INTERNACIONAL
Abbott turns up heat on Talarico, Soros-backed DAs over Texas crime
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As Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico works to brand himself as a «law and order Democrat,» Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is rolling out a sweeping public safety agenda that could force the left’s rising star to defend parts of his legislative record on crime, bail reform and policing.
Abbott, who is pushing to remove so-called «rogue» prosecutors, create a statewide prosecutor and deny bail to illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes, told Fox News Digital the proposals are necessary.
«Texas Democrats have consistently sided with criminals over the citizens they were elected to protect,» Abbott told Fox News Digital, adding, «Keeping dangerous offenders behind bars is one of the most important responsibilities of government.»
While Abbott’s proposals still need approval from lawmakers, they are already shaping a broader debate over crime and public safety in Texas ahead of midterm elections.
TRAVIS COUNTY DA FACES RENEWED ‘SOFT ON CRIME’ CRITICISM AFTER CAREER CRIMINAL CHARGED WITH MURDER
A collage of three separate news events in Texas, featuring news conferences by Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza and Governor Greg Abbott, alongside a campaign rally by U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. (Jay Janner, Ronaldo Schemidt, Brandon Bell / The Austin American-Statesman, AFP, Getty Images)
Talarico has highlighted endorsements from law enforcement figures, including former Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno, to bolster his public safety record, but Abbott’s allies argue his voting record and absences from key public safety votes tell a different story.
Talarico was absent for a vote on a bill named after slain Houston preteen Jocelyn Nungaray that would have automatically denied bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes. Talarico’s campaign defended the missed vote, telling Fox News Digital Talarico had an excused absence. The bill ultimately failed to pass, but Abbott is seeking to revive the measure.
Among the public safety measures Talarico voted against were House Bill 1900, which prevented Texas cities from defunding their police departments; House Bill 20, which tightened bail restrictions for violent offenders; and Senate Bill 4, which established mandatory prison sentences for human smuggling and stash house operations. Abbott later signed all three measures into law.
«James Talarico’s disastrous record on public safety is indistinguishable from the Texas Democrats who have repeatedly opposed common-sense measures to support law enforcement and keep violent criminals off the streets,» Eduardo Leal, press secretary for Abbott’s campaign, told Fox News Digital. «He’s led his Democrat colleagues to vote against legislation that prevented cities from defunding the police and twice failed to show up for votes to deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes.»
Talarico’s campaign has pushed back on Abbott’s characterization, pointing to Talarico previously voting in favor of Abbott’s sweeping bail reform measure passed last year and voting for billions of dollars in funding for Texas law enforcement.
«This baseless attack is a flat-out lie. James opposes defunding the police, has voted to deny bail for violent criminals, supports prosecuting violent felons, and has a proven track record of sending billions of dollars to support law enforcement,» Talarico’s campaign spokesperson JT Ellis said in a statement.
But as crime continues to dominate headlines nationwide, Texas has not been immune, with Abbott blaming what he describes as soft-on-crime district attorneys for failing to hold offenders accountable. Abbott’s campaign team pointed to the release of two murder suspects in Austin on reduced bonds after Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza’s office missed the 90-day deadline for securing indictments last year. Meanwhile, Garza’s office has secured the indictments of 21 police officers over allegations of misconduct in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SUED OVER NEW RULE TO REIN IN ‘ROGUE’ DAS BY ALLOWING HIM ACCESS TO THEIR CASE RECORDS
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on March 27, 2026. (Shelby Tauber / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
And in court Monday, a judge dismissed two motions targeting the Travis County District Attorney, first assistant, and several prosecutors, meaning they are no longer facing allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
Abbott’s office says concerns about district attorneys such as Garza are driving its push to create a Texas statewide prosecutor, a new office that would operate separately from the attorney general’s office and focus on prosecuting the state’s most serious crimes.
The proposal to create a Texas statewide prosecutor would require approval from the Texas Legislature, which would need to establish and fund the new office through statute. Unlike some of Abbott’s other public safety initiatives, the measure would not require a constitutional amendment.
An official from Abbott’s campaign team told Fox News Digital that creating this new office is necessary because current state statutes provide that the Attorney General’s office has no general prosecutorial authority.
Criminal prosecutions are generally handled by locally elected district and county attorneys, and the Attorney General may intervene only when authorized by statute, requested by local prosecutors, or otherwise permitted by law.
Under the proposal, if a district attorney does not pursue an indictment within 90 days, the statewide prosecutor would be authorized to intervene and take over the prosecution.
