Pahalgam attack: India suspends visa services to Pakistanis with immediate effect
All existing valid visas issued by India to Pakistani nationals stand revoked with effect from 27 April 2025, MEA said.
Locals hail government’s decision to suspend Indus water treaty: ‘We give them water and they shed our blood’
In a significant development, the recent suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan in wake of the Pahalgam attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, has been met with widespread approval among locals and tourists visiting the Chenab River at the valley.
Top Dem denies ignoring constituent abducted by Maduro after being lambasted for Abrego Garcia advocacy
A top Democrat refuted claims she ignored correspondence from a constituent whose son was abducted by Venezuela’s military while she was publicly advocating for Salvadoran deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — who, until Republicans retook the Senate, was third in line to the presidency — told Fox News Digital through a spokesperson on Monday they have no record of correspondence from Scott St. Clair asking for help for his imprisoned son. “Our office has no record of an inquiry from the St. Clair family; however, our staff is ready and willing to help support the return of Joseph however possible,” the Murray spokesperson said, after Fox News Digital asked about comments from St. Clair to KTTH radio host Jason Rantz, wherein the father said he received “nothing” in response from Murray. “We’ll be working to get in touch with the family directly,” the Murray spokesperson said, adding constituent service is a “top priority.” PATTY MURRAY WENT FROM A MOM IN TENNIS SHOES TO SECOND-IN-LINE FOR THE PRESIDENCY Joseph St. Clair, a four-tour Afghanistan War veteran from Hansville, Washington, first went missing in November while getting PTSD treatment in Colombia. In February, his father got a call from the Colombian consulate telling him neighboring Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime had taken him hostage. As for her Abrego Garcia advocacy, her office said Murray “is also committed to protecting the fundamental right to due process in America — and will not shy away from condemning the Trump administration’s dangerous efforts to undermine the rule of law.” On Thursday, Murray retweeted Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s, D-Md., photo with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, writing, “We’re with you, Senator Van Hollen.” “In America, we don’t send people to foreign prisons for life with no trial and no due process. We’ll keep fighting. This is about protecting our democracy,” she continued. She also released a video saying the Trump administration “abruptly ripped Garcia off the streets.” “They admitted that this deportation was a mistake. Now the president is trying to pretend that he has no power to bring him back from one of the most horrific prisons in the world. This is un-American. It is immoral. It is illegal. And it needs to stop,” Murray said. VENEZUELAN OPPO LEADER JOINS CUBAN-BORN GOP LAWMAKER PRAISING TRUMP FOR CANCELING BIDEN-MADURO OIL DEAL Rantz lambasted Murray’s tweet, saying that while she “pretends to care about an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, she’s ignoring the father of an American USAF vet who was kidnapped by the Maduro regime in Venezuela.” Another Seattle figure, Discovery Institute’s Jonathan Choe, recounted Murray’s comments on Abrego Garcia, and then the plight of the St. Claires, remarking on X, “Make it make sense.” Several other people slammed the senator on X over the situation, while a hostage aid group reprinted part of Rantz’s report on the matter. Scott St. Clair told Rantz that his son was held alongside several other Americans whom President Donald Trump envoy Ric Grenell was able to bring home during a Jan. 31 meeting with Maduro. Joseph St. Clair’s military credentials originally drew the Venezuelans’ attention, his father said. Another Trump envoy, Adam Boehler, reached out to the family to assist them, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio officially designated Joseph St. Clair “wrongfully detained.” Rantz shared apparent screenshots of Scott St. Clair’s purported attempts to contact Murray, before “a senator from another state would agree to intervene.” That lawmaker turned out to be Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., to whom Fox News Digital reached out for comment. Scott St. Clair appeared to reach out to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., by email, and Murray via Twitter direct message on March 23 after Rubio officially designated his son captive. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In one email from February shared with Rantz, Scott St. Clair wrote that “as a matter of record” he also sent a letter to Murray “via web form” and appeared to include text of the letter in a prior reply that was partially hidden. He also shared a screenshot of his X direct message to Murray where he shared a “Bring Joe Home” graphic and the message: “I am a Washingtonian and need advocacy to secure the release of our son from captivity in Venezuela. I sent your office an email and received no reply.” Scott St. Clair said he received some response from Cantwell but ultimately pivoted to Schmitt. “We need all the help we can get. Congress needs to demand that Maduro release our citizens held hostage as political pawns,” he wrote to Murray, according to one screenshot viewed by Fox News Digital. “We do not have our state’s backing from congressmen or senators,” Joseph’s mother Patty added in a Monday night interview on “Fox News @ Night.” “Thank God we do have some senators stepping up from other states to help us, but nothing at all from ours.” “We would welcome [Murray’s] advocacy, yes, but I don’t think it’s coming,” Scott St. Clair added.
