Harris to oversee certification of her defeat to Trump in presidential election: ‘Sacred obligation’
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to do what only two other vice presidents in recent history have done – preside over her defeat in a White House election. On Monday afternoon, Harris will preside over a joint session of Congress, when lawmakers will certify President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over the current vice president in November’s election. The vice president said her mission is to ensure a peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON TRUMP’S RETURN TO THE WHITE HOUSE Harris, in a recorded video message released ahead of congressional certification of the 2024 Electoral College vote, said it is a “sacred obligation” she will uphold, “guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.” CHECK OUT WHO TRUMP’S PICKED TO HELP STEER HIS SECOND PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION Pointing to four years ago, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to upend congressional certification of Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Biden, Harris said “as we have seen, our democracy can be fragile.” “It is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles,” the vice president emphasized. The Capitol was attacked hours after Trump, at a large rally on the National Mall near the White House, repeated his unproven claims that the 2020 election was riddled with massive voter fraud and stolen from him. Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results. Harris, in her role of presiding over the Senate, becomes the first vice president to oversee the congressional confirmation of their electoral loss since then-Vice President Al Gore did it in January 2001, following his razor-thin defeat to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 election, which was decided by a Supreme Court ruling. Four decades earlier, then-Vice President Richard Nixon presided over the certification of his narrow election loss in a 1960 showdown with then-Sen. John F. Kennedy. Biden, in comments Sunday night, joined Harris in emphasizing that he was “determined to do everything in my power to respect the peaceful transfer of power.” The president, pointing to the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, told new Democrats in Congress that “now it’s your duty to tell the truth. You remember what happened, and I won’t let January 6th be rewritten or even erased.”
Trump presses GOP to swiftly send ‘one powerful Bill’ for his signature ASAP
President-elect Donald Trump is urging congressional Republicans to send him “one powerful Bill” as swiftly as possible once he takes office later this month. Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of Congress and later this month will regain the White House when Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20. “Members of Congress are getting to work on one powerful Bill that will bring our Country back, and make it greater than ever before. We must Secure our Border, Unleash American Energy, and Renew the Trump Tax Cuts, which were the largest in History, but we will make it even better – NO TAX ON TIPS,” Trump declared in a post on Truth Social. SPEAKER JOHNSON REVEALS HOW TRUMP WANTS CONGRESS TO HANDLE BUSINESS DURING THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS “IT WILL ALL BE MADE UP WITH TARIFFS, AND MUCH MORE, FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE U.S. FOR YEARS. Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People. Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible,” Trump urged. House Speaker Mike Johnson had noted during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that he thinks Trump will “prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill.” Johnson, who described it as “One big up or down vote which can save the country,” noted that he thinks the measure, which will tackle various issues, will also address the debt ceiling. MIKE JOHNSON RE-ELECTED HOUSE SPEAKER AS GOP MUTINY THREAT DISSOLVES He indicated that lawmakers are aiming to hold the House vote during the first week of April — the lawmaker said it could potentially clear the chamber as soon as April 3, then head to the Senate, and eventually arrive on Trump’s desk by the end of April, or by Memorial Day in a “worst case scenario.” Johnson retained the speaker’s gavel last week after Trump backed him. House Republicans, with the exception of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted for Johnson to remain in the role he has occupied since late October 2023. Two Republicans who initially did not vote for Johnson, ultimately switched their votes to Johnson, handing him the win. GOP REBELS SWITCH VOTE TO JOHNSON AFTER TRUMP’S 11TH HOUR CALLS, PUSHING HIM OVER THE FINISH LINE Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has warned that the U.S. “Senate will be one of the biggest barriers to cutting spending and shrinking government,” and “will need public pressure.” He added the hashtag “#DOGE,” referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, an outside of government effort to advocate for decreased government spending, which is being spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Democrats’ new Senate campaign committee chair reveals keys to winning back majority
