Texas tells U.S. Justice Department that federal election monitors aren’t allowed in polling places
Texas’ top elections official said Friday that federal inspectors can’t be inside polls or places where ballots are counted under Texas law after the DOJ announced plans to send monitors to the state.
Armed group in Bolivia takes over military post in latest flare-up
The takeover is latest chapter in standoff between the Arce government and supporters of ex-president Evo Morales. An armed group in Bolivia has taken over a military post outside the city of Cochabamba while holding some soldiers captive, the armed forces said in a statement, ramping up tensions in the already restive Andean nation. Cochabamba, located in central Bolivia, is home to many supporters of former President Evo Morales. Friday’s standoff over the military post, located about 100 miles (160 km) east of Cochabamba, marks the latest escalation in Bolivia’s increasingly volatile and often violent politics. The military’s statement described the armed group as “irregular”, noting it had also taken control of firearms and ammunition, and stressed that such actions amounted to treason. Authorities urge group to disperse ‘immediately and peacefully’ It urged those responsible for the takeover to “immediately and peacefully” abandon the facility. “The lives of my instructors and soldiers are in danger,” warned an unnamed military official in a recording broadcast on local media. Televised images showed a row of uniformed soldiers with their hands behind their backs, possibly tied, surrounded by members of the armed group. Earlier on Friday, some soldiers stationed in the area as well as their families fled their homes, as police stations shut down to prevent further confrontations. After police and military units sought to remove a key highway blockade that connects Cochabamba with the city of Oruro, some protesters retaliated by launching dynamite at them from nearby hills. Police then hurled tear gas canisters at them. The seizure of the military outpost is seen as a response to efforts earlier this week by security forces under the control of President Luis Arce to dislodge highway blockades organised by supporters of Morales since mid-October. The two leftist leaders, both with roots in Bolivia’s ruling socialist party, have gone from close allies to bitter rivals in recent months as they jockey for position ahead of next year’s presidential election. In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Arce called for an end to the blockades, estimating that the disruptions to key transport routes have already cost the impoverished South American country’s economy over $1.7bn. Adblock test (Why?)
Supreme Court rejects bid by GOP not to count some Pennsylvania ballots
Republicans wanted some so-called provisional ballots to be rejected. The United States Supreme Court has dismissed an effort by Republicans to prevent the counting of provisional ballots in Pennsylvania – a move that would have meant thousands of votes were not tallied. Republicans in the state, which Joe Biden and the Democrats narrowly won in the 2020 US presidential election on their way to victory, had argued that “tens of thousands of votes” could be at stake and ought to have been rejected. Reports suggested that as of late this week, somewhere close to 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million were returned, as they had arrived at election offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a date. The ruling is a victory for voting-rights advocates, who had tried to force various counties, especially Republican-controlled counties, to allow voters to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if they had realised their mail-in ballot was to be rejected for any of a variety of errors. Provisional ballots generally protect voters from being excluded from the voting process if their eligibility is uncertain on Election Day. The vote is counted once officials confirm eligibility. The Associated Press said the court ruling could apply to thousands of ballots, and possibly more, according to elections experts. ‘The right to vote means the right to have your vote counted’ The Supreme Court justices left in place a decision by Pennsylvania’s top court that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected. Democrats had intervened on the side of the activists, arguing that if a defective mail-in ballot could not be counted, that person had not yet voted and a provisional ballot must be counted. Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler and Democratic National Committee spokesperson Rosemary Boeglin said in a joint statement after the Supreme Court acted: “In Pennsylvania and across the country, Trump and his allies are trying to make it harder for your vote to count, but our institutions are stronger than his shameful attacks. [This] decision confirms that, for every eligible voter, the right to vote means the right to have your vote counted.” Adblock test (Why?)
Arizona top prosecutor investigating Trump’s comments about ‘gunfire’
Arizona’s top prosecutor is investigating whether Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump violated state laws for suggesting that one of his most prominent critics should face “gunfire” in combat. Trump has been widely criticised for comments he made about former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney at a campaign event in Arizona on Thursday. “She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said of Cheney. “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there, with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.” On Friday, speaking to a local TV station, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said Trump might have violated state laws that prohibit death threats. “I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analysing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Mayes told 12News. Mayes said it was not yet clear if Trump’s comment amounted to protected free speech or a criminal threat. “That’s the question, whether it did cross the line. It’s deeply troubling,” Mayes said. “It is the kind of thing that riles people up, and that makes our situation in Arizona and other states more dangerous.” Cheney endorsed Democrats Cheney, a former top Republican in the US House of Representatives, has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and called the former president “a danger”. Harris told reporters the comments were a sign Trump has become increasingly unhinged. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” she said in Madison, Wisconsin. Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said his remarks were misinterpreted. “President Trump is 100 percent correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” she said. Trump goes after former VP At a rally in Warren, Michigan, earlier in the day, Trump attacked Harris and Cheney again, and this time his comments included her father – former Vice President Dick Cheney. “They want the Arab American vote. They want to get the Muslim votes, so she picks Liz Cheney whose father virtually destroyed the Middle East,” he said. He added: “It’s easy for her to say she wants to start wars from the comfort of her nice home, or her father’s lavish home, that he got from killing a big portion of the Middle East. You know that, right? You know he headed up a company, that was a big company, a big beneficiary of the wars.” Cheney was vice president under President George W Bush and played a key role in the so-called “war on terror” – the US response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Before he served as vice president, Cheney was the former CEO of Halliburton, a multinational oil services company that won multibillion-dollar contracts with the US military in Iraq. Cheney has also refused to back Trump’s third presidential run and has endorsed Harris. Both Harris and Trump held evening campaigns in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday as part of a final push for votes in the crucial swing state. Adblock test (Why?)