GOP talks on millionaire tax hike come from party’s populist streak, strategists say
An aversion to tax increases has long been one of the Republican Party’s core pillars, but tradition was upended in recent weeks as discussions of a potential new millionaires’ tax hike hit Capitol Hill. It’s baffled some members of the GOP’s old guard, though Republican operatives who spoke with Fox News Digital were less surprised. They said those conversations were largely ushered in by the party’s growing populist wing. “I’m not sure if I’m surprised anymore, because the party has changed so much in just a short period of time. But it is noteworthy,” longtime GOP strategist Doug Heye told Fox News Digital. Heye recalled his time as a senior House leadership aide in 2012, when a Republican proposal for a uniform tax rate for people making under $1 million per year was blown up “by a rebellion within our own ranks” over raising taxes. WHITE HOUSE QUIETLY FLOATS MILLIONAIRE TAX HIKE PROPOSAL IN CONGRESS AS GOP LEADERS SIGNAL OPPOSITION “It all exploded in our faces,” he said. “And now this is what more and more of those Republicans who rejected the idea in 2012 want to do.” Sources told Fox News Digital this month that the White House was socializing a plan among Republicans to create a new 40% tax bracket for people making more than $1 million. Various reported plans floated among House Republicans included raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy to rates between 38% and 40%. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been seeking to quash that this week, even posting a purported message from President Donald Trump himself on X that said, “If you can do without it, you’re probably better off trying to do so.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Wednesday morning for comment on Gingrich’s note, including the context of the message and why Trump described that he would “love” increasing taxes, but did not receive a reply. The top income tax rate is currently about 37% on $609,351 in earnings for a single person or $731,201 for married couples. It was lowered from just over 39% by Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “The politics are good for raising taxes on wealthy Americans,” said John Feehery, a partner at EFB Advocacy and veteran of House GOP leadership staff. “The downside is it does have an impact on economic growth. So if you want the cheap political score, that’s the way to go. On the other hand, if you want a solid economy where people are working, you want to be careful on how you do that.” Asked if the discussions caught him off guard, Feehery said, “I’m not surprised by it because Trump is such a populist, and he has a lot of folks who are populist.” He signaled the appeal of higher taxes for the wealthy was born from that shift. “If you look at the constituencies, the biggest constituency, it’s really interesting because the parties have kind of changed,” he continued. “It used to be the country-club Republicans and working-class Democrats; now it’s working-class Republicans and country-club Democrats.” Heye said when asked about the increase in tax hike talks, “I think it’s a mixture of Trump and populism.” “Raising taxes used to be an anathema to Republicans, and you know, when George Bush did it after saying ‘Read my lips,’ that was the beginning of the end of his presidency,” Heye said. “That world just doesn’t exist anymore.” House GOP leaders have publicly made clear that they’re opposed to raising taxes on anyone. But Republicans must find a way to pass Trump’s budget, including new tax policies eliminating duties on tipped and overtime wages, while meeting conservatives’ demand to cut at least $1.5 trillion in government spending to make up for it. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., previously signaled that he is open to the idea if spending cuts can’t be reached by other means. “What I’d like to do is, I’d actually like to find spending reductions elsewhere in the budget, but if we can’t get enough spending reductions, we’re going to have to pay for our tax cuts,” Harris told “Mornings with Maria” on FOX Business last week. SCOOP: PENCE URGES REPUBLICANS TO HOLD THE LINE ON TAX HIKES FOR THE RICH AS TRUMP WEIGHS OPTIONS “Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the highest tax bracket was 39.6%; it was less than $1 million. Ideally, what we could do – again, if we can’t find spending reductions – we say, ‘OK, let’s restore that higher bracket, let’s set it at maybe $2 million income and above’ to help pay for the rest of the president’s agenda.” Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., similarly floated raising the top tax bracket to 38.6%. He later told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I believe we must help the president deliver on his promise of a tax and regulatory plan that supports pro-American economic and manufacturing growth, and delivers for the vast majority of Americans – while creating savings and promoting fiscal responsibility. Any adjustments in taxes to accomplish these goals should be considered.” Both Meuser and Harris declined to provide more comment for this story. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who refers to the 2017 tax cuts as the “Trump-Pence tax cuts,” last week urged House Republicans to stand firm against raising taxes on the country’s top earners and to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. One House GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital last week that reaction among their colleagues to possible tax hikes was “mixed.” But a former Republican member was skeptical on Wednesday. “Raising taxes is a short-term high, which ultimately does more harm than good,” the former House Republican said. “This strategy is contrary to conservative values.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Meanwhile, Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said it was “healthy” that lawmakers are entertaining fiscal ideas outside their party norms. He was wary about the push for
Air Force veteran jumps into key House race to unseat 22-term vulnerable Dem: ‘Time to pass the torch’
FIRST ON FOX: Longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur is facing a new Republican challenger in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District in the form of Air Force veteran Alea Nadeem, who spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital about her campaign. “This country saved me, I owe my life to this country,” Nadeem, a northwest Ohio native, told Fox News Digital, recounting her harrowing life story of being kidnapped by her father and taken to Iraq, where she lived under the rule of Saddam Hussein before the U.S. government worked to bring her back. Nadeem joined the Air Force in response to the events of 9/11 and never planned on leaving the nonpartisan military world for politics until she spent time on Capitol Hill in recent years and realized that life for people in her district was not improving. “I got to see firsthand all the things that were happening, and I’ve got to tell you, my hometown where I grew up was not better off,” Nadeem said. “I was seeing the policies that people were voting on, and especially the current person, Marcy Kaptur, who’s been here for almost 43 years. I didn’t think they were voting in a way that actually helped the way I grew up, blue-collar families.” ‘NEW LOW’: LONGTIME HOUSE DEM RIPPED FOR ‘DISGUSTING’ QUESTIONING OF MUSK’S LOYALTY TO US AS AN IMMIGRANT Kaptur, who narrowly won re-election in 2024 by less than 1 percentage point, is widely considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House. Her district will be home to one of the most highly watched races as Republicans attempt to hold a thin majority in the chamber. Cook Political Report ranks the race as a “Democrat toss up” in a state that Trump carried by over 10 points. Kaptur faced criticism during last year’s campaign for introducing only five bills that became law in 41 years. REPUBLICANS TROLL DEMS’ EL SALVADOR VISITS WITH OFFER TO FOOT TRAVEL BILL – IN EXCHANGE FOR ONE THING Nadeem told Fox News Digital that even people she talks to who “love” Kaptur agree that 22 terms in Congress is too much. “It’s time to pass the torch,” Nadeem said. “One of the things that they’ve all said to me is they were really scared to pass a torch the last two times. They didn’t feel like they had a candidate who could really step into her shoes. And so I’ve heard, I call it kitchen table talk. They haven’t found somebody worthy to pass the torch to, but they also fully understand it’s time. Everyone has been like, it’s enough. We get it, 43 years. So I think they’re looking for the next guardian to be able to do that. Someone they can trust. And I’m really hoping to step into that.” Nadeem spoke to Fox News Digital about the issues she plans to focus on during the campaign. At the top of the list are jobs and manufacturing. “This is near and dear to my heart,” Nadeem said, adding that making sure “we’re not hollowing out the northwest and these blue-collar jobs” is her “number one priority.” Nadeem said bringing fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C., will be another priority. “I looked at 1983, when Marcy Kaptur was in office, I think the debt was around, that the United States debt was around like $1.6 trillion, and now it’s $36 trillion,” Nadeem said. “So you can just see like, under Democratic leadership, we have not done better. So we need to get our fiscal house in order because I know people in northwest Ohio really rely on Social Security and Medicare. And I call those earned benefits. And if we can’t balance our checkbook, we can’t pay for those things. And so I do think people deserve that.”