GOV ABBOTT UNVEILS NEW CAMPAIGN EXPOSING HORRIFIC DANGERS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
James Talarico speaks during a primary event in Texas. (PJason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Police departments would be required to send reports involving certain serious crimes to both local district attorneys and the statewide prosecutor, enabling the office to track cases from the beginning.
Garza dubbed Abbott’s sweeping criminal justice reform proposal to be a «distraction from the Governor’s litany of failures.»
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«Under his leadership, Texans are paying more for groceries, public schools are losing funding, and too many Texans lack access to healthcare and mental healthcare,» Garza said.
Abbott’s other two legislative requests — ending bail for illegal immigrants and making it possible to impeach district attorneys — would require a statewide vote by Texans.
Last month, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to expand the Texas Repeat Offender Task Force from the Houston area into the Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin regions, saying the effort will help target violent repeat offenders and improve public safety. Since launching in October, the task force has arrested 728 repeat offenders, including 455 high-threat suspects; seized large quantities of drugs and weapons; encountered 155 known gang members; and recovered 25 stolen vehicles.
«The choice in this election is clear,» Abbott said. «Republicans will protect communities and prosecute criminals, while Democrats stand with the very people who threaten public safety.»
greg abbott, democrats elections, local, republicans, crime world, politics, texas
INTERNACIONAL
El primer mapa global de hongos subterráneos reveló dónde está la red viva más extensa del planeta
Debajo de los pies, invisible y sin hacer ruido, existe una red que conecta plantas, mueve nutrientes y ayuda a regular el clima del planeta.
Un grupo científico liderado por investigadores de los Países Bajos publicó el primer mapa global de los organismos que forman esas alianzas subterráneas con cerca del 70% de las plantas terrestres: los hongos micorrízicos arbusculares.
Los resultados del trabajo, publicado en la revista Science de la Asociación Estadounidense para el Avance de la Ciencia, cambian la forma de entender la vida bajo la tierra.
La cifra central del estudio es difícil de imaginar: los suelos superiores del mundo contienen aproximadamente 110 cuatrillones de kilómetros de redes fúngicas vivas, una distancia casi mil millones de veces mayor que la que separa la Tierra del Sol.
Esas redes están formadas por hifas, los filamentos microscópicos más finos que un cabello humano, que actúan como tuberías vivas entre las plantas y los hongos.
El trabajo fue liderado por Justin Stewart y Toby Kiers, de la Sociedad para la Protección de las Redes Subterráneas (SPUN) y la Universidad Libre de Ámsterdam, en los Países Bajos. También contaron con la colaboración de científicos de Sudáfrica, Canadá, Reino Unido, Bélgica y Estados Unidos.
Durante décadas, se sabía que esos hongos existían y que eran vitales, pero nunca había podido calcular cuántos hay ni dónde están con precisión. Las mediciones previas mezclaban distintos tipos de hongos sin distinguirlos, y los mapas globales no existían.
Esa falta de datos era un problema real: sin saber dónde están esas redes ni qué tan densas son, resultaba imposible evaluar su aporte al ciclo del carbono o diseñar políticas concretas para proteger el suelo.
La agricultura intensiva añadía otra preocupación: se sospechaba que los cultivos dañaban estas redes, pero nadie lo había medido a escala planetaria.
Los investigadores que publicaron en Science se propusieron construir un mapa por primera vez, con una resolución de un kilómetro cuadrado por punto de predicción, e identificar qué ecosistemas albergan las redes más densas y qué factores del ambiente las determinan.
Reunieron datos de más de 16.000 muestras de suelo que obtuvieron en nueve biomas distintos, desde desiertos hasta bosques tropicales.
Con esa base, entrenaron modelos de aprendizaje automático, que son sistemas informáticos que detectan patrones en grandes volúmenes de datos, para predecir la densidad de las redes en zonas sin muestras disponibles.
El paso más novedoso fue un robot de imágenes diseñado a medida, capaz de fotografiar redes fúngicas vivas con altísima velocidad y precisión.
Con ese sistema, el equipo tomó más de 300.000 mediciones del grosor de las hifas de tres especies distribuidas en todo el mundo.
Esos datos de grosor fueron la clave para calcular el peso real de las redes: aproximadamente 300 megatones de carbono almacenado en biomasa fúngica viva, una cantidad equivalente a entre cuatro y seis veces todo el carbono que contienen los cuerpos de todos los seres humanos del planeta.
Los resultados mostraron que los pastizales concentran alrededor del 40% de toda la biomasa global de estos hongos.
