‘Divine festival of lights…’ PM Narendra Modi extend his wishes on festival Diwali
This Diwali is particularly significant as Ayodhya celebrated the festival for the first time since the inauguration of the Ram Temple in January.
Harris pledges to sign bill ‘to restore reproductive freedom’ as president in Wisconsin speech
Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she would sign federal abortion protections into law during a speech in Wisconsin on Thursday evening. “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do with her body,” Harris said, referring to women. “When Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.” BIDEN CALLS TRUMP SUPPORTERS ‘GARBAGE’ DURING HARRIS CAMPAIGN EVENT AS VP PROMISES UNITY AT ELLIPSE RALLY Harris has made abortion rights a cornerstone of her 2024 campaign, and has spoken on the issue frequently in her capacity as President Biden’s vice president. Democrats are hoping that continued fallout from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 will be a potent political cudgel in November. In the previous midterm races, it was partially credited with aiding them in keeping the Senate and blunting Republicans’ margin of victory in the House. Harris said on Wednesday evening that Trump “would ban abortion nationwide” and likewise institute a ban on contraceptives – both stances the ex-president has explicitly denied. JON STEWART ADMITS HE FINDS WIDELY CRITICIZED TRUMP RALLY COMEDIAN FUNNY While Democratic lawmakers have rallied around federal abortion legislation to codify it into law, Republicans have insisted it’s an issue best left up to the states. Moderate GOP lawmakers facing tough re-election battles have emphasized that they would not support any federal abortion bans. Abortion-related issues are on the ballot in several states in the November elections, including the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona. Democrats hope it will be a motivator for people who are normally apathetic to elections to turn out and vote blue. PA GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM BIDEN’S ‘GARBAGE’ COMMENT: ‘I’D NEVER INSULT’ TRUMP SUPPORTERS “Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom. Freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do,” Harris said Wednesday. The Republican National Committee (RNC) slammed Harris before her appearance in battleground Wisconsin, with Chairman Michael Whatley saying in a statement, “Harris’ vision for Wisconsin is an even more dangerously liberal version of the past four years. Kamala Harris broke Wisconsin’s economy, but President Trump will fix it.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Prosecutors push for 17-year sentence for Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira
A low-level airman, Teixeira pleaded guilty to sharing hundreds of classified files on the social media site Discord. United States prosecutors will seek a 17-year prison term for an airman who admitted to leaking hundreds of highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other national security secrets. In a sentencing memorandum filed earlier this week, prosecutors said the crime by Jack Teixeira, 22, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, amounted to one of the most “consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history”. “The defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets — secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.” The classified records were shared last year by Teixeira on the messaging app Discord. Authorities say Teixeira began by typing out copies that he then published online. Later, he photographed the files, some of which bore “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET” markings. Mossad details The leaked documents held highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from troop movements in Ukraine to intelligence about Israel’s Mossad spy agency. The breach embarrassed the Pentagon and forced the administration of President Joe Biden to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. Unlike other leakers of US military secrets, Teixeira’s lawyers say he had no political goal and was not a spy working for a foreign government. The lawyers are pushing for a lighter sentence of 11 years, saying their client, who pleaded guilty in March, “made a terrible decision” but never meant to harm the US. “Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” said the lawyers. They also noted that Teixeira has autism and has never been convicted of a crime before. “Jack has thoroughly accepted responsibility for the wrongfulness of his actions and stands ready to accept whatever punishment must now be imposed,” wrote Teixeira’s lawyers. Prosecutors countered that Teixeira, who held a top-secret security clearance while working in cyberdefence operations, does not suffer from an intellectual disability that prevents him from knowing right from wrong. They argued that Teixeira’s post-arrest diagnosis as having “mild, high-functioning” autism “is of questionable relevance in these proceedings”. “Whatever developmental or social difficulties Teixeira may have experienced, his decision to illegally disclose national defence information and put the lives of other people at risk was a volitional choice that he made knowingly, wilfully, and with full awareness of the consequences time and time again,” prosecutors wrote. Teixeira, who is scheduled to be sentenced on November 12, cannot be charged with further Espionage Act violations under the terms of his guilty plea. Adblock test (Why?)
