REAL ID sees nationwide state government compliance ahead of deadline, but it wasn’t always that way
While all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories are all currently in compliance ahead of the federal deadline of May 7, REAL ID was once roundly opposed by several state governments. As soon as two years after the law’s 2005 passage by President George W. Bush, several state leaders had already expressed objections to complying with the nationwide standard. Then-Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, called REAL ID a “harebrained scheme” in a 2008 NPR interview. “[W]e are putting up with the federal government on so many fronts, and nearly every month they come out with another… unfunded mandate to tell us that our life is going to be better if we’ll just buckle under on some other kind of rule or regulation,” Schweitzer said. NO ‘REAL ID’ APPOINTMENTS OPEN IN NEW JERSEY AS RESIDENTS SOUND OFF: ‘GET WITH THE TIMES, NJ’ “And we usually just play along for a while, we ignore them for as long as we can, and we try not to bring it to a head. But if it comes to a head, we found that it’s best to just tell them to go to hell and run the state the way you want to run your state.” One year prior, Schweitzer signed a law banning Montana’s DMV from enforcing REAL ID stipulations, calling it a “threat to privacy” in a letter to then-Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, also a Democrat. Not too far west in Washington state, fellow Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire signed similar legislation that required the feds to appropriate $250 million to cover the unfunded mandate. “[E]ven worse, it doesn’t protect the privacy of the citizens of Washington,” Gregoire claimed when signing the bill. On the Republican side, then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law in 2008 halting PennDOT’s implementation of REAL ID. “Neither the governor nor the Department of Transportation or any other Commonwealth agency shall participate in the REAL ID Act of 2005 or regulations promulgated thereunder,” Act 38’s text read. The policy was later reversed by Act 3 of 2017, signed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. ‘MASS SURVEILLANCE’: CONSERVATIVES SOUND ALARM OVER TRUMP ADMIN’S REAL ID ROLLOUT Meanwhile, New Jersey has the lowest reported compliance with REAL ID, according to a CBS News analysis, with only 17% of the population having one – and many complaining of not enough bandwidth for the state to handle the number of applications. On Wednesday, Kentucky Republican state Sen. Jimmy Higdon, wrote to DHS asking for an extension to the May 7 enforcement date, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. State compliance with REAL ID means that a state has met the federal security standards outlined by DHS for the actual issuance of drivers’ licenses. Since all states have done so, they are considered compliant. Because the program is optional for the licenseholder – due to the alternatives, like passports – an insufficient proportion of residents not having REAL IDs does not affect statistical state compliance. REAL ID requirements, endeavored out of a post-9/11 national security law from then-Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., dictate that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will no longer accept a photo-ID that does not have a star in the upper corner denoting verification, unless it is a passport. To become verified, Americans must provide Social Security information or other personal identifiers. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The law’s implementation date has been delayed several times, due to COVID and concerns about varied state compliance and states’ abilities to summon the necessary resources to meet federal standards. Fox News Digital reached out for comment from the current governors of the three states referenced: Democrat Bob Ferguson of Washington, Republican Greg Gianforte of Montana and Democrat Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
Japan introduces urgent economic measures to ease pain from US tariffs
Package includes support for corporate financing, and subsidies to lower petrol prices and partially cover electricity bills. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced emergency economic measures to alleviate any impact on industries and households affected by the United States’s new tariffs on products from Japan. The package unveiled by Ishiba on Friday includes support for corporate financing as well as subsidies to lower petrol prices by 10 yen ($0.07) a litre (0.26 gallons), and partially cover electricity bills for three months from July, a government document showed. “I have instructed cabinet members to make the utmost efforts to aid firms and households that have been worried about tariff impact,” Ishiba said at a tariff task force meeting. US tariffs could have a significant impact on Japanese industries that support the economy such as automobiles and steel, he said. To help small and mid-sized companies more vulnerable to economic swings, a larger scope of firms will be eligible for low-interest loans extended by government-backed banks. The government will also consider additional measures to boost domestic consumption depending on the impact of US tariffs on Japan’s massive automotive industry. Advertisement Friday’s package could be financed by a reserve fund, eliminating the need to compile an extra budget, said economy minister Ryosei Akazawa. Steep US tariffs US President Donald Trump on April 2 introduced a 25 percent tariff on car and truck imports. He also announced a 24 percent tariff on all Japanese goods, later cutting that to 10 percent for 90 days. Akazawa, who serves as Japan‘s top trade negotiator, will visit Washington next week for a second round of trade talks. On Thursday, the Nikkei business daily reported that Japan is considering increasing soya bean imports from the US as part of negotiations. The uncertainty in Trump’s imposition of tariffs has weighed down on markets around the world, including in Japan. But Tokyo’s Nikkei surged 1.9 percent on Friday after Wall Street’s rally streaks for the third day, driven by hopes for the Fed to cut rates and hopes that Trump was softening his approach on tariffs. Adblock test (Why?)