Delhi Air Pollution: Delhi-NCR AQI turns ‘very poor’ as city wakes up to toxic smog post-Diwali
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) in several areas of Delhi dipped into the ‘very poor’ category on Friday morning.
Trump clarifies he meant Cheney wouldn’t have ‘guts’ to fight a war with rifle comment after Dem backlash
Former President Trump on Friday clarified that he meant former Rep. Liz Cheney doesn’t have the “guts” to fight on the front lines of war after he received a backlash from Democrats over comments he made Thursday about having guns trained on her. “All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself,” the Republican presidential nominee wrote on Truth Social. “It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’ Her father decimated the Middle East, and other places, and got rich by doing so. He’s caused plenty of DEATH, and probably never even gave it a thought. That’s not what we want running our Country!” Trump caused controversy when he called Cheney a “radical war hawk” at an event in Arizona on Thursday, adding, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops into the mouths of the enemies,’ but she’s a stupid person and I used to have meetings with a lot of people and she always wanted to go to war with people.” Trump also told reporters at a campaign stop in Dearborn, Michigan, on Friday: “Even in my administration, she was pushing that we go to war with everybody, and I said if you ever gave her a rifle and let her do the fighting, if you ever do that, she wouldn’t be doing too well, I will tell you right now. But she’s a war hawk. She wants to go kill people unnecessarily. HARRIS SAYS TRUMP’S RIFLE COMMENTS ABOUT LIZ CHENEY ARE ‘DISQUALIFYING’ The remarks prompted accusations from liberals of violent rhetoric and that Trump was suggesting Cheney should face a firing squad. “He has increased his violent rhetoric about political opponents – Donald Trump has – and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney,” Vice President Harris told reporters in a presser Friday. “This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be President of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.” TRUMP CRITICISM OF LIZ CHENEY AS ‘RADICAL WAR HAWK’ FRAMED AS CALL FOR VIOLENCE BY ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ MEDIA Cheney, a Republican, endorsed Harris for president in September and has been campaigning with the Democratic nominee. Cheney responded to Trump’s Thursday remarks on X Friday, writing, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.” She added the hashtags “#Womenwillnotbesilenced” and “#VoteKamala.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Republicans have also accused Democrats of increasing the possibility of violence against Trump with rhetoric accusing him of being “fascist” and a “threat to democracy.” The former president was shot by a would-be assassin in July and was targeted by another suspect near his home in Florida.
Unearthed documents contradict vulnerable House Democrat’s rhetoric about championing eviction ban
Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has a long history of defending squatters’ rights and decrying foreclosure evictions during the 2008 recession, has filed eviction notices against multiple tenants of properties she owns. One of those eviction petitions, filed in 2021 in Toledo municipal court, was against a tenant for “non-payment of rent,” and that same tenant faced another eviction from Kaptur in 2023 for failing to pay rent. That same tenant faced a possible eviction from Kaptur in 2024. ‘LEFT BEHIND’: VULNERABLE DEM INCUMBENT IN KEY SWING STATE SLAMMED FOR PUTTING ‘KNIFE IN BACK’ OF WORKERS Kaptur, running for her 22nd term in Congress, also filed an eviction petition against another tenant in 2024 for a noise complaint, animal complaint and for an unauthorized person living on the property. All of the eviction filings were eventually withdrawn by Kaptur. VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM UNDER FIRE FOR INTRODUCING ONLY 5 BILLS THAT BECAME LAW IN 41 YEARS: ‘HASN’T DONE SQUAT’ Kaptur’s eviction filings come with a backdrop of the congresswoman vocally speaking out against evictions during her time in Congress. During the COVID pandemic, Kaptur repeatedly pushed for the enactment and extension of eviction moratoriums to prevent landlords from removing tenants. In one letter Kaptur signed, she declared, “Keeping Americans affordably and stably housed during this pandemic is both a moral imperative and a public health necessity.” Kaptur co-sponsored legislation, H.R. 6347, to establish an eviction moratorium until six months after the COVID-19 emergency declaration expired. “Possession is 99% of the law; you stay in your house.” Kaptur said on the floor of the House of Representatives in 2009 after the 2008 housing crisis. “So, I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave.” In 2017, Kaptur slammed Trump Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin for allegedly profiting from foreclosures and complained that “Mr. Mnuchin profited personally off of kicking people out of their homes. “Does such a person actually deserve confirmation as secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America?” Kaptur told homeowners in 2009, “You should stay in your home. It is your castle. It’s more than a piece of property. It’s your home.” Fox News Digital reached out to Kaptur’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response. “This proves what we’ve been saying about Marcy Kaptur all along. She is a hypocrite who changes her language just because she’s in a tight election for the first time in her 41-year career,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital. “Marcy Kaptur should be ashamed of herself for profiting off kicking hardworking Ohioans out of their homes.” Kaptur, serving her 21st term in Congress representing Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House. While the Cook Political Report ranks her race as “Lean Democrat,” redistricting following the 2020 census has Republicans believing they can flip the seat and ensure control of the House. Kaptur is opposed by GOP Ohio State Rep. Derek Merrin.
