Delhi Mahila Samriddhi Scheme likely to roll out today; check eligibility, step-by-step guide to apply for Rs 2,500 monthly aid
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi is expected to bring to the table a special present for women on the occasion of International Women’s Day today, i.e., March 8.
Man, said to be in coma, walks out of ICU casually, alleges he was being held captive by hospital for…
In a surprising turn of events in Madhya Praesh’s Ratlam, a man, deemed to be in coma, walked out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on his own and exposed an alleged medical fraud done by the private hospital where he was admitted.
Trump announces US ambassador nominations that include mayor of Michigan city
President Donald Trump announced via Truth Social Friday that he had appointed a number of new ambassadors. Trump announced Amer Ghalib will serve as the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait. “As the Mayor of the City of Hamtramck, Michigan, Amer worked hard to help us secure a Historic Victory in Michigan,” Trump wrote. NEW BOOK DETAILS SECURITY LAPSES AHEAD OF TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘CLEAR THERE WAS A PROBLEM’ Ghalib earned a medical degree from the Ross University School of Medicine and continues to serve his community as a proud healthcare professional. “I know he will make our Country proud in this new role. Congratulations Amer,” Trump wrote. Trump then announced Duke Buchan III would serve as U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco. SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR CURRAN ‘CONFIDENT’ THE AGENCY WILL SOLVE FAILED TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS “Duke will play a pivotal role as we strengthen Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity for both of our Countries,” Trump wrote. “Congratulations to Duke and his wonderful family!” Trump named Lynda Blanchard the next U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. “During my First Term, Lynda did a great job as U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia,” the president wrote. “She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Auburn University and, alongside her husband, she helped build a very successful Real Estate company. I know she will work incredibly hard for our Nation. Congratulations Lynda!” The final announcement named Michel Issa as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon. “Michel is an outstanding businessman, a financial expert, and a leader with a remarkable career in Banking, Entrepreneurship, and International Trade,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Friday night. “I have no doubt that he will serve our Country with Honor and Distinction. Congratulations Michel!”
University of Virginia to remove its DEI office: ‘Voted for commonsense’
The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors Friday voted to close its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office after President Trump’s executive orders against DEI efforts in the federal government. “DEI is done at UVA,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wrote on X Friday. “Today, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted for commonsense saying NO to illegal discrimination and YES to merit-based opportunity. Students at Mr. Jefferson’s University—and across America—deserve unlimited intellectual freedom, not ideological gatekeeping.” The university’s Board of Visitors is made up of 17 voting members appointed by the governor. “This is a huge step to restoring the values of Mr. Jefferson, who founded the university, who understood that we are all created equal, and that’s exactly what this is about — ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,” Youngkin said on the “Ingraham Angle” Friday. TRUMP TO SHIFT AWAY FROM DEI VISA POLICY THAT ‘SURGED’ UNDER BIDEN, EXPERT SAYS He said the university’s resolution also eliminates “any program that violates the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act or, of course, President Trump’s executive order that laid all of this out and prohibits moving these programs someplace else where they would be hidden or using third-party contractors.” Youngkin said his administration has been working against DEI efforts in the state since his election. “We, of course, embrace the idea that we come from a diverse society, diverse experiences, and, of course, diverse views, and that, of course, is one of our strengths as a nation, but we have to eliminate illegal discrimination,” he explained. “And now we’re in a moment where we have our flagship university make a very clear statement that DEI is done at the University of Virginia,” he added. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CLARIFIES DEI GUIDELINES, SAYING BLACK HISTORY MONTH DOESN’T VIOLATE ORDER The resolution said the “University’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Partnerships is hereby dissolved,” adding the school “shall immediately transfer permissible programs to a new organizational home.” The resolution didn’t specify what would count as a “permissible” program. The resolution added that the university’s president would update the board on compliance within 30 days. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The board cited the university’s mission statement, which “includes a commitment to [developing] the full potential of talented students from all walks of life” in its resolution. It continued by saying that the board “highly values diversity, including diversity of thought and experience, and fosters an inclusive environment, encouraging a culture of opportunity for all, which immensely enriches our Grounds, and is committed to providing every student an education that is free from discrimination and grounded in merit.”