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she will apply the lessons learned from the 2024 elections and other recent cycles as she works to win back the Senate majority for the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. “If we’ve learned anything in the last few cycles, if you’re not in the field early, talking to voters about what they’re worried about, what’s their kitchen table issues, and then coming up with legislative solutions to help them, they’re not going to feel that you have their back. And so it’s about a relationship with your voters,” the new chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. Gillibrand, the longtime senator from New York who was re-elected in November, was named on Monday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New Yorker, to steer the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee in the 2026 cycle. “Electing more Democrats to the Senate in 2026 is the most important thing we can do to limit the damage of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans and do more for working families,” Schumer argued in a statement. “I have worked side by side with Kirsten Gillibrand for nearly two decades and I know she will be an outstanding DSCC Chair. With her hard work, tenacity, and discipline, Sen. Gillibrand is the right person to lead our campaign to victory in 2026.” MEET THE REPUBLICAN SENATOR TASKED WITH DEFENDING THE GOP’S SENATE MAJORITY IN 2026 Gillibrand pledged in a statement to “work my hardest to support our Democratic incumbents, recruit the strongest possible candidates, and ensure they have every resource needed to win. I am confident that we will protect our Democratic seats, mount strong challenges in our battleground races, and look to expand our efforts into some unexpected states.” The senator, as she looked ahead to her new mission to win back the Senate majority or at the least, cut into the GOP’s newly won 53-47 control of the chamber, pointed in her Fox News Digital interview to her own re-election and her efforts to help House Democrats flip Republican-controlled seats in the 2024 cycle. “I made sure that for my race and for the House races in New York that our candidates were in the community talking to voters two years before the election, talking to them about what mattered to them. People were concerned about crime; they were concerned about immigration. They were concerned about fentanyl and gun trafficking. They were also concerned about the economy and the cost of food, the cost of housing,” she said. GILLIBRAND ARGUES DEMOCRATS SHOULD HAVE PUT IMMIGRATION ON THE TABLE TWO YEARS AGO Gillibrand emphasized that “we really did the outreach and engagement that you really need to do in this day and age to make sure you’re talking about the things that voters want you to be working on.” Additionally, she said that Democrats can learn from President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 White House victory. “President-elect Trump is a formidable candidate. He showed in this last election that he was able to win over voters in states across this country, not just red states,” Gillibrand noted. “I think it’s important to learn the lessons of last cycle.” Senate Democrats faced an extremely difficult map in the 2024 cycle as they lost control of the majority. An early read of the 2026 map shows they will continue to play defense in some states, but also offers opportunities to go on offense. Among them is the southeastern battleground state of North Carolina. “There’s a number of places where Democrats can win if they have the right candidate in the community early enough talking about the issues that voters care about. A state like North Carolina might be one where we got very close last time.,” Gillibrand said. There is plenty of speculation that former Gov. Roy Cooper, who just finished steering the state for two terms, may make a bid for the Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis. “There are some really remarkably good candidates in North Carolina, considering the former governor would be one of them. That’s the kind of state I’m going to be looking at around the country, states where Democrats have won in the past, where they might be able to win again if they have a candidate that really resonates and does the hard work of engaging voters early,” Gillibrand said. FORMER TRUMP AMBASSADOR EYES SENATE RETURN, POTENTIALLY SETTING UP 2026 REMATCH IN KEY SWING STATE Another potential pickup opportunity for Gillibrand may be blue-leaning Maine, where moderate Republican Susan Collins is up for re-election in 2026. “Susan is quite tough to beat,” Gillibrand acknowledged. But she added that “if we get a great candidate there, that’s a race where we will be competitive.” The 2026 map also gives Republicans opportunities to flip Democrat-controlled seats. In swing state New Hampshire, longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who’s taking over as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is up for re-election. Sen. Gary Peters, who steered the DSCC in the 2022 and 2024 cycles, is up for re-election in battleground Michigan. So is first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff in swing state Georgia. “The great thing about Jean Shaheen is she is in her community every week, talking to people about the things she works on, on their behalf. She’s common sense, she’s bipartisan, and so I’m optimistic we will hold her seat,” Gillibrand said. “I’m also optimistic about making sure Gary Peters holds his seat in Michigan. Again, he’s extremely bipartisan. He’s constantly working on behalf of the voters of Michigan to make sure they understand that he fights for them. The same is true, I’d say for Jon Ossoff. He hit the ground running as a new senator last term, and I think he really does resonate with Georgia voters.”
Chhattisgarh: 8 policemen, 1 driver dead after naxals blow up their vehicle with IED in Bijapur
Eight jawans of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and a civilian driver were killed after Naxals blew up their vehicle with a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district
Nithari killings: SC to hear pleas against Surendra Koli’s acquittal on…
The CBI had registered 16 cases against Koli and Pandher over the rape and killing of girls that had shocked the nation.
