Texas AG demands Biden-Harris admin help verify citizenship of nearly 500K registered voters
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has written to the Biden-Harris administration urging it to provide data that would help identify up to half a million people who could be erroneously registered to vote in the state but not be a citizen. Paxton, a Republican, said that the Biden-Harris administration has “legal obligations” to hand over such information so that the Lone Star state can help determine the citizenship status of certain registered voters who do not have a state of Texas-issued driver’s license or identification card since those are only issued after citizen checks. Non-U.S. citizens lawfully present cannot legally vote but can lawfully apply for and receive a driver’s license or ID card. Paxton said he is investigating those registered voters so Texas can be in compliance with federal and state election laws which prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting. He penned his letter Monday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou. ARIZONA LAW REQUIRING PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP TO VOTE SUPPORTED BY 24 STATE AGS IN EMERGENCY STAY WITH SCOTUS “I demand full cooperation from the federal government to ensure that any noncitizens remaining on Texas’s voter registration rolls are identified,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration is legally obligated to assist States in doing so, and it is imperative that we use every tool available to uphold the integrity of our elections.” Paxton said that while it is a crime for noncitizens to register to vote, federal law paradoxically creates opportunities for non-citizens to illegally register to vote while also prohibiting states from requiring voters to have proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. He said it is particularly troubling given the current scale of the illegal immigration and that the Senate has not passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (“SAVE Act”), which would allow states to ensure that votes are being cast legally by eligible voters. He said that requiring proof of citizenship is a commonsense measure that helps identify illegal registration. Paxton has obtained a list of approximately 454,289 Texas registered voters who have never had their citizenship verified. The list is derived from the Texas Secretary of State’s (SOS) computerized list of voters the office is required to maintain. THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS, DOZENS OF LAWMAKERS WANT ANSWERS FROM GARLAND “Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Paxton wrote in the letter. “Indeed, a recent SOS audit verified that over 1,300 noncitizens were registered to vote in the four randomly chosen counties that were subject to an election audit—and that is just what was verifiable. That is 1,300 too many when so many of our federal, state, and local election are decided by a handful of votes.” Paxton has been trying to crack down hard on non-citizens voting. In August, his office’s Election Integrity unit executed searches in three South Texas counties as part of his ongoing probe to investigate fraud and ballot harvesting allegations. In the same month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the voter rolls since 2021. Approximately 1,930 had a voter history. Republicans have raised concerns about voter integrity issued and non-citizens being registered to vote ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Officials in Oregon announced Monday that they have identified an additional 302 people on the state’s voter rolls who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote. The announcement comes just two weeks after officials in the Beaver State said 1,259 possible noncitizens have been registered to vote since 2021, bringing the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections.
SEE IT: Wisconsin dairy farmer says ‘no question’ Trump admin was ‘much better’ than Biden-Harris
WAUKESHA, Wisconsin – At Cozy Nook Farm, they cover three areas: Cows, pumpkins, and Christmas trees. “We’re diversified here,” laughed dairy farmer Tom Oberhaus in an interview with Fox News Digital. He explained that he and his wife are conservative Republicans who have been sure of who they were supporting in the 2024 election for a long time. “There’s no question in our mind that our four years under Trump management was much better than the three and a half years under Biden management – or whoever is, you know, that’s the great mystery is, who is actually running the government right now?” he asked. WISCONSIN SENATE RACE SHIFTS TO ‘TOSS UP’ BY HANDICAPPER AS TAMMY BALDWIN FIGHTS FOR RE-ELECTION They previously voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. One issue he has with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee, is that she vouched for President Biden’s cognitive ability. “It bothers the heck out of me that we’re thinking about electing a person that just six weeks ago… told us ‘Oh, Biden’s on top of it. He’s really aggressive and really knows what he’s doing,’” Oberhaus said. “We all seen that in the debate, you know, he’s past his time,” he said of Biden’s June debate with former President Trump that preceded his campaign suspension. TRUMP, REPUBLICANS VENTURE TO BLUE AREAS IN WISCONSIN TO BOOST GOP TURNOUT Critics have claimed Trump is bad for farmers, pointing to his fondness for tariffs and his past trade conflict with China. But Oberhaus said the tariffs, which ramped up in 