How a boom in East Texas high schoolers taking college classes is transforming Kilgore College
High school students that are getting a jump on college through dual credit now make up the majority of students at one East Texas community college.
Texas turnout rate slightly down after first three days of early voting
State data shows just two of Texas’ most populous counties have surpassed their voter turnout rate in 2020.
PM Modi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meet, exchange views on defence, trade, clean energy
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said both leaders agreed to maintain the renewed momentum in India-Germany ties and discussed key global issues of interest.
Diwali, Chhath Puja 2024: Vande Bharat trains for people travelling home; check route, fare, timings
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Thursday that the Indian Railways will operate 7,000 special trains this year to accommodate the increased passenger demand during Diwali and Chhath Puja.
Delaware launches in-person early voting
Delaware kicked off early in-person voting on Friday as much of the country has begun heading to the polls. Here is how to cast your ballot in Delaware, a reliably Democratic state that is home to President Biden, and to Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign headquarters. This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes, and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Delaware. FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP AHEAD OF HARRIS BY 2 POINTS NATIONALLY Absentee voting kicked off in late September. Absentee ballots are available to all voters in the state of Delaware. Absentee ballots must be received by the Department of Elections Office of the voter’s county by 8 p.m. on Election Day. TIM WALZ’S SELECTION AS HARRIS RUNNING MATE DRAWS SKEPTICISM, EVEN AMONG ANTI-TRUMP FIGURES Early in-person voting is available at designated sites in each county from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3. The deadline for Delaware residents to register to vote was Oct. 12.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 973
As the war enters its 973rd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Friday, October 25, 2024: Fighting Russian forces launched drone attacks overnight at the Ukrainian capital, the 15th air attack on Kyiv this month, city officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. One person was killed and nine wounded in a Russian attack in the town of Kupiansk in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Russian shelling killed three people around the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging app. A Russian strike on a branch of the Nova Poshta delivery service killed two people in Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, near the front-line towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka, Filashkin said. Russian media and war bloggers reported that Russian forces had advanced into the coal mining town of Selydove, about 20km (12 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said the most intense Russian assaults along the front line were currently taking place on the Pokrovsk front, including near Selydove. But it did not say whether Russian soldiers had entered the town. Ukraine said Russian forces executed four captured Ukrainian servicemen in Donetsk. Ukraine’s military intelligence service said the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in Kursk, a Russian border region where Ukrainian forces staged a surprise incursion in August. Politics and diplomacy South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs voiced “grave concern” after Russia moved to ratify its defence treaty with North Korea, calling on Moscow to stop its “illegal cooperation” with Pyongyang. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo was following with “serious concern” reports that North Korean troops are in Russia ahead of their possible deployment in Ukraine. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine violated the UN charter and international law, according to a readout of their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan. Putin said any proposals for peace with Ukraine must take into account the territory held by Russian forces, stressing that negotiations must be “based on the realities on the ground”. He also said he welcomed “sincere” comments made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about bringing an end to Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, slammed Guterres for meeting Putin, calling the Russian president a “murderer”. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected Ukraine’s request to immediately join NATO, made by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he presented his “victory plan” to Western allies, saying a country at war “absolutely cannot become a member” of the bloc. Adblock test (Why?)
Three journalists killed in Israeli attack in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military did not issue a warning prior to the attack, which is believed to have targeted the journalists. An Israeli air strike has killed at least three journalists as they slept in their accommodation in southern Lebanon, in what news outlets say was a direct hit on an area removed from the continuing conflict between the Israeli military and Hezbollah. The air raid hit a compound in Hasbaiyya housing several journalists at about 4am (01:00 GMT) on Friday, killing two cameramen and a technician. “This is a very serious incident. Israel didn’t give any warning,” Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said, reporting from the southern Lebanese city. “Hasbaiyya is under no evacuation orders and, in fact, it has been relatively calm.” The victims were identified as cameraman Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda who worked for Al Mayadeen, the pan-Arab TV channel said. Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed. Reporters at the scene said the bungalow where the men were sleeping was directly targeted. Local news station Al Jadeed aired footage showing collapsed buildings and cars marked “press” covered in dust and rubble. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary called the attack “a war crime”. “This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions,” he wrote on social media platform X. Ghassan bin Jiddo, the director of Al Mayadeen, said on X that Israel’s “targeting of the journalists’ residence was deliberate, and there are injured journalists from other Arab channels”. “We hold the occupation fully responsible for this war crime, in which journalist crews, including the Al Mayadeen team, were targeted.” There was no immediate comment from Israel. ‘Message to journalists’ The attack comes a day after an Israeli strike hit an office used by Al Mayadeen in Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed one person and wounded five others. Al Jazeera’s Khan said “it doesn’t matter whether you like that news organisation or you dislike that news organisation. If you are a democracy, freedom of speech is a core value.” He added that the attack was “a deliberate message to all journalists”, who would now be leaving the area. “Clearly, they are trying to blind the world to what’s going on in southern Lebanon by targeting journalists,” Khan said of the Israeli military. In November, two journalists for Al Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike, which the network said was deliberate. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded other journalists from the AFP news agency and Al Jazeera. Journalists have faced unprecedented danger while covering Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Frank Smyth, the founder of the organisation Global Journalist Security, told Al Jazeera that more journalists have been killed in the Palestinian enclave in the past year than in any other conflict worldwide, with the majority being local reporters covering their own communities. Smyth emphasised that there is evidence that Israeli forces are directly targeting journalists, while indiscriminate bombings have also killed many media professionals. Israeli authorities have repeatedly killed and threatened Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, whom they accused of being Hamas affiliates. The network has denied and condemned the claims. Adblock test (Why?)
