Trump-Putin Alaska summit ‘means a lot to Russia': Eric Ham
Political analyst Eric Ham says U.S. President Donald Trump is 'anxious to get a deal' to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
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Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Texas Legislature to take another swing at redistricting vote as Democrats extend their walkout
Texas Republicans will again try to convene the state Legislature Monday for a vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party's favor, an effort that already sparked a national political brawl and prompted Democratic lawmakers to leave the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need. The Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at President Donald Trump's urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president's agenda and twice impeached him.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Texas Legislature to take another swing at redistricting vote as Democrats extend their walkout
Texas Republicans will again try to convene the state Legislature Monday for a vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party's favor, an effort that already sparked a national political brawl and prompted Democratic lawmakers to leave the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need. The Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at President Donald Trump's urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president's agenda and twice impeached him. Now, Democratic-controlled states including California, New York and Illinois are threatening to retaliate against Texas and Trump by proposing their own redistricting, putting the nation on the brink of a tit-for-tat overhaul of congressional boundaries that are typically redrawn only once a decade. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he'll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the 100-member threshold required to vote on the bill. Democratic leaders in other states are planning out their retaliatory redistricting plans if Abbott succeeds. 'Texas, knock it off. We'll knock it off. Let's get back to governing,' said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on 'Fox News Sunday.' As for the Democratic lawmakers who bolted from Texas — some of whom have been appearing alongside the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at news conferences — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state's Supreme Court to remove some of them from office or give them a 48-hour warning to return. 'If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,' said Abbott on 'Fox News Sunday.' When pressed about blue states' threats to retaliate — such as Newsom's proposal to effectiveely cut five GOP-held seats in California — Abbott argued that many had already squeezed the juice out of their gerrymandering and would be hard-pressed to push it further. Democratic leaders say Abbott's plans are nothing more than a power grab. 'They know that they're going to lose in 2026 the Congress, and so they're trying to steal seats,' Pritzker said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Past attempts by Texas Democrats to halt votes by leaving the state were typically unsuccessful, and several of the blue states face more hurdles to redistricting than Texas does. California, for example, has an independent commission that runs redistricting after each decade's census. Changes require approval from both voters and state lawmakers, who have said they plan to call a special election in November to set the process in motion.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Migrants returning to Venezuela face debt and harsh living conditions
MARACAIBO, Venezuela (AP) — The hands of Yosbelin Pérez have made tens of thousands of the aluminum round gridles that Venezuelan families heat every day to cook arepas. She takes deep pride in making the revered 'budare,' the common denominator among rural tin-roofed homes and city apartments, but she owns nothing to her name despite the years selling cookware. Pérez, in fact, owes about $5,000 because she and her family never made it to the United States, where they had hoped to escape Venezuela's entrenched political, social and economic crisis. Now, like thousands of Venezuelans who have voluntarily or otherwise returned to their country this year, they are starting over as the crisis worsens. 'When I decided to leave in August, I sold everything: house, belongings, car, everything from my factory — molds, sand. I was left with nothing,' Pérez, 30, said at her in-laws' home in western Venezuela. 'We arrived in Mexico, stayed there for seven months, and when President (Donald Trump) came to power in January, I said, 'Let's go!'' She, her husband and five children returned to their South American country in March. COVID-19 pandemic pushed migrants to the U.S. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have migrated since 2013, when their country's oil-dependent economy unraveled. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants saw the U.S. as their best chance to improve their living conditions. Many Venezuelans entered the U.S. under programs that allowed them to obtain work permits and shielded them from deportation. But since January, the White House has ended immigrants' protections and aggressively sought their deportations as U.S. President Donald Trump fulfills his campaign promise to limit immigration to the U.S. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had long refused to take back deported Venezuelans but changed course earlier this year under pressure from the White House. Immigrants now arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by either a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela's state-owned airline. The U.S. government has defended its bold moves, including sending more than 200 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador for four months, arguing that many of the immigrants belonged to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang. The administration did not provide evidence to back up the blanket accusation. However, several recently deported immigrants have said U.S. authorities wrongly judged their tattoos and used them as an excuse to deport them. Maduro declared 'economic emergency' Many of those returning home, like Pérez and her family, are finding harsher living conditions than when they left as a currency crisis, triple-digit inflation and meager wages have made food and other necessities unaffordable, let alone the vehicle, home and electronics they sold before migrating. The monthly minimum wage of 130 bolivars, or $1.02 as of Monday, has not increased in Venezuela since 2022. People typically have two, three or more jobs to cobble together money. This latest chapter in the 12-year crisis even prompted Maduro to declare an 'economic emergency' in April. David Rodriguez migrated twice each to Colombia and Peru before he decided to try to get to the U.S. He left Venezuela last year, crossed the treacherous Darien Gap on foot, made it across Central America and walked, hopped on a train and took buses all over Mexico. He then turned himself in to U.S. immigration authorities in December, but he was detained for 15 days and deported to Mexico. Broke, the 33-year-old Rodriguez worked as a mototaxi driver in Mexico City until he saved enough money to buy his airplane ticket back to Venezuela in March. 'Going to the United States … was a total setback,' he said while sitting at a relative's home in Caracas. 'Right now, I don't know what to do except get out of debt first.' He must pay $50 a week for a motorcycle he bought to work as a mototaxi driver. In a good week, he said, he can earn $150, but there are others when he only makes enough to meet the $50 payment. Migrants seek loan sharks Some migrants enrolled in beauty and pastry schools or became food delivery drivers after being deported. Others already immigrated to Spain. Many sought loan sharks. Pérez's brother-in-law, who also made aluminum cookware before migrating last year, is allowing her to use the oven and other equipment he left at his home in Maracaibo so that the family can make a living. But most of her earnings go to cover the 40% monthly interest fee of a $1,000 loan. If the debt was not enough of a concern, Pérez is also having to worry about the exact reason that drove her away: extortion. Pérez said she and her family fled Maracaibo after she spent several hours in police custody in June 2024 for refusing to pay an officer $1,000. The officer, Pérez said, knocked on her door and demanded the money in exchange for letting her keep operating her unpermitted cookware business in her backyard. She said officers tracked her down upon her return and already demanded money. 'I work to make a living from one day to the next … Last week, some guardsmen came. 'Look, you must support me,'' Pérez said she was told in early July. 'So, if I don't give them any (money), others show up, too. I transferred him $5. It has to be more than $5 because otherwise, they'll fight you.'
