Red state AGs welcome Trump crackdown on illegal immigration after four years battling Biden
FIRST ON FOX: Twenty Republican attorneys general are prepared to bolster President-elect Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to a joint statement led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach shared with Fox News Digital. “The Biden Administration took dozens of executive actions that weakened border controls and sanctioned illegal immigration from around the world,” the letter states. “Republican attorneys general fought back by taking the Biden Administration to court for ending successful Trump Administration immigration policies and replacing them with new policies that violated the law and encouraged illegal immigration. The Republican attorneys general prevailed in virtually every one of these laws.” REPUBLICAN AGS DOUBLE DOWN ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION LAWSUITS AS PRESIDENT PREPARES TO LEAVE OFFICE The AGs say they’re ready to restore Trump’s “America First” policies from Trump’s first administration, particularly his “Remain in Mexico policy” and mass deportations. “As we point out in this letter, the Remain in Mexico policy is something that’s found in federal statute, and it’s been in federal statute since 1996. President Trump was the first president who actually implemented that policy set by Congress,” Kobach told Fox News Digital in an interview. “President Trump has all the statutory tools he needs,” he added. “They are already in the federal code, and that’s what we’re saying too. As lawyers who have been trying to stop the Biden administration from violating the law, we are saying, ‘President Trump, you have our support, and you have a wide open runway ahead of you to renew the enforcement of our federal immigration laws.’” BIDEN MOVING TO BAN OIL AND GAS LEASES FOR 20 YEARS IN NEVADA REGION, JUST WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP INAUGURATION The attorneys general are also anticipating Trump will “fully rescind the unlawful DACA programs,” as he promised during his first term. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, introduced in 2012 by the Obama administration, permits illegal immigrants brought to the country as children — often referred to as “Dreamers” — to temporarily remain in the country. In addition to Kobach, attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Tennessee signed the statement. Republican attorneys general across the U.S. have been at the forefront of filing lawsuits against the Biden administration over the last four years. This month, Texas AG Ken Paxton filed his 103rd lawsuit against the outgoing administration over its energy efficiency standards for housing. GROWING CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT IN CANADA IS FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ‘CALIFORNIA ON STEROIDS,’ SAYS STRATEGIST The Republicans have secured several legal wins. In 2021, a coalition led by then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry obtained a preliminary injunction against the administration’s suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land. In May 2024, Paxton achieved a significant win in a lawsuit alleging unlawful censorship by the administration, with a federal judge denying the government’s motion to dismiss and ordering expedited discovery. And a federal judge recently vacated the administration’s Title IX rule, which had expanded protections against discrimination based on gender identity, after challenges from Republican-led states. “I think what the 20 or so attorneys general signing this statement is about what the law is and what the law requires,” Kobach said. “And … we are very grateful and expect that President Trump will return us to a country where the law is enforced and the strictures that Congress has put in place are observed.”
DeSantis calls for media to hold Democratic California leaders accountable for wildfires: ‘Have not seen that’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out a reporter on Thursday for the lack of blame being placed on California leaders for the devastating wildfires, pointing out that it’s in stark contrast to how Republican leaders are often treated in the wake of disasters. DeSantis, and all other Republican governors, had just wrapped up a dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening when the heated exchange with a reporter took place. The reporter appeared to be asking another governor if it was appropriate for Trump to criticize Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom as deadly wildfires rage throughout the state. NEWSOM CALLS TRUMP’S CLAIMS ‘PURE FICTION’ AFTER PRESIDENT-ELECT POINTS FINGER OVER CALIFORNIA FIRE TRAGEDY The question prompted DeSantis to step forward and ask, “Is it appropriate for people in your industry to try to create division and to try to create narratives any time these things happen?” “Now, you’re not as interested in doing that because Newsom is a D. If Newsom was a Republican, you guys would go try … you would have him nailed to the wall for what they’re doing over there,” he continued. DESANTIS HALTS RIVALRY WITH NEWSOM, OFFERS AID TO BESIEGED BLUE STATE GOVERNOR The Florida governor, who has managed multiple disasters during his tenure, said he has often been criticized for things that were out of his control and has been blamed for incidents before the facts came out, referencing the 2021 Surfside condominium collapse. “I think your track record of politicizing these things is very, very bad,” DeSantis said. He said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass would be treated much differently for her trip to Ghana while fires were high risk if she were a Republican. “You should have been there preparing and doing that, and yet I don’t see a lot of heat being directed [toward her],” DeSantis