Crowd member repeatedly said some Democrats ‘should be shot’ during Ted Cruz’s speech, without senator responding

On the night Republicans gathered to mourn the killing of Charlie Kirk and warn against the dangers of violent rhetoric, a crowd at the party’s irregular midterm convention in Dallas repeatedly called for a sitting Senate candidate to be shot, while the Republican senator at the podium never denounced or even noted the outbursts.

The outbursts came repeatedly during Ted Cruz’s Thursday night address at the American Airlines center, when he named a Democrat he accused of holding radical views. After the senator mentioned the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, video footage depicts at least one audience member shouting: “He should be shot!” The same cry followed when Cruz named Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and again after he named Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Cruz did not pause or respond to the shouting, and it remains unclear whether he heard it from the stage. Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.

The president demonised Democrats in an attempt to wangle votes in midterms despite backlash over Iran war

With his approval rating at a historic low, Donald Trump has brought down the curtain on the Republicans’ first ever midterm convention by pleading with supporters to do him “the biggest favour” and “pretend” they are voting for him in November’s US elections.

The president is facing a growing backlash over rising prices and the war in Iran. Sweeping losses for the Republican party could effectively turn Trump into a lame duck for his final two years in the White House.

Vice-president dog-whistled, exaggerated claims of success and echoed Trump talking points to excited audience

JD Vance made a clear pitch that he should be the heir to Donald Trump on Thursday night, closing out the Republicans’ midterm convention with a blistering speech that featured exaggerated claims of success, criticism of Democrats as “lunatics” and an aggressive dismissal of a protester waving a Mexican flag.

Speaking in Dallas, the vice-president showed he could channel the basest instincts of his boss, filling his remarks with dog whistles and echoing Trump’s false claims that Democrats “cheered” the 7 October massacre of Israelis.

Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon said AI will become ‘superhuman systems’ that can cause human extinction by the end of the decade

Just a day after three Anthropic researchers warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, lawmakers have begun lashing out about the risks of the burgeoning technology.

Ted Cruz, a republican senator from Texas, said in an interview on ABC’s The View, that AI poses a “catastrophic risk” and that he “read that whole tweet thread that that developer put out. It was highly concerning.