Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday said he will veto funding for the state legislature, after Democrats staged a walkout the day before to prevent the passage of a sweeping elections bill.

Texas Democrats walked off the state House floor late Sunday night to block the passage of legislation that would add new obstacles for voting in future elections, and limit the availability of certain forms of voting that are largely used by low income and handicapped people.

Democrats slowly left the floor as the night progressed until 10:30 p.m., when the remaining members exited the chamber.

The walkout left the state House without enough members present to reach a quorum, preventing Republicans from passing the legislation before the midnight deadline.

The move came after house of debate and procedural objections to Senate Bill 7, which passed the state Senate early Sunday morning and looked to be sent to Abbott’s desk for signature.

Abbott, in a tweet on Monday, announced his intention to veto funding for the legislature.

“I will veto Article 10 of the budget passed by the legislature. Article 10 funds the legislative branch. No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities. Stay tuned,” he wrote.

In a statement published the same day, Abbott said it was “deeply disappointing and concerning” that the election bill did not reach his desk.

He said he would add the legislation to the state’s special session agenda, and that he expects legislators to have “worked out their differences” before returning to the Capitol.

“I expect legislators to have worked out their differences prior to arriving back at the Capitol so that they can hit the ground running to pass legislation related to these emergency items and other priority legislation. During the special session, we will continue to advance policies that put the people of Texas first,” Abbott wrote.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Sunday marked only the fourth time Texas lawmakers have broken quorum to protest a bill’s passage.

Democratic Texas state Rep. Gene Wu denounced Abbott’s plan to veto legislature funding, calling the move “petty and tone-deaf even for Texas.”

The bill, if passed by the state Senate and ultimately signed by Abbott, would ban drive-thru voting and impose state felony penalties on public officials who offer mail-in voting applications to voters who do not request them.

It would also prohibit 24-hour voting, which was used by more than 100,000 voters in the 2020 election in Harris County, where President BidenJoe BidenTexas Democrats stage walkout to block passage of sweeping election overhaul package DOJ adds four defendants to Oath Keepers conspiracy case Biden remembers late son Beau in Memorial Day remarks MORE won with about 56 percent of the vote.

Additionally, the legislation would allow courts to overturn elections if “the number of votes illegally cast in the election is equal to or greater than the number of votes necessary to change the outcome of an election,” instead of having to confirm evidence of election fraud.

The Texas voting bill follows a trend of GOP-dominated legislatures considering sweeping election reforms that critics say would restrict citizens’ access to vote.

Georgia Gov. Brian KempBrian KempOn The Trail: Republicans reject will of the voters after election losses Democratic state legislators form voting rights council amid GOP push for restrictions MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he was blocked from Republican governors conference events MORE (R) in March signed legislation that limits the use of ballot drop boxes and establishes photo ID requirements for absentee voting, among other restrictions.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisRon DeSantisWhite House urges court to toss lawsuit preventing states from importing prescription drugs Concert promoter charges ,000 for tickets with ‘no-vax tax’ Demings raises Democrats’ hopes in uphill fight to defeat Rubio MORE (R) signed similar legislation earlier this month, which will limit access to ballot drop boxes, require voters who want to cast absentee ballots to submit new requests for them every election cycle instead of every four years, and prohibit anyone other than election workers from giving out food or water to people waiting in line within 150 feet of a polling place.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/556214-texas-governor-to-veto-state-legislature-funding-after-democrats-walk

Miami-Dade police have found the vehicle used by three gunmen who killed two people and injured more than 20 others during an early Sunday gathering at a banquet hall submerged in a canal. 

The Miami-Dade Police Department said Monday that it recovered the Nissan Pathfinder in the area of 154th Street and Northwest Second Avenue. It was reported stolen May 15, police said. 

The SUV was found by police divers in Key Biscayne, located just east of Miami. Residents told WPLG-TV the area is a notorious dumping ground. 

Hours earlier, authorities released surveillance video of the SUV, which was stolen on May 15, police said. The brief video footage shows the gunmen getting out of the vehicle near the El Mula banquet hall with weapons and running back seconds later before peeling off. 

Fox News has reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department. 

Investigators said the gunmen waited in their vehicle for 20 to 40 minutes for concertgoers to gather out front and that’s when the gunmen ‘indiscriminately’ opened fire. Several people in the crowd who were armed returned fire, authorities said Monday. 

“We will do everything, everything we can and use every resource available to bring these people to justice. We will leave no stone unturned, we will leave nothing behind to bring these shooters to justice,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference.