Zonas como los Everglades en Florida, los humedales del Sudd en Sudán del Sur y la estepa tibetana registraron las densidades más altas, un dato que llamó la atención del equipo porque los pastizales tienen menor vegetación que los bosques tropicales.
Las tierras agrícolas contaron otra historia: sus densidades de hifas fueron, en promedio, un 47,3% menores que en ecosistemas silvestres. El uso de fertilizantes con fósforo y nitrógeno reduce el incentivo de las plantas para alimentar a sus hongos, y los fungicidas los atacan directamente.
Truth & Beauty / Moritz Stefaner, Justin Stewart – SPUN
“Es difícil exagerar la importancia y la magnitud de estos hongos”, dijo Stewart. “Puede haber hasta 10 metros de red micorrízica en apenas una cucharadita de suelo”, resaltó.
Esas redes mueven hacia el interior del suelo unos 3.900 millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono equivalente cada año, provenientes de las plantas.
“Los hongos han sido ignorados en las políticas climáticas y de conservación por demasiado tiempo”, dijo Kiers. “Ahora es el momento de cambiar esa trayectoria.”
Tras los resultados, los investigadores advirtieron que los datos de suelos profundos son escasos (apenas el 2% de la base corresponde a profundidades mayores de 50 centímetros) y que las tasas de renovación de las hifas permanecen mal documentadas.
El mapa quedó disponible para su descarga por parte de gobiernos y tomadores de decisiones, con el propósito de servir como línea de base para monitorear la salud de estas comunidades fúngicas subterráneas.
En diálogo con Infobae, José Martín Scervino, investigador independiente del Conicet que estudia las relaciones entre las comunidades de hongos y bacterias en el Instituto INIBIOMA, en Bariloche, Argentina, comentó: “Este mapa revela una enorme red biológica oculta bajo nuestros pies que hasta ahora no podíamos dimensionar”.
Los hongos micorrízicos son esenciales para la vida terrestre porque -remarcó el científico- “ayudan a las plantas a obtener nutrientes, mantienen la salud de los suelos y favorecen el almacenamiento de carbono. Saber dónde se encuentran y cómo se distribuyen nos brinda una herramienta clave para proteger ecosistemas y afrontar los desafíos ambientales del futuro”.
Scervino agregó: “Para América Latina, una región que alberga algunos de los ecosistemas más biodiversos del planeta y cuya economía depende fuertemente de los recursos naturales, esta información puede contribuir al diseño de estrategias de conservación, restauración de tierras degradadas y desarrollo de prácticas agrícolas más sostenibles”.
plantación,agricultura,árboles,filas,monocultivo,campo,paisaje,cielo,cultivos,uniformidad
INTERNACIONAL
Divididos entre el miedo y el alivio, los iraníes abrigan la esperanza de que termine la guerra
Progress with Iran can only be achieved ‘by force,’ expert warns
President Trump hints at an imminent peace deal with Iran, suggesting the Supreme Leader has approved it and the US will lift blockades. Rebecca Heinrichs, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow, expresses skepticism, citing Iran’s continued harassment in the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear program. She also addresses reports of the US cutting fighter jets in Europe, questioning the timing given escalating tensions with Russia.
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The U.S. has hit back against threats to now block another Middle East waterway by Iranian terror proxy, the Houthis.
Earlier this week, the group declared a complete ban on Israeli-owned ships using the Red Sea, declaring them to be «legitimate targets».
The Red Sea and the waterway through its narrow Bab-el Mandeb strait, has become the main route for oil to ship out of the Middle East to Asia since the Strait of Hormuz has effectively stopped functioning as the main route of navigation for shipping.
IRAN’S AFRICA ACTIVITIES POSE ‘SIGNIFICANT THREATS TO US NATIONAL SECURITY’
Houthi terrorists walk over British and U.S. flags at a rally supporting Palestinians amid Houthi strikes on shipping near Sana’a, Yemen, on Feb. 4, 2024. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree posted on Monday, «We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and we consider all enemy movements to be legitimate targets.»
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson struck back: «The escalatory actions of Iran and their Houthi proxies are unacceptable. These dangerous actions only serve to further enflame tensions and further disrupt global supply chains. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.»
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, «The Houthis have indeed risen to the challenge, at least verbally. In common with much ‘Axis of Resistance’ rhetoric at present, the intention appears to be to leverage US political nervousness and market volatility, and to drive a wedge between the Americans and the Israelis.»
