PETER HITCHENS: I think I know the reasons behind the latest Letby arrests
Though armed with total, detailed foreknowledge of the crime, his hero, Jake Epping, struggles to make his way to Dealey Plaza in Dallas on the morning of the assassination. Even the traffic seems to be working against him.
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Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Texas Dem lawmakers flee state to protest GOP's redistricting plan
Texas Democrats are being slammed over wild 'stunt' antics in an attempt to stop redistricting legislation that favors Republicans. Over 50 Democratic state lawmakers fled the state over the weekend to avoid voting on a controversial Donald Trump-backed piece of legislation that could help Republicans get more power in Congress. They hopped on a $17,000 an hour private jet on Sunday, earning the wrath of conservatives who accused them of spending an estimated $100,000 total. It's unclear if the lawmakers used taxpayer dollars to fund their travel or if they 'solicited' outside funds from an outside group - which also has potential legal consequences. Far-right commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X: 'Texas Republicans need to launch an emergency investigation into who paid for this seditious stunt.' Another GOP activist added that 'bribery' should be added to the list of changes agains the Democrats who fled. Republican State Rep. Cole Hefner accused them of fleeing because 'they know they're losing the policy argument.' 'Hopping on a private plane to Chicago won't change the facts — they are abandoning their districts and turning their backs on Texans who need help the most,' he went on. The Democrats are working to stall a bill that would redraw the state's congressional maps and eliminate five U.S. House seats presently held by Democrats. It's crucial since the GOP holds a tiny three-seat majority, so every seat they're able to scoop up could impact whether Trump can push his agenda through in the last two years of his second term. And the 2026 midterm elections are just around the corner. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott promised to 'remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House' for 'abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business.' He also pointed out that the funding of the private jet raises potential ethics concerns and 'bribery' charges. 'Any Democrat who 'solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept' such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws,' he cited according to Texas law. Democrats planned to stall a vote on the legislation by the full chamber by not showing up, a procedure also known as 'breaking quorum.' A quorum of 100 members are needed to conduct business in the Texas House of Representatives , but with a majority of Democrats fleeing the state, no work can get done. An estimated 57 Democrats left for Illinois over the weekend, according to Caucus Chair Gene Wu. Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker promised to protect the Texas Democrats in his state from arrest because 'they're following the law.' Rouge lawmakers could be fined $500 a day if they refuse to come to work, per a rule adopted in 2021 after Texas Democrats pulled a similar move to postpone another voting bill. Abbott says his threat to remove the Democrats from their offices is rooted in Texas law. According to a legal review by the state's attorney general, a legislator can be determined to have 'vacated office' if they intentionally break quorum. Abbott also added that a district court 'may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.' Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham called the Democratic mass exodus a 'tantrum.' And other pundits were quick to slam the 'embarrassing' stunt by Democrats that swept headlines over the weekend. California Governor and rumored 2028 presidential contender Gavin Newsom shared his take on the clash in a post on X Monday morning, writing that the 'Governor of Texas is threatening to remove democratically elected officials from office because they have refused to rig an election for Donald Trump.' 'United States of America, 2025', Newsom wrote, wrapping up his X post. The redistricting push in Texas was originally spurred by a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice sent to state officials in July, which argued that four of the state's congressional districts were 'racially gerrymandered.' Democrats won all four of these seats in the 2024 elections. As a result, Trump then urged Texas Republicans to rethink their congressional maps to give Republicans a leg up in next year's midterm elections . After a hearing was held Friday on the proposed new maps, the Republicans on the Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting voted to advance on a party-line vote. Texas Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican author of the bill pushing the new maps, described the new proposed carveouts in the following way: 'It is important to note that four of the five new districts are majority minority, Hispanic. … Each of these newly drawn districts now trends Republican,' Hunter said. 'Political performance doesn't guarantee electoral success; that's up to the candidates. But it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts.' Firebrand Democrat Jasmine Crockett faces being booted from Congress after Republicans proposed a heavily gerrymandered redistricting map that would mean she no longer lives in her district. Crockett has made headlines numerous times in recent months as a key critic of the Trump administration, and the redistricting issue is the latest one she has spoken out on. She has slammed the Texas redistricting maps as a sham that silences minority voices and keeps power in the hands of the few, diluting the voting power of Latino and Black communities. Crockett called Trump 'Temu Hitler' in a recent interview with SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell, due to the president's involvement in the redistricting process. 'So what we have seen is, again, this rogue Department of Justice going out to do the bidding of this Temu Hitler,' Crockett told Maxwell in July. Crockett also added that in her view, Trump believes that the only way to 'ensure that [he] will have no checks on [him] is if [he] can ensure that those voices of color do not have representation.' The Texas congressional maps were already redrawn after the 2020 Census, and they are typically edited every ten years.