said. “I’d like to see some balance on how this is done. You can criticize the president-elect, but you also have to hold these other people accountable, and I have not seen that.” ADAM CAROLLA RIPS CALIFORNIA LEADERS FOR RUNNING STATE ‘INTO THE GROUND’ AS FIRES RAGE: ‘LUNATIC NUTJOBS’ Bass returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday, and didn’t have much to say to the residents of her city outside of news conferences. While waiting to deplane, she gave the cold shoulder to Sky News reporter David Blevins, who was asking her if she had anything to say about the devastating fires. “No apology to them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?” Blevins asked as Bass continued to look at the ground. “Madam mayor, let me ask you just again, have you anything to say to the citizens today as you return?” he said. As multiple wildfires rage on in Los Angeles County, California residents have been criticizing both Newsom and Bass for past decisions related to fire-prevention efforts, including Bass’ decision to cut the LAFD budget by $17 million. The wildfires have claimed at least 10 lives since they broke out on Tuesday, scorching more than 35,800 acres total and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. Firefighters were still struggling to contain the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire – the two largest of the group – as they sit at 6% contained and 0% contained, respectively, on Thursday evening, according to data by CAL FIRE.
Pune Horror: Call centre employee hacked to death by co-worker in office parking lot, disturbing video emerges
Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, she succumbed to her injuries later that evening.
Class 12 student detained for sending bomb threats to 23 schools in Delhi
According to the police, the last 23 threat emails received by different schools in the national capital were sent by the student, who admitted that he had sent such emails previously as well.
‘Very dense fog’ in Delhi as visibility drops to zero; flight services impacted
Meanwhile, in view of the dense fog, the Delhi Airport issued an advisory for the passengers stating that there has been impact on flight departures.
Real Madrid defeats Mallorca to set up Supercopa final against Barcelona
European and LaLiga champions Real Madrid crush Mallorca 3-0 and will now play archrival Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final on Sunday. Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo struck to earn Real Madrid a 3-0 win over Mallorca and set up a Spanish Super Cup final clash with rivals Barcelona. Madrid have the chance to earn revenge for their heavy Clasico defeat in LaLiga in October after Bellingham’s clinical second-half strike sent them on their way to victory on Thursday in Saudi Arabia. Backed heavily by fans in Jeddah, Madrid never looked like letting the advantage slip and a stoppage-time own goal by Martin Valjent secured their win, with Rodrygo adding a late third from close range. Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti, was full of praise for the way his side claimed control of the match as an attacking force in the second half. “When those up front activate, anything can happen,” he said of his front three attackers and Bellingham. “The four [forwards] are very dangerous. That’s quite evident. Everyone can see it, the quality they have.” Real Madrid made the early running against last season’s Copa del Rey runners-up, with Lucas Vazquez and Rodrygo Goes coming close in the opening stages. Advertisement Kylian Mbappe appealed for a penalty after going down under pressure from Dani Rodriguez, but it would have been soft. Kylian Mbappe has endured a difficult start at Real Madrid after joining from Paris Saint-Germain at the end of last season [Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images] Jagoba Arrasate’s Mallorca found their footing and did well to restrict the Spanish and European champions to no further clear chances in the first half. Madrid lost Aurelien Tchouameni early in the second half after he hurt his head in a challenge with Cyle Larin, although he appeared frustrated to be withdrawn. Madrid broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute through Bellingham after the post, and Mallorca goalkeeper Dominik Greif kept Rodrygo and Mbappe at bay. A blistering Madrid move bore fruit when Rodrygo’s header from Vinicius Junior’s cross hit the upright and Mbappe’s effort was parried by the scrambling Greif. Bellingham was in the right place at the right time to carefully slot home the rebound past defenders on the goal line, continuing a stunning run of individual form. Jude Bellingham, right, was a stand-out performer as Real Madrid lifted the domestic and European double last season [Pedro Nunes/Reuters] The England international has eight goals for Madrid in his last 10 games across all competitions. “Jude is a phenomenal player. He helps us win games all the time, with goals, assists or just his work,” Bellingham’s fellow midfielder Tchouameni remarked afterwards, adding that he was unharmed by the head collision that saw him withdrawn from the game. Advertisement Mallorca struggled to find a way back in and ended up contributing to Madrid’s second goal when Valjent stretched to cut out a pass but slid the ball into his own goal. Rodrygo wrapped up the win late on to set up a repeat of last season’s final, won by Super Cup holders Madrid. Madrid must wait on the availability of Luka Modric for Sunday’s final after the midfielder fell ill and missed Thursday’s match. “Our player Luka Modric is out of the game against Mallorca because of a viral illness,” said the Spanish champions in a statement only hours before the semifinal. Croatian midfielder Modric, 39, became Madrid’s oldest goalscorer when he netted last week against Valencia in LaLiga. Adblock test (Why?)