US election: 11 days left – What polls say, what Harris and Trump are up to
Eleven days before voters head to the polls, Vice President Kamala Harris has appealed to middle-class America at a rally in Georgia, drawing a crowd of about 20,000. Harris was not the only one the crowd had come for: Iconic musician Bruce Springsteen, former President Barack Obama, movie director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry were there to back her up. Meanwhile, Donald Trump held rallies in Arizona and Nevada. In Arizona, he said he had watched Kamala Harris’s town hall this week on CNN and described her performance as “pathetic” – only the latest in a series of personal barbs that the candidates have traded in recent days. As of Thursday evening, more than 30 million voters had already cast their ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida. While this has broken early vote records in some states, the numbers, so far, are far below those from 2020, when – amid the COVID-19 pandemic – more than 100 million voters cast their ballots before Election Day. What are the latest updates from the polls? A new poll released by the Financial Times (FT) on Thursday showed that Trump has slightly surpassed Harris as the candidate Americans trust most with the economy. The poll, conducted by the FT and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, found that 44 percent of respondents trust Trump to handle the economy, compared with 43 percent for Harris. The results suggest that Harris’s economic message has stalled in the final stages of her increasingly close race against Trump. Meanwhile, in a separate analysis from FiveThirtyEight’s daily election poll tracker, as of Wednesday, Harris is slightly ahead in the national polls, leading Trump by 1.7 percentage points. However, the long-term trend shows that the race is getting closer, with the gap narrowing from 1.8 points earlier in the week. While national surveys provide valuable insights into voter sentiment, the ultimate winner will be decided by the Electoral College, which reflects the outcomes in individual states. The seven key swing states that could determine the election are Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Together, these states account for 93 Electoral College votes. According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily poll tracker, Harris’s support in Michigan has grown marginally, from less than half a percentage point to 0.7 percent. The vice president is marginally ahead in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Trump has a slight edge over Harris in Pennsylvania and holds a slightly larger lead in North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. In Nevada, Trump and Harris are in a dead heat. However, the results from each state fall within the margin of error of the polls, indicating that the race remains extremely close, and that these swing states could still shift in favour of either candidate. What was Kamala Harris up to on Thursday? Harris campaigned alongside Obama at an event that also saw performances from Springsteen and filmmaker Perry. The vice president was the final speaker and she opened her speech praising Obama. “Thank you, Mr. President,” she said. Harris expressed confidence in winning, adding, “As a certain former president would say, ‘Yes we can.’” Harris highlighted her proposals regarding healthcare and the economy, emphasising the necessity of reducing costs and outlining her plans for small businesses while labelling abortion bans “immoral”. Bruce Springsteen, after a performance of his ballad, The Promised Land, said, “I’m here today to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. “Trump is running to be an American tyrant,” he added before performing Land of Hope and Dreams and Dancing in the Dark. Thank you, @Springsteen. Our democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it, and I am grateful you are with us in this fight. pic.twitter.com/tqB3nH0mBy — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 24, 2024 Perry walked in to the tune of Aretha Franklin’s Respect and spoke about how he had lived in Georgia for 30 years. “This is where I found the American Dream for myself,” he said. “I know what it is like to be homeless here in Georgia,” he continued. “And I also know – hear me – how expensive it is to be poor.” He called for people to vote for Harris before introducing Obama. “Today, I voted for Kamala Harris,” Tyler Perry said. “And Georgia, it was about 11,400 votes that separated Trump and Biden [in 2020]. So every vote counts. “I’m begging you, imploring you, let’s get out and make Kamala Harris the 47th president,” he added, before introducing Obama. Director Spike Lee speaks during a campaign rally [EPA] As Obama started his speech, he mocked Trump saying he resembled an older family member in need of intervention. “Hey, have you noticed grandpa, he’s acting kind of funny out there?” Obama said. He also said he understood why people were trying to find somebody to “shake things up”. “What I can’t understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself,” he added. Obama campaigns with Democratic presidential candidate Harris [EPA] What was Donald Trump up to on Thursday? On Thursday, Trump rallied in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Tempe, Arizona. In his Arizona rally, he promised to launch the largest deportation operation in history. Condemning violent gangs, he said: “We’ve got to get these animals out of here fast.” In Las Vegas, he arrived at a large rally hosted by the conservative organisation Turning Point Action. During his speech he mocked Harris and tried to reach out to minority communities. “Under the Trump administration, we’re going to build an economy that lifts up all Americans, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans and also members of our great Asian American and Pacific Islander community, many of whom are here today.” Trump attends a campaign event sponsored by conservative group Turning Point Action, in Las Vegas, Nevada [Ronda Churchill/Reuters] Al Jazeera’s John Holman, reporting from
