Supreme Court denies Biden administration appeal over federal emergency abortion requirement in Texas
The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear oral arguments about whether a Texas state abortion requirement is at odds with a federal emergency care law – permitting the restriction in the Lone Star State to be upheld. Supreme Court justices, for now, are keeping in place a lower court ruling that hospitals in Texas can deny terminating certain emergency pregnancies that violate state law, despite the federal requirement. The Biden administration had requested that the justices overturn the lower court’s ruling, contending that federal law requires hospitals to provide abortions in emergency situations. They referenced last term, when the Supreme Court permitted emergency room abortions to continue in Idaho while a lawsuit continues in federal court. Texas is asserting that its laws are distinct from Idaho’s because Texas has a health exception for pregnant patients. TEXAS SUPREME COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO STATE ABORTION BAN’S MEDICAL EXCEPTIONS In Texas, the central legal issue is whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which mandates hospitals to treat emergency conditions, overrides state laws that prohibit abortion in emergencies. The case focuses on whether a state can stop an emergency physician from performing an abortion if it’s necessary to stabilize a pregnant woman’s health. Previously, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in June against a group of women who suffered serious pregnancy complications and became the first in the country to testify in court about being denied abortion access since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. In a unanimous ruling, the court upheld the Texas law after the women filed a lawsuit in March 2023 seeking clarity on when exceptions to the abortion ban are permitted, arguing the law was confusing for doctors who might turn away patients over fears of repercussions. The court ultimately ruled that the law’s exceptions are broad enough and that doctors would be misinterpreting the law if they decided not to perform an abortion when the mother’s life is in danger. With the SCOTUS decision looming just a month before Election Day, abortion has become a major focus for the Harris-Walz campaign. Fox News’ Landon Mion, Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
‘Have no objections’: Farooq Abdullah on taking rival PDP’s support for govt formation
The NC president said he was not averse to taking support of the independents as well but he would not go begging for it.
‘We haven’t done that much’: Former Estonia head says US fears of escalation with Putin are unwarranted
As U.S. support for aiding Ukraine continues to fracture Americans, Kersti Kaljulaid, the former president of Estonia, wants to remind Americans what’s at stake. Estonia, a country in Northern Europe bordered by the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, is slightly larger than Denmark and has a coastline with 1,521 islands. Kaljulaid described what’s happening across the world as a “tectonic shift,” during a recent interview with Fox News Digital at her nation’s embassy in Washington, D.C. “There is the freedom-loving world. And then there are the others – the new Axis of Evil – China, Iran, North Korea, Russia. China is leading that coalition.” “Ukraine, with its brave action, has offered us the opportunity to score the first victory in this battle, and I think we should not miss it,” she said. And the cost of securing the so-called “freedom-loving world” is relatively little, she argues. “It’s very important to understand that Ukrainians are dying, but we, the West, have not spent anything close to what normally needs to be spent to win war. We are spending at the rate of 0.1% of GDP. And frankly speaking, if we could spend 0.5, then Ukraine will win, and it would be first time in history where a major conflict can be actually be won with so little resources.” Her visit came just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the U.S., causing a stir among Republicans after he visited Pennsylvania – swing state – with only Democratic lawmakers and called Sen. JD Vance “too radical.” UKRAINIAN STRONGHOLD VUHLEDAR FALLS TO RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE He was here to beg for the U.S.’s blessing to use the long-range missiles it provides to strike deep inside Russian territory. So far, his pleas have gone unanswered. The Biden administration fears provoking nuclear-armed Russia and furthering U.S. involvement in the war. “I think the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast has demonstrated to us that the Russian threats [of escalation], they carry no value,” Kaljulaid said. In August, Ukrainian troops made a risky move, invading Kursk Oblast and taking over the Russian territory, using their best tanks in the offensive, which left several key villages and towns along the southern and eastern front lines for Russia’s taking. Kaljulaid said she supports Zelenskyy’s request to lift restrictions on the ATACMs, pointing out that Ukraine already uses these weapons to strike in Crimea, which Russia views as its territory. LITHUANIAN FM WARNS RUSSIA CAN DO ‘SO MUCH DAMAGE TO ITS NEIGHBORS’ “You could say, I mean, paradoxically, there is nothing new.” “Putin is not playing the old Cold War game where one