Punjab Expressway to cut Bathinda-Chandigarh travel by 50 km, details inside
The expressway will link Chandigarh to Barnala, Malerkotla, Khanna Bypass, Sirhind, and Mohali, enhancing connectivity in the region
Texas Senate advances bill to allow smaller homes on smaller lots
Lawmakers, who are preempting locals on lot sizes in new subdivisions, have been eyeing ways to allow more homes to be built as the state faces a shortage.
Netanyahu gifts Fetterman a silver-plated beeper after he praised Israel’s Lebanon pager operation
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., was gifted a silver-plated beeper during a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the lawmaker praised Israel’s covert operation in which it detonated pagers last year worn by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Fetterman repeatedly has voiced support for Israel while breaking with the Democratic Party, which has been critical of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and has demanded that Hamas return all the hostages the terror group took on Oct. 7, 2023. He was visiting Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem this week when he reiterated his support for the Jewish state. ISRAEL SHOOTS DOWN HOUTHI BALLISTIC MISSILE AFTER CEASEFIRE COLLAPSES “Hamas does not want peace. I unapologetically, 100% stand with Israel, and demand the release of all remaining hostages,” he wrote Tuesday on X. “Sending this from Israel.” During an exchange of gifts, Fetterman gave Netanyahu a framed news article about an effort to memorialize Netanyahu’s brother, the fallen Israeli soldier Yoni Netanyahu, in Philadelphia, where Netanyahu lived as a teenager, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The fallen prime minister’s brother is considered a hero in Israel after he was killed in the 1976 Israeli raid in Entebbe, Uganda during the rescue of 102 hostages taken by German and Palestinian terrorists in a plane hijacking. Netanyahu then reciprocated with his gift. “What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?” Netanyahu said. “This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history.” FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE: LET TRUMP CLOSE DEAL OF THE CENTURY The beeper references Israel’s September 2024 operation in which it detonated pagers used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, killings dozens of people. “When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it, I love it.’ And now, it’s like, thank you for this,” Fetterman responded. The operation came before Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, and weeks ahead of an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. That conflict ended in a ceasefire in late November. In February, Netanyahu also gifted a gold-plated pager to President Donald Trump.
Is US support for Israel complicating efforts to reach peace in Gaza?
Emboldened by Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu is intensifying the war. There’s been widespread international condemnation of Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza, including from the United Nations. But the United States was the only country on the 15-member UN Security Council to back Israel’s air strikes at a meeting on Tuesday. Emboldened by US President Donald Trump’s support, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says negotiations with Hamas will only continue “under fire”. After Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza, Itamar Ben-Gvir was reappointed as Israel’s national security minister – a move likely to strengthen Netanyahu’s coalition government. Where does this leave Hamas and the mediators? Presenter: James Bays Guests: Brian Finucane – Senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group Danilo Della Valle – Member of the European Parliament for Italy’s Five Star Movement Yousef Munayyer – Head of the Palestine-Israel Program and a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC Adblock test (Why?)
How Trump took credit for the Gaza ceasefire – and then let it unravel
Washington, DC – Images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombardment are back in the news after a brief reprieve that only lasted a few weeks. Nearly two months after United States President Donald Trump took office, the ceasefire that had halted Israel’s war in Gaza has shattered, and the region is once again at war. That comes despite Trump’s own pledge to pursue peace in the Middle East and across the world. Trump took credit for the truce earlier this year, but he is now backing Israel’s renewed assaults in a conflict that he once promised to end. Analysts say Trump – a staunch Israel supporter – was more interested in generating headlines about helping to secure the ceasefire than actually ending the war. He also floated plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza, by removing its residents to make way for a riviera-style resort. “We could see evidence of Trump’s insincerity in the ceasefire almost immediately after he took office – when he started calling for the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza on a permanent basis,” said Josh Ruebner, a lecturer at Georgetown University’s Program on Justice and Peace. Advertisement “So, it’s not at all a surprise to see the Trump administration greenlight the resumption of massive Israeli violence against Palestinians in Gaza.” Early signs In the weeks leading up to the latest bombardment, there were signs that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never intended on fully honouring the ceasefire – and that Trump was not invested in upholding the deal, either. Early in