Ken Paxton celebrated New Year’s Eve in 2024 with two men wanted on federal charges, one of whom donated at least $190,000 to his campaigns. The extent of his ties to the men was unclear.

ICE agents rammed a man during a pursuit in Houston, leaving him with a shattered leg. But a bulletin of the target shows a man who died in 2017, his daughter said.

© Brandon Bell/Getty Images

El Niño will likely shift weather patterns to bring more rain, but much snow still isn’t forecast for the northern states

Winter in the United States looks like it will generally be wetter and warmer, but not necessarily snowier, according to the federal government’s seasonal outlook and other meteorologists’ forecasts. You can thank or blame El Niño.

El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns to bring more moisture, but with it higher temperatures. That should help erase persistent western drought, but it is unlikely to make northern snow-lovers happy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Senate showdown in Texas shows why Donald Trump and the Republican Party are worried about the midterm elections.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Voting registration organizations accuse Texas officials of failing to ensure eligible voters can register properly

Texas election officials are struggling to process a massive backlog of nearly 600,000 voter registration applications after a major state computer system failure, just days before early voting is set to open on Monday and amid concerns about widespread voter suppression.

The disruption has raised serious concerns about the state’s voter registration system, with voting rights organizations accusing Texas officials of failing to ensure that eligible voters could properly register.

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© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Elon Musk has spent $158m in a month to back Republicans in midterm races – with his efforts mostly focused on Texas

Tens of millions of dollars are pouring into Texas as Democrats stage an audacious bid to win a US Senate seat in the Republican stronghold.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is among those wading into the closely watched race as November’s midterm elections approach.

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© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

The amount is the most that a Senate candidate has ever raised during that period, his campaign said, eclipsing his opponent in Texas, Ken Paxton.

© Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Discovery of grenades prompted a neighborhood lockdown and a visit from the Austin police department’s bomb squad

A buyer at a Texas estate sale discovered several second world war-era grenades in a box of newly bought items, prompting a neighbourhood lockdown and a visit from the Austin police department’s bomb squad.

The grenades, which were described as “live and active” in a social media post by the Austin police association, were removed and disarmed.

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© Photograph: Austin Police Association

© Photograph: Austin Police Association

© Photograph: Austin Police Association

Claims that James Talarico suffered a mental health crisis spread across rightwing media, offering a warning about disinformation ahead of the US midterm election

Where is James Talarico? The question ricocheted around rightwing echo chambers before metastasising into a conspiracy theory – and a reminder of the persistent danger of disinformation in the US midterm elections.

The smear campaign began when Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, was not seen in public for nine days. His campaign was slow to explain why. While nature abhors a vacuum, Donald Trump and social media seize on one and weaponise it.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Voting rights groups sued the Texas Department of Public Safety and the secretary of state over delayed voter registrations that overwhelmed local election workers.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Talarico casts himself as a moderate who would put Texans’ needs over party allegiances amid close contest against Republican Ken Paxton

James Talarico, the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, sat face to face with skeptical Republicans and independents voters who grilled him on a slew of contentious issues including Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, abortion and foreign aid, during a CNN town hall co-hosted by the Jubilee Media digital platform on Wednesday.

One voter, a young Republican activist who volunteered at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas last month and recently appeared on Fox News as a supporter of Talarico’s opponent, questioned the authenticity of Talarico’s faith, referencing a past remark where he described God as nonbinary.

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© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

At a rally in Texas, the vice president suggested the Democratic Senate nominee is gay, a comment criticized as homophobic.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

A conviction on the possible charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon could mean up to 20 years in prison

A Texas prosecutor said he was considering felony assault charges for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who ran over a man following an attempted traffic stop and broke his leg in multiple places.

Sean Teare, district attorney for Harris county, said video of the incident in west Houston on Saturday morning, in which the officer’s unmarked SUV is seen veering into the man as he runs away across an empty parking lot, could support a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

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© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

Texas AG and US Senate hopeful announced inquiry into alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance firms

Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement by investigating pediatricians for giving vaccines – actions that could further restrict access to vaccines as deadly outbreaks unfold.

Paxton announced he would investigate an alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance companies in January, and at least one Texas pediatrician now says she is under investigation. Paxton linked his efforts to a campaign against vaccines from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and directly referenced the Maha movement in his announcement. The president endorsed Paxton’s Senate run in May.

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© Photograph: Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

© Photograph: Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

© Photograph: Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters

A quarter-billion dollars to help Republicans hold Congress.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The Harris County district attorney said investigators from his office did not believe that the crash that left Miguel Parra Hernandez injured over the weekend was accidental.