Family in Indonesia turns to mangrove trees to tackle climate change
Pasijah, a 55-year-old housewife in Indonesia’s Central Java province, wakes up every morning to the sound of the sea. If that sounds idyllic, it is anything but. Her home is the only one remaining in this part of Rejosari Senik, a small village on Java’s northern coast that was once on dry land but is now submerged in water. Over the past few years, Pasijah’s neighbours have abandoned their homes, vegetable plots and rice fields to the advancing sea, but she and her family have no plans to leave. “I do have every intention to stay here and my feelings for this house remain,” she said. Water laps around the walls of Pasijah’s house, where she has lived for 35 years, soaking her feet when she steps outside. The nearest land is two kilometres (1.24 miles) away, and the closest city, Demak, is further still at 19 kilometres (11.8 miles). The only way to get there is by boat. Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, has about 81,000 kilometres of coastline, making it particularly vulnerable to rising seas and erosion. Sea levels on the country’s coasts rose an average of 4.25 millimetres (0.16 inches) annually from 1992 to 2024, but the rate has accelerated in recent years, according to Kadarsah, a climate change official at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency. Advertisement “One of the signs of climate change is the rising sea levels,” he said, adding that some small islands had disappeared. Kadarsah also pointed to the increased pumping of groundwater that has exacerbated land subsidence along Java’s northern coast. The problem is particularly bad in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, which is home to some 10 million people. Megaprojects Indonesian authorities have turned to megaprojects for a solution, including a 700-kilometre (434-mile) sea wall that would run along the northern coast between Banten and East Java provinces. Pasijah and her family, meanwhile, have turned to nature. She has planted about 15,000 mangrove trees a year over the past 20 years. Every day, she paddles out in a boat made from a blue plastic barrel to tend to the bushes and plant new saplings, lowering herself into the blue-grey water, which can be as high as her chest. “The floodwaters come in waves, gradually, not all at once,” Pasijah said. “I realised that after the waters began rising, I needed to plant mangrove trees so that they could spread and protect the house from the wind and the waves.” She and her family survive by selling the fish caught by her sons in the nearest market. They say they will stay as long as they can hold back the tides. “I’m no longer concerned about how I feel about the isolation here since I decided to stay, so we’ll take it one hurdle at a time,” Pasijah said. Adblock test (Why?)
China will talk trade, but US will need to make the first move, experts say
Taipei, Taiwan – As United States President Donald Trump plays up the prospects of a trade deal with China, experts say Beijing is unlikely to make the first move and may even demand preconditions before coming to the negotiating table. Trump has said he expects to see his 145 percent tariff on China “come down substantially” but that a lower rate would depend on Beijing’s next steps. “We’re going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday in his latest remarks, stirring hopes of a de-escalation in tensions between the sides. But given the high stakes in its standoff with the US, China “can’t afford to be the side that makes the first move because it can’t be viewed as capitulating to the Trump administration’s pressure campaign”, William Yang, a senior analyst on Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “As a result, China will firmly uphold its current position until it sees the US government make some credible concessions that can allow Beijing to consider coming to the negotiating table and claim victory.” Advertisement Beijing may even see Trump’s more optimistic rhetoric as a sign that “digging in its heels” is working, Yang said. US and Chinese officials have not formally announced the start of trade negotiations, though Trump said on Wednesday that his administration was “actively” negotiating with the Chinese side, without elaborating. On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Commerce rebuffed Trump’s remarks, saying there were no talks on trade taking place between the sides. “Any claims about the progress of China-US economic and trade negotiations are groundless and have no factual basis,” ministry spokesman He Yadong told a news conference. China has said the door is “wide open” to talks but insisted it will not shirk from a fight with the US if necessary. In contrast to Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks and vacillating statements on the possibility of relief from his tariffs, Beijing’s messaging, which has been largely communicated through the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been tightly controlled and consistent. “I would say that, at least on the surface, China has the upper hand,” Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong’s Business School, told Al Jazeera. “It’s more in control, whereas President Trump and Secretary Bessent have been signalling and doing things that further help to weaken their hand,” Chen said, referring to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “I think the statement really shows he is anxious and panicking, whereas China has been pretty quiet and muted,” Chen added, referring to Trump’s comments that he intends to lower his tariffs at some point. Advertisement China has slapped US exports with a 125 percent tariff in response to Trump’s trade salvoes, as well as announcing various other “countermeasures”, including restrictions on rare earth exports and limits on the number of Hollywood film releases in China. If tensions continue to escalate, Beijing could potentially halt cooperation on issues like controlling fentanyl exports. In theory, it could also inflict pain on the US economy by dumping its more than $760bn in US government debt – a move that economists view as unlikely given that it would have serious ramifications for the Chinese economy as well. Unlike Trump, who prefers to negotiate face-to-face with world leaders, Beijing will want to engage in preliminary meetings before any meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the US president, said Tom Nunlist, an associate director of tech and data policy at Trivium China. “They will be looking to have secured a deal before the top leaders meet to confirm it. To