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A sweeping community education monthly bill that would make it possible for families to use taxpayer revenue to mail their little ones to non-public schools and limit classroom lessons on sexual orientation gained original approval Tuesday and will now go in advance of the Senate for a total vote.
The Senate education committee, led by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, voted 10-2 to advance Senate Monthly bill 8. The vote took position along celebration lines, with Republican lawmakers favoring the bill and Democrats José Menéndez of San Antonio and Morgan LaMantia of South Padre Island voting towards it.
The committee also voted unanimously for an accompanying piece of laws, Senate Bill 9, which would give fork out raises to lecturers and maximize funding for lecture rooms, amongst other measures. The invoice will also go to the Senate floor for a vote.
The bill would give mothers and fathers who opt out of the public school method access to a personal savings account with up to $8,000 in taxpayer income, per scholar, which could be used to shell out for a child’s private education and other educational bills, this kind of as textbooks or tutoring.
A precedence for Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the invoice would also prohibit classroom lessons, college functions and instructor direction about sexual orientation and gender id in all general public and charter colleges up to 12th grade. The monthly bill is 1 of many parts of legislation underneath thought that could have an impact on the lives of homosexual and transgender Texans, such as just one that would limit the type of wellbeing treatment transgender little ones can acquire.
The bill’s language banning sure kinds of lessons mirrors a remarkably controversial law in Florida. Those people in favor of the bill say mother and father are best equipped to train kids about subject areas like gender identity and sexual orientation.
Traditionally, rural Republicans have opposed packages identical to vouchers since they concern they could acquire away revenue from their local school districts, which are generally large businesses with fragile budgets. SB 8, on the other hand, seeks to deal with those worries by shielding school districts with much less than 20,000 students from any funding losses induced by the discounts account method.
Universities in Texas are mostly funded based on university student attendance quantities. People smaller sized districts would get $10,000 for two decades for each and every scholar who enrolls in the savings account software and leaves their district.
SB 8 is probably to get acceptance from the complete Senate, but it is not nevertheless crystal clear if the additional funding for scaled-down districts will be enough to get the laws as a result of the Home, which has been customarily far more skeptical of comparable courses.
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The recall will come as NHTSA proceeds its investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assist method following a collection of crashes in the U.S. that resulted in a lot more than a dozen injuries and 1 loss of life.
In June, NHTSA upgraded its investigation to an engineering investigation, masking an believed 830,000 Tesla autos from the 2014-22 product years.
The company also opened a separate investigation involving Tesla motor vehicles immediately after getting hundreds of grievances alleging unexpected activation of the automated emergency braking procedure, characterised by some Tesla entrepreneurs as “phantom braking.”
In a assertion Thursday, NHTSA reported analysis and screening carried out as section of the investigation disclosed that in selected circumstances, Tesla’s “Autosteer on City Streets” element in the FSD beta “led to an unreasonable chance to motor motor vehicle security based mostly on inadequate adherence to traffic basic safety guidelines.”
“As expected by legislation and after conversations with NHTSA, Tesla introduced a recall to repair service individuals defects,” the company explained.
NHTSA said it will keep on to keep track of the remember remedies for usefulness and that its investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot and involved car methods these as FSD “remains open up and lively.”
Tesla’s FSD beta — a enhance to the regular Autopilot technique — is bought as a $15,000 alternative or a $199 month to month subscription.
Tesla describes the proprietary FSD software program as “an advanced driver-aid procedure that assists your automobile with steering, accelerating and braking for other motor vehicles and pedestrians within just its lane.” Unlike other automaker systems, FSD is built to be applied on city streets.
Tesla warns on its web site that, inspite of its complicated identify, Whole Self-Driving is only an aid aspect and that drivers are accountable for the procedure of their cars at all moments.
Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst for e-mobility at Guidehouse Insights, said in an job interview past thirty day period that Tesla’s typical Autopilot computer software and optional Comprehensive Self-Driving attribute have gotten a pass from regulators in spite of a spate of automobile crashes and statements by the organization that some have named misleading.
“What ought to occur is that regulators somewhere need to have to say: ‘Look, you’re providing something that isn’t going to operate as promoted, and you require to give buyers back again their funds,’ ” Abuelsamid instructed Automotive Information.
“These automobiles are under no circumstances, at any time heading to be equipped to function as robotaxis,” he included.
On Twitter Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned use of the word “recall” for an more than-the-air program update is “anachronistic and just flat wrong!”
To be guaranteed, brands are necessary to problem a recall for any repair service, which includes a software package update, that cures an unreasonable possibility to protection, according to NHTSA. They also are demanded to post any communications to entrepreneurs, dealers and many others about any program updates that deal with a defect, regardless of whether or not it is security associated.