Former illegal immigrant aide to AOC self-deports to Colombia amid questions about employment: report
An illegal immigrant who once served as an aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has reportedly self-deported to Colombia, praising the “freedom of movement” in the South American nation after working in Congress despite being in the country illegally. Diego de la Vega was born in Ecuador and immigrated to the United States as a 7-year-old in 2001 on a visitor’s visa that he overstayed, Migrant Insider reported. The news raises thorny questions about his employment status for the Queens-based congresswoman. “It’s bittersweet. I hadn’t left the country in 23 years — from age seven to age 30,” de la Vega told Migrant Insider. “Now, I can’t go back to the U.S. It feels like exile. It’s a very permanent move. But my wife and I are confident we made the right decision. And, after some time, it’s been a real pleasure to be here. VANCE TAKES VICTORY LAP IN BORDER VISIT AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT NUMBERS PLUMMET “It feels surreal to not be illegalized anymore. I don’t have to live in the shadows or constantly worry about paperwork,” he added. “That freedom of movement is incredibly satisfying.” De la Vega became politically active after the failure of the Dream Act in 2010, when the legislation fell just five votes short in the Senate. STATE TROOPERS, NYPD DESCEND ON AOC’S ‘RED LIGHT’ NEIGHBORHOOD TO CLAMP DOWN ON RAMPANT PROSTITUTION, CRIME After working for an immigrant rights group, he served as communications director for Robert Rodriguez, then a member of the New York State Assembly, who currently serves as president and CEO of the New York State Dormitory Authority, according to his LinkedIn page. In 2021, de la Vega was hired by Ocasio-Cortez’s re-election campaign and eventually became her deputy communications director. “Diego is amazing,” Ocasio-Cortez told the news outlet. “We love him.” De la Vega worked for Ocasio-Cortez despite not being a U.S. citizen. DACA recipients are barred from paid positions in congressional offices. Fox News Digital has reached out to the congresswoman’s office. “We were always honest with voters in New York City,” de la Vega said of working with Ocasio-Cortez. “We didn’t dumb it down or tell them what they wanted to hear. We engaged with them honestly. We listened, then explained that Alexandria was fighting for reform, but Republicans were blocking it.” He noted that he became frustrated with how the immigration movement was going. “Protections are going away, regardless of who is in the White House. The strategy hasn’t adapted to the modern era,” he said. “Biden had a trifecta — the House, Senate and White House, but dropped the ball.” As a child, de la Vega said he lived in fear but said he had a good childhood in New York. He said he may not be able to return to the U.S. “for many years” but that “it feels fulfilling to be home.”
Missouri wins $24B judgment against China in COVID lawsuit
A federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of Missouri in the state’s $24 billion lawsuit against China’s Communist Party that accused it of hoarding protective supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. “This is a landmark victory for Missouri and the United States in the fight to hold China accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation. We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland.” Bailey’s office said the judgment was six times larger than the previous largest judgment in the state’s history. 5 YEARS AFTER COVID, AMERICANS ARE SPLIT OF WHETHER IT’S STILL A THREAT Judge Stephen Limbaugh said in his ruling that the “Court finds that Missouri has provided evidence satisfactory to the Court to establish each Defendant’s liability to Missouri under Count IV of Plaintiff’s Complaint. The Court therefore enters a judgment against Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $24,488,825,457.00, plus postjudgment interest.” The People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Government of Hubei Province, the People’s Government of Wuhan City, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences were all named as defendants in the lawsuit. NEW BAT CORONAVIRUS DISCOVERED IN CHINA SPARKS PANDEMIC CONCERNS Bailey also wrote on X Friday, “Hey China, You owe Missouri $24 BILLION. I just won a judgment in court. Pay up — or we start seizing assets and farmland.” The ruling comes five years after former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued China for “obstructing the production, purchase, and export of critical medical equipment, including PPE, during the pandemic,” Bailey’s office wrote. A court of appeals ruled in Missouri’s favor in January, overturning a lower court ruling that threw out the lawsuit. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The appeals court ruled, however, that the lawsuit must be limited to accusations of supply hoarding after the lawsuit previously accused China of hiding information about the origins of the pandemic.