2018, “certainly didn’t hurt us.” “We’re much better off with tariffs than having that government printing press printing out money,” he added. At Cozy Nook Farm, Oberhaus said their biggest struggle has been inflation. “We’ve been [eaten] alive by inflation,” he claimed. He explained that they do not set their own prices, and they tend to “run a couple of years behind everybody else.” They’re now paying “twice as much for tires and fuel and feed and everything else.” However, “our milk price stays the same, until just now in the last month that it finally came up.” VULNERABLE DEM JON TESTER TURNS ON BIDEN ADMIN OVER DEI AFTER MONTANA UNIVERSITIES STRIPPED OF FEDERAL FUNDS He also stressed illegal immigration as a top issue for him, even hundreds of miles from the southern border. But the problem is surfacing even as far north as Wisconsin, he explained. “Little town of Whitewater 35 minutes away,” he said. “It’s a town of, what, 15,000 people? And then they got a thousand new immigrants.” Local Wisconsin outlets reported that last year Whitewater Police Chief Daniel Meyer and City Manager John Weidl penned a letter to Biden, asking for help after the “rapid increase” of about 800 to 1,000 immigrants since 2022. “As a municipal government, our focus is not on legal status, but rather ensuring we are providing the resources expected of a municipality to all residents of the City. Unfortunately, we are increasingly finding it difficult to do that,” the letter reportedly read. HERE’S WHAT 2 UNDECIDED WISCONSIN VOTERS ARE HOLDING OUT FOR IN 2024 ELECTION “How do you handle that?” asked Oberhaus. As for those who argue that with strict immigration enforcement there would result in fewer people to work on farms, he called it “baloney.” “We got plenty of people to do the farm work,” he said. On Trump, who recently ventured into Wisconsin’s biggest Democratic enclaves in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the farmer said, “I think that’s the sign of a leader – that you’re not afraid to go into the other camp and tell them what your ideas are.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Biden cancels overseas trip as Milton bears down on Florida; DeSantis tells VP ‘it’s not about you Kamala’
With a second powerful hurricane in less than two weeks bearing down on Florida, President Biden on Tuesday canceled an upcoming international trip in order to oversee federal storm preparations and response efforts. As the death toll rises and nearly 200,000 people remain without power or running water over a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through the southeast United States, Hurricane Milton – an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm – is on course to slam into Florida on Wednesday. “Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Tuesday. The president was scheduled to leave for Berlin on Thursday, followed by a stop in Angola before returning home on Oct. 15. The trip would have marked Biden’s first stop on the African continent during his tenure as president. EYE OF THE STORM: BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IMPACT HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the president called Milton a potentially “devastating” storm that could be one of the worst to hit Florida in a century. He also urged anyone under an evacuation order to “evacuate now, now, now.” “It’s a matter of life and death,” Bien emphasized. Biden also said he spoke on Monday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, adding that the conservative governor had been cooperative and that he gave his personal phone number to DeSantis. CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS When asked about the federal storm response, DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday that “we have gotten what we need from the feds… the president has approved what we asked for… I’m thankful for that.” “Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted. The governor reiterated those comments Tuesday morning in an interview on “Fox and Friends.” “Every request that we’ve made – I’ve been in contact with the president, I’ve been in contact with the FEMA director,” DeSantis highlighted. “All of our requests have been answered.” While DeSantis has complimented the president’s actions, he has taken aim at Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrats’ presidential nominee on Monday – reacting to reports that the governor had refused to take her calls regarding federal storm efforts – described him as “selfish.” When asked about the dispute, DeSantis argued in his “Fox and Friends” interview that “my focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris. I saw the news report. I didn’t know that she tried to contact me. But I’d also say it’s not about you, Kamala. It’s about the people of Florida. My focus is exactly where it should be.” “I’ve worked on these Hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She’s never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now. Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics. We know it’s because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games,” DeSantis charged. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON The war of words appeared to be triggered by reports from NBC and later ABC News on Monday afternoon that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature. When asked a couple of hours later, DeSantis said he was not aware Harris was trying to reach him. “I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.” Speaking around the same time, as she departed the nation’s capital for New York, the vice president took aim at DeSantis. “People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.” However, DeSantis, pushing back in his Fox News interview, argued that “Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this. The idea that I should be…worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is quite frankly absurd.” When asked if his vice president has been helpful as the federal government deals with back-to-back dangerous hurricanes, Biden nodded and told reporters “yes.” Harris, speaking on Tuesday on the popular daytime program “The View,” said “I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, with Democrat and Republican governors…. So, obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders, but maybe it’s for others.” With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again front and center on the campaign trail. Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene, and making unproven claims. On Monday, Harris clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.” Fox News’ Nick Rojas contributed
Mayorkas rips ‘politicized’ atmosphere over FEMA disaster response amid GOP criticism: ‘It sows distrust’
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been a political lightning rod for controversy during the Biden-Harris administration, on Monday pushed back against what he claimed was “intentionally false information” about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) work. “I have not seen it ever before at this level,” he said on MSNBC, speaking to host Jen Psaki. “You and I both remember a time when an extreme weather event, a natural disaster, actually brought people together. Now, unfortunately, tragically, quite frankly, it is politicized.” Both DHS and FEMA have been under fire over their response to Hurricane Helene, with claims that it has diverted resources to illegal immigrants, has been delayed in its response, and is out of money. SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ Much of the controversy was triggered last week when Mayorkas said FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the season.” He went on to say that the agency has the money for “immediate needs” but is concerned about not having a stable supply of funding. Congress recently freed up $20 billion for the disaster fund, but officials have called on Congress to pass a supplemental spending bill. Critics quickly pointed to FEMA’s role in distributing more than $650 million in funds to help illegal immigrants as part of its Shelter and Services Program (SSP). Former President Trump recently accused the Biden administration of stealing FEMA money “for their illegal immigrants.” However, the Biden administration has noted that that funding, which comes from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is congressionally appropriated for grants to local governments and nonprofits, is entirely separate from the significantly larger Disaster Relief Fund. “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts,” FEMA said in a release this week. HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE It has still faced questions from some Republican senators about whether its “entanglement” in the border crisis has affected its operational readiness. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, told Fox News Digital last week that the administration has “failed in that response.” “They are scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes. And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response,” the speaker said. FEMA also faced backlash last week after its unearthed emergency management “equity” blueprint went viral. The number one goal listed in the Biden-Harris agency’s priorities is to “instill equity as a foundation of emergency management.” According to FEMA’s plan, “Diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be optional.” This week, FEMA has been pushing back against claims that FEMA grants have to be repaid, that it is restricting airspace for rescue and recovery operations, and that it is distributing aid based on demographic characteristics. It has published a fact sheet to check some of those claims. Mayorkas, who was impeached by the Republican-led House this year, on Monday again stressed that there is help available for those who need it, and warned of the effects of misinformation. TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’ “What happens is the people who are victimized by the natural disaster are the ones who will suffer,” he said. “It sows distrust in their government, and therefore they don’t seek the help that they truly need.” “We have funds to put in their pockets to be able to help them address immediate needs. These individuals are not seeking that relief because of the disinformation, the intentionally false information they are receiving.” He also said the misinformation hurts the workforce. “These are individuals who are putting their lives on the line to search and rescue for victims of Hurricane Helene, a hurricane of historic magnitude,” he said. “It is very sad.” Critics have pointed to his handling of the historic crisis at the southern border, including his fueling of a since-debunked controversy about Border Patrol agents on horseback allegedly mistreating Haitian migrants, when judging his record. Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
Assembly Election 2024 Results: INDIA bloc’s first win in J-K, BJP retains Haryana
The ruling BJP is all set to form the government for the third consecutive time.