Two men, both 26, were killed, and 21 were injured. The Miami-Dade Police Department said 18 victims, including five women, remain hospitalized. No arrests have been made. 

Three other victims – a 31-year-old woman and two men, ages 21 and 25 — remain in critical condition. Three people have been released from hospitals, including a 17-year-old who was shot in the leg. 

Authorities believe the shooting stemmed from a rivalry.

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“We know that our intended target was most likely in front of the establishment when the shooting took place,” Major Jorge Aguilar of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Authorities are offering a $130,000 reward for information on the shooting. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/miami-suv-canal-video

British intelligence services are now reportedly reassessing their position on the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a lab in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

A Sunday report from the Sunday Times of London quotes British spies who initially dismissed the lab leak theory, but now say it is “feasible.” 

“There might be pockets of evidence that take us one way, and evidence that takes us another way,” the paper quoted a source as saying. “The Chinese will lie either way. I don’t think we will ever know.” 

Security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
(AP)

The quote comes as both the United States and Britain are stepping up calls for the World Health Organization to take a deeper look into the possible origins of COVID-19, including a new visit to China, where the first human infections were detected.

WHO and Chinese experts issued a first report in March that laid out four hypotheses about how the pandemic might have emerged. The joint team said the most likely scenario was that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats via an intermediary animal, and the prospect that it erupted from a laboratory was deemed “extremely unlikely.” 

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The Biden administration wants to step up calls for China to be more open about the outbreak, aiming to head off complaints from opposition Republican senators that the president has not been tough enough, as well as to use the opportunity to press China on alleged obstruction.

Virologist Shi Zheng-li, left, works with her colleague in the P4 lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017.
(Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have promoted the theory that the virus emerged from a laboratory accident rather than naturally through human contact with an infected animal in China.

During an interview with CBS’ ‘Face The Nation’ on Sunday, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said accidental lab leaks “happen all the time.” 

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“These kinds of lab leaks happen all the time, actually,” Gottlieb said. “Even here in the United States, we’ve had mishaps, and in China, the last six known outbreaks of SARS-1 have been out of labs, including the last known outbreak, which was a pretty extensive outbreak that China initially wouldn’t disclose that it came out of a lab.”

And earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in late 2019 displayed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and required hospital treatment.

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President Biden, meanwhile, said the intelligence community has yet to determine whether the pandemic began after human contact with infected animals or because of a lab accident. Officials are expected to deliver an updated report on their conclusion within the next few months.

Fox News’ Thomas Barrabi and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-intelligence-reassess-covid-lab-leak-theory-now-say-its-feasible

The Biden administration should prepare to be made “uncomfortable” by Russian “signals” ahead of next month’s scheduled summit between the president and his Moscow counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a top Kremlin diplomat said Monday.

Reuters, citing the RIA news agency, reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Washington “should proceed from the premise that a number of signals from Moscow — and I am not talking here about the meeting at the highest level, I don’t know how it will proceed — are going to be uncomfortable for them, including in the coming days.”

Ryabkov did not elaborate on what “signals” he was referring to.

The White House announced last week that Biden and Putin would meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16. It will be the first summit-level meeting between Putin and an American president since he met with Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, in the summer of 2018.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov did not elaborate on what “signals” to expect from the Kremlin.
AFP via Getty Images

In remarks at a Delaware Memorial Day remembrance event Sunday, Biden said he would raise the issue of human rights with Putin and make clear “that we will not — we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights.”

In response, Ryabkov said Monday that “the agendas of the US and Russia do not coincide, but we are traditionally ready to react to any issues raised by the American side. Unfortunately, the reciprocal readiness is observed less and more seldom.”

The Kremlin has said the summit will focus on “conditions and prospects for further fostering Russian-US relations, strategic stability matters as well as pressing issues on the international agenda, which include cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and settling regional conflicts,” according to the TASS news agency.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Monday that Moscow plans to boost its military presence along its western border through the end of this year.

“Actions by our Western counterparts are destroying the global security system and prompting us to take reasonable countermeasures,” Shoigu was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. “We’re permanently upgrading the combat composition of our armed forces. About 20 military units and formations will be put together in the Western Military District by the end of the year.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden next month.
Alexei Druzhinin/TASS

Relations between Russia and the US are at post-Cold War lows following the 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, Putin’s crackdown on dissidents at home and his targeting them for assassination abroad, and Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/05/31/russia-diplomat-warns-us-of-uncomfortable-signals/