‘Ideological balance’: Supreme Court’s conservative majority to stay no matter who wins election, experts say
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority will be maintained regardless of the Nov. 5 election results, constitutional law experts tell Fox News Digital. With the anticipation of either another former President Donald Trump presidency or a Vice President Kamala Harris presidency, whether the country’s high court remains in its current state is a topic of debate that has yet to be formally broached by either candidate this past election cycle. Over the years, both politicians and media personalities have called for the resignation of particular justices, including Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, over concerns about their ages and ethical controversies. However, experts say that while the individuals on the court may change, the power balance itself will remain intact no matter who wins the Oval Office in November. “People might change. So, for example, if Harris were to win, Justice Sotomayor might retire. Or if a Republican were to win, then you could imagine Justice Alito retiring, perhaps,” John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, told Fox News Digital. “The makeup of the individuals of the Court would change possibly, but the ideological balance wouldn’t change.” ANONYMOUS GOP SENATOR CONCERNED ABOUT GRASSLEY, 91, RECLAIMING KEY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIR: REPORT Former President Trump named three justices to the Court during his term, preserving the conservative majority, while President Biden most recently named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Court in 2022, replacing liberal Justice Stephen Breyer after he announced his retirement. “Of course, there can be unforeseen vacancies on the Court,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean at UC Berkeley Law, told Fox News Digital. “But apart from that, I expect if Trump wins and there is a Republican Senate, Thomas and Alito will retire to let their seats be taken by much younger conservatives. And if Harris wins and there is a Democratic Senate, Sotomayor will retire to let her seat be taken by a younger Democrat.” Echoing Chemerinsky’s retirement predictions, Richard Epstein, the Laurence A. Tisch professor of Law at NYU School of Law, told Fox News Digital he also expects retirement announcements from several justices, saying he foresees Thomas announcing his retirement if Trump were to win, while Sotomayor would “soldier on as long as she is able” in that case. SQUAD MEMBER CALLS FOR ‘RADICALLY’ CHANGING THE SUPREME COURT: ‘SCOTUS REFORM IS ON THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER’ “What you’re going to see is an appointment coming, and I think at this point, [Trump is] going to look at these judicial tracks and try to get somebody who’s more reliable in whatever it is he wants. The problem is you don’t know what he wants,” Epstein said. “With the left, [Kamala Harris] couldn’t think of anything that Biden did that she disagrees with.” Yoo, however, noted he does not believe the push for retirements would make much of a difference after Nov. 5 either way. “I’m sure that if Trump were to win, you will see some conservative activists hope that older justices might retire, replaced by a much younger justice,” Yoo said. “And, you know, I’ve seen stories that some people are hoping Justice Sotomayor would even retire under President Biden so that she could be replaced by someone who’s 20 years younger, as a way of trying to cement control of those seats in a conservative or liberal direction.” “I don’t think pressure like that has really much effect on the justices,” Yoo added. “I mean, they’re insulated from politics more than any other members of the government. And they don’t have to listen to anybody when it’s about when they choose to retire.” Yoo also emphasized the importance of potential appointments to the Circuit Courts of Appeals. There is currently one vacancy in the federal appellate courts, with one nominee pending and four other nominees pending for future vacancies, according to judiciary data. ‘ROT AND DECAY’: REP HANK JOHNSON ARGUES SCOTUS TERM LIMITS ARE PATH FORWARD FOR REMOVING ‘CORRUPT’ JUSTICES “If you want to advance a direction in the law, it’s really the appellate courts,” Yoo said. “They’re the ones that basically finally decide 99% of the cases in the federal system and only 1% of the cases or less make it ever to the Supreme Court. So those appellate courts, circuit courts are the ones that are really important.” Yoo said both Biden and Trump did “a good job” of filling those vacancies during their respective terms, but “that’s where you will see the biggest impact of a new president is on those appellate courts.” “I think that the bottom line is, look at the best of the Trump judges, appointees by either Biden or Obama and that’s going to be the pools from which the Supreme Court justices are going to be selected,” Epstein stated. “And the Democrats are more likely to pick a woman, more likely to pick a minority.”