Hispanic voters rail against ‘dishonest’ Biden-Harris border record as poll shows Trump gaining in key states
LAS VEGAS – Hispanic voters at a pro-Trump event in Nevada ripped the Biden-Harris administration on immigration following news that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants charged with rape and murder are in the United States. “The current administration are very, very responsible,” Demesio Guerrero, a Trump supporter at a GOP Hispanic outreach event in Clark County, Nevada, told Fox News Digital in response to a question about recently released ICE data showing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sexual assault and murder convictions are living in the United States. “They are like traitors of the United States. Because you know what, all the crimes, all the innocent Americans that are dying every day in many, many, many cities in the United States are the result of those criminals being loose.” Blanca Fox, a Trump campaign volunteer originally from Guatemala, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration should have warned the American public about the ICE numbers. HARRIS SURROGATES TRY TO EXPLAIN AWAY ‘FLIP-FLOPPING’ IMMIGRATION POLICY “They’re being like so dishonest right now with the whole country,” Fox said. “Everybody is hurt and they don’t see the reality that Kamala Harris has been for four years in the [vice] presidency and all we have is like problems. We have no solutions with them. We’re not against people to come to the United States, but the legal way, if you come to look for a better future, do it the right way and don’t come and commit crimes and be a problem.” Lydia Dominguez, a Trump supporter from Clark County who spoke on a panel at the Latinos for Trump event, told Fox News Digital that “there is a crisis occurring at the border.” HARRIS SUPPORTERS SAY SHE’LL FIX IMMIGRATION, BLAME TRUMP FOR BORDER CRISIS “Between the drugs, the human trafficking, and now the millions of illegal immigrants that we have crossing over that we have not vetted or that have actually been charged for murder in other countries,” Dominguez said. “So it’s alarming what’s happening at the border.” “They say that that’s only a very small group,” RNC Hispanic communications director Jaime Florez told Fox News Digital about criminal illegal aliens in the United States. “You know, try to explain those statistics to the parents of the girl that was killed in the University of Georgia. When 10 million people come into this country without being vetted in any way, it is impossible to think that no criminal is going to come among them.” A Las Vegas resident called the current status of the southern border “terrible,” pointing out that “anyone can declare” asylum and “they’re just allowed to come in.” Former Texas congressional candidate Rolando Rodriguez told Fox News Digital that he grew up around the border and explained that today it is a “disaster like never before in the history of this nation and probably in the history of the world.” This week, a pair of Suffolk University/USA Today surveys showed that Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters in the key swing states of Nevada and Arizona, but also showed Trump has made gains with younger male Hispanic voters compared to four years ago. LAKE RIPS BIDEN-HARRIS ‘DOUBLE WHAMMY’ POLICIES AFFECTING ARIZONANS : ‘DRIVEN US OVER THE CLIFF’ “So far, Harris is falling short of the 24-26 point advantage that Joe Biden carried with Hispanic voters in Arizona and Nevada in 2020, according to the exit polls from those states,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos highlighted. “This Democratic shortfall is largely due to young Hispanic men.” The Hispanic voters who spoke to Fox News Digital expressed a similar sentiment to what was highlighted in the polling and said they expect Trump will increase his numbers with Hispanic voters in 2024, in part because of the immigration crisis. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “President Reagan used to say Hispanics are Republicans. They just don’t know it yet,” Florez told Fox News Digital. “We’re finding out. I think that many Hispanics that are Democrats found out that the Democratic Party has taken them for granted for way too long. They have made us promises that they never fulfilled, including immigration reform that President Obama promised never happened.” “We had a great time, it was a very prosperous time for us when President Trump was in the White House,” Florez added, noting that Hispanic household income was up during the Trump presidency. “I’m sure that Trump is going to win Nevada. Definitely.”
