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Gavin Newsom responds to claims he secretly helped fund his own bronze bust: ‘Free tinfoil hat’

Gavin Newsom responds to claims he secretly helped fund his own bronze bust: ‘Free tinfoil hat’

California Governor Gavin Newsom has responded to claims that he secretly helped fund a nearly $100,000 bronze bust of himself that sits inside San Francisco City Hall, calling them “categorically false.” “To imply the Governor personally funded or proposed this effort is categorically false,” a spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “As is customary in the city, the effort was independently proposed by a nonprofit and funded by private donors — not taxpayers… This was reported at the time and isn’t news now.”  A new book, written by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter, and titled “Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All,” claims Newsom used something called “behested payments” – or contributions from donors that politicians ask them to make on their behalf – to help fund the statue.  The book claims two companies owned by Newsom donated about $10,000 to a non-profit to help pay for the bronze bust on a black granite base that is meant to commemorate Newsom’s time as mayor of the city. COZY TIES BETWEEN TOP NEWSOM ALLY AND CCP OFFICIAL UNEARTHED ON NETWORKING SITE The Democrat was mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011.  “Businesses tied to the Newsom family made a modest contribution to the privately funded initiative and raised funds for the effort as reported publicly at the time,” Newsom’s office said. “The contributions were not in any way ‘secret’ as falsely claimed by some now.” Back in 2015, San Francisco news outlet SFGate reported that Newsom called the bust a “strange thing,” and quoted him as saying: “I’m just awkward about it… But now the word is out.” Newsom told SFGate the bust was the brainchild of his supporters and that it would be paid for with private funds. According to the outlet, Newsom said he didn’t even know who the supporters and fundraisers were. The outlet also reported that Newsom sat for the bust with artist Bruce Wolfe multiple times. The work was finished in 2018, according to the San Francisco Arts Commission. CALIFORNIA GOV NEWSOM SETS MENENDEZ BROTHERS PAROLE BOARD HEARING DATE IN BID FOR CLEMENCY Newsom’s office went on to blast the book itself, telling Fox News Digital:“This publication should come with a free tinfoil hat, a lifetime subscription to InfoWars, and a VIP dinner with Elvis Presley and Bigfoot. The authors seem allergic to basic facts — especially the kind you can confirm with a 10-second Google search, like how many children the Governor has.” Crabtree, one of the authors of the book, told Fox News Digital that the book never claims that Newsom organized the bust, and that they stand by their reporting on the project. According to the San Francisco Arts Commission, the bust includes a bronze plaque with the following quote from Newsom:  “If you distill the essence of everything, what life is about, every single one of us is given a short moment in time on this planet and we all have one universal need and desire, and that is to love and be loved.” Newsom’s office also pointed out that his bust sits next to several other busts of former city mayors, including Willie Brown, Dianne Feinstein and George Moscone. Not surprisingly, the internet erupted with reaction to the bust – with many blasting Newsom. “Who commissions a bust of themself? Gavin Newsom who clearly thinks very highly of himself,” one user wrote on X. “That’s just kind of sick from a politician’s head. Look at me and see how great I am!” NEWSOM’S VIRAL ‘LATINX’ CLAIM CRUMBLES AMID SCRUTINY OF HIS OWN ADMINISTRATION’S ONLINE RECORDS “Gavin Newsom’s new bust is the perfect symbol of his time as governor,” another user wrote. “Expensive and ultimately [u]seless for the people of California.” “San Francisco needs a Bust Reduction! $97K Newscum Vanity Project,” another user remarked. Newsom has emerged as somewhat of a darling for the Democrat party. He served as a surrogate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during their 2024 campaign. He is considered a top contender to run for president in 2028.

California board approves $2M to protect, provide legal services to illegal immigrants amid Trump crackdown

California board approves M to protect, provide legal services to illegal immigrants amid Trump crackdown

