A botched execution and a planned execution that might be livestreamed have renewed debate and divisions over the most severe form of punishment.

© George Walker IV/Associated Press

Mr. Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, showed up at a music festival, saying he had been at home with “a nasty case of the flu.”

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

The leaked deposition from a fraud inquiry in 2014 provides insight into the Senate candidate’s investments and his tactics for defending himself.

© Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Recovery marks a dramatic turnaround for Pike, who remains in hospital after a botched execution in Tennessee

Christa Pike is “up and walking” in hospital, her lawyer said, just more than a week after she survived two lethal injections during a botched execution in Tennessee.

The recovery marks a dramatic turnaround after Pike was declared brain dead on Monday, before waking up and beginning to speak on Tuesday. Her ordeal has shocked many in the US and overseas and galvanized critics of the death penalty.

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© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters

© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters

© Photograph: J Miles Cary/Reuters

Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally in San Antonio, Texas, was rocked by repeated protests as the US president urged Texas voters to back the embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton. At least half a dozen demonstrators interrupted the US president during his speech, with some led away by police. One was physically assaulted by a Trump supporter as he tried to leave the arena. The Republican campaign to maintain control of the Senate has become increasingly focused on Texas, where the Democrat James Talarico has emerged as a serious threat

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The president offered support for the Republican Senate candidate, after earlier grumbles, but focused much of his speech on a defense of his own record.

© Mandel Ngan for Getty Images

Trump briefly stepped away from the microphone after one protester appeared to approach the stage

• Send us your questions on how the US economy is shaping the midterm elections

Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally was rocked by repeated protests on Wednesday as the US president urged Texas voters to back the embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

At least half a dozen demonstrators interrupted the US president during his remarks in San Antonio, with some led away by police. One was physically assaulted by an older Trump supporter as he tried to leave the arena.

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© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Trump is in Texas tonight to stump for the Senate candidate.

© Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Jamaal Howard, 46, executed by fatal dose of pentobarbital after lawyers’ bid for stay had been denied

A Texas man was put to death Wednesday in the first US execution since the botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee last week.

Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8.03pm after receiving a fatal dose of pentobarbital, a sedative, at the state prison in Huntsville.

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© Photograph: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images

© Photograph: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images

© Photograph: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images

Texas attorney general acknowledged affordability was his party’s ‘biggest problem’ heading into the midterms

• US politics live – latest updates

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running as the Republican candidate in a competitive Senate race, admitted privately that rising fuel prices as a result of Donald Trump’s Iran war were hurting his party before the midterms in the latest leaked audio recording.

Asked what issues were “dragging” his campaign at a closed-door fundraising event, Paxton replied, “It’s not tariffs … it’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel,” according to an audio recording shared with Axios.

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© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Jamaal Howard was put to death after courts rejected his lawyers’ requests to delay the execution over concerns about the drug.

© Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and the Democratic Governors Association are each sending $1 million to back Gina Hinojosa in a bid for Texas governor that appears increasingly competitive.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Angela Paxton is urging Texas voters to support Mr. Paxton’s Senate campaign, even as she is divorcing him and accusing him of adultery. She has political aspirations of her own.

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Tennessee’s unsuccessful attempt to end the life of Christa Pike is spurring more scrutiny over capital punishment techniques, and whether the death penalty should exist at all.

© South Carolina Department of Corrections, via Associated Press

Nidal Hasan sentenced to death by military jury in 2013 for carrying out deadly shooting attack at army base in Texas

Donald Trump has approved the execution by US army firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

Hasan, who was an army psychiatrist, would become the first US soldier to be executed by the US military in more than 60 years.

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© Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

© Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

© Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

Latino voters, who shifted Republican in the 2024 presidential election, view the party more negatively than they have in the past decade, according to an NBC News/Telemundo poll released on Monday.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

‘I don’t control message or what we’re doing,’ scandal- hit state attorney general reportedly says at private event

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general chosen by Donald Trump to run as the Republican candidate for a Senate seat, admitted in private that his campaign was being controlled by outside forces in Washington DC.

Paxton, who is locked in a competitive race with the progressive Democrat James Talarico, told people at a fundraising event in September that he had never felt such little control over his campaign because of outside influence.

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© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

© Photograph: Julio Cortez/AP

Texas tops list with 8,100 bans while Stephen King is again most banned author, PEN America finds

The US saw almost 12,000 book bans in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, the highest number in a single year, according to the free-expression non-profit PEN America.

In a report released on Monday, PEN America said that there had been 34,000 instances of book bans since the organization started tallying the increasing “book censorship crisis” across US schools in 2021.

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© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

© Photograph: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

President Trump is doggedly lending his support to Republican candidates facing a rough midterm season. He is the same campaigner he has always been, but his crowds have changed.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Democrats are competitive in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, Texas and even Kansas as they try to wrest control of the Senate from Republicans. Here’s a look at why.

In a new ad, the wife of Ken Paxton, who is divorcing him for alleged adultery, tells Texas voters to focus on the “whole team,” not “individual players.”

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

After a dry spell of more than three decades, Democrats are daring (yet again) to believe they can win one or more top-of-the-ballot races in a vast and stubbornly red state.

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Democrats are performing strongly in five reliably Republican states where they are trying to flip Senate seats to win control of the chamber, new New York Times/Siena polls found.

© Jillian Vordick/The New York Times

Hispanic voters are souring on Republicans. Here’s why.

© Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

The ruling dealt a setback to the Trump administration’s plans for hundreds of miles of barriers that have drawn local opposition.

© Brandon Bell/Getty Images

President Trump spent the day preaching to his most fervent fans, not the voters he will need to help elect or re-elect a slate of Republicans fighting in states from Alaska to Maine.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Allies of Gina Hinojosa want a Democratic group to support her bid for Texas governor — putting pressure on its chairman, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who is weighing a run for president.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times