side escalated, then the other side did, and then everybody sat down and negotiated the levels down again. I mean, Putin’s regime is a terrorist regime.” She went on: “It doesn’t abide by any rules. All the bridges are burned. So when they decide it’s worth escalating, they will decide anyway, but we should do the right thing and not worry about escalation.” A University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll conducted in July and August found 48% of Americans say the U.S. should support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s incursion “as long as it takes.” Thirty-nine percent said support should last 1-2 years and another 11% thought it should last 2-5 years. The U.S. has spent around $175 billion aiding the war in Ukraine, $106 billion of which went directly to the government of Ukraine. The rest funded U.S. activities associated with the war and other affected nations in the region. “This is about a third of the money which is considered waste in the COVID pandemic spending [in the U.S.]” “If we compare it to our economic might of the free world, then we haven’t done that much,” said Kaljulaid. “Europeans are doing even more. And this is a common error as well, to think that Europe is not doing its part. Europe’s doing even more than us right now, and I would really like to have a healthy competition. Who does more?” The U.S. has given more money to Ukraine since the outbreak of war, followed by Germany, the U.K., Japan, and Canada. As a percentage of their GDP, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania topped the ranking, with 1.8, 1.7, and 1.4%, respectively. Kaljulaid declined to say whether relations would become more difficult under a second Trump presidency – Trump has spoken out against aiding Ukraine and claimed he could negotiate peace with Zelenskyy and Putin. In fact, she had an optimistic outlook that Trump could come to support Eastern Europe if elected to a second term, just as she said he did in his first term. “Eastern Europe had quite a big presence. Trump visited Poland, [former Vice President] Mike Pence visited Talinn [Estonia’s capital].” She noted Trump’s work on the Three Seas Initiative and actions to end Syria’s chemical weapons attacks on its civilians. “That was not a simple thing. It was a quite courageous thing, and it was exactly what you expect from Republican foreign policy of the United States – to defend the free world.”
Weather Update: IMD predicts heavy rains for THESE states, issues yellow alert in parts of Kerala till..; check forecast
The IMD has issued a yellow alert in several Kerala districts, warning of heavy rain.
RG Kar case: Sanjoy Roy raped, murdered Kolkata doctor, says CBI in its chargesheet
Roy allegedly committed the crime on August 9 when the victim had gone to sleep in the seminar room of the hospital during a break, it said.
Texas students with immigrant parents lost out on college aid because of FAFSA glitch
The glitch kept the students from submitting the form on time, which put them last in line to receive aid this year.
Facing a tight race, Ted Cruz goes quiet on abortion
As abortion and other reproductive rights loom over the election, Cruz has largely been unwilling to clarify his stances.
How Texas’ environmental agency weakened a once-rigorous air pollution monitoring team
Former employees say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gutted the unit soon after the fracking boom swept the state oil industry. The operation never returned to what it was before.
Lake rips Biden-Harris ‘double whammy’ policies affecting Arizonans : ‘Driven us over the cliff’
Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake told Fox News Digital that illegal immigration has disproportionately hammered residents of her state which she says has created a “double whammy” that will result in GOP wins in the state in November. “I think most Americans think that they have driven us right over the edge, over the cliff,” Lake told Fox News Digital about the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. “And we’re hoping that we can pull this back come November and that’s what we plan to do. But our polling shows that the economy is really affecting everybody. The border is affecting everybody.” Lake explained to Fox News Digital that the current administration’s border policies have disproportionately hurt Arizona particularly when it comes to housing costs. “It’s basic supply and demand,” Lake said. “21 million people coming in, even if you take the estimate that Joe Biden and Kamala are giving, which is 10 million, they’ve got to live somewhere. They’re living in homes and apartments and hotels and these are taking away housing opportunities for Americans and also jacking up the prices as well. Because right now, when you have a very limited supply of housing, which we do, we have not built enough homes and apartments in the past 20 years to keep up with the demand. So now all of a sudden, you add 21 million people, you’ve got a supply and demand issue. You got you don’t have enough supply and you have a lot of demand.” KARI LAKE SHREDS VP HARRIS’ ‘DESPICABLE’ SOUTHERN BORDER VISIT: JUST TO MAKE THE ‘MAINSTREAM MEDIA HAPPY’ Lake continued, “We know that these people that are pouring across our country illegally, that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are bringing in hand-holding and saying, yes, please come in and we will supply