The man had been detained at an immigration center in Laredo, Texas, since June. Immigration officials said he had received proper medical care.

© Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

US military says Tech Sgt Ian Patterson was killed after he fell from rafters at University of Texas at San Antonio game

The US military has identified the air force service member who died after he fell from the rafters of the Alamodome during a rappelling demonstration before the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)’s home game against Navy on Saturday.

He was Tech Sgt Ian Patterson, a tactical air control party instructor assigned to the sixth combat training squadron, detachment two, at Joint Base San Antonio.

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© Photograph: Joe Nogalski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Joe Nogalski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Joe Nogalski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Early voting in Texas, where the outcome of the Senate race could determine which party controls the chamber, will run through Oct. 30.

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

The Texas attorney general’s powers could come under scrutiny in a close Senate contest, though election experts say courts would likely constrain him.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Democratic candidate invoked a rallying cry from the TV show “Friday Night Lights” as he began his final campaign push before the Nov. 3 election.

© LM Otero/Associated Press

• Officer fell from rafters during pregame display

• Man treated on field before being taken to hospital

An Air Force officer has died after he fell from the rafters of the Alamodome before the University of Texas at San Antonio’s home game against Navy on Saturday.

The officer, who has not been named, was taking part in an event to celebrate UTSA’s Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans night. He fell on to the field while rappelling down from the stadium rafters. He was treated on the field before being taken away on a stretcher. He later died from his injuries at a local hospital. Nellis Air Force Base said he was part of the 6th Combat Training Squadron. The unit helps train military members to rappel down from helicopters.

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© Photograph: John Rivera/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Rivera/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Rivera/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

The Republican state attorney general appears uniquely ill-chosen as a candidate – but he is a political survivor who could yet frustrate Democratic dreams

Depending how you look at the situation, it is either predictable that Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general and Republican candidate for US Senate, is struggling in the polls – or impressive that he is not doing worse. Beloved by hardcore Maga voters and regarded with skepticism by the broader voting public, Paxton is also puzzlingly bland. Recently, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that the 63-year-old Paxton “may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen”. The president was endorsing him.

Yet it is Paxton’s ability to attract – and somehow scrape through – scandal that makes him a less charismatic, perhaps, but still kindred spirit of “Teflon Don”: nothing sticks. He has survived state prosecution (on securities-related charges that he settled without admitting guilt), impeachment by the Republican-led Texas legislature (on abuse-of-office charges of which he was later acquitted), and so many controversies that it can be difficult to pin down the most outrageous.

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© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ken Paxton’s bus tour of Texas comes as polls have shown the race for Senate is increasingly close. His rival, James Talarico, is scheduled to kick off a similar tour on Sunday.

© Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Guyger, convicted of murder of Botham Jean in Dallas in 2018, served seven years of 10-year sentence

The former Dallas police officer who was convicted of murdering Botham Jean after entering his apartment and shooting him in 2018 was released from prison on Friday morning after spending seven years in prison.

Amber Guyger, 38, regained her freedom a little more than two weeks after the Texas board of pardons and paroles approved her release, despite opposition from Jean’s family.

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© Photograph: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Court filing alleges ‘physical abuse by guards’, ‘filthy living conditions’ and disease outbreaks at Camp East Montana

• How has Trump’s immigration agenda affected the US midterms? Send us your questions

Attorneys and experts are raising the alarm that immigrants at Camp East Montana, the sprawling desert detention camp on the Fort Bliss military base in west Texas, face a risk of serious injury or death because of ongoing, extreme health and safety hazards there, according to a fresh court filing, the Guardian can reveal.

The allegedly dangerous conditions persist at the tent jail, the largest immigration detention facility in the US, despite regular reports from inside and outside the federal government that it has violated dozens of official standards since it opened last year.

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© Composite: AP, Reuters

© Composite: AP, Reuters

© Composite: AP, Reuters

The world’s richest person, who has become the biggest known midterm donor, gave $158 million to a group that quickly spent that much to help Mr. Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas.

© Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Ken Paxton celebrated New Year’s Eve in 2024 with two men wanted on federal charges, one of whom donated at least $190,000 to his campaigns. The extent of his ties to the men was unclear.