The Independent
7 minutes ago
- The Independent
Former Obama adviser quips that Trump is ‘combing Fox News' for new Labor Stats chief after firing
After Donald Trump's pledge to nominate a new Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner in the next few days, former Obama adviser David Axelrod joked that the president is 'probably combing Fox News' for a replacement. Following a weak jobs report Friday that found not only did the U.S. economy add only 73,000 jobs in July but that the 258,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months, the president announced that he had axed the chief labor statistician Erika McEntarfer. 'I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times,' the president told reporters over the weekend when pressed on his decision. Since then, Trump has repeatedly and baselessly claimed that the jobs report 'was RIGGED' and that McEntarfer – who was appointed by his predecessor Joe Biden – had manipulated the numbers to make him 'look bad.' While the president has faced some criticism from Republican lawmakers for firing McEntarfer, who was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate last year, White House officials were tasked over the weekend with justifying and defending Trump's rash move. Their efforts were met with mockery and ridicule from cable news outlets and editorial boards. The Wall Street Journal labeled the president's economic adviser the 'bureau of labor denial' while Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough claimed that Trump's aides had to 'put on their Baghdad Bob hat this weekend because there was no justification for' the firing. Axelrod, who now works as a CNN senior political commentator, took a decidedly snarky tone over the news that Trump would soon offer up a replacement for McEntarfer. Sharing a New York Times article that noted the president had told reporters he'd announce a new BLS commissioner 'over the next three or four days,' Axelrod tweeted Sunday: 'He's probably combing Fox News right now for a qualified replacement.' Of course, Axelrod – who served as a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama and helped run his two presidential campaigns – was referencing Trump's penchant for using the conservative cable giant to staff up his administration. has seen roughly two dozen former Fox News employees take on roles in the administration – with several of them filling Cabinet-level jobs. Axelrod wasn't the only one who jokingly suggested that the president would look for a loyalist to lead the Bureau. George Conway, the former GOP lawyer who has become a leading anti-Trump critic in recent years, created a fake White House press release announcing that the president had named former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to be the next Labor Stats chief. Weisselberg pleaded guilty to charges of grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records in 2022. He also later pleaded guilty to perjury charges for lying under oath in a New York civil trial. In his newsletter, The Atlantic contributing writer Derek Thompson argued that Trump was waging a war against reality, adding that weak job growth wasn't 'the only inconvenient statistic that the Trump administration has tried to suppress in its first seven months.' As Thompson pointed out, the administration has also dismissed scientists in charge of vaccine evaluations at the CDC and gotten rid of experts who put together national climate assessments so insurance companies can gauge risk, not to mention the firing of McEntarfer. In a wild post on Truth Social Monday morning, Trump claimed that he was the victim of 'FAKE' numbers that were meant to hide the economic success of his tariff policies. 'Last weeks Job's Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged. That's why, in both cases, there was massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats,' he wrote. 'Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!! I will pick an exceptional replacement. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAGA!'
BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Greg Abbott threatens Democrats with bribery charges for stalling Texas vote
Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened to file bribery charges against Democratic legislators who fled the state to prevent a vote on a controversial redistricting plan that would significantly favour least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable when 51 Democratic lawmakers left the proposed congressional map, unveiled last week by Texas Republicans, would create more Republican seats in the US House of Representatives where they hold a slim majority currently. Abbott warned that lawmakers who refuse to return to vote on the map could face second-degree felony charges. "It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature," Abbott said on Fox News on Monday. "And the reports are these legislators have both sought money and offered money to skip the vote, to leave the legislature, to take a legislative act. That would be bribery."The governor also issued a letter to Democrats asking them to return to Texas by Monday afternoon."This truancy ends now," he wrote. "The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 15:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Monday," Abbott said in the letter released on late Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had threatened to have the Democratic leaders wrote on X that the state should "use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law".Most of the Democrats fled to Illinois where the state's Governor JB Pritzker said he was "going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them" amid arrest threats from Democrats said they planned to stay away from Texas for two weeks until the end of a special legislative session. "We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don't know," Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader, Republicans currently hold 25 out of 38 congressional seats in the Lone Star hope the new maps could increase that number to 30 - all in constituencies that President Donald Trump won last November by at least 10 party currently has 219 of 435 seats in the House, while Democrats hold 212. The redistricting could help pad the slender Republican majority in the House, which is the lower chamber of public escalation over the proposed redistricting in Texas has led other states' leaders to suggest they may redraw their own legislative maps to counter the proposed losses of seats in Texas. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was exploring a constitutional amendment to move up the timeline to redraw legislative lines in her state. New York - alongwith California, Colorado and Washington - assigns redistricting to non-partisan, independent commissions, rather than the state typically undergo redistricting every 10 years, when voting maps are redrawn to account for population most recent US Census was in 2020. Redrawing district lines in the middle of a decade is unusual.
