Nation

Texas

Cornyn, Paxton push to runoff

SAN ANTONIO — Voters in Texas saw little of the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate on Monday — provided they stayed away from screens.

Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton had no public campaign events scheduled for the final day of their more-than-yearlong quest for the GOP nomination. Instead, their fight for Tuesday’s runoff continued as it has for months — intense and unabated — through advertising that has topped $109 million, heavily from Cornyn’s side.

Cornyn hosted an annual, non-campaign event in San Antonio to recognize high school graduates attending the nation’s service academies. The senator seeking a fifth term held his last public campaign event in Corpus Christi on Friday, ahead of Tuesday’s voting.

Texas

Dems feud over stock trading

DALLAS — After three terms in the U.S. House and two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate, Colin Allred said he’s heard plenty about voters’ suspicions that politicians are just trying to make a buck in Washington.

“‘What about the stock trading in Congress? What about people getting rich in Congress?'” Allred said they ask him regularly. “And I have to say to them, you’re absolutely right about that, too. We need to be better.”

He’s challenging Rep. Julie Johnson in the Democratic runoff for a Dallas-area House seat on Tuesday, and he’s one of several candidates trying to harness populist anger over congressional stock trading. Allred has denounced Johnson for trades involving companies like Palantir, a data analytics firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s administration.

World

Gaza Strip

Palestinian woman, child killed in strike

DEIR AL-BALAH — A Palestinian woman and a young girl were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on Monday, hospital authorities said.

The strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the area of Muwasi, on the western side of Khan Younis, according to the Kuwait field hospital, which received the casualties. The hospital said another girl was wounded. The military said it had struck a militant, but gave no further details.

The fatalities were the latest among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas group in Gaza.

Ukraine

Leaders keep eye on Belarus

KYIV — Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited Kyiv on Monday as the Ukrainian capital cleaned up after Russia’s biggest missile attack of the year, and world leaders kept a close eye on how much support the Belarusian government is ready to provide for Moscow’s all-out invasion.

Russia and ally Belarus held joint nuclear drills last week, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned in recent days that Belarus could provide a launchpad for Russia to open a new front in northern Ukraine. Some Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarusian territory in Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

In a further sign of concern, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday about the war in Ukraine, their first call since the invasion began.