South Carolina man faces federal charges for allegedly threatening to assassinate Trump
A 47-year-old South Carolina man faces federal charges after he allegedly threatened to kill President Donald Trump. Travis Keith Lang, 47, of Irmo, South Carolina, was arraigned on federal charges Friday in a Columbia courthouse after being arrested Thursday. He pleaded not guilty and was denied bond. Lang is being held at the Lexington County Detention Center, according to WLTX-TV. NEW BOOK DETAILS SECURITY LAPSES AHEAD OF TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘CLEAR THERE WAS A PROBLEM’ Lang’s indictment, filed Tuesday, said he had threatened to “take the life of, to kidnap, and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.” The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the allegations. Lang is scheduled to next appear in court for a March 14 bond hearing. SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR CURRAN ‘CONFIDENT’ THE AGENCY WILL SOLVE FAILED TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS Last year, Lang filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president as a Republican, but he was not on the Republican primary ballot in South Carolina or anywhere else, and the only donation he received was for $6,000 from himself, according to FEC filings. He could face up to five years in prison, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina. Lang’s Facebook page still says “Travis Lang for President,” and his picture on his social media accounts is a split of his face and Abraham Lincoln. He has also been critical of former President Joe Biden, at one point in 2023 writing on Facebook that Congress should begin articles of impeachment against him. A U.S. attorney this week told a judge that Lang had previously made multiple threats to both Trump and Biden, the newspaper reported, adding that the Secret Service had visited him to tell him to stop making threats. Lang referenced the Secret Service visit on his social media, claiming it was sent there because Biden got “scared” when Lang decided to run for president. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The threats come after Trump faced two assassination attempts last year, including when he was grazed in the ear by a bullet while speaking at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office and the Secret Service for comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bosnia’s top court suspends separatist laws adopted by Bosnian Serbs
Laws passed by the autonomous Republika Srpska region reject the authority of the federal police and judiciary. Bosnia’s Constitutional Court has suspended legislation passed by the autonomous Republika Srpska region which rejects the authority of the federal police and judiciary on its territory. The court said on Friday that it was “temporarily suspending” the laws that Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik pushed through the regional parliament earlier this week. The laws were passed days after a court in Sarajevo sentenced Dodik to a year in prison and banned from office for six years for refusing to comply with decisions made by Christian Schmidt – the international high representative charged with overseeing Bosnia’s peace accords. Since the end of Bosnia’s inter-ethnic conflict in the 1990s, the country has consisted of two autonomous regions – Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation, which are linked by a weak central government. Bosnian officials say that Dodik’s laws violate the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the country’s 1992-95 war, binding the two entities under joint institutions, including the army, top courts and tax authorities. Advertisement Dodik on Thursday said he would ignore a summons from Bosnian state prosecutors investigating him for allegedly undermining the country’s constitutional order. On Friday, he doubled down on his separatist drive, calling on ethnic Serbs to quit the federal police force and courts and join the government of Republika Srpska. “We have ensured them a job, while preserving their legal status, ranks, and positions. They will receive the same salary, or even a higher salary than they had,” said Dodik. Dodik later added there were no plans for violent escalation but insisted that Republika Srpska had “the ability to defend itself, and we will do that”. On Friday, local media reported that the Bosnian Serb Republic’s police had forced federal agents from the State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA) out of their premises in the city of Banja Luka. But SIPA head Darko Culum later labelled the reports incorrect, insisting that the security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was “stable and calm”. The situation in Republika Srpska remained tense on Friday. The Srebrenica Memorial Centre – where most of the 8,000 victims killed by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995 are buried – said it had closed its doors “until further notice”, citing uncertainty triggered by the ongoing political crisis. “This decision has been made due to the inability to ensure adequate security guarantees for our employees, collaborators, guests, and visitors,” said the centre, which is located in the village of Potocari, in an online statement. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
What’s behind the political crisis in Bosnia Herzegovina?
