point, comparisons with Nero fiddling while Rome burned were irresistible, although journalist Alisha Grauso pointed out on Twitter: “Nero actually enacted sweeping relief efforts to try to quell the fire and also offer his people aid in the aftermath, particularly the lower class, so Abbott is somehow worse than a Roman emperor known today as being a psychotic tyrant.”

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Texas Democrats still absent as Republicans make third bid to pass vote laws

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A month after fleeing the state to thwart passage of restrictive voting laws, Democrats again refused to appear at the state Capitol

Texas Democrats have refused to return to the state Capitol as governor Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a months-long standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, DC.

“A quorum is not present,” said Republican house speaker Dade Phelan on Saturday, who then adjourned the chamber until Monday.

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Alarm as US Covid cases above 100,000 a day for first time since February

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  • Seven-day hospital admissions average up 40% from last week
  • Mississippi health official says Delta surging ‘like a tsunami’

Daily Covid-19 cases in the US moved above 100,000 a day for the first time since February, higher than the levels of last summer when vaccines were not available, and came as health officials sounded alarm over lagging rates of vaccination driving the surge of the infectious Delta variant.

The seven-day average of hospital admissions has also increased more than 40% from the week before, with health workers describing frustration and exhaustion as hospitals in Covid hotspots were again overwhelmed with patients, almost 20 months into the pandemic in the US.

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Venomous cobra missing in Texas after escaping from owner’s house

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  • West African banded cobra has not been yet found
  • Members of public warned not to approach snake

It can’t claim to be native to Grand Prairie, Texas, but a 6ft west African banded cobra was believed on Friday still to be roaming through the city of almost 200,000 on the outskirts of Dallas after escaping from its owner’s house.

Related: No 10 refuses stay of execution for alpaca Geronimo who tested positive for bovine TB

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Sheila Jackson Lee is third Black lawmaker to be arrested during voting rights protests

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Congress members Joyce Beatty and Hank Johnson were previously arrested for participating in separate demonstrations

Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democratic representative of Texas, was arrested in Washington DC on Thursday while protesting lawmakers’ delay in passing legislation to protect voting rights, becoming the third member of the Congressional Black Caucus to be arrested for civil disobedience in recent weeks.

Related: Voting curbs enacted in 18 US states this year despite none finding widespread fraud

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