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Himachal CM Sukhu’s samosas, cakes served to security staff; CID probe on

A refreshment mix-up for Himachal CM Sukhu has led to political controversy and a CID probe, raising concerns over government coordination.

Tim Scott launches bid to chair NRSC as GOP seeks to capitalize on new minority gains

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is running to lead the Senate Republican campaign arm in the next election cycle, sharing the announcement exclusively with Fox News Digital. On Friday, Scott launched his bid to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 2026 midterm cycle, after speculation last month that he planned to do so. “Let’s do this! I’m running for NRSC Chair because two years of a Republican agenda is good, but four years of success under Donald J. Trump is even better,” he told Fox News Digital in a statement. TOP REPUBLICAN PRIVATELY BACKING THUNE TO SUCCEED MCCONNELL IN GOP LEADER RACE “That means the entire four years of his presidency will create low inflation, secure borders and safe streets, leading to a generation of American prosperity! With Donald J. Trump in the White House and Republicans leading the U.S. Senate, we will protect our majority in 2026 and create opportunities for all Americans.”  The South Carolina senator ran for president in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out and endorsing Trump. He was also considered a contender to be Trump’s running mate before Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, was chosen.  RICK SCOTT SEES RED WAVE AS ‘BEST CASE SCENARIO’ FOR SENATE LEADER BID AS HE LOBBIES TRUMP FOR SUPPORT Scott additionally rolled out three high-profile endorsements to go with his campaign announcement. Current NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., who just successfully led the campaign arm in helping Republicans take back the majority, has thrown his support behind Scott.  “We took back the U.S. Senate in 2024, and there is no one I trust more to protect the majority in 2026 than Tim Scott,” Daines said in a statement.  CHUCK SCHUMER PREPS FOR RETURN TO SENATE MINORITY AFTER GOP VICTORY The South Carolina Republican was also endorsed by Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo. “Tim’s inspiring message, record of fundraising and vision for the party makes him the perfect partner for President Trump,” Barrasso said. “Together, they will protect and grow the Republican majority. There’s nobody better than Tim Scott.” “Protecting the majority and growing the party starts with a vision and the resources to compete anywhere. That is why I’m confident in Tim leading the NRSC into 2026,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in his own statement backing Scott.  ELECTION NIGHT WINNERS AND LOSERS: 2024 EDITION The election will be held on Nov. 13 and decided via a secret ballot along with other Senate GOP leadership races.  Scott’s bid for the top NRSC role comes on the heels of the Republican Party and Trump seeing significant gains across the country with minorities in the 2024 elections.  As one of only four Black senators in the 118th Congress and the only Black Republican senator, Scott has made a variety of efforts to reach minority voters on behalf of the GOP.  In the last three months, he held a Black financial literacy event in North Carolina, an event on Black Opportunity Zones in Wisconsin, a Black pastor event in Michigan and school choice events in Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Chicago.  He also joined fellow Black Republican representatives Burgess Owens, R-Utah; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; John James, R-Mich.; and Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, earlier in the year to launch a weekly video series dedicated to the voices of Black members of the GOP. The series was called “America’s Starting Five.”  Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub

Shutdown standoff looms in Congress’ final weeks before Trump’s return to White House

