Sudanese army retakes presidential palace
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Sudan’s army has retaken the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum, nearly two years after it was seized.
UPI services to stop working on THESE mobile numbers from April 1; Check details here
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has directed banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to delink certain type of mobile numbers to prevent fraudulent transactions. Know who all will be affected and why this directive has been issued.
Aam Aadmi Party announces major organisational rejig after Delhi polls debacle, appoints Saurabh Bharadwaj as Delhi chief, Manish Sisodia to head…
Announcing the changes, AAP general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said Gopal Rai has been given charge of Gujarat, where the party is aiming to expand its base.
Huge amount of cash found at Delhi HC judge’s residence; Supreme Court takes strict action
Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna met on Thursday and made the recommendations of Justice Varma’s transfer to Centre government to his parent High Court of Allahabad.
Canadian politician claims Trump admin’s ’51st state’ rhetoric is an ‘act of war’
A liberal Canadian member of Parliament claimed the Trump administration has committed an “act of war” over President Donald Trump repeatedly referring to Canada as the U.S.’ “51st state” and for leveling tariffs on the nation. “Well, I think Marco Rubio probably needs to be sent back to school because when you say that someone doesn’t have a right to have a country, that’s an act of war. When you rip up, arbitrarily, trade agreements and threaten and say you’re going to break a country, that’s an act of war. And Canadians have responded in kind,” Canadian MP Charlie Angus, who is a member of the country’s liberal New Democratic Party, said Monday during an interview with the MeidasTouch Network. Angus was reacting to a clip of Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking with reporters during his recent trip to Canada for the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Rubio was repeatedly asked by the press to weigh in on Trump referring to Canada as the U.S.’ “51st state.” “The president has made his argument as to why he thinks Canada would be better off joining the United States… for economic purposes,” Rubio said on March 14 when asked about Trump’s “51st state” comments, explaining the issue was not addressed during the G7 meeting. “There’s a disagreement between the president’s position and the position of the Canadian government. I don’t think that’s a mystery coming in, and it wasn’t a topic of conversation, because that’s not what this summit was about.” Rubio further explained that the origin of the “51st state” rhetoric was born during a meeting between Trump and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump began using the “51st state” title for Canada in November 2024, following his election win. CANADA ‘RAGE ROOM’ LETS VISITORS SMASH TRUMP, VANCE, MUSK PORTRAITS TO RELEASE TARIFF ANGST Trump was meeting with Trudeau, “and Trudeau basically says that if the U.S. imposes tariffs on Canada, Canada couldn’t survive as a nation-state, at which point the president said, ‘Well, then you should become a state.’ And that’s where this began,” Rubio recounted of the Trump–Trudeau meeting. “He made an argument for why Canada would be better off joining the United States from an economic perspective and the like. He’s made that argument repeatedly, and I think it stands for itself.” Trudeau announced his resignation as the country’s prime minister in January after nine years in the position. Mark Carney was sworn-in as the nation’s next prime minister on March 14 after he was elected the new leader of Canada’s Liberal Party earlier in the month. During his interview, Angus said that Canada’s boycott of U.S. products over tariffs leveled on the nation would be “punishing” to the U.S. STEVE MOORE: TARIFFS WILL BRING FREER AND FAIRER TRADE “The boycott that Canada has launched against the United States is punishing. We were told in January a 10% drop in Canadian travel to the United States would cost 140,000 jobs,” he continued. Trump leveled a 25% tariff on all imports of steel and aluminum from other nations on March 12, while Canada specifically is set to face a 25% tax on all imported goods beginning April 2. The tariffs have sparked boycotts of U.S. goods. NEW CANADIAN PM BLASTS TRUMP’S 51ST STATE IDEA: ‘CRAZY’ Trump joined Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, where he railed against how the U.S. has subsidized “Canada by $200 billion a year.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Here’s my problem with Canada,” Trump said on Fox News. “Canada was meant to be the 51st state because we subsidize Canada by $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we have a lot of lumber. … We don’t need their energy, we don’t need anything, we certainly don’t want their automobiles… millions of automobiles are sent in, I’d rather have them made in Michigan, I’d rather have them made in South Carolina.” Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Bernie Sanders, AOC, take aim at Trump and Musk, as well as Democrats, at western rallies