US House votes to advance bill to sanction ICC over Israel arrest warrants
The United States House of Representatives has voted in favour of a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) in retaliation for its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Legislators in the lower chamber of the US Congress passed the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act” by an overwhelming margin, 243 to 140, on Thursday in a signal of strong support for Israel. Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republicans voted against it. The bill now heads to the Senate, where a Republican majority was sworn in earlier this month. The legislation proposes sanctions for any foreigner who helps the ICC in its attempts to investigate, detain or prosecute a US citizen or citizen of an allied country that does not recognise the authority of the court. Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The sanctions would include the freezing of property assets, as well as the denial of visas to any foreigners who materially or financially contribute to the court’s efforts. Advertisement “America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel,” Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a speech before Thursday’s vote. The vote, one of the first since the new Congress was seated last week, underscored strong support among President-elect Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans for Israel’s government, despite its ongoing war in Gaza. That conflict has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023, many of them women and children. United Nations experts have denounced Israel’s methods in Gaza as “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”. That prompted ICC prosecutors last May to issue the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. In response, US legislators threatened retaliation against the ICC. In a letter sent to outgoing US President Joe Biden in May, dozens of human rights groups urged him to reject calls for punitive action. “Acting on these calls would do grave harm to the interests of all victims globally and to the US government’s ability to champion human rights and the cause of justice,” the groups wrote at the time. This week, another group of human rights organisations issued another letter ahead of Thursday’s vote, denouncing the House bill as an attack on an “independent judicial institution”. Sanctioning the court, they wrote, will “jeopardize the ability of desperate victims across all the court’s investigations to access justice, weaken the credibility of sanction tools in other contexts, and place the United States at odds with its closest allies”. Advertisement The letter warned that imposing “asset freezes and entry restrictions” on ICC allies would bring the US “the stigma of siding with impunity over justice”. Nevertheless, the US Senate, under Majority Leader John Thune, has promised swift consideration of the act so Trump can sign it into law after he takes office on January 20. In 2020, during his first term in office, Trump sanctioned senior ICC leaders over the court’s investigations of US crimes in Afghanistan and Israeli crimes in occupied Palestinian territory. President Biden later lifted those sanctions. The ICC, based in The Hague, is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The State of Palestine has been a member since 2015, and the court first announced an investigation of crimes committed there by both Israeli and Hamas officials in 2019. Though Israel is not party to the ICC, the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on a member state’s territory, regardless of the nationality of those committing them. The US has supported the court at times, for instance, when the ICC’s top prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Russia, like Israel and the US, is not a member of the court. Karim Khan, the prosecutor who issued the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, has said that his decision is in line with the court’s approach in all its cases, and he indicated that the warrants could prevent ongoing crimes. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Historians say Jimmy Carter’s human rights legacy includes grim failures
In South Korea, as well, historians say that Carter adopted the messaging of a military government facing human rights criticism. In May 1980, a student-led pro-democracy uprising in the South Korean city of Gwangju was met with a brutal crackdown. In a single day, 60 people were killed and hundreds injured. Journalist Timothy Shorrock, who has been reporting on US-South Korea relations for decades, said that the Carter administration was wary of losing a useful Cold War ally and, therefore, threw its weight behind the military government. He explained the US supported the South Korean leadership by freeing up military resources that allowed troops to put down the uprising. “Knowing that [military leader General Chun Doo-hwan’s] forces had murdered 60 people the day before, they still believed this uprising was a national security threat to the United States,” Shorrock said of the Carter officials. Antigovernment protesters carrying South Korean flags sit behind a city bus, used as a barricade in Gwangju on May 27, 1980 [AP Photo] He added that when a US aircraft carrier was sent to the region, some protesters convinced of US rhetoric on democracy and human rights believed that the US was coming to intervene on their behalf. Instead, the carrier had been deployed to bolster the US military presence so that South Korean troops at the demilitarised zone with North Korea could be reassigned to put down the uprising. Shorrock says that contingency plans even included the possible use of US forces if the unrest in Gwangju spread further. While there is no universally accepted death toll for the uprising, the official government figure is that more than 160 people perished. Some academic sources put the death toll at more than 1,000. Asked by a reporter if his actions had been at odds with his professed commitment to human rights, Carter said that there was “no incompatibility”. He asserted that the US was helping South Korea maintain its national security against a threat of “communist subversion”, mirroring the rhetoric of the country’s military leadership. It was the kind of rhetoric that South Korean leaders had long used to justify repressive and antidemocratic measures. When South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in December 2024 in the name of combating “antistate forces”, many drew parallels to the traumatic events of Gwangju. “What he was saying at the time was what General Chun Doo-hwan was saying, characterising this as a communist uprising, which it was not,” said Shorrock. “He never apologised for that.” Adblock test (Why?)