Indian troops start patrolling Demchok sector in eastern Ladakh following India-China disengagement
Patrolling by Indian troops in the Demchok sector in Eastern Ladakh has started today. Patrolling in the Depsang sector is expected to start soon, Indian Army Sources said.
House Oversight ramps up demands for White House to release accurate Biden ‘garbage’ transcript
The House Oversight Committee is applying pressure on the White House to release accurate transcripts, after they allegedly altered President Biden’s remarks after he called Trump supporters “garbage.” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Oversight Chair James Comer, R-KY, sent a letter to the White House counsel’s office Friday demanding they preserve all documents related to the transcript. “To date, the White House has not issued a corrected transcript, and the false transcript remains on the White House webpage,” they wrote. THE FATAL FLAW IN KAMALA HARRIS’ SPEECH, MARRED BY BIDEN’S ‘GARBAGE’ COMMENT The top members condemned the White House’s alteration of the official transcript, writing that the stenography office cannot “simply rewrite President Biden’s rhetoric.” “In this case, it appears the White House is doing so to safeguard Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign,” they wrote. WATCH: Stefanik and Comer referred to an AP report, which cited an internal email from the head of the stenographer’s office, that noted that the press office “conferred with the president” to change the transcript. The shocking comment came during Biden’s remarks to Latino activists regarding comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments at a Trump rally. Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters.” The White House insisted that Biden was criticizing Hinchcliffe’s comments – and not the huge swath of Americans supporting a Trump presidency. READ THE LETTER– APP USERS, CLICK HERE: The letter from the GOP leaders shared their “concern with the latest reporting of the White House’s apparent political decision to protect the Biden-Harris Administration, instead of following longstanding and proper protocols.” ‘GARBAGE’ TRUMP SUPPORTERS? AMERICANS REACT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘OUT OF TOUCH’ COMMENTS The transcript standard states that: “If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently. Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.” Now, Stefanik and Comer are demanding that the White House:
Over 150,000 veterans and military family members recruited to staff polling places for Election Day
Veterans and military families are falling in by the thousands to staff polling places across the country, according to a veterans’ coalition. Vet the Vote coalition recently announced that after its recruitment efforts, 163,000 veterans and military families will work on Election Day to help facilitate the vote. This number far exceeds the 63,500 veterans and military family members who were successfully recruited to work in polling places during the 2022 midterm elections, when the campaign was first launched. MAJORITY OF VETERANS POLLED SUPPORT RE-ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP: ‘WE WANT TRUMP BACK’ According to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), 917,694 poll workers worked during the 2016 election and a majority of jurisdictions polled reported that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to obtain a sufficient number of poll workers. “Vet the Vote is a national non-partisan, nonprofit campaign to recruit veterans and military family members to be the next generation of poll workers,” reads their mission statement. The coalition represents 43 advocacy groups and other organizations. It has recently partnered with sponsors like NASCAR, the NFL and the NBA. BRIAN MAST: I’M A WOUNDED WARRIOR. I’VE SEEN DONALD TRUMP CARE FOR VETERANS. THAT’S WHY I’M VOTING FOR HIM “Our community makes for a good workforce” to take on the nuts and bolts of running one of the more than 132,000 polling stations expected to be recording votes next Tuesday, said Ellen Gustafson, a Navy spouse and co-founder of the Vet the Vote organization to Military.com. According to Gustafson, the especially charged political environment going into next Tuesday has posed a challenge uniquely suited to veterans and military families. “Yeah, we sure are hearing about threats. There are people questioning the integrity of our elections,” said Gustafson to Military.com, and “that includes questioning the integrity of the poll workers who do the work. I think we are comfortable with the idea that sometimes situations are challenging and the first goal is to de-escalate.” Most poll workers sign up for long days, with most starting out at 5:30 am. Over half of poll workers in 2016 according to the EAC were aged 60 or over. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Vet the Vote did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.