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – champions of the left – repeatedly targeted President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk as they kicked off a three-day swing through three electorally important western states. But Sanders, and especially Ocasio-Cortez, also trained some of their fire on the Democratic Party, with the best-known member of the so-called “Squad” of diverse and progressive House members urging her own party to have “the courage to brawl” against Republicans. Trump has been on a tear since returning to the White House two months ago, flexing his political muscles to expand presidential powers as he’s upended longstanding government policy and made major cuts to the federal workforce through a flurry of executive orders and actions. And Sanders and Cortez took to the stage at their first stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, while Trump signed an executive order to begin the longstanding conservative goal of demolishing the Department of Education at a White House ceremony. BERNIE SANDERS SAYS THIS IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S BIGGEST PROBLEM Ocasio-Cortez accused Trump and his GOP allies of “lying to and screwing over working and middle-class Americans so that they can steal our health care, social security and veterans benefits in order to pay for their tax cuts for the billionaires and bailouts for their crypto friends.” And Sanders charged that “every day Trump is trying to take power away from Congress. He is trying to take power away from the judiciary.” “We have a message for Mr. Trump and that is, we will not allow you to move this country into an oligarchy,” Sanders emphasized.”We’re not going to allow you and your friend Mr. Musk and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on this country.” But the inability of Democrats in Congress, who are out of power in the White House as well as the House and Senate, to stop the majority Republicans is causing tensions within the party amid increasing calls for leaders to come up with a stronger strategy to resist Trump. “This isn’t just about Republicans,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd in Arizona. “We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us. That means each and every one of us choosing and voting for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class…I want you to look at every level of office around and support Democrats who fight, because those are the ones who can actually win against Republicans.” The Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez stops are drawing large crowds. The fire marshal in Tempe, Arizona said 11,300 packed the Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University, with thousands in an overflow section outside the arena. The tour, dubbed by Sanders as “Fighting Oligarchy,” continues Friday in Denver and Greeley, Colorado and concludes Saturday with a rally in Tucson, Arizona. It comes as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, is facing increasing fire from his own party for his support last week for a Republican-crafted federal funding bill that averted a government shutdown. WHAT THIS PROGRESSIVE LEADER TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT CHUCK SCHUMER Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders mentioned Schumer during their speeches in Las Vegas or Tempe. And Sanders, an independent who has long caucused with the Democrats and who is part of Schumer’s leadership team in the Senate, declined in an interview with Fox News Digital ahead of the Tempe rally, to answer whether he agreed with calls for Schumer to step down from his leadership position. “That’s kind of inside the Beltway stuff,” Sanders said. But it was on the minds of some of those attending the rallies. There were chants of “primary Chuck” directed at Ocasio-Cortez at the Las Vegas rally. And in Tempe, Cindy Garman and Pat Robinson, both of Prescott, Arizona, told Fox News that they were “really disappointed” with Schumer’s move. And Amanda Ratloff of Gilbert, Arizona, said Schumer “is not the leader we need right now. We need somebody that will actually fight back and fight for the American people and not just give in to Elon Musk and Donald Trump.” Sanders, in his speech, vowed to fight. “We are going to fight Trump and his oligarchy friends,” he emphasized. “From the bottom of my heart I am convinced that they can be defeated.”
Georgetown researcher arrest escalates Trump speech crackdown, scholars say
Washington, DC – Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University, has been a vocal critic of efforts to silence pro-Palestine protesters and academics amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Those efforts reached new heights under the administration of President Donald Trump, which last week took the extraordinary measure of detaining and seeking to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident married to a US citizen. Then, immigration authorities came for one of Hashemi’s own students. Earlier this week, agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which Hashemi directs. “It’s shocking, and it sort of confirms our worst fears that authoritarian repression on American universities is expanding under the Trump administration,” said Hashemi. Civil liberties groups and rights observers have decried — and challenged — Khalil’s attempted deportation, which Hashemi and other observers describe as an extension of the anti-Palestinian bias in the US government. Advertisement That has often involved conflating anti-Jewish sentiment and support for Hamas, which the US categorises as a “terrorist organisation”, with statements criticising Israeli military action or support for Palestinians, they say. But Hashemi and his colleagues see the targeting of Suri, who is in the US on a student visa, as going a step further, given that he was detained not for public protests but for his alleged personal views. Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who focuses on Palestinian-Israel affairs, said the Trump administration’s enforcement efforts appear to be entering “a different realm with this case”, extending beyond student visa holders and US residents sanctioned for their protest activity. “This person seems to have been targeted, not for his activism,” he said, “but simply for being suspected of holding certain views.” ‘Adverse foreign policy consequences’ For its part, the US Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had approved Suri’s deportation. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Rubio made the determination by citing the same law used to justify the attempted deportation of Khalil. It is a provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state power to remove any non-citizen whose presence in the US is deemed to have “adverse foreign policy consequences”. McLaughlin accused Suri of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”, without providing further details. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for further information from Al Jazeera. Advertisement She also said Suri “has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas”. On Wednesday, Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, confirmed to Al Jazeera that she is a US citizen. Meanwhile, Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to The New York Times that Suri was his son-in-law. Yousef told the newspaper he had left his position in the political wing of Hamas over a decade ago and has publicly criticised the group’s decision to attack Israel on October 7, 2023. He said that Suri was not involved in “political activism”, much less support for Hamas. Suri has roundly rejected the allegations against him, his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, told US media. His legal team, which includes the Virginia office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a petition at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking his release. He remained at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centre in Louisiana on Thursday. In a statement on Wednesday, Georgetown University also said it supports its community members “rights to free and open deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable”. Meanwhile, the Alwaleed Center issued a passionate defence of Suri on Thursday, saying he has become the victim of a “campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy higher education in the United States and punish their political opponents”. Advertisement ‘Direct threat to learning’ Both Suri and his wife Saleh had previously been singled out by “Campus Watch”, a project out of the Middle East Forum that says it “reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities”. Critics have accused the project of being a tool to silence criticism of Israel in higher education. Hashemi, meanwhile, described Suri as a “very respected and serious academic”. “In many ways, [Suri] was the exact opposite to Mahmoud Khalil, in the sense that he was not an organiser or a leader. He was simply a researcher and postdoctoral fellow at our centre,” Hashemi said, “who was just working on themes of minority rights, majoritarianism and the problem of authoritarianism.” Elgindy, meanwhile, said the Trump administration continues to embrace a “dangerous conflation” when it comes to complex discussions of Palestinian rights and resistance. “Really any expression of solidarity with Palestinians or criticism of Israel is deemed in and of itself, to be both anti-Semitic and inherently supportive of terrorism and Hamas,” he said. Elgindy described a “genuine atmosphere of fear” when it comes to open academic debate on the complex realities that define the Israel-Palestine conflict. “It really cuts to the heart of academic freedom — if people have to censor themselves, if students are afraid to ask certain questions or raise certain points because maybe someone in the class is recording and is going to share with some of these extremist groups out there that have been doxxing students,” he said. Advertisement “The intent is to chill debate and to make people second guess whether they should express certain views at all.” A ‘blatant attack’ On Thursday, Congressman Don Beyer, who represents northern Virginia, also weighed in on Suri’s detainment, calling it a violation of his right to “due process” and a “blatant attack on the First Amendment”, referring to the US Constitution’s protections for freedom of speech. His statement offered a preview of the principles likely to be raised in federal courts. The Trump administration has taken the broad position that those
Donald Trump signs executive order to ‘eliminate’ Department of Education
United States President Donald Trump has made good on a campaign promise to begin shuttering the Department of Education, though his efforts are likely to face court challenges and constitutional barriers. On Thursday, the Republican leader held an elaborate ceremony to sign an executive order that would set in motion the department’s demise. A semi-circle of children were arranged in desks around the president, each with their own version of the executive order to sign. When Trump uncapped his marker to sign the order, the children followed suit. When he lifted up the completed order for the cameras, so too did the kids. “I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all,” Trump said in remarks before the signing ceremony. “And it sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it, and everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right.” But Democrats and education advocates quickly denounced the action as not only another example of presidential overreach but as an effort that would harm students across the country. Advertisement “Attempting to dismantle the Department of Education is one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken. This. Will. Hurt. Kids,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on social media within minutes of the ceremony. The order called for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, a longtime Trump ally, to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the department’s closure, which must be approved by Congress. The Department of Education was founded in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, as part of an effort to consolidate various education initiatives within the federal government. In doing so, he created a new cabinet-level position, something Republicans even then argued would leach power away from states and local school boards. The department, however, has a limited mandate. It does not set curriculums or school programming but rather focuses on collecting data on education, disseminating research, distributing federal aid and enforcing anti-discrimination measures. A child yawns during the signing of an executive order to shut down the Department of Education [Nathan Howard/Reuters] Trump bemoans test scores Still, Trump has repeatedly held the department responsible for low educational achievement in US schools, an assertion experts say is misleading. “ We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country. And we haven’t for a long time,” Trump said at Thursday’s ceremony. The US does indeed trail other countries in global standardised