A California board voted unanimously to allocate millions of dollars for services aimed at protecting illegal immigrants and refugees in the community. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors in Oakland decided at Tuesday’s regular meeting to set aside around $2.2 million for communities in their area in response to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, at the request of the board’s ad hoc Alameda County Together for All Committee. “I’m committed, and I believe Supervisor [Elisa] Marquez is also committed, to making sure the board, the public, has more information and that this work is truly effective in reaching every single person in this community that is potentially at risk,” Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, chairwoman of the committee, said at the meeting. CALIFORNIA EXPLOITING MEDICAID ‘LOOPHOLE’ TO PAY BILLIONS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS’ HEALTHCARE, STUDY SAYS  Minutes from the meeting show that the board approved the use of $50,000 to the Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach to “provide legal services and advocacy to marginalized immigrant communities.” The money is being pulled from the District 5 Prior Year Savings fund and the Discretionary Services and Supplies funds. The board also approved up to $700,000 to be used by Centro Legal de La Raza to establish a Rapid Response Hotline, Know Your Rights training sessions, pre-emptive legal services and community volunteer network response coordination. The organization describes itself as a “legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of low-income, immigrant, Black, and Latinx communities through bilingual legal representation, education, and advocacy.” Trabajadores Unidos Workers United was also approved for up to $500,000 to be used on “resources and preparation to immigrant and refugee communities, including training, mutual aid, and neighborhood resources.” “TUWU believes in upholding the power of working-class immigrants through forging class consciousness and growing the leadership of low-wage immigrant workers,” the organization says on its website. “TUWU seeks to abolish workplace exploitation through organizing, political education, and direct action that shifts power to the hands of the working class.” TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ENDING USE OF TAXPAYER MONEY TO ‘INCENTIVIZE OR SUPPORT’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION  The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice was also given up to $1 million for legal services. According to its website, the CCIJ’s mission is to “utilize coordination, advocacy, and legal services to fight for the liberation of immigrants in detention in California.” “For the community work, the proposal is that the county would fund half of one year’s budget and there’s private fundraising happening to fund the other half,” Fortunato Bas said, in part. Supervisor David Haubert said the funding is “a community effort” and is being made possible through a “public/private partnership,” emphasizing the financial burden is not solely on the county. Fortunato Bas said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that one-third of Alameda County residents are immigrants and “half of our children grow up in a household with at least one immigrant parent.” “We are a diverse county, and our community needs protection. The policies of the federal administration are causing fear among our residents,” she wrote, in part. “The unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors demonstrates our county’s commitment to our immigrant and refugee communities, who will have more access to critical information, services, and legal support.” The money approved on Tuesday comes after the board authorized $1.3 million in February for the Alameda County Public Defender Office’s Immigration Unit, which provides deportation defense and legal services to illegal immigrants facing deportation, according to NBC Bay Area.

‘Many will die’: UN aid chief warns of fallout as humanitarian relief cut

‘Many will die’: UN aid chief warns of fallout as humanitarian relief cut

Cuts to humanitarian relief could mean less help for people in Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and more countries, UN aid chief said. Tom Fletcher, the head of the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs, has told reporters that with 300 million people in need of assistance, recent cuts to humanitarian aid funds are causing a “seismic shock” globally. “Many will die because that aid is drying up,” Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said at a news briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday. “Across the humanitarian community, programmes are being stopped right now,” Fletcher said. “Staff are being let go right now. I think 10 percent of NGO colleagues were laid off in the course of February,” he said, referring to people working for nongovernment aid organisations. Fletcher also spoke specifically of his recent visit last month to Gaza, saying “supplies are clearly running out very, very fast” amid Israel’s renewed blockade on all food, medicine, fuel and other goods entering the strip. “The fact that we’re not getting fuel in means that incubators are being switched off, so this is real already, and will quickly become a humanitarian crisis again,” he said. Advertisement Describing his visit to Gaza last month, Fletcher said one of the “first shocking things I saw driving in is the dogs going through the rubble”. “I don’t think anything can prepare you for that,” he said, referring to the spectacle of stray dogs in Gaza looking for dead bodies of people trapped beneath bombed-out buildings. Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, December 3, 2024 [Denis Balibouse/Reuters] A ‘humanitarian superpower’ Fletcher’s news conference came just days after United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US had concluded it would be cancelling 83 percent of US Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes worldwide. While the US cuts to aid have been the most drastic, Fletcher pointed out other countries have also been slashing their relief budgets. “It’s not just the American government. I’m spending a lot more of my time than I’d expected in other donor capitals trying to shore up the case for what we do,” he said. “What I can say is that over years, over decades now, the US has been a humanitarian superpower and that US funding has saved hundreds of millions of lives,” he added. Fletcher, a former British ambassador to Lebanon, did not elaborate on which countries had cut aid specifically, but at the end of February, the United Kingdom announced it was cutting its aid spending to increase spending on its military. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government would “fully fund our increased investment in defence” by reducing aid spending from 0.5 percent of gross national income to 0.3 percent in 2027. According to The Guardian newspaper, the UK cuts amount to some six billion pounds ($7.7bn). Advertisement The change from aid to defence would see the UK spending 13.4 billion pounds ($17bn) more on the military every year from 2027, Starmer said. Several other countries have also cut back on aid spending, including the Netherlands’ right-wing government, which announced in November last year it would cut its foreign aid budget by about one billion euros ( $1.09bn) over a five-year period. Fletcher said the UN humanitarian agency’s response to its reduced funding prospects will be to focus on “utterly essential life-saving work, in the areas of direst need”, including Gaza. But several organisations are warning repercussions could be more widely felt. The World Health Organization last week warned US cuts could set back efforts to treat the world’s “deadliest infectious disease”, tuberculosis. Ebola surveillance work in Africa is also under threat as NGOs that used to be funded through USAID have been forced to stop their work. Health experts and aid organisations have also warned that US funding cuts to HIV/AIDS programmes in many African countries could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent. Adblock test (Why?)