Military interaction with N Korea doesn’t breach int’l law: Russia UN envoy
Russia’s military interaction with North Korea does not violate international law, the country’s representative to the United Nations told the UN Security Council, calling reports that North Korean troops were present at the front lines in the war against Ukraine “barefaced lies”. “I would like to underscore that the Russian interaction with DPRK in the military and other areas is in line with international law and is not a violation of it. It’s not aimed against third countries,” Vasily Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, using the acronym of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This came on the same day the United States and South Korean defence chiefs called for North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington says some 10,000 of them have been deployed for possible use against Ukrainian forces. “I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon, speaking alongside his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-hyun, who urged the “immediate withdrawal” of Pyongyang’s forces. Austin said the US will “continue to work with allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat”, but warned Moscow is likely to do so. The Pentagon said the previous day that a “small number” of North Korean troops have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters] Speaking at the UNSC meeting, Russia’s Nebenzya said: “These statements about the North Korean soldiers in our front should not surprise no one, because they’re all barefaced lies and they are trying to distract.” He later added: “Even if everything that is being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy regime mobilise the military and intelligence of NATO, and Russia and its allies have no right to do a similar thing?” North Korea’s UN ambassador Kim Song told the UNSC that the DPRK and Russia “are entitled to develop bilateral relations in all fields”. He added that “the biggest threat to international peace and security at present is the acts of the United States and its allies against peace”. Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance over the course of the Ukraine conflict. Both are under sanctions – Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons programme and Moscow for its war against Kyiv. North Korea’s move to tighten its relationship with Russia has triggered alarms across the globe. Key concerns At the Pentagon, Austin said officials are discussing what to do about the troop deployment, which he said had the potential to broaden or lengthen the conflict in Ukraine. When asked if it could prompt other nations to get more directly involved in the conflict, he acknowledged that it could “encourage others to take action”, but he provided no details. South Korea’s Kim said he does not necessarily believe the deployment will trigger war on the Korean Peninsula but could increase security threats between the two nations. Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the UNSC that Russia’s moves with North Korea were “another step taken by Moscow to further escalate its war against Ukraine”. “Building the interoperability of the Russian and DPRK armies constitutes a threat to Europe, the Korean peninsula, its neighbours and beyond,” he added. A key concern is what North Korea will get in return for providing the troops. But officials have yet to say specifically what Pyongyang may have requested or what Moscow has offered. Experts have said that in return for these forces, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow. A Ukrainian official told The Associated Press news agency that North Korean troops are currently stationed 50km (31 miles) away from the Ukrainian border with Russia. The official was not authorised to disclose the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. At the UNSC meeting, Kyslytsya claimed up to 12,000 North Korean servicemen are stationed at five training grounds of the Russian Armed Forces. He added that between October 23 and 28, at least seven aircraft carrying up to 2,100 soldiers flew from the Eastern Military District to Russia’s border with Ukraine. North Korea has also provided munitions to Russia, and earlier this month, the White House released images it said were of North Korea shipping 1,000 containers of military equipment there by rail. A resident stands in front of an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv [File: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] Fighting continues Meanwhile, on the ground, Russia and Ukraine exchanged scores of drone strikes on Wednesday. A Russian guided bomb struck the fourth floor of a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv, causing casualties, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. Earlier, Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 62 drones and one missile overnight, adding that 33 of them were intercepted and 25 were jammed. The attack injured nine people in Kyiv, according to the city administration. Russian attacks also targeted other regions of Ukraine, killing at least four and injuring about 30 others over the past 24 hours, authorities said. At the same time, Russian forces have pressed their slow-moving offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defence announced the capture of the village of Kruhlyakivka in the Kharkiv region and said that air defences downed 25 Ukrainian drones over several regions in the country’s west and southwest. The new attacks come as North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui travelled to Russia for talks that South Korea’s spy agency said could involve discussions on sending additional troops to Russia. Adblock test (Why?)
North Korea fires suspected long-range ICBM towards sea, South Korea says
North Korea is believed to have test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile towards the sea, South Korea reports. North Korea launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards waters off its eastern coast, South Korea’s military said, in what is believed to be the longest flight-time yet for a North Korean missile. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement that the missile launch towards the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan, was detected at about 7:10am local time (22:10 GMT). “North Korea’s ballistic missile appears to be an ICBM fired on a lofted trajectory,” the JCS said in a text message, the country’s Yonhap news agency reports. North Korea’s launch of longer-range missiles in “lofted trajectory” means firing the missile almost vertically. This allows a missile to travel to a very high altitude but then land a short horizontal distance from the launch site. Such launches are said to enable Pyongyang to gather data sent back from missile tests to better understand the challenges faced when a long-range warhead re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. Japan’s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the missile, which had been expected to land about 300km (190 miles) west of Japan’s Okushiri Island, off the country’s northern Hokkaido region, had flown the longest time of any of Pyongyang’s past missiles. “It was the longest time flying of any missile so far,” Nakatani told reporters. “I think it may be different from conventional missiles,” he said. North Korea has not test-launched ballistic missiles since September this year and has not launched an ICBM since December 2023, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports. The latest reported missile launch comes a day after South Korea’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers that North Korea has likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test and was close to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States. The launch also comes amid concerns about North Korea’s reported troop dispatch to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference in Washington with South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving towards Ukraine, in what he called a dangerous and destabilising development. South Korea reports that North Korea has sent more than 11,000 troops to Russia and that more than 3,000 of them have been moved close to fighting in western Russia. Adblock test (Why?)