An aerial view of The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a sea route connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. (Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2021)
Fitton-Brown, a former U.K. ambassador to Yemen added, «Provided the allies keep talking to each other, the Israelis respond proportionately, as they have done, and the Iranians continue to provoke President Trump with actions like the downing of the helicopter, these tactics are unlikely to achieve significant success.»
«It will be interesting if the Houthis do go all in, and resume their campaign against Red Sea shipping with full intensity,» Fitton-Brown said, adding, «This will draw international anger and likely result in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Sanaa and Hodeida. There is potential for a general escalation if this happens, albeit one in which the allies have a clear military advantage.»
US STRIKES ON YEMEN CONTINUE AFTER HOUTHI MISSILE HITS BY ISRAELI AIRPORT; TERROR GROUP VOWS ‘AERIAL BLOCKADE’
A huge column of fire erupts in the Yemeni rebel-held port city of Hodeida following reported strikes on July 20, 2024. The strikes targeted a fuel depot in the port, according to Houthi-run media and an AFP correspondent.
Landlocked Ethiopia acts as regional anti-terrorism buffer
Such actions come as reports emerge that Ethiopia, the Red Sea region’s most populous country, is stepping up as a major U.S. ally against Islamic terrorism.
While landlocked, Ethiopia has a population of some 130 million, making it the largest nation in the Horn of Africa. Located near parts of the Red Sea corridor, the country is roughly 60% Christian, according to a recent report by the Association of Religion Data Archives.
World Data Locator Map, Ethiopia. (Encyclopedia Britannica/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
And despite it being landlocked, Ethiopian researcher Blen M. Diriba told Fox News Digital that the country acts as a strategic roadblock or «a keystone state» on the Islamist expansionist ‘highway’ that has formed all the way from Iran to Sudan.
Diriba, executive director of the Horn Review — an Addis Ababa-based research and publication think tank — told Fox News Digital that «Ethiopia, long a frontline U.S. security partner, now sits at the center of an expanding pressure zone where maritime disruption, insurgent violence, terrorist threats, and proxy competition converge.»
Diriba added. «Iran’s Bab el-Mandeb threat transforms the Horn of Africa into a militarized frontline, placing Ethiopia at the center of a chokepoint crisis. With Iranian influence radiating through conflict ecosystems in Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, the region is beginning to resemble a continuous arc of instability stretching from the Arabian Peninsula into East Africa.»
«Ethiopia sits at the center of one of the world’s most combustible security corridors,» Diriba continued. «And in strategic terms, its relevance to the United States is amplified, not diminished, by that reality: From the Red Sea disruptions driven by the Houthis to the persistent insurgency threat of al-Shabab in Somalia, Ethiopia functions as a massive inland security buffer whose stability directly shapes whether these threats expand or are contained.»
IRAN’S KILLER DRONES INCREASE SLAUGHTER IN SUDAN AMID WORLD’S FORGOTTEN WAR
Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force parade during the 116th celebration of Ethiopian Defense Force day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Oct.26, 2023. (Amanuel Sileshi/AFP via Getty images)
But in addition to being pro-U.S., Ethiopia also has relations with Iran.
Fitton-Brown believes to some extent Ethiopia can be accused of playing both sides, as he said Tehran «has helped Ethiopia with its internal conflicts, giving drone support and military aid to the Ethiopian government during the recent Tigray War.»
He added, «There is a new memorandum of understanding built upon that basis, with Iran gaining influence in Ethiopia, while Ethiopia receives military, police and intelligence support to counter its domestic ethnic insurgencies.»
However, Diriba said, «Ethiopia’s engagement with Iran is neither affinity nor alignment, it’s strategic awareness: keeping channels open to engage where necessary, cooperate selectively, and strategically manage its relations with a complex regional actor, while firmly anchoring its core partnerships with its emerging and long-standing partners — the United States being on the top of that list.»
A drone view shows vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, May 25, 2026. (Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY via Reuters)
«Ethiopia has pursued a flexible multi-alignment strategy, Diriba said, «prioritizing its entrenched security partnership with Washington while keeping open channels with Tehran to preserve diplomatic room to maneuver in an increasingly fragmented Horn of Africa–Red Sea order.»
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Fitton-Brown said relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia «are good, especially in the field of counterterrorism. Both countries use Somaliland to their advantage without having gone so far as to recognize it as an independent state.»
Fox News Digital reached out to both the Department of War and the Ethiopian government for comment, but received no response by the time of publication.
war with iran, middle east, counter terrorism, terrorism, israel, africa
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