February, Trump said he has “no guarantees that the peace is going to hold” in Gaza. Even before the ceasefire went into effect in January, Netanyahu claimed that the deal was “temporary” and that both Joe Biden – who was in the final days of his presidency – and Trump have given “their full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting”. Moreover, Israel has repeatedly violated the deal by firing at Palestinians almost daily and blocking the entry of mobile homes into the territory, where many buildings have been levelled or rendered unsafe. Then, on March 2, Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid destined for Gaza. The ceasefire agreement was supposed to include three phases. The first stage, which expired early in March, saw the release of about 30 Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as the guns fell silent. But Israel did not agree to move to the second phase of the deal that would see a permanent end to the war. A third stage would have eventually focused on reconstruction in the territory. Instead, Netanyahu and the Trump administration insisted on extending the first part of the ceasefire deal. But the Palestinian group Hamas has been clear in its position: There is no need for new initiatives because there is an internationally backed pact in place that all the parties have already agreed to. Advertisement Truce ‘served its purpose’ for Trump Ruebner said Trump only wanted a temporary ceasefire to free more Israeli captives without pressuring Israel to commit to ending the war. In a joint appearance with Netanyahu in February, Trump also expressed his desire for the US to “own” Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”. But since Trump’s proposal was met with overwhelming international rejection, the US president allowed Israel to “resume this frightening scale of violence” against Palestinians, Ruebner said. In the days since Israel renewed its assault on Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children, have been killed with the support of the US president, who had promised in his inauguration speech to leave the legacy of a “peacemaker”. Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said she was surprised that the truce lasted for weeks even after it “served its purpose” for Trump. “Trump’s motivation in pushing for the ceasefire was to show that he could achieve what Biden could not, and he did so before even reentering the White House,” said Sheline. “At the time the ceasefire was enacted, there was a lot of scepticism that it would reach phase two, as this would involve negotiations around a more permanent cessation of hostilities, which Israel and specifically Netanyahu had no interest in agreeing to.” The Center for International Policy (CIP), a US-based think tank, also said Trump “bears considerable responsibility” for the collapse of the ceasefire. Advertisement “While Trump’s team had an early success in assisting the administration of former President Joe Biden in negotiating the hostage release and ceasefire, he has since enabled this massive failure in his own diplomacy through a series of brazen missteps,” Dylan Williams, CIP’s vice president for government affairs, said in a statement. A ‘showman’ Williams cited Trump’s “obscene proposal” to force Palestinians out of Gaza, as well as the president’s backing of Netanyahu’s push to re-write the ceasefire deal, as decisions that make him a “full partner in this bloodshed”. Despite the civilian death toll, the Trump administration has voiced unqualified support for Israel and its military campaign in Gaza. YL Al-Sheikh, a Palestinian American writer and organiser for the Democratic Socialists of America, described Trump as a “showman” who wanted a “big thing” to brag about. But Al-Sheikh underscored that the US president has failed to get Netanyahu to permanently end the war and to get Hamas to release the remaining captives. “So he just wants to pummel on somebody,” Al-Sheikh said. Palestinians, he added, are “the natural target”. So, what happens next? Analysts fear that the Israeli offensive will intensify, leading to more death and destruction, in a campaign that leading rights groups and United Nations experts have already described as a genocide. “Trump and Netanyahu are aligned in their desire to remove Palestinians from Gaza, either by killing them or through ethnic cleansing and forced removal,” said Sheline. Advertisement Al-Sheikh also predicts that the violence will persist: “We’re going to go in this merry-go-round until either Netanyahu fails to keep
Advocates decry Trump administration effort to deport immigration activist
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed it detained and plans to deport Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent immigration activist who has drawn attention to the plight of undocumented people in the country. Immigration advocates, lawmakers and human rights groups have decried the move, pointing to the mother of four’s deep ties to the Colorado community where she has lived for 30 years. The arrest appears to be the first time US authorities have targeted a prominent immigration activist for deportation during President Donald Trump’s second term. Supporters say Vizguerra’s detention is aimed at silencing dissent. It comes amid a wider deportation push by the Trump administration, which has rolled back enforcement protections and invoked an 18th-century law in an effort to eject undocumented people from the US. In a social media post on Wednesday, ICE’s bureau in Denver, Colorado, justified Vizguerra’s arrest by pointing to her past convictions. She has a 2009 misdemeanour for using a forged Social