Why the Palestinian Authority’s Abbas is under pressure to pick a successor
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), under pressure to appoint a second-in-command to its ageing leader, Mahmoud Abbas, created a vice president position after meeting with senior officials on April 24. Abbas, who is also president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), promised during an emergency Arab summit in early March that the position would be created. Yet it remains unclear who will eventually fill the post. The aim is to prevent a power struggle after Abbas vacates his post – a scenario that Israel could exploit to cause the collapse of the PA, fully annexe the occupied West Bank and ethnically cleanse Gaza, experts told Al Jazeera. Yet Dianna Buttu, a former legal adviser to the PLO, believes creating a vice president post in the PA will not avert a power struggle once Abbas is gone – rather, it could exacerbate conflict. “The more fragmented the PA becomes, the more it will create a power vacuum … and that vacuum will be filled by external actors and mainly by the Americans and Israelis,” she warned. Advertisement Legitimacy crisis Abbas, 89, assumed control of the PLO and PA after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in November 2004 and has ruled without a popular mandate since dissolving parliament in 2007. His Fatah party dominates the PA and PLO. The long-defunct parliament has faded away, and critics have slammed Abbas for seeming to undermine attempts to hold elections that could revive it. In the absence of parliament, the PLO controls the succession, a task Abbas has postponed, including by decreeing last year that Rawhi Fattouh, head of the Palestinian National Council, would become interim president if the position became vacant suddenly until elections are held. “Abbas has put this off out of fear that if he brought anyone forward, then they would be a rival,” said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. The PA was created by the Oslo Peace Accords, signed by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 and 1995. Tasked with governing the West Bank and Gaza until a Palestinian state was created alongside Israel, the PA lost credibility among Palestinians as Israel’s occupation became more violent and oppressive, and land grabs for Israeli settlements continued. Since Oslo, the population of settlements, illegal under international law, built on Palestinian land has risen from about 200,000 to more than 750,000. In 2007, a violent split with Hamas in Gaza constrained the PA’s authority to the parts of the occupied West Bank that it had some limited control over. A Palestinian man inspects the damage in his house in Huwara, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers on December 4, 2024 [Zain Jaafar/AFP] The PA did manage to become the de facto Palestinian representative on the international stage, replacing the PLO. Advertisement But at home, Abbas’s popularity slipped as people’s suffering increased and the PA continued its security coordination with Israel, which was outlined in the Oslo Accords. The PA is also seen to have failed to protect Palestinians from Israeli troops and settlers while using its authority to crack down on civil activists and opponents. This has resulted in a situation in which whoever he appoints, “Abbas’s handpicked successor probably won’t win people over”, Elgindy told Al Jazeera. The name suggested most often is Abbas’s close confidant and secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee, Hussein al-Sheikh. Al-Sheikh also heads the PA’s General Authority for Civil Affairs, which issues the Israeli-approved permits that enable a few Palestinians to navigate the movement restrictions Israel has implemented in the occupied West Bank. Human rights groups and the International Court of Justice – the highest legal body in the world – see Israel’s movement restrictions against Palestinians as apartheid. Sheikh’s long-standing relationship with the Israeli authorities has led critics to accuse him of acting as a liaison for the occupation. “Nobody likes him [among Palestinians],” said Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council for Global Affairs. “[Al-Sheikh] is tainted by his relationship to Israel and perceptions [that he is embroiled in] massive corruption.” External pressure The pressure on Abbas regarding succession has ebbed and flowed over the years, intensifying over recent months as Arab states push him to appoint a successor to prevent the PA from dissolving into chaos, analysts told Al Jazeera. Advertisement Egypt is particularly eager to ensure succession, according to Rahman. In March, Egypt called and hosted an Arab League summit, during which it unveiled its reconstruction plan for Gaza to counter United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza and turn it into a “Middle East Riviera”. Egypt was mentioned as one of the countries where Palestinians could be “moved to”, an idea it firmly rejected and countered with its reconstruction plan. The proposal included creating a Palestinian technocratic administration, supervised by the PA, to oversee the reconstruction of the devastated enclave without displacing anyone. Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Hussein al-Sheikh meets with foreign ministers in Amman, Jordan, in November 2023 [Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP] The path to PA administration of Gaza is not at all clear, however, as both Hamas and Israel object to it – Hamas because it administers Gaza currently, while Israel has panned the PA as ineffective. Abbas appears to have gone on the offensive, delivering angry broadsides against Hamas during the meetings and blaming the group for allowing the continuation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza by not handing over captives and disarming. However, many Arab states blame Abbas for failing to reconcile his Fatah faction with Hamas, making them eager to see a change of guard in the PA, according to Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Palestinian internal politics with the International Crisis Group Advertisement Since 2007, Fatah and Hamas have signed several agreements to heal their divisions after the fighting that split the Palestinian national movement. “I think there has been a lot of frustration [among Arab states] that
West Bank conditions “a strategic erosion” of Palestinian life
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Independent UK MP Shockat Adam describes how conditions in the occupied West Bank are dehumanising Palestinians.
BJP’s Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh elected as mayor of MCD
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sardar Raja Iqbal Singh has been elected as the mayor of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
TiE Delhi-NCR’s India Internet Day 2025 to decode India’s USD 1-trillion digital future
iDay 2025 will serve as a strategic forum for shaping the nation’s digital future. This year’s theme, “India 2030: From Digital Economy to Tech Superpower,” will spotlight how India’s innovation ecosystem is poised to lead on the global stage.
Immigration crackdown: Know your rights at the U.S. border and other ports of entry
What immigrants and citizens should know about federal agents’ power to question and search people at airports and the border.
Sunshine State Dem announces switch to no affiliation: ‘Democratic Party in Florida is dead’
Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo — who had been serving as state Senate Democratic Leader — announced that he is switching to no party affiliation. State Sen. Lori Berman has been tapped to replace Pizzo as Senate Democratic Leader. During a speech on Thursday, Pizzo declared that “the political party system here in Florida is nearly dead.” He asserted that the “Democratic Party in Florida is dead,” adding that “there are good people that can resuscitate it. But they don’t want it to be me.” He also said the Republican Party has many problems. DEMOCRAT REP. WILSON URGES PEOPLE TO CALL, THREATEN LAWMAKERS OVER UPTICK IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION DETENTIONS Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried lambasted the state lawmaker. “Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried asserted. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values. “Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum. I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself. The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.” TRUMP HAILS FLORIDA DEM’S DECISION TO DITCH PARTY, JOIN GOP: ‘THANK YOU HILLARY!’ Florida state Reps. Susan Valdés and Hillary Cassel both announced they were switching from Democrat to Republican last year. Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who had served as a Republican, announced a switch to no party affiliation in 2018, though he was no longer in office at that time. But now Jolly has just changed his registration to Democrat, according to Politico. DESANTIS WELCOMES FLORIDA STATE LAWMAKER TO REPUBLICAN PARTY AS SHE DITCHES DEMOCRATS Jolly has said he is “very seriously considering a run for governor,” according to the outlet.