Miguel Parra-Hernandez suffers from serious hip and leg injuries in Houston and remains in ICE custody, according to his representatives

• US man shoots off-duty ICE agent who allegedly attacked him and daughter

A Texas man whose leg was broken in multiple places after being struck by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle during a weekend traffic stop has never met the person the federal agents were allegedly pursuing, according to his representatives.

Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48, suffered serious injuries including a shattered ankle and hip when he was run over in Houston, Texas, on Saturday by an SUV driven by an officer chasing two men who ran from a pickup truck.

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© Photograph: Mark Felix/AP

© Photograph: Mark Felix/AP

© Photograph: Mark Felix/AP

A Texas mother is suing the president of Students for Life of America and others in the group over an Instagram post that appeared to boast about ordering abortion pills in Houston.

© Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The New York Times

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Ahead of her White House podium debut, Katie Zacharia reportedly monitored Donald Trump’s public schedule every day, and monitored his Truth Social, and made sure she was on-air when she assumed he might be watching, according to Politico, citing a person familiar with the matter.

That source noted that and a number of high-profile conservative anchors – including from Fox News, Newsmax and OANN – also backed Zacharia for press secretary. She is now set to the sixth person to hold the role throughout both of Trump’s terms in office.

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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Though Democrats have a strong edge heading into the midterms, some races have openings for Republicans

While marquee races from Maine to Michigan get all the attention, and draw in a ton of money, a significant batch of lower-profile contests across the US could result in upsets.

Democrats have a strong edge heading into November’s US midterm elections, polls show. In recent days, election prognosticators have shifted even more races in favor of Democrats.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

The Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas spent nine days off the trail with what he and his campaign said was a bad case of the flu. His opponents fueled rumors, including one that spread widely before it was debunked.

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Timothy Broglio says Catholics on army firing squad should ask to be excused since it clashes with church teachings

The archbishop who oversees the spiritual care of Catholics serving in the US military condemned the Pentagon’s proposed plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan later this year.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio also stipulated in a Monday statement that any Catholic soldier assigned to the US army firing squad should ask to be excused from that duty, which he described as contrary to the teachings of the church. He joins other Catholic leaders in speaking out against the death penalty and the live stream plans.

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© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Children’s Health Defense and RFK Jr publicly dispute recent measles deaths to ‘distract’ from damage caused and question vaccines, experts say

The six-year-old girl at the children’s hospital in Lubbock, Texas, burned with fever and struggled to breathe. Doctors soon put her on a ventilator, snaking a thick tube down the child’s throat so a machine could breathe for her; they placed IVs to rehydrate her tiny body and they prescribed antibiotics for any bacterial infections that may have taken hold in the weeks she had spent at home battling measles.

But it was too late. Within a day of being ventilated, the child went into shock, her blood pressure crashed and she went into cardiac arrest. She could not be resuscitated. Her family, and the nation, mourned: she was the first child to die of measles in the US in a decade.

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© Photograph: Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

The world’s richest person has quietly become by far the biggest known midterm donor, trying to save Republicans’ Senate majority with some of the largest donations in American political history.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

Parra-Hernandez suffered a broken leg and taken to a hospital after being hit by car during an ICE operation

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent driving a vehicle struck a man on Saturday while trying to pursue him and someone else in the Houston area, according to authorities.

The federal agency had been trying to pull over and arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes in north-west Harris county, Texas, when he and the victim, Miguel Parra-Hernandez, exited the vehicle, officials said.

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© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

© Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA

Rev Dr Frederick Douglass Haynes III is reclaiming a faith-based politics to counter Trump-allied white evangelicals

It was that point in the evening: dinner plates were cleared; speeches had run long; people were chatting, milling or eyeing the exit. But then the Rev Dr Frederick Douglass Haynes III took the stage. Bald, bearded, bespectacled and dressed in black, he delivered a mix of fiery sermon and performance poetry. Soon the guests were back in their seats – rapt, listening, clapping and whooping.

Haynes’s rolling cadence was evocative of the pulpit but the political message was far from kumbaya. Aiming to succeed Democratic star Jasmine Crockett in Texas’s 30th congressional district, he danced like a butterfly with references to the boxer Muhammad Ali and rapper Tupac Shakur. But he also stung like a bee, branding Donald Trump as “President Pickpocket” and Republicans as the authors of racist gerrymandering and voter suppression.

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

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

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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