Ukraine is in full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv’s most significant battlefield gain in weeks, which a senior official said could provide a staging post for further gains to the east, Reuters reports.
“As of 1230 (0930 GMT), Lyman is fully cleared,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a short video clip on his Telegram channel.
There was no comment from the Russian armed forces on Sunday on the status of the city. The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it was pulling troops out of the area “in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement”.
The latest stinging setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin came after he proclaimed the annexation of four regions covering nearly a fifth of Ukraine on Friday, an area that includes Lyman.
Kyiv and the West have condemned the proclamation as an illegitimate farce.
Russian forces captured Lyman from Ukraine in May and had used it as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region.
Losing it is Russia’s largest battlefield loss since Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region that neighbours Donetsk, said control over Lyman could help Ukraine reclaim lost territory in his region, whose full capture Moscow announced in early July after weeks of grinding advances.
“The liberation of this city in the Donetsk region is one of the key factors for the further de-occupation of the Luhansk region,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
Key events
Summary
It is 2pm in Kyiv, here’s a rundown of the latest news
Ukraine is in full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv’s most significant battlefield gain in weeks, which a senior official said could provide a staging post for further gains to the east, Reuters reports.
The Pope has said it is “absurd” that the world is facing a nuclear threat over Ukraine. Calling for a ceasefire “in the name of God”, he appealed to the Russian and Ukrainian presidents to find a way out of the crisis.
The US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has welcomed the capture by Ukrainian forces of Lyman, a key Russian stronghold in eastern Ukraine. Austin said he was “very encouraged” by the Ukrainian victory on Saturday, which is an embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, who declared on Friday that the city – in the Donetsk region – was Russia’s “for ever”.
Germany’s defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, made a surprise visit to Ukraine – her first since Russia’s invasion in February – as Kyiv urged Berlin to send it battle tanks. Lambrecht visited the southern port city of Odesa on Saturday and met her Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, the German defence ministry said.
Russia has now restricted access to the music-streaming app SoundCloud, Reuters reports. SoundCloud was accused of distributing “false information” about the war by communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor (RKN). It follows existing bans on Facebook and Instagram.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is no longer leaking under the Baltic Sea because an equilibrium has been reached between the gas and water pressure, pipeline spokesman Ulrich Lissek told AFP. The British prime minster, Liz Truss, has said the series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.
Belarus is preparing to receive Russian soldiers and equipment, the Kyiv Independent reports.There are about 1,000 Russian soldiers in the country.
Russia failed to win enough votes for re-election to the ICAO’s governing council. The French representative told the assembly after Saturday’s ballot: “When we have votes in our countries, if we don’t like the result, we don’t ask for another vote.” Russia had a place on the UN aviation agency’s 36-member council as one of the “states of chief importance in air transport”.
The head of Russia’s region of Chechnya said Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after its battlefield defeat in Lyman. Ramzan Kadyrov said in a message on Telegram addressing Russia’s loss of its stronghold: “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.”
Russian authorities informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that the head of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “temporarily detained” for questioning. Ihor Murashov was detained on his way from the Russian-occupied plant – Europe’s largest – to the town of Enerhodar at about 4pm on Friday. Russia is trying to transfer the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Russian energy firm Rosatom, the head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company, Petro Kotin, has told the BBC.
Turkey, which has been at the centre of mediation between the west and Russia, rejected Russia’s annexations in Ukraine, calling the Kremlin’s move on four regions a “grave violation” of international law.
Ukraine declares full control of Lyman
Ukraine is in full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv’s most significant battlefield gain in weeks, which a senior official said could provide a staging post for further gains to the east, Reuters reports.
“As of 1230 (0930 GMT), Lyman is fully cleared,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a short video clip on his Telegram channel.
There was no comment from the Russian armed forces on Sunday on the status of the city. The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it was pulling troops out of the area “in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement”.
The latest stinging setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin came after he proclaimed the annexation of four regions covering nearly a fifth of Ukraine on Friday, an area that includes Lyman.
Kyiv and the West have condemned the proclamation as an illegitimate farce.
Russian forces captured Lyman from Ukraine in May and had used it as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region.
Losing it is Russia’s largest battlefield loss since Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region that neighbours Donetsk, said control over Lyman could help Ukraine reclaim lost territory in his region, whose full capture Moscow announced in early July after weeks of grinding advances.
“The liberation of this city in the Donetsk region is one of the key factors for the further de-occupation of the Luhansk region,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s pro-Western centrist party has won elections in Latvia while parties supported by the Baltic state’s large Russian-speaking minority have suffered major setbacks, AFP reports.
With almost all ballots from Saturday’s vote counted, Karins’s New Unity party was in first place with 18.94 percent while the Harmony party, traditionally backed by Russian speakers, may not have won enough votes to enter parliament.
Harmony came first in the last election in 2018.