California floats plan to allow homeless students to sleep in their cars amid housing crisis
A new bill in the Golden State would allow homeless community college and state university students to sleep in their cars during the blue state’s housing crisis. A Public Policy Institute of California report found California has among the lowest homeownership rates and the most expensive housing in the U.S., with rent about 50% higher than the national median. The California bill seeks to provide a short-term solution to the state’s decades-long housing strife. Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a progressive California Democrat with a doctorate in social work, proposed a bill in March that would require the chancellors of the California state universities and the governing board of each community college district to develop an overnight parking program with “basic needs coordinators and campus security” by late 2026. CALIFORNIA MAYOR WANTS TO GIVE HOMELESS PEOPLE ‘ALL THE FENTANYL THEY WANT’: ‘NEED TO PURGE THESE PEOPLE’ “This bill confronts a harsh reality to many of our students who are sleeping in their vehicles or other displaced settings as they are unable to find affordable housing, and that’s jeopardizing their education,” Jackson said. “What I am proposing is practical, immediate relief, overnight parking programs that turn campus lots into safe, temporary havens while the state works on lasting solutions.” Almost three out of five California community college students are housing insecure and one in four are homeless, a survey conducted by the Community College League of California in 2023 found. CALIFORNIA CAREER POLITICIAN BARBARA LEE WINS MAYOR RACE IN EMBATTLED OAKLAND “We are in a housing crisis. We are in a homelessness crisis, and it’s not an either or approach. It’s a both and all of the above approach,” Jackson said. Many legislative proposals in California this year seek to fund student housing or cut through building regulation red tape, but Jackson aims to provide immediate relief for college students grappling with the housing crisis. Jackson, who acknowledged stakeholders’ disapproval of his bill, proposed a similar one during last year’s legislative session, but it failed. Its 2025 version, however, passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee this year. The bill has yet to face its first committee review and is already grabbing national attention as conservatives and progressives question what’s happening to California’s housing market. “After wrecking affordability in California, Democrats have nothing left but bad ideas,” California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in a statement. “They’re now proposing to let students sleep in cars because they can’t fix the housing crisis they created. This isn’t innovation. It’s desperation from a party that spent decades raising costs, blocking new housing and wasting billions on programs that failed. Letting students live in parking lots isn’t a solution. It’s proof their policies have completely collapsed.” When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Newsom’s office said it does not typically comment on pending legislation. “California is bucking not only national increases but reversing long-term trends in the state from decades of inaction prior to this administration. California’s progress in addressing homelessness is outperforming the nation,” a Newsom spokesperson said. Newsom’s office, citing 2024 records, stressed that homelessness is increasing nationwide by more than 18%, while California’s national trend is closer to 3%, lower than 40 other states. Newsom also touted the state’s more than 71,000 year-round shelter beds, which a spokesperson said is double the amount created during the 5-year period prior to the Newsom administration. But that hasn’t stopped the criticism of Jackson’s bill. Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt slammed the policy on “America’s Newsroom.” “The problem in California is there are not enough homes and apartments. It’s a supply problem created over 50 years of no-growth, left-wing policies that are anti-housing. The solution is not to create homeless encampments, and each one of these will become that,” Hewitt said. “People are going to enroll in the community college for 18 bucks a credit, and then they’re going to put their car in the community college parking lot.” Hewitt said these are the types of polices that drove people like him out of California “because it’s simply a broken state” with a “deep blue supermajority” and no ideas about how to build houses. “Newsom should spend more time governing and addressing California’s housing crisis, so students don’t have to sleep in cars & less time launching his own podcast. [I don’t know] how he sees himself as a 2028 contender when he has totally FAILED to address voters’ top issue: AFFORDABILITY,” Brendan Hartnett, a progressive policy advisor, added on X. Hartnett was referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, which features a revolving door of Trump allies and conservative guests, including Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, in an attempt to show he is open to “criticism and debate without demeaning or dehumanizing one another.” The strategy follows criticism after the 2024 presidential election that Democrats didn’t prioritize new media appearances and unscripted conversations enough.
Pahalgam Terror Attack: Home Minister Amit Shah asks CMs to identify and send all Pakistan nationals back
Amit Shah spoke to all chief ministers on Friday and asked them to identify all Pakistan nationals in their respective states and take steps to ensure their prompt return to Pakistan.