reach out to Trump directly may look like Xi is caving to US pressure, and it also risks failure,” Nunlist told Al Jazeera. “Generally speaking, the US is the aggressor here, and China has calibrated its response to be forceful but avoid escalation,” Nunlist said. It is likely that discussions would address a wider array of concerns than just tariffs, according to analysts, especially now that Trump appears to have blinked first in the standoff. Potential areas for concessions include “tech export controls and Taiwan”, according to Dingli Shen, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar. Advertisement “Longstanding grievances about how China is treated within the global system” could be on the table, according to Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute. “In practice, it means no public humiliation, no unilateral ultimatums, and no compromises on four key ‘red lines’: Issues related to Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s political system, and its right to development,” Zhang told Al Jazeera. Zhang said US export controls on critical technology could be on the agenda, as well as the blacklisting of Chinese tech companies such as Huawei and Chinese chipmaker SMIC. “China may also push for the relaxation of investment screening rules, particularly in sensitive sectors like semiconductors, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. Another likely ask is a degree of de-escalation over Taiwan,” she said. “While Beijing does not expect full concessions, it would welcome less overt political signalling from Washington – such as limits on high-level official visits and arms sales.” For Beijing, the wait could be worthwhile if it means achieving some of its longer-term goals, said the International Crisis Group’s Yang. “This is more than a pure trade negotiation for China at this point. It views the trajectory of this tariff standoff as a precursor to how bilateral relations with the US will develop over the next four years,” he said. “Beijing will want to see the Trump administration make the first move to reduce the tariffs imposed on imported Chinese products. The level of potential tariff reduction could potentially determine the Chinese government’s willingness to start high-level trade negotiation with the Trump administration.” Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
DeepSeek transferred data without consent, South Korean watchdog says
Personal Information Protection Commission says AI model sent personal data to Beijing-based cloud service. South Korea’s data protection watchdog has accused DeepSeek, the Chinese start-up whose artificial intelligence-powered chatbot took the tech scene by storm earlier this year, of transferring personal data without users’ consent. The Personal Information Protection Commission said on Thursday that DeepSeek had been transferring information to several companies in China and the United States before its ChatGPT-like AI model was removed from app stores in February, pending a privacy review. Nam Seok, director of the commission’s investigation bureau, said during a news conference that the app had sent user prompts and device and network information to a Beijing-based cloud service called Volcano Engine. DeepSeek “acknowledged it had insufficiently considered Korea’s data protection laws” and “expressed its willingness to cooperate with the commission, and voluntarily suspended new downloads”, Nam said. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Following the South Korean watchdog’s announcement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it placed a high level of importance on data privacy and security. Advertisement “We have never – and will never – require companies or individuals to collect or store data through illegal means,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a regular news conference. DeepSeek’s R1 caused a sensation in January after its developers released a research paper claiming they spent less than $6m on computing power to train the model – a fraction of the multibillion-dollar AI budgets of US tech giants such as OpenAI and Google. The emergence of a Chinese startup capable of rivalling Silicon Valley’s leading players challenged assumptions about US dominance in AI and prompted scrutiny of the sky-high market valuations of companies such as Nvidia and Meta. Marc Andreessen, one of the most influential tech venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, hailed DeepSeek’s model as “AI’s Sputnik moment”. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Wehad only seen this happening in movies, but when we saw this in real life, it broke us…’: Shital Kalathiya, wife of Pahalgam victim recalls horror
“We had only seen this happening in movies, but when we saw this in real life, it broke us. What shocked us the most is that there was not a single security person present there. if they knew that such risks were present at that place, they shouldn’t have let anyone go up there…” she said.
Trump to hold rally Tuesday in celebration of first 100 days, Leavitt says
President Donald Trump is slated to hold a rally in Michigan next week in celebration of the first 100 days of his second term in office, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted in a post on X. “President Trump is excited to return to the great state of Michigan next Tuesday, where he will rally in Macomb County to celebrate the FIRST 100 DAYS!” Leavitt declared in the tweet. Trump, who was sworn in on Jan. 20, is the second U.S. president elected to two non-consecutive terms — the first was President Grover Cleveland in the 19th century. FOX NEWS POLL: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SECOND TERM Trump won the state of Michigan in 2016 and 2024, but lost it in 2020. His 2016 win in the state snapped a lengthy Republican losing streak — the last time Michigan had gone to a Republican in a presidential contest was in 1988. REPUBLICAN REP. JOHN JAMES ANNOUNCES RUN FOR GOVERNOR: ‘MAKE MICHIGAN GREAT AGAIN’ “There is no better place to celebrate Day 100 than Macomb County,” House GOP conference chair Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., declared in a post on X, adding, “Welcome, @POTUS! Rep. John James, R-Mich., said in a tweet, “Macomb County is honored to welcome President @realDonaldTrump back to MICHIGAN to celebrate the first 100 days of America’s New Golden Age. Together, we will Make Michigan Great Again.” TRUMP PRAISES DEM GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER AFTER SLAMMING HER LAST YEAR: ‘VERY GOOD PERSON’ James launched a gubernatorial bid earlier this month.