The results showed other centrist parties coming second and third and just one party associated with Russian-speakers, Stability!, scraping past the threshold to enter parliament with 6.75 percent.
The Russian-speaking minority in Latvia makes up around 30 percent of the population.
AFP has an interesting report on Germany’s rush to find home-grown energy and escape reliance on Moscow. Here’s a taste of it:
Germany’s most strategically important building site is at the end of a windswept pier on the North Sea coast, where workers are assembling the country’s first terminal for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Starting this winter, the rig, close to the port of Wilhelmshaven, will be able to supply the equivalent of 20 percent of the gas that was until recently imported from Russia.
Since its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has throttled gas supplies to Germany, while the Nord Stream pipelines which carried huge volumes under the Baltic Sea to Europe were damaged last week in what a Danish-Swedish report called “a deliberate act.”
In the search for alternative sources, the German government has splashed billions on five projects like the one in Wilhelmshaven.
Altogether the new fleet should be able to handle around 25 billion cubic metres of gas per year, roughly equivalent to half the capacity of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Lyman is now “fully cleared” of Russian forces, Zelenskiy has declared in a short video on his Telegram channel.
The Pope has said it is “absurd” that the world is facing a nuclear threat over Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Calling for a ceasefire “in the name of God”, he appealed to the Russian and Ukrainian presidents to find a way out of the crisis.
This is Robyn Vinter, taking over the Ukraine blog for a while.
Russian shelling of the Kharkiv region is continuing alongside urgent attempts to demine the area, its governor says.
Governor Oleg Sinegubov said on Telegram that shelling had been particularly heavy in the city of Kupyansk and its surrounding area as well as Vovchansk and the village of Gatishche in Chuguyiv district.
A 71-year-old woman was hospitalised with an injury during the day in Kupyan district, he said the regional centre of emergency medical assistance had reported.
He also said that 704 explosive devices had already been neutralised in the last day.
Mark Hamill at the world premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Hollywood. Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP/Getty Images
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has said Ukraine needs more drones to fight off the Russian invasion and compared Moscow to the dark side of the Force in the film series.
Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the films, was made an ambassador to the United24 project – which Ukraine set up to elicit donations of drones to the Ukrainian army – by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he had discussed parallels with the cult films and the current war in Ukraine with Zelenskiy.
“[Zelenskiy] did reference the movies and it’s not hard to understand why,” Hamill said, “I mean, Star Wars was always a fairy tale for children and fairy tales are morality tales of good versus evil, where good is clearly defined, evil is clearly defined and it’s not hard to extrapolate an evil empire with Russia invading a sovereign nation.”
Asked whether the platform would be used to supply lethal technology, he answered: “Ukraine needs drones. They have some drones, but not nearly as many as the Russians.”
Hamill also paid tribute to President Zelenskiy, saying: “I was really fascinated with this man… because he’s been absolutely heroic. And the Ukrainian people have been inspirational. He’s an amazing man.”
Hamill said participating in the project was “a chance to use [the popularity of the films’] for good and I feel a great responsibility to try and do everything I can to further the Ukrainian cause.”
Luke Harding reporting in Kyiv has contrasted Ukraine’s success in Lyman with the propaganda about the state of the war on the streets of Moscow. He writes in The Observer today:
The banner hanging near Red Square was triumphant. It read: “Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Russia! Together for ever!” On Friday Vladimir Putin formally announced the annexation of these Ukrainian territories and celebrated with a victory concert in Moscow. Russia’s president addressed a cheering crowd waving white blue and red tricolours. “Welcome home,” he said. “Russia! Russia!” they replied.
For ever turned out to mean less than 24 hours. As workmen dismantled the stage, put up on the cobbled square outside the Kremlin, Ukrainian troops marched into the eastern city of Lyman, from where Putin’s army had just made an inglorious retreat. At one point Lyman’s liberators even performed a victory dance, hopping cheerfully from side to side along a sandy forest path.
They were, according to the Kremlin’s version of reality, encroaching on Russia’s sovereign territory. In his angry west-bashing speech on Friday, delivered before Russia’s supine government, Putin had declared that Donetsk province which includes Lyman would be officially incorporated into the Russian federation. It was, he suggested, a restoration of historical Russian lands.
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In its continued information war, Russia has now restricted access to the music-streaming app SoundCloud, Reuters reports.
SoundCloud was accused of distributing “false information” about what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine by communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor (RKN). It follows existing bans on Facebook and Instagram.
“Roskomnadzor restricted access to the SoundCloud service in connection with placement of materials containing false information regarding the nature of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine,” the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, citing RKN.
It said the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had ordered the blocking of service. The ban-worthy information apparently related to warfare methods, including “attacks on civilians, strikes on civilian infrastructure, about numerous civilian casualties at the hands of Russian soldiers”.
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