Category Archives: Texas

8chan: the far-right website linked to the rise in hate crimes

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Three attackers in six months allegedly posted their plans on the site in advance. In an exclusive interview, Silicon Valley CEO explains his ‘moral obligation’ to keep 8chan online

The suspect in the massacre that left 51 Muslims dead in Christchurch, New Zealand, allegedly posted a white nationalist screed and link to his Facebook live feed on 8chan, a far-right message board and notorious bastion of hate speech. The suspect in the shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, that killed one person and injured three, allegedly posted a racist and antisemitic “open letter” on 8chan. And the suspect in Saturday’s attack at a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas, which claimed the lives of at least 20 people, is believed to also have posted a white nationalist rant on the platform.

If the connection between the 21-year-old suspect in Saturday’s massacre and the 8chan document is confirmed – and law enforcement sources told NBC News that they are “reasonably confident” that they are linked – then the El Paso attack will mark the third mass shooting in less than six months that was announced in advance on the message board. The first targeted Muslims, the second Jews, and the third appears to have been aimed at killing Latinos.

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Texas Walmart shooting: 20 dead after gunman opens fire – video report

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At least 20 people are dead and 26 wounded after a gunman attacked a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Early reports indicated the attacker used a rifle, while police said a 'manifesto' circulated online indicated the shooting was a hate crime. El Paso's population is 80% Latino 

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Shoppers flee El Paso mall as gunman kills at least 20 – video

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Footage posted to social media shows people being evacuated during a mass shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas. A man armed with a rifle opened fire at the mall's Walmart store as families shopped for the start of the new school year, killing at least 20 and wounding 26 others.


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El Paso shooting at Walmart leaves at least 20 people dead

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  • Police say 21 year-old white man in custody after shooting at mall complex
  • Incident being investigated as a potential hate crime

At least 20 people have been killed after a shooter opened fire at a busy Walmart store packed with families shopping for the new school year in the Texas border city of El Paso, sending panicked shoppers fleeing.

Texas governor Greg Abbott said 20 people had been killed, and more than two dozen more were injured. Mexico’s President Manuel Lopez Obrador said three Mexicans were among the dead and six were among the wounded.

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Fear, confusion, despair: the everyday cruelty of a border immigration court

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At a federal immigration court in El Paso asylum seekers wait in limbo as a result of Trump’s policies

Judge Sunita Mahtabfar, presiding over the El Paso immigration court in south-west Texas, kicked off the hearing by asking the 16 asylum seekers a question.

“Is anyone here afraid to return to Mexico?” she said.

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Ross Perot: billionaire who ran for president dies aged 89

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  • Perot challenged Bush and Clinton as independent in 1992
  • Texan who founded EDS also ran in 1996 for Reform party

Ross Perot, an eccentric Texan billionaire who lived a picaresque life and twice ran for president as an independent, has died. He was 89.

Related: Donald Trump: UK ambassador is 'a very stupid guy' – live updates

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Texas migrant detention facilities ‘dangerously overcrowded’ – US government report

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Report from government’s own auditors includes images of children and adults penned into rooms

New images of children and adults in “dangerously” overcrowded US border patrol facilities in Texas have been released as part of a report from government auditors.

The congressional House oversight committee announced on Tuesday it will hold a hearing next week on the treatment of migrants held in detention facilities at the southern border after a series of reports of poor treatment.

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‘The river is treacherous’: the migrant tragedy one photo can’t capture

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The father and his toddler daughter pictured face down in the river were two of dozens who drowned this year while crossing the border to seek asylum

Under a hot sun beating down on the US border, a family of five can be seen mid-river, struggling against a cruel current of greenish-grey water threatening to sweep them off their feet. It appears to be a couple and their three children, risking their lives in the treacherous Rio Grande that divides Mexico from Texas.

The father clutches a black backpack in his hand, the family’s only luggage. On his back he’s carrying a small boy wearing a rainbow-striped T-shirt. A little girl is on the woman’s back, small arms clasped tightly around her mother’s neck.

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One dead and six injured in Dallas crane collapse amid severe thunderstorms

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  • Witness: crane ‘fell straight through’ apartment building
  • Names of injured and woman who died not known

A woman has died and at least six people were injured when a crane collapsed on to an apartment building in Dallas amid severe thunderstorms early on Sunday afternoon.

Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans told reporters first responders searching the Elan City Lights building found a woman inside an apartment who was later pronounced dead.