PA gov takes victory lap after Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to overturn election law ‘usurpations’
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected hearing a Republican-backed challenge to an executive order signed by President Biden that works to broaden voting access and registration, just roughly one month before Election Day. The Supreme Court reconvened Monday for its 2024-2025 term and rejected a bevvy of cases, including one backed by dozens of Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania who claimed President Biden’s 2021 executive order on voter access was unconstitutional and attempted to interfere with the election. The lawsuit also targeted an edict from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro for enacting automatic voter registration across the state. The justices did not comment when rejecting the appeal. Shapiro’s office took a victory lap following the Supreme Court’s rejection of hearing the case, calling GOP efforts a “bad faith attempt” to disenfranchise voters. “This petition was yet another bad faith attempt to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters – and the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision to deny the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus petition,” Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. GOP STATE LAWMAKERS APPEAL TO SCOTUS TO CHALLENGE BIDEN’S ‘USURPATIONS’ OF THEIR POWER TO RUN ELECTIONS “Governor Shapiro has consistently fought to protect our democracy – including defeating Donald Trump and his allies in court dozens of times to defend Pennsylvanians’ votes and protect access to the ballot box. Yesterday, election deniers went 0-2 at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bonder said. Biden signed the executive order on Promoting Access to Voting in March 2021, which directs federal agencies to expand access to voter registration, works to overhaul the government’s Vote.gov website, and notes that the federal government has a “duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so.” DOJ ‘STONEWALLING’ REQUESTS FOR DETAILS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF BIDEN’S ‘FEDERAL ELECTION SCHEME’ Executive Order 14019 states that “executive departments and agencies should partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information.” The executive order set off a firestorm of criticism among Republicans, most notably with 27 Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers filing a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality, Fox News Digital previously reported. The lawmakers argued that the executive order essentially serves as an executive get-out-the-vote effort targeting demographics that would benefit the Democratic Party. They argued the move was unconstitutional as Congress never enacted a law that grants such an action from the White House. A federal judge rejected the lawsuit in March, citing it lacked legal standing, setting up a legal showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court. “We think it’s really important for President Biden to be held accountable,” Erick Kaardal, an attorney for the lawmakers, told Fox News Digital in April. “For him to violate such a big law when all the little people have to follow the laws, even little laws … it’s clear President Biden has issued an executive order without congressional enactments to get himself re-elected. It’s ridiculous,” Kaardal added. BIDEN’S GET-OUT-THE-VOTE EXECUTIVE ORDER CHALLENGED, HEADING TO SUPREME COURT: ‘TARGET WELFARE POPULATIONS’ In their petition filed to the Supreme Court in April, the Republican lawmakers asked the court to weigh in on the case. They argued that, for the 2024 election, they cannot “do their part” in suing to stop “federal and state executive usurpations of Pennsylvania state law, pursuant to the Elections Clause and Electors Clause, unless the Court does its part and declares individual state legislator standing in this case.” The lawmakers had called on the Supreme Court to bypass the federal appeals court, and determine if they have standing to bring the case ahead of the 2024 election. Following the court’s rejection of the case, Shapiro’s office told Fox Digital that the governor is zeroed-in on “protecting our democracy and ensuring our elections are free, fair, safe, and secure.” The Supreme Court this term will hear a handful of other high-profile cases, including laws banning “ghost guns,” the legality of Tennessee’s ban on transgender surgery for children, as well as the legality of federal bans on flavored e-cigarette vapes.
Party opposed to India’s stripping of Kashmir’s autonomy wins election
National Conference-led alliance wins 48 seats in 90-seat assembly in first state legislative elections in a decade. India-administered Kashmir’s biggest political party opposed to India’s stripping of the region’s semi-autonomy has won the most seats in the first legislative elections since the move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government five years ago. The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, or NC, won 42 seats in the 90-seat Legislative Assembly, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday. The BJP secured 29 seats while the country’s main opposition Indian National Congress party, which fought the election in alliance with the NC, succeeded in six constituencies. Polling took place over three phases starting on September 18. “People have supported us more than our expectations. Now our efforts will be to prove that we are worth these votes,” Omar Abdullah, the NC leader and the region’s former chief minister, told reporters in the main city of Srinagar. His father and president of the party, Farooq Abdullah, said its mandate was to run the region without “police raj” rule and try freeing people from jails. “Media will be free,” he said. Supporters of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party celebrate outside the vote-counting centre in Srinagar [Sharafat Ali/Reuters] Hundreds of NC workers gathered outside counting centres and at the homes of the winning candidates to celebrate the party’s victory. Kashmir has been at the centre of a dispute with neighbouring Pakistan since 1947. India and Pakistan both claim the region in full but rule it in part after having fought two of their three wars over the region. Restoration of ‘political rights’? Some saw the vote as a de facto referendum on the federal government’s decision to repeal the territory’s special status. The move downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. “The people have given their judgement against what New Delhi did,” social activist Iqbal Ahmad Bhat told the AFP news agency. Resident Jahangir Ahmad told AFP that he hoped “political rights will be restored” in the state after the NC-led alliance’s victory. Nevertheless, critics said the assembly has only nominal powers over education and culture. New Delhi also has the power to override legislation and will continue to appoint the governor. The BJP won all its seats in the southern Hindu-majority region of Jammu. Modi said he was “proud” of the BJP’s performance, saying that enthusiasm for the election was reflective of “the people’s belief in democracy”. BJP victory expected in Haryana In legislative elections held on Tuesday in the state of Haryana, the BJP appeared to be heading for victory, according to preliminary results shared by the Election Commission. The BJP was leading in 50 constituencies and the Congress in 35 out of 90. So far in the vote counting, the BJP has won 18 seats and is leading in 32 constituencies while the Congress has won 15 seats and is leading in 20, according to the commission. A victory would give the BJP a record third win in the state, which it is set to govern for the next five years. The results in Haryana state are a surprise because most exit polls had predicted an easy victory for the Congress party. Adblock test (Why?)