EXCLUSIVE: The tumultuous two years of the 118th Congress are likely to be capped by one more standoff over government spending. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., signaled to Fox News Digital that it was unlikely Republicans will move to kick fiscal 2025 federal funding discussions into the new year. But he reiterated vows that House Republicans would fight against rolling all 12 annual appropriations bills into one large “omnibus” package, setting up a possible showdown with Senate Democrats. “The ideal scenario would be we get an agreement for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Scalise said. JOHNSON BLASTS DEM ACCUSATIONS HE VOWED TO END OBAMACARE AS ‘DISHONEST’ He cited constraints on national security if Congress were to simply extend fiscal 2024 funding levels. “When you think about defense funding, it costs us money to have short-term funding bills when you cannot do long-term procurement, to buy the kind of long-range defense systems that we need to compete with China,” Scalise said. “China is not operating on short-term spending bills, neither should we.” Before recessing in September, House Republicans and Senate Democrats agreed to extend fiscal 2024 funding levels through what’s known as a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. That bought congressional negotiators through Dec. 20 to hash out a deal. At the time, several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump demanded that the CR run into the new year in the hopes a new Republican administration would take the reins, something opposed by senior GOP lawmakers and national security hawks. HOUSE GOP LEADERS RIP ACTBLUE AFTER DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT HIT WITH SUBPOENA If Republicans win the House in addition to the Senate and White House, Trump will have a say over how a GOP-controlled Congress handles spending in the fall next year. A number of House races remain undecided days after Tuesday’s general election. Scalise also cited several other priorities, like the border crisis and extending tax cuts, that will take up much of the beginning of Trump’s term. As for this year’s negotiations, however, both sides are still far apart. House Republicans have accused Senate Democrats of slow-walking the process without having passed any of their own spending bills on the floor in a bid to force the GOP to swallow an end-of-year “omnibus” with excess spending and little transparency. Democrats have in turn criticized House Republicans’ spending bills, several of which passed the House floor, as pushing draconian cuts and conservative policies deemed “non-starters.” SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE “We have a lot of conversations to have with our members about the best approach,” Scalise said. “When we had left, we had already passed over 70% of the government funding bills through the House, and the Senate hadn’t passed any.” “We’re trying to get agreements on the individual bills. That’s why the House did our job … hopefully we can start getting those agreements when we return.” Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about whether he anticipates an omnibus, which he has ushered through the Senate nearly every year he’s been majority leader, at the end of this year. If an agreement is not reached by Dec. 20, the country could face a partial government shutdown just weeks before the new presidential administration.

5 mistakes that doomed Kamala Harris’ campaign against Trump

Vice President Harris suffered a massive loss to President-elect Donald Trump this week, losing her campaign as Trump swept battleground and traditionally Republican states alike that catapulted him past the needed 270 electoral college votes.  Harris’ truncated campaign cycle, which only launched toward the end of July after President Biden dropped out of the race and passed the torch to his VP, was marked by a handful of gaffes and missteps that haunted her efforts to court voters and became political fodder for Trump and his campaign.  Fox News Digital examined Harris’ roughly 100-day campaign and compiled the vice president’s biggest campaign mistakes that likely cost her support at the ballot box.  In what was arguably Harris’ biggest campaign misstep, the vice president declared early in October while appearing on “The View” that she could not think of an example of where she differed with President Biden on a policy decision or political position across the administration.  “If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”  “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris answered. Harris’ comment stands in stark contrast to how voters were feeling: They were unhappy with the current administration’s leadership.   