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International Space Station (ISS) crew member Terry Virts of the U.S. speaks by satellite phone shortly after landing near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on June 11, 2015.

REUTERS/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool

EXCLUSIVE: Democratic astronaut explores Texas Senate launch

In the latest sign that Democrats are turning a new leaf after their dismal 2024 defeat, astronaut and political neophyte Terry Virts is planning to launch a run for the US Senate in Texas, GZERO Media has learned. He plans to challenge incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, according to a Democratic operative familiar with the race. Virts’ pending announcement comes as former Rep. Colin Allred, a fellow Democrat, is reportedly planning another Senate bid, just six months after his eight-point loss to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

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FILE PHOTO: General view shows the United States Supreme Court, in Washington, U.S., February 8, 2024.

REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/File Photo

Can the government dictate what’s on Facebook?

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday from groups representing major social media platforms which argue that new laws in Florida and Texas that restrict their ability to deplatform users are unconstitutional. It’s a big test for how free speech is interpreted when it comes to private technology companies that have immense reach as platforms for information and debate.

Supporters of the states’ laws originally framed them as measures meant to stop the platforms from unfairly singling out conservatives for censorship – for example when X (then Twitter) booted President Donald Trump for his tweets during January 6.

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Texas Governor Gregg Abbott shakes hands with a U.S. Soldier after a news conference near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S., where migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. are waiting to be processed, in Del Rio, Texas, U.S., September 21, 2021.

REUTERS/Marco Bello

Texas doubles down on border challenge to Federal government

A major constitutional crisis is brewing down south as Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott bucks the Supreme Court, forcing a confrontation between the state and federal government over who controls the US-Mexico border.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration had the right to clear razor wire that local Texas authorities had installed along the border. Abbott has also taken his own measures to police crossings of the Rio Grande and even used the Texas National Guard to block federal agents from entering the area.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Biden challenges Texas immigration law

The Biden administration has said that it will sue Texas if it does not renounce its strict immigration law, SB4, by today.

SB4 is Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest challenge to Biden’s immigration policy, which he says fails to mitigate the surge of migrants entering at the southern border. It gives Texas officials the power to arrest, prosecute, and deport migrants suspected of entering the country illegally. In a state where 40% of the population is Latino, critics fear the legislation will lead to racial profiling.

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Russian reservists recruited during a partial mobilization of troops attend a ceremony before departing to the Russia-Ukraine conflict zone, in the Rostov region, Russia October 31, 2022.

REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov

What We're Watching: Russian draft goes online, abortion pill ruling, US inflation slows, Taiwan gets new presidential candidate, Biden bets big on EVs

Russia’s digital draft

If you’re a young male citizen of Russia, it just got harder for you to hide from the war in Ukraine. The State Duma, Russia’s parliament, approved legislation on Tuesday that allows the government to send a military summons online instead of serving the papers in person. The upper house swiftly passed it into law on Wednesday.

“The summons is considered received from the moment it is placed in the personal account of a person liable for military service,” explains the chairman of the Duma’s defense committee, though the Kremlin insists no large-scale draft is imminent. If the person summoned fails to report for service within 20 days of the date listed on the summons, the state can suspend his driver’s license, deny him the right to travel abroad, and make it impossible for him to get a loan.

The database that provides names of potential draftees is assembled from medical, educational, and residential records, as well as insurance and tax data. Thousands of young Russians have already fled their country. Many more may soon try to join them.

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Ari Winkleman

Latino dreams, NY States of Mind

Hi there! Welcome back to our new daily feature, Midterm Matters, where we pick a couple of red-hot US midterm stories and separate the signal (what you need to know) from the noise (what everyone is yelling about). Enjoy and let us know what you think.

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Demonstrators from across Ecuador march on the capital Quito

REUTERS/Johanna Alarcon

Hard Numbers: Indigenous protests in Quito, Russia bleeds troops, Texas school to be razed, Great Barrier Reef lawsuit

10,000: On Tuesday, roughly 10,000 Indigenous people took to the streets of Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to protest rising fuel prices and unemployment. The country’s 1 million Indigenous people – who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and joblessness – say that President Guillermo Lasso’s government has failed to make good on a promise to revive the country's ailing economy.

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Turnout in Georgia Broke Records for Midterm Primaries | US Politics In :60 | GZERO Media

Lessons from US midterm primaries in Georgia, Texas, and Alabama

Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, discusses Tuesday's primaries.

What happened in Tuesday's primaries?

Several states held primary elections on Tuesday of this week with the most interesting elections in Georgia, Texas, and Alabama. In Georgia, two incumbent Republicans who were instrumental in certifying the results of President Joe Biden's victory in 2020 won the nomination for governor and secretary of state against two Trump-backed opponents. The sitting governor who Trump had been targeting for months over his role in the 2020 election won by over 50 points, a sign that while Republican voters still love Donald Trump, his hold over the party is not absolute. This is going to create an opening for challengers in the 2024 presidential election cycle.

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