Voters speak out in key swing district that could determine control of House: ‘Kicked’ to the ‘curb’
TOLEDO – Several Republican volunteers in one of Ohio’s most critical swing districts spoke out about what issues matter most to them and why they believe that former President Trump will continue his recent success in the swing state. “What really gets me motivated is sitting around hearing all this stuff that’s going on with our country, with the economy, with inflation being real bad, with our wages being eroded like 20% last four years,” Charlie Pengov, a lifelong Toledo resident volunteering for GOP House candidate Derek Merrin told Fox News Digital. “So instead, I’ve been taught that if you have anxiety about this, these kind of things, get involved and do something.” Although Ohio’s long history of being a swing state has been eroded recently after former President Trump won the state by 8 points in 2020 and is expected to do even better in 2024, the race between Merrin and incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur in Toledo takes place in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, which is considered a key swing district. “Biggest thing I hear from like family members is the economy, that’s number one,” Pengov said. “Inflation has just kind of stolen anyone’s savings that they’ve had or even, you know, sometimes it’s even hard to buy groceries from week to week for some people. You know, that’s just really the biggest issue.” ‘LEFT BEHIND’: VULNERABLE DEM INCUMBENT IN KEY SWING STATE SLAMMED FOR PUTTING ‘KNIFE IN BACK’ OF WORKERS “For sure the economy,” Kelly, a Merrin volunteer who was born and raised in Toledo before moving to Arizona to escape “Democrat policies”, told Fox News Digital. “Things like groceries, grocery prices, gas prices, housing, everything has gone up so much in the past few years and it’s just really becoming unaffordable for everyone.” Kaptur, who is serving her 21st term in Congress, is one of eight Democrats running in 2024 in a district that voted for Trump in 2020 and many believe that this is her most vulnerable election yet after redistricting incorporated more Republican territory. Kelly told Fox News Digital she has “talked to a lot more people that are voting for Trump and they’re voting Republican than are voting Democrat.” GOP CHALLENGER IN KEY HOUSE RACE BLASTS DEM OPPONENT’S EXPLANATION ON ETHICS COMPLAINT: ‘NOT SATISFIED’ Pengov told Fox News Digital that voters are frustrated that Washington is “giving all this money to Ukraine” when needs in the United States are going unaddressed. “But then when it comes to having money for like our cities and Springfield, you know, it seems like we just use up our citizens and kick them to the curb and hire other people to come in for lower wages,” Pengov said. “It just doesn’t seem right what we’re doing to our American citizens.” Toledo resident Patsy Grant also told Fox News Digital that the economy and immigration are at top of mind for voters in her district. “The economy is not affordable and this immigration thing and people are dying,” Grant said. “It’s really bad and actually, the seniors are really having a hard time right now. And I have seen it first hand with my mom and my mom is struggling with medicine. It is unaffordable. At this point, she takes diabetes medications and it is outrageous and it’s on the family if they can’t afford it. So then it puts a burden on somebody else’s financials.” “Talking to voters, we’re getting a lot of people that are actually voting early, which is really awesome. That’s what we encourage them to do. A lot of people are really worried about the economy, the majority’s the economy and immigration, the border. I mean, it’s just that everybody can’t afford to live and are scared to live.” Grant, who has been making calls to voters at the Lucas County GOP Headquarters where she spoke to Fox News Digital, said she has called a “lot of people saying they’re voting down the Republican ticket, including Donald Trump.” “They believe that he will bring change and end the war. I’ve had people talking about that, stating that Donald Trump is going to end that, that it wouldn’t have happened had he been president and not Biden. So I really have a lot of people that are positive. And then you also get the ones that are negative. But some of the people you can talk to and encourage them to look at the facts and not just the ads that are on TV and bashing one another. We’ve gotten good reception.”