Nation & World Glance

Impeachment trial of Texas’ Ken Paxton to begin no later than August 28

AUSTIN, Texas – A historic impeachment trial in Texas to determine whether Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton should be permanently removed from office will begin no later than August in the state Senate, where the jury that would determine his future could include his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton.

Setting a schedule was one of the last orders of business lawmakers took Monday during an acrimonious end to this year’s legislative session in Texas, where the impeachment laid bare fractures in America’s biggest red state beyond whether Republicans will oust one of the GOP’S conservative legal stars.

It drags Republicans – who for years have pushed fast-changing Texas farther to the right – into a summer of unfinished business and soured feelings that are likely to spill into 2024’s elections.

The stakes are also raised for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who couldn’t get his full agenda through the Gop-controlled legislature on time. He almost immediately called lawmakers back to work for the first of “several” special sessions in the coming months.

His announcement made no mention of Paxton, who Abbott has remained silent on since the impeachment proceedings began last week.

China launches new crew for space station, with eye to putting astronauts on moon before 2030

BEIJING – China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.

The Shenzhou 16 spacecraft lifted off from the

Jiuquan launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket just after 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) Tuesday.

The crew, including China’s first civilian astronaut, will overlap briefly with three now aboard the Tiangong station, who will then return to Earth after completing their sixmonth mission.

A third module was added to the station in November, and space program officials on Monday said they have plans to expand it, along with launching a crewed mission to the moon before 2030.

China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to U.S. concerns over the Chinese space programs’ intimate ties with the People’s Liberation Army, the military branch of the ruling Communist Party.

Thousands evacuated as Philippines warns of flooding, landslides from approaching Typhoon Mawar

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine officials are evacuating thousands of villagers, shutting schools and offices and imposing a no-sail ban as Typhoon Mawar approaches the country’s northern provinces.

The typhoon is packing maximum sustained winds of 96 mph and gusts of up to 118 mph but is forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan.

Philippine authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as the typhoon blows past the northernmost province of Batanes.

Mawar tore through Guam last week as the strongest typhoon to hit the U.S. Pacific territory in over two decades, flipping cars, tearing off roofs and knocking down power.