you housing, federally subsidized housing, which means you and I are paying for it. And we will give you an ID card with thousands of dollars a month to pay for your food. They don’t have living expenses like the American people do. The American people are barely getting by because living expenses have gone up so they can then afford to take these jobs making less than the going rate, which takes Americans salaries and hourly wages and depresses them or pushes them down. So it’s a double whammy and it’s really affecting Arizona particularly hard.” On inflation, Lake pointed to data showing that Phoenix was at one point the hardest hit city in the country. “I talk to more Arizonans than anybody in the whole country,” Lake told Fox News Digital. “I have a better relationship with the people of Arizona, I think, than anybody in the country and they’re struggling. You know, it kills me to see families and people who are retiring or retirees, Arizona used to be an affordable state it’s not so much anymore, who are telling me now, Kari, I’ve never had to go to a food bank in my life. As a matter of fact, I used to donate to food banks. Now I’m finding myself there every couple of weeks just to make ends meet. I can’t even afford the basics. It breaks my heart because the people of this state are incredible, hard working people.” FLASHBACK: ARIZONA DEM SENATE CANDIDATE CALLED TRUMP VOTERS ‘DUMB’: ‘WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD’ “They don’t deserve this and they don’t want to be asking for a handout, but they’re working as hard as they ever have. Some of them are doing two jobs and there’s not enough hours in the day. They can’t work any harder than they already are and they’re still not making ends meet. So it’s very distressing for the people and it’s distressing for me because I really, truly love the people of the state.” Lake, who is running for Senate against Dem. Rep. Ruben Gallego who she says is responsible for supporting the Harris-Biden immigration and inflation record, told Fox News Digital that she believes Republicans will have success in November as a result of those policies. “Every main issue that we’re facing as a country somehow seems to kind of come right through Arizona and this is why I feel so comfortable that we’re going to win this because, well, first of all, we’re registering voters left to right,” Lake said. “People are saying, yep, we’re voting, we’re going to become a Republican. People who’ve never been a Republican before are now registered Republicans…We’re calling people who haven’t voted in a number of elections, people who maybe skipped the last 4 or 5 elections. I guess they are called low propensity voters and we’re asking, are you going to vote? And they’re saying, ‘Hell, yes, I’m going to vote. Absolutely, I’m going to vote. I’m struggling right now. This is the first election I voted in a number of elections.’ But this one really matters. I think it’s our last election. If we don’t get this right as a free America.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.
GOP New Jersey Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw nearly passes out during debate
New Jersey Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw, a Republican, appeared to freeze on Sunday during his debate against Democrat Rep. Andy Kim. Bashaw, 63, and Kim, 42, are each looking to fill the Senate seat vacated by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned earlier this year following his indictment in a political corruption case. The GOP candidate stopped speaking mid-sentence during his comments about affordability and appeared to look off into space. Kim, a two-term U.S. Congressman who defeated Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy’s wife to secure the party’s nomination, was the first to rush over and check on Bashaw after noticing something was wrong. NEW JERSEY DEM HOUSE CANDIDATE SAYS SHE IS ‘NOT SUPER WORRIED’ ABOUT BIOLOGICAL MEN IN WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOMS Bashaw told Kim he was alright, and the Democrat returned to his podium. The debate then took a commercial break, so Bashaw could be checked on. He left the room for about 10 minutes. “I think maybe we need to take a commercial break and address some issues here on the stage,” the moderator told the audience. Bashaw addressed the issue when he returned to the stage. “I got so worked up about this affordability issue that I realized I hadn’t eaten so much food today,” Bashaw said. “So I appreciate your indulgence.” He wrote on social media after the debate: “Thank you all for the well wishes! I was out campaigning all day, and I never stopped to get a bite to eat. Excited to eat pizza with my fantastic volunteers at the post-debate party tonight!” In a follow-up post on the social media platform X, Bashaw said the pizza was secured. “Thanks for your support, everyone!” he wrote. NEW JERSEY DEMOCRAT PROPOSES BILL TO CREATE TRAVEL ADVISORIES TO INFORM PREGNANT WOMEN OF STATE ABORTION LAWS Bashaw’s campaign also told Fox News Digital that the Republican candidate was okay and just needed some food. “Curtis is fine! He was on the campaign trail all day and didn’t get a chance to eat,” a campaign spokesperson said. “He stepped off-stage and had a protein bar and some Coke and came back to debate five minutes later. Even having not eaten all day, Curtis was still able to eat Andy Kim’s lunch tonight!”