Appeals court will not block partial release of special counsel Jack Smith’s Trump report
A federal appeals court rejected a bid to block the release of a portion of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report detailing his investigation and prosecution of President-elect Trump’s alleged 2020 election interference and alleged improper retention of classified records. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denied a request from Walt Nauta, an aide to Trump, and Carlos de Oliveira, the former property manager at Mar-a-Lago, who were charged with obstructing a separate federal investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive government records. The court left a three-day hold on DOJ’s release of the report. JUDGE GRANTS JACK SMITH REQUEST TO DISMISS JAN. 6 CHARGES AGAINST TRUMP, APPEAL DROPPED IN FLORIDA DOCS CASE Smith was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election and Trump’s alleged possession of classified documents at his Florida home. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. Nauta and de Oliveira also pleaded not guilty to federal charges that alleged they conspired to obstruct the FBI investigation into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump names latest Cabinet picks as Jan. 20 inauguration nears
President-elect Trump announced a series of Cabinet picks as his Jan. 20 inauguration nears and Senate confirmation begins. Trump nominated former Fox News contributor Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice. “He will work alongside Harmeet K. Dhillon, a fellow Californian, and our incredible Nominee for United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Justice Department,” Trump wrote. “Leo is a highly respected civil rights attorney and political analyst. He received his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has defended many high-profile cases throughout his incredibly successful career. “Leo will be a fantastic advocate for the American People, and ensure we will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” TRUMP CABINET PICK GETS BACKING FROM POWERFUL GROUP KNOWN TO BE POLITICALLY NEUTRAL In an announcement Thursday evening, Trump revealed Christine Toretti as his pick for ambassador to Sweden. He said Toretti is an “incredible businesswoman, philanthropist, public servant, and RNC Committeewoman.” “She is Chairman of S&T Bancorp, and a former director of the Pittsburgh Federal Reserve Bank,” Trump wrote. “Christine has been a tireless supporter of important causes as a Board Member of the International Medical Corps, former Chair of the Andy Warhol Museum, Director of the NCAA Foundation, founding Director of the Gettysburg Foundation, Trustee of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and Chair of the Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series in Pennsylvania, and the Dodie Londen Excellence in Public Service Series in Arizona. TRUMP NAMES LATEST WHITE HOUSE STAFF PICKS AS JAN. 20 INAUGURATION APPROACHES “Christine is one of fewer than sixty women who have received the Athena International Global Award.” Trump also announced retired Army Capt. Sam Brown would serve as the next Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Sam is an American HERO, a Purple Heart recipient, and successful businessman from Nevada, who has devoted his life to serving America,” Trump said in the announcement. “He fearlessly proved his love for our Country in the Army, while leading Troops in battle in Afghanistan and, after being honorably retired as a Captain, helping our Veterans get access to emergency medications. “Sam will now continue his service to our Great Nation at the VA, where he will work tirelessly to ensure we put America’s Veterans FIRST, and remember ALL who served.” The nominations come as Trump continues to round out picks for his Cabinet as Jan. 20 nears. The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate will soon begin holding hearings for Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Republicans will control the Senate with 53 seats to the Democrats’ 47 once Senator-elect Jim Justice of West Virginia is sworn in later in January and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appoints a senator to fill Vice President-elect Vance’s seat.