Security number to find work, as well as a second misdemeanour from 2013 when she briefly returned home to Mexico to visit her dying mother. She was convicted at the time of illegal entry. Advertisement “She will remain in ICE custody until her removal from the United States,” ICE said in the post. However, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, questions whether Vizguerra’s meagre arrest record warrants such treatment. He acknowledged that she “has a few low-level offenses as a result of her being undocumented”. “But she’s no dangerous radical. That’s just ridiculous,” he wrote on the social media platform X. Instead, he pointed out that she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2017. “She is a well-respected advocate in Colorado and nationwide,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “The literal president of the United States has a more serious criminal record.” Jeanette Vizguerra speaks after leaving a church’s sanctuary on May 12, 2017 [David Zalubowski/AP Photo] Who is Jeanette Vizguerra? Vizguerra initially came to the US from Mexico City in the 1990s with her husband, who had faced several kidnappings in Mexico. She settled in Colorado, where she began working as a janitor and became involved in labour organising. Her first brush with US law enforcement came during a traffic stop in 2009, when she was found to be carrying a document with the fake Social Security number. Her conviction kicked off a years-long battle against her deportation – and propelled her to take on more immigration advocacy work, as she endeavoured to protect other undocumented people in Colorado. She became associated with groups like Colorado’s Rights for All People and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and she founded the Colorado branch of the organisation Dreamer’s Mothers in Action. Advertisement But in 2017, President Trump took office for the first time, with pledges to implement a sweeping immigration crackdown. Fearing imminent deportation, Vizguerra sought refuge in two Denver-area churches, an act that catapulted her into the national spotlight. A longstanding government policy forbade immigration raids at sensitive locations like churches at the time. “I decided not to hide my battle against deportation but to fight publicly to draw attention to the unfairness of the system,” Vizguerra wrote in a 2017 op-ed published by The New York Times. “I wanted to inspire my community to step out of the shadows and raise its voices.” In May 2017, she received a temporary stay of deportation that allowed her to leave the church’s sanctuary. But she felt forced to return again in 2019 after her visa application was reportedly denied. She eventually moved out of the church in 2020. The administration of US President Joe Biden later granted her a temporary “stay of deportation”. In Time Magazine’s 2017 profile of Vizguerra, actress America Ferrera praised the activist for making the “bold and risky” decision to go public with her struggle. “The current Administration has scapegoated immigrants, scaring Americans into believing that undocumented people like Jeanette are criminals,” Ferrera wrote. “She shed blood, sweat and tears to become a business owner, striving to give her children more opportunities than she had. This is not a crime. This is the American Dream.” Vizguerra was arrested on Monday in the car park of the Target where she worked. Aura Hernandez, centre, holds her one-year-old daughter Camila Sanchez and laughs with Jeanette Vizguerra on March 29, 2018 [Seth Wenig/AP Photo] Deportation push Vizguerra’s arrest comes amid a mass deportation push under Trump, who campaigned on promises to stop undocumented migration and surge the number of removals. Advertisement Since taking office, Trump has swiftly moved away from Biden administration policies that de-prioritised immigration actions against low-level and nonviolent offenders. Recent ICE enforcement sweeps have seen the arrests of thousands of individuals with no criminal record, despite Trump’s claim he would focus on those considered threats to public safety and national security. In January, the Trump administration also rolled back a longstanding policy that prohibited immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, including churches, schools and medical facilities. Earlier this month, it began invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to increase expulsions, although a federal judge has temporarily paused its use. That act has only been used three times prior, and only in cases of war. Critics have also accused the Trump administration of targeting foreign nationals – including legal permanent residents – for their political views. That includes the attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who led pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, as well as the expulsion of Brown University professor Rasha Alawieh, who was teaching in the US on a work visa. Jeanette Vizguerra speaks outside the Denver church where she has sought sanctuary on June 19, 2019 [Jim Anderson/AP Photo] What has the response been? Some of the most strident condemnations of Vizguerra’s arrest have come from local elected officials. In a widely shared video statement on Tuesday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said her detention was not “intended to keep our country safe”. Advertisement “This is Putin-style persecution
Jackpot withheld, $83 million winner “caught in crossfire” amid lottery courier investigations
The winning ticket, purchased online through the courier Jackpocket, is being scrutinized by lawmakers concerned about the legality of third-party services.