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Sandra Bland’s own cellphone video surfaces from 2015 traffic stop – video

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A video taken by Sandra Bland in 2015 shows how a white state trooper confronted the 28-year-old black woman in a traffic stop after he says she failed to signal. Texas authorities have denied withholding the footage shot by Bland, who was found hanged in a jail cell near Houston in 2015. The video had not been publicly seen until it was aired this month by a Dallas TV station. Both lawmakers and Bland’s family say they had never seen the clip

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The astonishing disappearing act of Beto O’Rourke

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#Betomania became #Betofatigue in six short months – can the Texas Democrat rise again and show voters what type of president he’d be?

When Beto O’Rourke travelled to Yosemite in California to unveil his $5tn plan on climate change, a ripple of surprise crossed America. How did the tall white guy with the funny first name known for his punk past, Beatnik road trips and fondness for campaigning atop counters get to be the first Democratic candidate to proclaim on the crisis of our age?

This wasn’t the O’Rourke that the country had grown used to during his battle with Ted Cruz last November for a US Senate seat. Then, the Texas Democrat had propelled himself to within three percentage points of victory, and with it national stardom, by making viral speeches about NFL players taking a knee and by instilling hope through a feel-good but rather wishy-washy call to unity.

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‘Texans don’t stand for this’: O’Rourke and Buttigieg call out anti-gay hecklers

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O’Rourke condemned protesters at Buttigieg’s Dallas event while the mayor has been shutting down hecklers on the campaign trail

Pete Buttigieg has faced homophobic heckling during one of his latest 2020 presidential campaign events.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman!” one protester yelled during the mayor’s speech at an event in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, according to a CNN reporter who filmed the event. Another protester yelled: “Repent!”

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US builds migrant tent city in Texas as Trump likens treatment to ‘Disneyland’

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US border agency, which previously forced migrants to sleep under a bridge, says an influx of arrivals demands more shelter space

The US government has begun erecting tents close to the border with Mexico to house detained migrants – even as Donald Trump likened the treatment of undocumented families entering the US to “Disneyland” on Sunday.

Life at the foothills of the Franklin mountains in El Paso, Texas, has been rudely disrupted in the last few days by construction crews coming and going near the adjacent border patrol station.

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Member of armed militia who detained migrants faced similar charges in 2006

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  • Larry Mitchell Hopkins held on Saturday in Texas
  • Earlier arrest involved impersonating a police officer

A member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the US-Mexico border who was arrested on Saturday reportedly faced similar charges in Oregon 13 years ago.

Related: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border

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The small Texas town where Trump’s wall will destroy families and livelihoods

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Deep in the deep Rio Grande Valley, plans for president Trump’s wall would cut through towns and communities. In Madero, families fear the loss of their livelihood but vow to resist

Rey Anzaldua walks the path, through a pluvial afternoon on the Rio Grande reach opposite Mexico, towards the little church where he has worshipped “since I was five years old”– the lovely chapel of La Lomita, built in 1865 on a Spanish land grant of 1767. It is a jewel: candle smoke and the musky scent of whitewashed stone wrapping the Virgin of Guadalupe icon and offerings of flowers and corn.

Rey’s family has been here since the 1750s. His extended family “had three Spanish land grants between 16,000 and 18,000 acres along the Rio Grande river and the bridge between,” Rey said. “We don’t have much of that now.”

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Serial killer’s drawings of alleged victims released by FBI

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Agency hopes sketches by Samuel Little, who has confessed to killing 90 women, may help solve dozens of homicides

The FBI has released sketches made by a serial killer of his alleged victims, in the hope that they may help solve dozens of unsolved homicides.

The agency released the drawings and other information on a string of cold-case homicides that investigators say Samuel Little has admitted to having carried out.

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Trump administration still separating families at border, advocates say

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Annunciation House shelter still receives calls each week about new cases of separations in El Paso, legal coordinator said

The Trump administration is still tearing young children away from their parents when they cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully, despite formally ending the policy of family separations last summer, according to immigration advocates in Texas.

Related: 'Inexplicable cruelty': US government sued over family separations at border

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Donald Trump v Beto O’Rourke: rival rallies on US border security – video report

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Donald Trump and potential presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke held rallies in El Paso, Texas, on Monday night offering their contrasting views on Trump's US-Mexico border wall. The president addressed his crowd in front of a big US flag along with three 'finish the wall' banners. Meanwhile nearby, O'Rourke told supporters El Paso was, 'safe not because of walls but in spite of walls'.

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Trump: ‘Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway.’ – video

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Donald Trump's pursuit of a border wall continued as he spoke at a rally in El Paso, Texas. Banners reading 'Finish the wall' lined the El Paso County Coliseum as the president  spoke of how Democrats wanted to propose measures that would 'release of thousands of criminal illegal aliens'

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