US public souring on Trump’s handling of economy, polls show

US public souring on Trump’s handling of economy, polls show

Majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s economic management amid stock market turmoil, polls show. United States President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy is facing growing pushback from Americans amid wild swings in the stock market and growing fears of a recession, new polling shows. In a CNN/SSRS poll released on Wednesday, 56 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Trump’s economic management – higher than at any point during his first term in office. The poll had better news for Trump on his other signature issue of immigration, with 51 percent of respondents expressing support for his strict enforcement policies. A Reuters/Ipsos poll also released on Wednesday found that 57 percent of Americans believe Trump’s economic policies have been too “erratic”. Trump’s overall approval rating in the CNN and Reuters polls was 45 percent and 44 percent, respectively. The results come as Trump’s back-and-forth announcements on tariffs have roiled markets and stoked tensions with trading partners, including key US allies. The benchmark S&P 500 has lost more than $3 trillion since its February peak as investors struggle to make sense of the US president’s “America First” economic agenda. Advertisement On Wednesday, the Trump administration imposed 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, prompting retaliatory duties from Canada and the European Union. The latest tariffs came after Trump a day earlier threatened Canada with a 50 percent duty on steel and aluminium before reversing course after the province of Ontario agreed to suspend a surcharge on electricity exports to some US states. Trump, who earlier this week declined to rule out the possibility of a recession this year, and his aides have played down the stock market turmoil as a temporary blip on the road to a stronger economy. “I think this country is going to boom. But as I said, I can do it the easy way or the hard way,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “The hard way to do it is exactly what I am doing, but the results are going to be 20 times greater.” Adblock test (Why?)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,113

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,113

These are the key developments on day 1,113 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is the situation on Thursday, March 13: Fighting Ukrainian officials say Russia fired a slew of missiles and drones overnight, with one attack on Kryvyi Rih killing a 47-year-old woman and injuring nine others, while an attack on Odesa killed four. Russia has claimed major gains in the Kursk region with Russia’s Ministry of Defence reporting the capture of five more villages, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that “the dynamics are good”. Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said that Russian forces had retaken about 1,100sq km (386sq miles) of territory in the Kursk border region, including 24 settlements over the past five days. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in televised remarks while visiting troops in Kursk that the “region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy”. It was Putin’s first visit to the region since Ukraine launched its major incursion there in August of last year. Putin also said that any Ukrainian fighters captured in the Kursk region would be treated as “terrorists” and would not be protected under the Geneva Convention’s provisions for prisoners of war, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. Military bloggers on both sides said Kyiv’s forces have begun withdrawing from Kursk, losing their hard-won foothold inside the Russian region. Advertisement Ceasefire talks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expects “strong steps” from the United States against Russia if Moscow does not accept the 30-day ceasefire proposal, which Ukraine agreed to in talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump said that reaching a truce is now “up to Russia”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was hoping for a positive response from Russia, and that if the answer was “no”, then it would tell Washington a lot about the Kremlin’s true intentions. “Here’s what we’d like the world to look like in a few days: Neither side is shooting at each other, not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing … and the talking starts,” Rubio told reporters. Russia has reportedly presented Washington with a list of demands for a deal to end the Ukraine war and reset relations with the US. The Reuters news agency quoted sources saying the demands were similar to previous Kremlin terms for ending its war, including no NATO membership for Kyiv, recognition of Russia’s claim to annexed Crimea and four Ukrainian provinces, and an agreement that no foreign troops would be deployed in Ukraine. Politics and diplomacy A “very broad consensus” is emerging among European nations on boosting Ukraine’s long-term security through the Ukrainian armed forces, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said after a meeting with the defence ministers of Britain, Germany, Italy and Poland. Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz also welcomed a “real unity of the continent”, referring to the threat from Russia. United Kingdom Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain and its allies knew that “we must step up” and re-arm. “We are looking to build a coalition,” he said. “We are accelerating this work.” US State Secretary Rubio said that an expected minerals deal with Ukraine would give the US a “vested interest” in Ukraine’s security, although, he said, “I wouldn’t couch it as a security guarantee”. The Polish foreign minister confirmed that US weapons are flowing back to Ukraine through Poland after the US lifted its pause on military aid to Kyiv. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Service Online RTPS Bihar Portal: A Complete Guide

Service Online RTPS Bihar Portal: A Complete Guide

The RTPS Bihar Portal is a crucial step toward digital governance, making government services more accessible to the public. With its user-friendly interface and multiple service offerings, Bihar residents can now easily obtain essential certificates and track their applications online.