ICE agents rammed a man during a pursuit in Houston, leaving him with a shattered leg. But a bulletin of the target shows a man who died in 2017, his daughter said.

© Brandon Bell/Getty Images

El Niño will likely shift weather patterns to bring more rain, but much snow still isn’t forecast for the northern states

Winter in the United States looks like it will generally be wetter and warmer, but not necessarily snowier, according to the federal government’s seasonal outlook and other meteorologists’ forecasts. You can thank or blame El Niño.

El Niño is likely to shift weather patterns to bring more moisture, but with it higher temperatures. That should help erase persistent western drought, but it is unlikely to make northern snow-lovers happy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Senate showdown in Texas shows why Donald Trump and the Republican Party are worried about the midterm elections.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Voting registration organizations accuse Texas officials of failing to ensure eligible voters can register properly

Texas election officials are struggling to process a massive backlog of nearly 600,000 voter registration applications after a major state computer system failure, just days before early voting is set to open on Monday and amid concerns about widespread voter suppression.

The disruption has raised serious concerns about the state’s voter registration system, with voting rights organizations accusing Texas officials of failing to ensure that eligible voters could properly register.

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© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Elon Musk has spent $158m in a month to back Republicans in midterm races – with his efforts mostly focused on Texas

Tens of millions of dollars are pouring into Texas as Democrats stage an audacious bid to win a US Senate seat in the Republican stronghold.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is among those wading into the closely watched race as November’s midterm elections approach.

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© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Composite: Reuters, CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

The amount is the most that a Senate candidate has ever raised during that period, his campaign said, eclipsing his opponent in Texas, Ken Paxton.

© Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Discovery of grenades prompted a neighborhood lockdown and a visit from the Austin police department’s bomb squad

A buyer at a Texas estate sale discovered several second world war-era grenades in a box of newly bought items, prompting a neighbourhood lockdown and a visit from the Austin police department’s bomb squad.

The grenades, which were described as “live and active” in a social media post by the Austin police association, were removed and disarmed.

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© Photograph: Austin Police Association

© Photograph: Austin Police Association

© Photograph: Austin Police Association

Claims that James Talarico suffered a mental health crisis spread across rightwing media, offering a warning about disinformation ahead of the US midterm election

Where is James Talarico? The question ricocheted around rightwing echo chambers before metastasising into a conspiracy theory – and a reminder of the persistent danger of disinformation in the US midterm elections.

The smear campaign began when Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, was not seen in public for nine days. His campaign was slow to explain why. While nature abhors a vacuum, Donald Trump and social media seize on one and weaponise it.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Voting rights groups sued the Texas Department of Public Safety and the secretary of state over delayed voter registrations that overwhelmed local election workers.

© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Talarico casts himself as a moderate who would put Texans’ needs over party allegiances amid close contest against Republican Ken Paxton

James Talarico, the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, sat face to face with skeptical Republicans and independents voters who grilled him on a slew of contentious issues including Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, abortion and foreign aid, during a CNN town hall co-hosted by the Jubilee Media digital platform on Wednesday.

One voter, a young Republican activist who volunteered at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas last month and recently appeared on Fox News as a supporter of Talarico’s opponent, questioned the authenticity of Talarico’s faith, referencing a past remark where he described God as nonbinary.

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© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

At a rally in Texas, the vice president suggested the Democratic Senate nominee is gay, a comment criticized as homophobic.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

A quarter-billion dollars to help Republicans hold Congress.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The Harris County district attorney said investigators from his office did not believe that the crash that left Miguel Parra Hernandez injured over the weekend was accidental.

A Texas mother is suing the president of Students for Life of America and others in the group over an Instagram post that appeared to boast about ordering abortion pills in Houston.

© Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The New York Times

The Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas spent nine days off the trail with what he and his campaign said was a bad case of the flu. His opponents fueled rumors, including one that spread widely before it was debunked.

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

The world’s richest person has quietly become by far the biggest known midterm donor, trying to save Republicans’ Senate majority with some of the largest donations in American political history.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times