test scores – but it is by no means last, as Trump has sometimes asserted. Advertisement The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international metric for education standards, has found that American students rank as average in their test scores: above countries like Mexico and Brazil but below places like Singapore, Japan and Canada. Test scores had declined in mathematics from 2018 to 2022, something PISA attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. But achievements in reading and science remained stable. Trump, meanwhile, also tied the Department of Education to his broader campaign to cut alleged waste and fraud in the federal government, including through widespread layoffs. He explained from the podium on Thursday that he had offered buyout offers to Education Department employees. “ We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half. Fifty percent have taken offers,” Trump said to applause. He added that the employees consisted of “ a small handful of Democrats and others that we have employed for a long time – and there are some Republicans, but not too many, I have to be honest with you.” Trump has previously pledged to expel all “Biden bureaucrats” and install loyalists instead. Critics, however, say he has targeted nonpartisan civil service members with his layoffs, many of whom help maintain government stability from administration to administration. One Trump ally who risks losing their position under the department shake-up is McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. Trump, however, reassured her from the podium on Thursday that she would remain in his government: “We’re going to find something else for you, Linda.” President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon [Ben Curtis/AP Photo] Does Trump have the authority? Despite his executive order, Trump cannot single-handedly shutter the Department of Education. Advertisement Only Congress can formally shut down a cabinet-level department. But already, Republicans like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have stepped forward to begin legislative proceedings. “I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said in a news release. “Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.” But if such legislation is introduced, it would likely not generate enough support to reach the threshold of 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster in the 100-seat Senate. “The Republicans don’t have that,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Washington, DC. The Republicans only have a 53-seat majority. Still, Rattansi predicts the issue will likely end up before the Supreme Court, as education advocates prepare to mount legal challenges. The Education Department, Rattansi explained, “is thought of as relatively low-hanging fruit” as the Trump administration tries to expand its executive reach. “They have a very expansive view of executive power. They want to test that in court,” he said. Part of the reason for its vulnerability is that the department is relatively young: It was founded within the last half-century. But Rattansi warned that critical educational functions could be lost or suspended while legal challenges wind their way through the court system. “What the Department of Education does is ensure equal access to education for minorities, for poor kids, for disabled children, and so on. So there’s that extra level of oversight that will now be – potentially, in the short term – removed as court cases are fought,” he said. Advertisement “In the long term, though, this is all about testing the limits of
Trump orders increased minerals production, says Ukraine deal coming soon
US president invokes wartime powers to boost production of rare earths and other critical minerals. United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will sign a rare earths deal with Ukraine “very shortly,” after invoking wartime powers to boost domestic production of critical minerals. In an address at the White House on Thursday, Trump said his administration was forging agreements in “various locations” to gain access to rare earth minerals, which are used in the manufacturing of electronics, batteries and magnets, among other items. “One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine … They have tremendous value in rare earths, and we appreciate that,” Trump said. Trump made the remarks shortly after signing an executive order directing federal agencies to identify mines and government-owned land that could be exploited to boost the production of critical minerals. The order invokes powers contained in the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that grants Washington sweeping authority to mobilise industrial resources in the service of national security. Advertisement The US and Ukraine had been due to sign a deal granting Washington access to Kyiv’s natural resources until a public bust-up between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month derailed the plan. Zelenskyy said earlier this month that his government was “ready to sign” a rare earths deal despite the tense exchange with Trump at the White House, but he wanted the “Ukrainian position to be heard.” Trump has pushed Kyiv to grant Washington access to its natural resources as part of his administration’s efforts to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy on Wednesday said Kyiv had agreed to a US proposal to pause attacks on energy infrastructure, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted the plan. In his remarks at the White House on Thursday, Trump said his administration’s efforts to reach a peace deal were going “pretty well”. “So hopefully we can save thousands of people a week from dying. That’s what it is all about,” he said. “They’re dying so unnecessarily. Adblock test (Why?)
Meerut murder case: Wife accused of killing husband seen dancing with him in viral video; WATCH
The woman, Muskan Rastogi, is accused of killing her husband Saurabh Rajput in collusion with her lover, Sahil Shukla. Muskan and Sahil allegedly stabbed Saurabh to death, chopped his body into more than a dozen pieces, and stacked it inside a plastic drum filled with cement.