Preliminary data from the Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found that the majority of voters headed into the polls believing the country was headed in the wrong direction.  Voters ahead of casting their ballots reported that the country was on the wrong track (70%, up from 60% who felt that way four years ago) and seeking something different. Most wanted a change in how the country is run, with roughly a quarter seeking complete and total upheaval. “Kamala Harris is more of the same,” Vice President-elect JD Vance posted to X last month about Harris’ comment on “The View.” “She admits it herself.” “This will be the nail in Kamala Harris’s coffin,” The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis predicted last month.  “It reminds me of John Kerry’s ‘I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it’ comment about Iraq war funding when he was fighting charges of being a spineless flip-flopper,” he added. “That single comment ended his campaign.” Harris was accused a handful of times of unveiling a “new accent” while speaking to different voters across the country, including critics comparing her to a cartoon character at one point and a preacher at another campaign event.  Harris traveled to the Church of Christian Compassion in Philadelphia last month, where she spoke to the predominantly Black congregants and telling them that in just nine days, voters will “have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come.” HARRIS RIPPED FOR ‘WORD SALAD’ AFTER HECKLER INTERRUPTION DURING CAMPAIGN SPEECH: ‘THE GIBBERISH NEVER ENDS’ Harris cited the Book of Psalms in her remarks, including saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the mornin’. The path may seem hard, the work may seem heavy, but joy cometh in the mornin’ and church morning is on its way.”  Critics on social media pounced on clips of Harris quoting Psalms, saying she debuted a new “pastor” accent, comparing her inflection to the late Rev. Martin Luther King’s oratory. HARRIS MOCKED FOR UNVEILING ‘NEW ACCENT’ AT PHILADELPHIA EVENT: ‘EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WOMAN IS FAKE’ While speaking before union workers during a Detroit Labor Day rally, she was criticized for using an accent that was compared to “Foghorn Leghorn.” “Since when does the vice president have what sounds like a Southern accent?” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in September after her Detroit speech that was compared to the cartoon character.  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jean-Pierre replied. “Well, she was talking about unions in Detroit using one tone of voice, she used the same line in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she at least had some kind of Southern drawl,” Doocy pressed. “I mean, do you hear the question that you’re – I mean, do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question?” Jean-Pierre pushed back. “You know what they care about? They care about the economy, they care about lowering costs, they care about health care. That’s what they want to hear … democracy and freedom … I’m not going to even entertain some question about … it’s just … hearing it sounds so ridiculous. The question – I’m talking about the question – is just insane.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a native of Chicago, has also repeatedly been accused of employing different accents across her decades in the public eye, most notably for using a southern drawl. Harris was also slammed for rambling “word salads” during repeated public events, which the Trump campaign and critics frequently mocked.  “We need to guard that spirit. We have to guard that spirit. Let it always inspire us. Let it always be the source of our optimism, which is that spirit that is uniquely American. Let that then inspire us by helping us to be inspired to solve the problems that so many face, including our small business owners,” Harris said, for example, in September while speaking to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.  “I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential,” she said at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., in September.  In another “word salad” misstep just days ahead of the election, Harris said, “We are here because we are fighting for a democracy. Fighting for a democracy. And understand the difference here, understand the difference here, moving forward, moving forward, understand the difference here.” Harris carried out her 107-day campaign without holding a single press conference, and she avoided sit-down media interviews

