Messing with Texas's right to vote

Voting rights bills in Texas; protests in Cuba.

Texas Republicans advance a new restrictive voting rights bill; Cubans are participating in their largest protests in decades.   Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum. TOP NEWS A new restrictive voting rights bill     Callaghan O'Hare/Bloomberg/Getty Images Texas lawmakers returned to the statehouse for an emergency session this weekend in order to pass state Republicans' top priority: a restrictive voting bill. [Houston Chronicle / Taylor Goldenstein] In May, a similar GOP bill was deterred after Texas Democrats walked out of the legislature, denying Republicans the necessary quorum. [Washington Post / Eva Ruth Moravec and Amy B. Wang] Hundreds of Texans showed up over the weekend to testify about the bill, including former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke. Still, both the Texas House and Senate committees voted to advance the bills to the floor on Sunday. [Guardian / Alexandra Villarreal] Republicans stripped a few provisions from the May version of the bill, including restricting voting on Sunday, which essentially would have banned Black church voter drives. But the bills still make drive-through voting and 24-hour voting stations illegal, restrict vote-by-mail, add ID requirements for absentee ballots, and limit any proactive measures by officials to promote ballot applications. [Texas Tribune / Alexa Ura and Cassandra Pollock] During the hearing, the bill's author, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, could not offer an example of the kind of fraud he said the bill was targeting, and admitted no studies had been conducted to assess how the bill would affect people of color. [Daily Beast / Justin Rohrlich] Floor votes are expected for both the House and Senate bills this week. Democrats could walk out again, but some ugly consequences — such as police officers dragging them back into the chamber — could arise. And with Gov. Greg Abbott holding legislative funding hostage with a veto until his priorities are passed, legislative staff might not get paid if the bills fail. [Dallas Morning News / Gromer Jeffers Jr.] Meanwhile, Texas Democrats are hoping the episode will force the issue for congressional Democrats to move on voting rights legislation, which failed in the US Senate and cannot move forward without filibuster reform. [Politico / Zach Montellaro] Texas is one of a number of GOP-controlled states where legislators are attempting to restrict access to voting. Fourteen states have already passed such laws. [NYT / David Montgomery] Protests in Cuba Thousands of Cubans flooded the streets Sunday in the country's largest demonstrations in decades to protest a lack of food and medicine and rising prices across the island. [AP / Andrea Rodriguez] Dissent is heavily criminalized in Cuba, so the protests are being described as a breakthrough moment, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1994 Maleconazo uprising. [Miami Herald / Adriana Brasileiro and Nora Gámez Torres] Cuba's economy, which relies on tourism, has been severely impacted by the pandemic. Discontent had been growing since the onset of President Miguel Díaz-Canel's term, in part due to increased access to the internet for Cubans. [NYT / Frances Robles] Videos of the protests were uploaded to Facebook but were taken down soon after. Police arrested several protesters and in some cases used tear gas on the crowds. [CNN / Patrick Oppmann and Tatiana Arias] US President Joe Biden expressed support for the protests and their claim to fundamental rights. His press release called on the Cuban government to listen to protesters rather than use force against them. [Axios / Yacob Reyes] MISCELLANEOUS Billionaire Richard Branson successfully completed a brief spaceflight, becoming the first person to do so in his own spacecraft. He is also promoting a sweepstakes for two tickets on Virgin Galactic's next flights, where tickets cost $250,000. [AP / Susan Montoya Bryan and Marcia Dunn] The heat wave and a drought in the western United States have combined to create a severe wildfire season, in which 1 million acres of land are already on fire. [Axios / Andrew Freedman] Four years after the Charlottesville, Virginia, city council voted to remove the city's Confederate statues — a decision that prompted the infamous 2017 "Unite the Right" rally — the city took down the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. [Daily Progress / Katherine Knott] Black players who missed penalty kicks in England's Euro final loss to Italy are experiencing racist harassment and abuse on social media. [NY Mag / Benjamin Hart] Support our journalism Reader contributions help keep Vox and newsletters like Sentences free for all. Support our work from as little as $3. Contribute VERBATIM "You may know my next move, but you can't stop it. You never knew when Mike Tyson was going to throw the uppercut, but you knew he was going to throw it." [Texas Rep. Jarvis Johnson (D) on how Democrats could use a walkout to once again deter Republicans from passing their restrictive voting bill] LISTEN TO THIS     Vox's Sean Illing talks with Elizabeth Bruenig about how hard it is to forgive, how to balance our desire for justice with our humanity, and about how the age-old moral framework of forgiveness has met new challenges in the modern forum of social media. [Spotify / Sean Illing] Read more from Vox The spiritual bankruptcy of bottled water   What the assasination of Haiti's president means for US foreign policy   Undersea volcanoes are home to more life than we know   Richard Branson's trip to space is about convincing others to come along   How American parents became obsessed with gender     This email was sent to edwardlorilla1986.paxforex@blogger.com. Manage your email preferences, or unsubscribe to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox's unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution.   View our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.   Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.