Disgraced ex-Congressman Weiner receives campaign donation from unexpected New Yorker in new race
FIRST ON FOX: Former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner received surprising donations to his campaign for City Council of New York City from ex-wife Huma Abedin and her sister, Heba Abedin, despite his ex-wife saying in 2021 that Weiner’s sex scandals “almost killed her.” Huma Abedin donated $175 to Weiner’s campaign March 13, and her sister, Heba Abedin, donated $150 Dec. 29, 2024, a Fox News Digital review of New York City campaign finance reports revealed. Weiner launched his latest campaign for NYC City Council, a position he held from 1992 to 1998 before controversy derailed his political career, in December 2024. Weiner was elected to represent New York’s 9th Congressional District in 1998 and resigned in 2011 after he posted a photo of himself in his underwear on social media. The incident was followed by years of sexual scandals, and Weiner was charged with transferring obscene material to a minor in May 2017 after sexting a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison. FORMER DEMOCRATIC REP. ANTHONY WEINER, CONVICTED OF ILLICIT CONTACT WITH MINOR, FILES TO RUN FOR NYC COUNCIL Huma Abedin, the longtime Hillary Clinton aide, told CBS “Sunday Morning” in 2021 that anger over her husband’s sex scandals almost killed her. ANTHONY WEINER SPOTTED DINING WITH ESTRANGED WIFE HUMA ABEDIN “I can’t live in that space anymore. I tried that. It almost killed me,” Abedin told Norah O’Donnell. Abedin said she filed for divorce on the same day Weiner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison. The former couple, who co-parent their son, were spotted in 2023 attending the Inner Circle charity show at Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown Manhattan. By July 2024, Abedin announced on social media she was engaged to Alex Soros, chairman of Open Society Foundations and son of billionaire megadonor George Soros. They are expected to get married this summer. After resigning from Congress in 2011, Weiner continued sexting under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” The main recipient, Sydney Leathers, who was 22 at the time, claimed the former lawmaker referred to himself as “an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man.” Weiner attempted his first political comeback in 2013 with a mayoral run, but his reputation was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the pseudonym. Weiner was caught in another sexting scandal in 2016, which led to his indictment. In one image Weiner sent, he was lying in bed with his young son. More claims surfaced that year that Weiner had sexted a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, and his laptop was seized. Investigators found emails relevant to Clinton’s classified documents scandal that dominated the 2016 election. Weiner later checked himself into rehab for sex addiction. In 2017, his federal indictment ruined another bid for mayor. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a sex offender. Abedin and Weiner did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the deadline of this article.
Texas AG Ken Paxton accuses Coppell ISD of violating Texas’ “critical race theory” ban
The attorney general office’s lawsuit is based on an undercover video published in February by a conservative activist group.
Judge denies embattled government-funded agency’s restraining order request against DOGE
A federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration on Wednesday, after a government-funded nonprofit organization filed a lawsuit protecting itself from “ongoing destruction” from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) filed a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Tuesday, claiming that DOGE had committed “literal trespass and takeover by force…of the Institute’s headquarters building on Constitution Avenue.” The organization also accused the anti-waste initiative of “ongoing destruction of the Institute’s physical and electronic property.” “Defendants have been and are at this minute engaged in conduct that will cause the Institute irreparable harm that will prevent the Institute from performing any of its lawful functions and is likely to utterly destroy it,” the lawsuit stated. WHITE HOUSE UNLEASHES ON ‘ROGUE BUREAUCRATS’ AFTER AGENCY HEAD REFUSES DOGE ENTRY TO HEADQUARTERS In a decision on Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell motioned to deny the USIP’s request for a TRO. “I think there is confusion in the complaint that make me uncomfortable,” Howell said. “I would say I am very offended by how DOGE has operated in the Institute in treating American citizens…. but that concern about how this has gone down is not one that can sway me in the consideration of factors for TRO, which is emergency relief, which is exceptional,” she continued. Howell, who was appointed as a senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2024, also said she was “particularly concerned about plaintiffs’ likelihood of success.” “Two of the most important tests, likely to succeed on the merits and likely to suffer irreparable harm, are just a stretch here,” Howell added. THE UNELECTED POWER IS THE ROGUE BUREAUCRACY, STEPHEN MILLER SAYS USIP, an independent institution funded by Congress, was established in 1984 under the Reagan administration. Its goal is to “[protect] U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad,” according to its website. “Our work helps keep America safe, reducing the risk that the United States will be drawn into costly foreign wars that drive terrorism, criminal gangs and migration,” the agency’s website reads. “We help make America stronger by projecting U.S. influence and bolstering partner countries in regions destabilized by China and other U.S. adversaries.” USIP had infamously not complied with President Donald Trump‘s February executive order to pull back the “scope of federal bureaucracy,” refusing to reduce its size to the statutory minimum listed in the order. As such, the Trump administration fired 11 of its 14 board members last week, leaving only Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin. Howell’s decision came shortly after the White House told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration had gutted USIP of “rogue bureaucrats.” “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a Tuesday statement. “The Trump administration will enforce the president’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.” Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.