MI5 chief says Russia and Iran behind rise in assassination plots in UK
Ken McCallum said the number of state-threat investigations undertaken by MI5 has risen by 48 percent in the past year. The United Kingdom is facing a “staggering rise” in assassination attempts on its soil by Russia and Iran as the hostile states recruit criminals to “do their dirty work” for them, the head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency has said. In a rare public speech on Tuesday setting out the major threats to the UK from both hostile states and terror groups, MI5 director Ken McCallum said the number of state-threat investigations undertaken by MI5 has risen by 48 percent in the past year, with Iran, Russia and, China the main perpetrators. “The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats,” McCallum said. “We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war.” “It will be clear to you that MI5 has one hell of a job on its hands,” McCallum told journalists at the UK’s counterterrorism command centre in London. Charting out threats from Iran, he said that his agents and police have tackled 20 Tehran-backed plots since 2022 and warned that Iran could expand its targets in the UK if Israel attacks in response to Iran’s missile barrage. The spy chief also noted that the widening conflicts in the Middle East raise the risk “of an increase in – or broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK.” With respect to threats from Russia, McCallum said that despite the expulsion of more than 750 Russian diplomats from Europe since Moscow invaded Ukraine and the ejection of the last Russian military intelligence officer from the UK earlier this year, it was “eye-catching” how Russian state actors were turning to proxies to do their work. “The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we’ve seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness,” he said, declining to give further details. Both Russia and Iran often turn to criminals, “from international drug traffickers to low-level crooks,” to carry out attacks, he added. The UK’s official “terror” threat level stands at “substantial,” the middle of a five-point scale, meaning an attack is likely, and since 2017 MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 late-stage “terror” plots. McCallum also said there was worrying signs that the ISIL group is back, despite the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. He said the internet was the “biggest factor” driving the rise, describing how easily youngsters can access “inspirational and instructional material” from their bedrooms. He said the intelligence service was seeing “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism” and singled out “canny” internet memes. “Extreme right-wing terrorism in particular skews heavily towards young people, driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture,” he added. Adblock test (Why?)
