Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has begun flying migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Chicago after the city took a tougher stance on the buses that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending north since last year.

The first flight of 120 migrants arrived Tuesday, according to Abbott’s office.

HOUSTON (AP) — Two of Houston’s most powerful and longest serving political titans are facing off in a mayoral runoff election Saturday to see who will lead the nation’s fourth largest city, a young and diverse metro area facing challenges including crime, crumbling infrastructure and potential budget shortfalls.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and state Sen. John Whitmire, both Democrats, made it to Saturday’s runoff after breezing past a crowded field of nearly 20 candidates in the Nov. 7 general election.

HOUSTON (AP) — A mayoral runoff Saturday between state Sen. John Whitmire, 74, and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, 73, has the fourth-largest city in the U.S. on the verge of picking a new leader who cuts against Houston’s demographic trends. Census figures show Houston is becoming younger, with a median age of around 35 and 25% of the population below 18.

HOUSTON (AP) — More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly, a finding that is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment.

But whether the public’s waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said.

DALLAS (AP) — Despite inflation and memories of past holiday travel meltdowns, millions of people are expected to hit airports and highways in record numbers over the Thanksgiving break.

The busiest days to fly will be Tuesday and Wednesday as well as the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday. Sunday will draw the largest crowds with an estimated 2.9 million passengers, which would narrowly eclipse a record set on June 30.

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Donald Trump picked up the Texas governor’s endorsement Sunday during a visit to a U.S.-Mexico border town and promised that his hard-line immigration policies in a second presidential term would make Greg Abbott’s “job much easier.”

“You’ll be able to focus on other things in Texas,” Trump told Abbott as they each appeared before a crowd of about 150 at an airport hangar in Edinburg.

Abbott, a longtime ally and fellow border hawk, said he was proud to endorse the former president, who is the Republican Party’s front-runner for the 2024 nomination.

HOUSTON (Texas, US), Nov 19 (NNN-XINHUA) — SpaceX’s giant new rocket Starship on Saturday blasted off on its second test flight but ended prematurely with an explosion minutes after launch.

Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster at about 7:04 a.m. Central Time from SpaceX’s Starbase in the U.S. state of Texas, according to SpaceX.

Starship made it through a successful stage separation, said SpaceX.

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated libertarian Javier Milei, an outsider with radical views to fix the economy, on being elected president in Argentina on Sunday.

"The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform

BOCA CHICA, Texas/NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, failed in space shortly after lifting off on Saturday, cutting short its second test but making it further than an earlier attempt that ended in an explosion.

The two-stage rocketship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, helping boost the Starship spacecraft as high as 90 miles (148 km) above ground on a planned 90-minute test mission to space and back.

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Donald Trump will return to the U.S.-Mexico border for a visit Sunday as he promotes a hard-line immigration agenda that would be far more expansive than the policies he pursued during his first term as president.