Diwali 2024: Ayodhya Deepotsav sets Guinness World Records with over 25 lakh diyas lit, 1121 people performing…
The counting of diyas was done using drones. Pravin Patel, the adjudicator at Guinness World Records, who visited Ayodhya with Guinness Consultant Nischal Bharot for verification, announced the new records here on Wednesday evening.
Diwali 2024: When to perform Laxmi Pooja October 31, November 1, check here to know tithe timings, date of celebration
During Diwali, families across India come together to light lamps, exchange gifts, and perform prayers, particularly to Goddess Lakshmi, for blessings of wealth and prosperity
Delhi pollution: National capital’s air quality dips to ‘very poor’ on Diwali, AQI hits…
On Diwali, pollution in Delhi’s air intensified, with the AQI reaching 325, marking it as “very poor.” According to CPCB data, air quality across all areas in the city ranges from very poor to hazardous, raising health concerns for residents.
Donald Trump wears garbage worker vest to rally in critical swing state
Just six days until Nov. 5 and the day after President Joe Biden called Trump supporters “garbage,” Former President Donald Trump addressed several thousand supporters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, while wearing a garbage worker high visibility vest. Trump explained that his decision to arrive at the rally in a dump truck, dressed in a garbage vest, was made spur of the moment. He joked that the vest made him look thinner and quipped that the vest could become part of his everyday attire. “When they said I’d look thinner, I said in that case, I’ll wear it onstage,” he joked. “I may never wear a blue jacket again.” He criticized Biden, Democrats, and most especially his opponent Vice-president Kamala Harris for “running a campaign of hate, vitriol and retribution.” TRUMP TRASHES BIDEN’S INSULT IN A GARBAGE TRUCK “This week Kamala has been comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history and now speaking on a call for her campaign last night crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters, he called them ‘garbage,” he said. Referencing Hillary Clinton’s 2016 comments calling his supporters “deplorables,” he said that Biden’s remark “blows deplorables out of the water.” “My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans, it’s true. You can’t be president if you hate the American people, which I believe they do, and Kamala Harris is not fit to be president of the United States,” he said. ‘GARBAGE’ TRUMP SUPPORTERS? AMERICANS REACT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘OUT OF TOUCH’ COMMENTS Trump went on to emphasize himself as a unity candidate, uniting people of every race, creed and economic status. “Kamala and Joe call all of us, and them, even them, ‘garbage.’ I call you the heart and soul of America. You are the heart and soul, you built our country, you built it,” he said. “And by the way I want to thank all our sanitation workers all across America because they work hard, they really do work hard and they do an incredible job, and they don’t get the credit they deserve.” Trump also made fun of Harris for mentioning him 24 times in her closing argument speech on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. He accused the Harris campaign of paying and bussing in supporters for the speech. He also thanked former astronaut Buzz Aldrin for his recent endorsement, saying: “What we have built is the biggest, broadest, most incredible coalition and the greatest political movement in the history of our country.” He urged Wisconsinites to vote, saying: “If we win Wisconsin we’re going to win the whole thing.” “Nov. 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America,” he said. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Biden bites babies visiting for White House Halloween trick-or-treat celebration
President Biden was photographed playfully biting at least two babies dressed in Halloween costumes at the White House trick-or-treat event on Wednesday evening. BIDEN’S PAST COMMENTS ABOUT MAGA REPUBLICANS COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM AS WHITE HOUSE SPINS ‘GARBAGE’ REMARKS Both children were carried by their mothers to visit the 81-year-old commander-in-chief, who didn’t seem to mind the interaction. One baby who was dressed as a chicken even giggled after Biden took a faux nibble of his or her leg. The president then engaged in some easy banter with the baby’s mother. Biden has recently come under fire for his comments referring to supporters of former president Donald Trump as “garbage.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.