Why the media waited till now to admit Harris ran a lousy campaign

Something suddenly struck me as I tracked all the finger-pointing and blame-shifting over Kamala Harris losing badly to Donald Trump. As we watched her 107-day campaign, most of the coverage was absolutely glowing, as she was depicted as an inspiring trailblazer who would unify the country. DEPRESSED MEDIA REACT TO TRUMP VICTORY: HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAVE HAPPENED? But about five minutes after Donald Trump was declared president-elect, a very different portrait emerged. Harris had run an awful campaign, making all sorts of missteps and blunders. She hadn’t done this, that and the other thing. She wasn’t up to the challenge. She couldn’t meet the moment. Now they tell us? Doesn’t this suggest that the journalists, commentators and analysts were covering for her? That they knew the vice president was faltering, flubbing and failing, and weren’t being straight about it? Well, here’s what that brings to mind. For most of his term, President Biden was portrayed as a competent chief executive, maybe lacking pizazz, but more than capable of getting things done, whether you liked his policies or not. Some age-related stories surfaced earlier this year, but both White House officials and those covering Biden assured readers and viewers that he was, in one phrase, “sharp as a tack.” THE ‘GARBAGE’ CAMPAIGN: WHY MISTAKES AND DISTRACTIONS COULD TILT THE OUTCOME And then came the debate. Boom! The country saw the president struggling to form coherent sentences against Trump, and he would soon be pressured out of the race. At that point, many media figures said sure, they had seen Biden’s mental acuity decline, and yes, he had often been hidden from them, but wasn’t it obvious? A few said White House officials had told them as long as two years earlier that there was no way Biden was capable of running for reelection. But of course that was off the record. In short, even as the president was looking confused or turning the wrong way, much of the press covered for him. And you wonder why the media’s credibility ratings are in the toilet. In the case of Harris, just as in the case of Biden, many journalists obscured the harsh reality of their problems until it was no longer in their interest to do so. We’re getting a major dose of this because of all the sniping between the Harris and Biden camps. TRUMP CAMP CONFIDENT BASED ON EARLY VOTING, WHILE BLACK LEADERS SAY HARRIS IS STRUGGLING “Democrats are directing their rage over losing the presidential race at Joe Biden, who they blame for setting up Kamala Harris for failure by not dropping out sooner,” Politico reports. “They say his advancing age, questions over his mental acuity and deep unpopularity put Democrats at a sharp disadvantage. They are livid that they were forced to embrace a candidate who voters had made clear they did not want — and then stayed in the race long after it was clear he couldn’t win.” On the same site, columnist Jonathan Martin says “the Biden sympathizers want to pin her loss on, well, her. And the Harris defenders believe Biden’s undeniably at fault for creating the forbidding political environment she proved unable to overcome. “How can Harris’s defenders grumble about being dragged down by Biden when she could not find one substantive policy issue on which to break from the unpopular incumbent?” What’s more, “where was the daring? There was no full-throated attempt at defensive politics and reassuring the country she’d govern from the center and reject extremists in both parties…If the other side assails you as a liberal without any clear and sustained response, well, voters will believe the attacks. Given the scale of difficulty she faced — and, yes, how bad that initial, internal polling was — why not take some risks?” Now there were some suggestions, including from me, that Harris was being too cautious and sticking to talking points. I argued from the day she passed over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro that Tim Walz would do nothing for the ticket; now many pundits are simply stating that as fact.  One exception to the wait-till-it’s-over approach is this mid-October piece in Axios: “Many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his reelection bid and are still adjusting to being in a supportive role on the campaign trail…Some on the Harris team say that top White House aides aren’t sufficiently coordinating Biden’s messaging and schedule to align with what’s best for the vice president’s campaign.” The media have plenty to answer for in the wake of this election, including how they underestimated Trump’s chances and appeal to voters, and failed to grasp why Harris’ party seemed out of touch to many in the working class.  But painting a rosy scenario when things were actually dark for Harris – even if there’s nothing she could have done to stop the Trump juggernaut – ranks right up there.

