An overloaded van carrying 29 migrants crashed Wednesday on a remote South Texas highway, killing at least 10 people, including the driver, and injuring 20 others, authorities said.
The crash happened shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday on U.S. 281 in Encino, Texas, about 50 miles north of McAllen. Sgt. Nathan Brandley of the Texas Department of Public Safety says the van, designed to hold 15 passengers, was speeding as the driver tried to veer off the highway onto Business Route 281. He lost control of the top-heavy van, which slammed into a metal utility pole and a stop sign.
The van was not being pursued, said Brooks County Sheriff Urbino.
At Least 10 People Died As A Van Carrying Migrants Crashed In South Texas
Civil rights activist faces charges after reporting racist attack in Indiana
A Black civil rights activist who reported that a group of white men assaulted him and threatened to “get a noose” at a southern Indiana lake is facing criminal charges more than a year after the confrontation that earlier led to charges against two of the alleged attackers.
Vauhxx Booker, a member of the Monroe county human rights commission, was charged with misdemeanor trespass and felony battery for his involvement in last year’s Fourth of July incident at Lake Monroe, according to court documents filed last Friday by a special prosecutor in the case.
Booker condemned the decision, calling it an “outrageous act of punitive retaliation and prosecutorial vindictiveness”.
A falling stock? Donald Trump-backed candidate loses U.S. House race to GOP's Jake Ellzey.
A Trump-endorsed candidate lost Tuesday to a fellow Republican in a closely watched Texas congressional race, undermining Trump's claims that his endorsement is essential to a candidate's success and emboldening his political opponents ahead of the 2022 elections.
The victory by Texas state legislator Jake Ellzey makes Trump's endorsement look something like a new smartphone in a world of rapidly evolving technology, analysts said.
US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since second world war
US life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since the second world war, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.
The drop spelled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is due mainly to the pandemic, which health officials said is responsible for close to 74% of the overall life expectancy decline. More than 3.3 million Americans died last year, far more than any other year in US history, with Covid accounting for about 11% of those deaths.
The findings come as officials across the country weigh the possibility of reinstating some of the stricter efforts to curb the virus, including universal mask wearing and vaccine work requirements. Los Angeles county recently reinstated its indoor mask guidance.
Federal judge blocks Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban nearly all abortions.
The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson.
However, US district judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily halting the law in its tracks, in a win for pro-choice supporters, while a lawsuit against its constitutionality proceeds.
The law would ban clinical providers from carrying out abortions “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency”. It also does not provide exceptions for pregnancies occurring through incest or rape or involving fetal anomalies.
At least 44 dead, dozens missing as floods sweep through western Europe
At least 42 people have died in Germany and dozens were missing on Thursday as swollen rivers caused by record rainfall across western Europe swept through towns and villages, leaving cars upended, houses destroyed and people stranded on rooftops.
As the water started to recede, stunned residents in the worst affected towns inspected what was left of their homes and neighbourhoods.
In the town of Schuld, houses were reduced to piles of debris and broken beams. Roads were blocked by wreckage and fallen trees and fish flapped and gasped on puddles of water in the middle of the street.
More than 150 companies urge U.S. Congress to pass voting rights act
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More than 150 companies including Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) and PepsiCo (PEP.O) urged U.S. lawmakers to introduce and pass a voting reform act in a letter signed on Wednesday, as other efforts have stalled in Congress.
The companies called on lawmakers to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 named after late U.S. Representative John Lewis, who died nearly a year ago. The act would help prevent voting discrimination and set up an improved system for states to report changes in election law.
"We have a duty to work until every American can participate in our democracy, but that won't happen until every eligible voter in this country has fair, equitable and safe access to voting," said Chip Bergh, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N), a signatory to the letter, in a prepared statement.
Texas Democrats flee Austin: ‘We are now taking the fight to our nation’s Capitol
Democratic lawmakers in Texas’ legislature are fleeing the state in two chartered flights to Washington DC to prevent the passage of Republican-led bills aimed at restricting mail-in ballots and some early voting procedures.
A coalition of members of the Texas state House announced the move in a statement on Monday. Their flight from the state will prevent the legislature from reaching a quorum needed to pass the bills; while in Washington, members of the group will attempt to lobby their counterparts in the nation’s capital to take greater actions to protect voting rights.
Vice President Kamala Harris praised the lawmakers’ courage during remarks to journalists in Detroit, while adding that fighting for voting rights was “as American as apple pie.”
Calif. Venue Reportedly Boots Matt Gaetz’s, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s America First Rally
A California event center reportedly pulled the plug on an America First rally after it found out the hosts and featured speakers were Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“As soon as we found out who the speakers were we immediately canceled it,” Javad Mirtavoosi, manager of the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills, told the Orange County Register. “We just want to stay clear of that,” he added, without providing any specifics.
The center had simply been told when the space was booked that the venue would be used for a “gathering,” he said.
The event was cancelled Friday, just days before the July 17 rally. Tickets for the rally were reportedly still up for grabs on Saturday, but the controversial hosts now need a new venue.
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