Biden issues sweeping offshore oil, gas drilling ban in 625M acres of federal waters ahead of Trump transition
President Biden announced an 11th-hour executive action on Monday that bans new drilling and further oil and natural gas development on more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore waters. Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. He invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, meaning President-elect Trump could be limited in his ability to revoke the action. Congress might need to intervene to grant Trump authority to place federal waters back into development. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement. “It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.” The move garnered quick condemnation from Trump’s incoming White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. TRUMP PLANNING TO LIFT BIDEN’S LNG PAUSE, INCREASE OIL DRILLING DURING 1ST DAYS IN OFFICE: REPORT “This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill,” Leavitt wrote on X. Biden patted himself on the back for what he categorized as a legacy move in the fight against climate change. “From Day One, I have delivered on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in our country’s history. And over the last four years, I have conserved more than 670 million acres of America’s lands and waters, more than any other president in history,” Biden said. “Our country’s remarkable conservation and restoration progress has been locally led by Tribes, farmers and ranchers, fishermen, small businesses, and outdoor recreation enthusiasts across the country. Together, our ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative put the United States on track to meet my ambitious goal to conserve at least 30 percent of our Nation’s lands and waters by 2030.” BIDEN MOVING TO BAN OIL AND GAS LEASES FOR 20 YEARS IN NEVADA REGION, JUST WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP INAUGURATION “We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low,” the statement added. “Those are false choices. Protecting America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do, and will help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come.” Ron Neal, the chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee, also slammed Biden’s last-ditch offshore drilling ban as “significant and catastrophic.” “While it may not directly affect the currently active production areas in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and adjoining coastal areas, it represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas industry. This should be seen as the ‘elephant’s nose under the tent.’ The ban severely limits potential for exploration and development in new areas therefore chocking the long-term survivability of the industry,” Neal, also the President of Houston Energy LP and CEO of HEQ Deepwater, said in a statement. “This move is a first step towards more extensive restrictions all across our industry in all U.S. basins including the onshore. If the activists come for anything, they are coming for everything. The policy is catastrophic for the development of new areas for oil and natural gas but, the environmentalists will eventually look to also shut down offshore wind farms for most of the same reasons. President Biden and his allies continue to push anti-energy policies that will hurt Americans.” Trump, during his 2024 campaign, promised to deliver American “energy dominance” on the world stage as he looked toward bolstering U.S. oil and gas drilling, as well as distance from Biden’s prioritization of climate change initiatives.
DOJ considers charging 200 more people 4 years after Jan. 6 Capitol attack
The Justice Department is considering charging up to 200 more people for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a report says. The new figures released Monday on the 4-year anniversary of the incident include 60 people suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers, according to Politico. President-elect Trump is set to be sworn in as the country’s next president in just two weeks. In December, Trump told NBC that he wanted to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters on the first day of his administration and said people on the Jan. 6 committee in Congress belonged in jail. “I’m going to look at everything. We’ll look at individual cases,” Trump said at the time. “But I’m going to be acting very quickly.” BIDEN TAKES DEPARTING JAB AT TRUMP, SAYS HE WAS A ‘GENUINE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY’ Around 1,600 people so far have faced federal charges relating to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 600 who allegedly assaulted or resisted police, Politico reported. Nearly 200 of the defendants were charged with carrying a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds and 153 were accused of destruction of government property – but the new figures released Monday are the first time the Justice Department has estimated how many cases are yet to be prosecuted, Politico added. DOJ SEEKS TO BLOCK JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS FROM ATTENDING TRUMP INAUGURATION The news outlet also reported that around 1,100 Jan. 6 defendants have been convicted and reached sentencing, but 300 of the already charged cases have not entered the trial stage yet. “Over the past four years, our prosecutors, FBI agents, investigators, and analysts have conducted one of the most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in the Justice Department’s history,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday. “They have analyzed massive amounts of physical and digital data, identified and arrested hundreds of people who took part in unlawful conduct that day, and initiated prosecutions and secured convictions across a wide range of criminal conduct. We have now charged more than 1,500 individuals for crimes that occurred on January 6, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to the attack,” he continued. “The public servants of the Justice Department have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity. They have conducted themselves in a manner that adheres to the rule of law and honors our obligation to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in this country,” Garland added. President Biden on Sunday was asked by reporters if he still thought Trump was a threat to democracy. “We’ve got to get back to establishing basic democratic norms,” Biden told reporters in the White House East Room. “I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy. I’m hopeful that we are beyond that.” Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
HMPV Cases In India: Why is HMPV impacting children?
HMPV significantly affects children due to its link with severe respiratory illnesses, particularly among young and vulnerable populations. It is a leading cause of acute respiratory infections, accounting for approximately 10 per cent to 12 per cent of such illnesses in children.
Texas has a housing affordability crisis. Here’s how state lawmakers may tackle it in 2025.
A likely fight over how much power to take away from local governments may dominate the debate.
Amid a $7 million deficit to Texas’ suicide hotline, thousands of calls are abandoned monthly
The state’s 988 suicide had the nation’s fifth highest rate of abandoned calls in August, the latest data available, amid a multi-million funding deficit that could worsen as federal dollars expire this year.