Bosnian Serb leader ignoring conviction, including jail sentence. A deepening political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Republika Srpska, the autonomous Serb region, bans state police and the judiciary after its leader is convicted of undermining the national constitution. Both the US and EU are condemning the move. So what might happen next? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: Srdan Mazalica – Member of parliament and president of the parliamentary group of the SNSD, the governing party in Republika Srpska Kurt Bassuener – Co-Founder of Democratization Policy Council, a think tank in Sarajevo Jasmin Mujanovic – Senior son-resident fellow at the New Lines Institute’s Western Balkans Center Adblock test (Why?)
Three Bulgarians found guilty of spying for Russia from UK base
Three Bulgarian nationals based in the United Kingdom have been convicted by a London jury of spying for Russia on what police said was “an industrial scale”. The trio was accused of putting lives in danger as they followed orders on behalf of Russian intelligence to carry out surveillance across Europe on Kremlin opponents, including journalists, diplomats and Ukrainian troops. A jury at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday found Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova, 43, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, guilty of spying for Russia on what police said was “an industrial scale.” The trio engaged in a series of surveillance and intelligence operations over three years during which one of their ringleaders nicknamed them “the Minions”, a reference to the yellow sidekicks in movie, Despicable Me, who work for supervillain Gru. The defendants – who worked for the Russian intelligence service GRU – face up to 14 years in prison when they are sentenced in May along with three other Bulgarian members of the same spy cell. Advertisement The trio’s leader, Orlin Roussev, 47, his deputy Biser Dzhambazov, 43, and co-conspirator Ivan Stoyanov had all pleaded guilty to spying for Russia shortly before the trial. Roussev received more than 200,000 euros ($217,000) to fund the spying activities. The mastermind of the operation was alleged Russian agent Jan Marsalek, 44, an Austrian businessman wanted by Interpol after the collapse of German payment processing firm Wirecard. Marsalek, whose current whereabouts are unknown but is believed to be in Russia, acted as a go-between linking Russian intelligence and the spy ring, instructing them to carry out six serious operations in the UK, Austria, Spain, Germany and Montenegro until their arrest in 2023. “This was spying on an almost industrial scale on behalf of Russia, the Russian state and Russian intelligence services,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of London police’s Counter Terrorism Command. ‘Indiana Jones’ HQ British prosecutors said Marsalek tasked the British-based Bulgarian team with spying on Ukrainian soldiers being trained at a US base in Germany, with a view to tracking their movements on the battlefield after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Another operation involved spying on Christo Grozev, a journalist with investigative website Bellingcat, who led a report on the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, with a view to kidnapping or even killing him. The group also targeted British-based Russian Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, Bergey Ryskaliyev, a former Kazakh politician granted asylum in the UK, and Russian dissident Kiril Kachur. Advertisement They discussed dropping fake pigs’ blood on the Kazakhstan Embassy in London by drone as part of a fake protest intended to win favour with Kazakh spies. Police found a trove of what they called “really sophisticated” spyware in a raid on Roussev’s operations centre in a former guesthouse in the seaside town of Great Yarmouth, described in text messages as his “Indiana Jones garage”. It included homemade audiovisual spy devices hidden inside everyday objects including a rock, men’s ties, a Coke bottle and a Minions cuddly toy. “Really sophisticated devices – the sort of thing you would really expect to see in a spy novel – were found here, in Great Yarmouth and London,” said Murphy. Love triangle Dzhambazov, who worked for a medical courier company but claimed to be an Interpol police officer, was in a relationship with two other defendants — his laboratory assistant partner Ivanova and beautician Gaberova. Gaberova, in turn, had ditched painter-decorator Ivanchev for Dzhambazov, who took her to Michelin-starred restaurants and stayed with her in a five-star hotel. When police moved in to arrest the suspects in February 2023, they found Dzhambazov in bed with Gaberova rather than at home with Ivanova. Both women claimed during the trial that they had been deceived and manipulated by Dzhambazov. Mr Justice Hilliard KC remanded the defendants into custody until sentencing between May 7 and May 12. Adblock test (Why?)