Kosovo to start trial for Banjska attack by Serb group: Why it matters
A year after an attack by a Serbian armed group in northern Kosovo’s Banjska killed a police officer, the trial is expected to begin on Wednesday at the Pristina Basic Court. In all, 45 suspects have been indicted for the attack in September 2023, which Kosovo Serb businessman and politician Milan Radoicic later said he led and organised after he was identified in drone footage by Kosovo security officials. The attack aggravated tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, and experts fear the trial could be complicated by the difficult nature of the relationship between the two. Here’s what happened in Banjska and why the trial matters: What happened in Banjska? A group of Serbs, armed and masked, killed Kosovo police Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku and wounded two others when they ambushed a Kosovar police patrol in the village of Banjska near the Serbia-Kosovo border on September 24, 2023. The group then fled to a nearby Orthodox monastery, and its members barricaded themselves in. A gun battle ensued with Kosovo police that lasted for hours. Three of the Serb assailants were killed, and dozens of the attackers fled to Serbia. The police confiscated more than 1,000 of their weapons and pieces of equipment valued at more than 5 million euros (more than $5.5m). Kosovar officials said the confiscated weapons were produced in Serbia and cannot be found on the open market. Based in part on the alleged origins of the weapons, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and other Kosovar authorities have accused Serbia of masterminding the attack. Who are the suspects and what are the charges against them? The 45 defendants have been charged with “terrorism” and crimes against Kosovo’s constitutional order and security. The central accusation against them is that they were aiming to take over the northern part of Kosovo with the intent of annexing it to Serbia, according to the indictment filed in September. Prosecutor Naim Abazi called the gunmen a “well-structured group” and said the investigations into the case were “one of the most complex that the prosecution has ever worked on”, according to the Balkan Insight news website. Only three of the suspects remain in custody in Kosovo. The rest, including Radoicic, remain in Serbia. On October 3, 2023, Serbian authorities arrested Radoicic for questioning. He denied guilt in his testimony to the Serbian prosecutor’s office. But previously in a letter read by his lawyer, he had admitted to personally organising the attack and denied the involvement of the Serbian government. Why was the attack so significant? The Banjska attack is one of the most violent incidents to occur in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade after a war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian secessionists that saw an Albanian Kosovar uprising against Belgrade’s rule. The majority Serb population that lives in northern Kosovo does not recognise the country as a sovereign nation and views Belgrade as its capital. Over the years, there have been numerous clashes between Serbs on the one hand and Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers on the other. Since 2012, Belgrade and Pristina have been holding normalisation talks mediated by the European Union with the goal of joining the bloc, but the talks have broken down mostly over a deal to create an association of Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo as some fear it would only create another mini-state. Kosovo political leaders have accused Serbia of being behind the Banjska attack politically, materially and logistically. Kurti said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic planned and ordered the attack “to destabilise” Kosovo with the goal of starting a war for more territorial gain. Speaking to the media at a commemoration ceremony last month at the scene of the attack, Kurti maintained that Radoicic – who was at the time vice president of the Serb List, a Belgrade-supported political party in Kosovo – “was trained in Serbia and financed by Belgrade”. Experts said the attack suggests a possible hardening in Serbia’s approach towards resolving differences with Kosovo. The attack showed that “Serbia and its proxy groups have abandoned peaceful dialogue and have chosen hybrid warfare to achieve their political goals”, Gezim Visoka, associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Dublin City University, told Al Jazeera. Those goals, Visoka said, are to “force Kosovo and the international community to make further concessions in the EU-led talks for normalisation of relations, which have reached a stalemate due to fundamental disagreements”. What has Serbia said? Serbia has denied any role in the attack, and Radoicic has insisted that the Serbian government was not involved. Vucic has instead accused Kurti of wanting to expel Serbs from Kosovo. After the attack, he said Kurti’s refusal to form an Association of Serb Municipalities – as part of a 2013 agreement between Belgrade and Pristina that would allocate Kosovo Serbs more autonomy – is what fuelled tensions leading to the violence in Banjska. Journalist Branislav Krstic, a Serb from northern Kosovo, described the Banjska attack to Al Jazeera as “a gift for Pristina” — in that it helps strengthen Kosovo’s argument for keeping control over the Serb-majority north. The case, he said, adds to the “loss of sovereignty of Serbs in northern Kosovo”. What’s expected during the trial? Prosecution lawyers told the Kosovo daily Koha last month that they feared the trial would be prolonged, in part because most of the suspects are in Serbia. Lawyer Kadri Osaj told Koha that their extradition from Serbia was unlikely due to a lack of legal cooperation between the two governments. “The authorities of Serbia were directly and indirectly involved in the case, so I do not expect that these persons will be extradited to Kosovo,” Koha quoted Osaj as saying. Visoka also said the fact that most suspects won’t physically be brought to trial complicates the process. Without Serbia’s cooperation and pressure from the West, it’s unlikely that Kosovo will be able to bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack, Visoka said. “The trial is likely to reveal more about the