Cuba struggles in wake of Hurricane Rafael

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Cuba is facing widespread power outages and damage after Hurricane Rafael ripped through the island.

Two dead, 12 missing after fishing boat sinks off South Korea

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol orders all available resources and personnel to assist with search for survivors. At least two people are dead and 12 others missing after a fishing boat capsized off the coast of South Korea, coastguard officials have said. The 120-tonne Geumseong sank about 24 kilometres (15 miles) off the resort island of Jeju after leaving the port of Seogwipo to catch mackerel late on Thursday, the Korea Coast Guard said on Friday. The crew on board included 16 South Koreans and 11 foreigners, two of whom are unaccounted for, officials said. Coastguard officials said they received a distress signal at about 4:30am on Friday from a nearby fishing vessel that went to the scene to help rescue their crew. Crew members told the coastguard that the ship suddenly capsized and began to sink while they were transferring their catch to another ship, according to officials. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered all available resources and personnel to be mobilised to assist with the rescue, his office said. At least 11 vessels and nine aircraft from South Korea’s coastguard, police, fire service and military, and 13 civilian vessels, have been deployed to search for survivors. Adblock test (Why?)

Trump 2.0: Will China and Imran Khan test Pakistan ties with the US?

Islamabad, Pakistan – Amid a flurry of congratulatory messages from political leaders worldwide following his victory in the US presidential election, Donald Trump received a message from an unexpected source: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his “very good friend” who is currently in jail. In a brief, 55-word post on his X social media account, Khan congratulated Trump on his win and said the will of the American people “held against all odds”. “President Elect Trump will be good for Pak-US relations based on mutual respect for democracy and human rights. We hope he will push for peace, human rights, and democracy globally,” Khan’s message read. Congratulations on behalf of myself & PTI to @realDonaldTrump for winning the US Presidential Elections. The will of the American people held against all odds. President Elect Trump will be good for Pak-US relations based on mutual respect for democracy & human rights. We hope… — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 6, 2024 The post points to some of the ways in which a deeply divided Pakistan’s relationship with the US under a second Trump presidency could be tested, say analysts. Will Trump intervene on Khan’s behalf? While most experts believe Pakistan is unlikely to be a priority for the new administration, Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is hopeful that Trump’s win could ease the political troubles faced by the former prime minister, who just two years ago accused the US, under President Joe Biden, of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics to remove him from power. Former Pakistan president and a senior member of PTI, Arif Alvi, congratulated Trump for his victory, adding that “free and fair” elections allowed “the citizens of America to make their dreams come true”. “We look forward to continued cooperation as democratic nations. Indeed, your victory must have sent shivers down the spine of dictators and aspiring dictators of the world,” Alvi wrote on platform X. But Pakistan’s officials appeared confident that the US under Trump would not pressure them for Khan’s release – and laid down Islamabad’s red line on the matter. “Pakistan and the United States are old friends and partners, and we will continue to pursue our relations on the basis of mutual respect, mutual confidence and noninterference in each other’s domestic affairs,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters on Thursday. Joshua White, a former White House official for South Asian affairs under the Obama administration, suggested that engagement with Pakistan will likely be a “low priority” for Trump’s team. White, now a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that Pakistan is primarily viewed through a counterterrorism lens in Washington, with “little appetite” for renewing a broader security or economic partnership. “It’s plausible that someone in Trump’s circle might encourage him to address Khan’s case or the PTI’s position more generally,” White told Al Jazeera, “but it is unlikely he would use the US government’s influence to pressure the Pakistani military on this matter.” After Khan was removed through a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022, he accused the US of colluding with Pakistan’s military to remove him, a claim both Washington and Islamabad deny. But relations have since warmed gradually between the two nations, with the Biden administration appointing Donald Blome as US ambassador to Pakistan in May 2022, filling a position vacant since August 2018. Throughout the crackdown on Khan and PTI, including Khan’s imprisonment since August 2023, US authorities have largely refrained from commenting, citing it as an internal matter for Pakistan to resolve. However, following controversial general elections in February, where the PTI claimed their majority was curtailed through a “mandate theft”, the US stopped short of characterising the election as free and fair. Congress subsequently held a hearing on the “future of democracy” in Pakistan, spurred by legislators urging President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scrutinise the election outcome. In October, more than 60 democratic legislators urged Biden to use Washington’s influence with Pakistan to secure Khan’s release. Although Trump had criticised Pakistan in his first term, accusing it of providing “nothing but lies and deceit”, he developed a rapport with Khan during the latter’s premiership from 2018 to 2022. The two first met in Washington in July 2019 and again in Davos in January 2020, where Trump referred to Khan as his “very good friend”. By contrast, relations between Khan and Biden were frosty, with Khan often complaining about Biden never making contact with him. Just days before the November 5 election, Atif Khan, a senior PTI leader, also met Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to discuss concerns about Khan’s incarceration. Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US and the UK, questioned expectations that Trump might intervene on Khan’s behalf. “While Trump and Khan enjoyed a warm relationship, Pakistan does not figure prominently among US foreign policy priorities,” Lodhi told Al Jazeera. “Relations are at a crossroads and need redefinition, but it’s unclear how interested a Trump administration would be in engaging on this front.” Will Pakistan matter more – or less – to the US under Trump? Foreign policy expert Muhammad Faisal added that Pakistan, which had some engagement with the US under Trump due to the Afghanistan conflict, may now receive less attention as the administration grapples with issues like Gaza, Ukraine, and US-China tensions. “The presidency will be more focused on domestic policy and global trade issues. Pakistan’s domestic politics is not a topic of mutual interest for the incoming Trump administration,” the Sydney-based analyst said. Still, some see Pakistan’s relevance to US interests potentially increasing if tensions in the Middle East rise, particularly with Iran. “Pakistan’s significance may grow if tensions between the US and Iran escalate,” Washington-based geopolitical commentator Uzair Younus told Al Jazeera. “In such a scenario, Pakistan could serve as a partner to limit the influence of Iran’s regional proxies.” The China test Pakistan’s ties with China could also come under the microscope, said other observers. China, Pakistan’s longstanding ally, has invested

Uproar in J-K Assembly as BJP members protest over special status resolution

BJP MLAs also jumped into the well of the House following which Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather directed that they be marshalled out. Soon after they were evicted, 11 other BJP MLAs walked out of the House in protest.

Priyanka Gandhi contesting Wayanad bypoll with Jamaat-e-Islami support? Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan makes big statement

The chief minister alleged that Jamaat-e-Islami had long opposed elections in Jammu and Kashmir, promoting strong sectarian positions. “Later, they aligned themselves with the BJP (in Kashmir),” he said.