Mahakumbh Mela 2025: 13-year-old aspiring to be IAS officer ‘renounces world’ to become sadhvi
The teenager has been accepted into the ashram. She will now be known as Gauri Giri.
Midwestern state senator revives DOGE-aligned bills as GOP prepares for DC takeover
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is taking the opportunity to renew two key bills aligned with the incoming advisory board known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) now that the GOP controls the Senate. DOGE was previously announced by President-elect Donald Trump, who tapped billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the charge in eliminating government waste. TRANSGENDER BILL BARRING MEN FROM WOMEN’S SPORTS TO GET FLOOR VOTE IN NEWLY GOP-LED SENATE The ERASER Act would target regulations by requiring agencies to repeal three rules before issuing any new major rule and ensure that the new rule does not exceed the cost of the repealed rules. The Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA) would address the Administrative Procedure Act by ending the standards of executive deference and allowing courts to weigh arguments without affording deference to either party. REPUBLICANS LOOK TO FINALLY PUSH THROUGH LAKEN RILEY BILL WITH NEW GOP TRIFECTA “Reining in an out-of-control administrative state has long been one of my top priorities, and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with the incoming Trump Administration to [accomplish] the shared goal of gutting the administrative state and clawing power out of the hands of nameless, faceless bureaucrats and returning it back to the people,” Schmitt told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The ERASER Act would require agencies who wish to enact a new regulation to pull three regulations off the books. And, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act would put a stop to courts’ deference to agency interpretation on regulations and enact a much stricter review, putting power back in the hands of the people, where it belongs … This is a critical, one-two punch to the bloated administrative state.” KAMALA HARRIS MAKES TRUMP’S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL WIN OFFICIAL DURING JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is a co-sponsor of the ERASER Act. SOPRA is also backed by co-sponsors Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Ted Budd, R-N.C., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn. The bills were debuted by Schmitt in the last Congress but never received consideration on the floor due to Democratic leadership in the Senate. NEW SENATOR BERNIE MORENO WANTS A BORDER BILL ON TRUMP’S DESK ON DAY 1, PUTTING DEMS ON RECORD However, with Republicans leading the upper chamber, and an increased emphasis on government efficiency, it’s much more likely the measures will get voted on. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is already expected to tee up votes on a couple other re-introduced GOP bills that never got floor time.
Biden admin and Minneapolis agree to police changes, questions loom over whether Trump will strike them down
The Biden administration secured an agreement to implement police reforms in Minneapolis ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The consent decree agreement Monday with the Minneapolis Police Department follows a similar decree that the department agreed upon with Louisville, Kentucky, police last month. The agreements follow the Biden administration’s initiation of 12 investigations in 2021, which probed possible “pattern or practice” of civil rights abuses by police departments around the country following the anti-police riots that took place after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Both decrees await approval by the courts. The 171-page Minneapolis agreement would overhaul the city’s police training and use of-force-policies, while requiring officers to “promote the sanctity of human life as the highest priority in their activities.” The decree also mandates that officers must not allow race, gender or ethnicity “to influence any decision to use force, including the amount or type of force used.” MINNEAPOLIS POLICE STAFFING LEVEL PLUMMETS TO HISTORIC 4-DECADE LOW 3 YEARS AFTER GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH: REPORT Other elements of the Minneapolis agreement include bolstering protections for protesters, new data collection requirements aimed at reducing racial discrimination, guidelines restricting officers from going after fleeing subjects, new interrogation requirements, a mandate against racial profiling in investigations, traffic stop reforms and more. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was asked repeatedly during a Monday press conference from Minneapolis whether the Trump administration could derail the agreement. “I can’t predict the future,” Clarke said. “What I can tell you is that the findings we identified in Minneapolis are severe. These are real issues that impact people’s lives. The community wants reform. The city wants reform, the police department wants reform, and the Justice Department stands here today as a full partner in the effort of achieving reform and transformation for this community.” BIDEN DOJ OPPOSES COURT DECISION ALLOWING DEREK CHAUVIN CHANCE TO EXAMINE GEORGE FLOYD’S HEART Meanwhile, in an email to constituents, Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley said she has no faith that the incoming Trump administration will be a “serious partner” in supporting the recently agreed-upon consent decree. A similar consent decree agreed upon by the Biden administration and the Loisville police roughly three weeks ago also compels the department to revise its use-of-force policies, places new restrictions around traffic stops and police searches, and challenges how law enforcement deals with protesters. A local police union in the city is challenging the reforms, calling on a judge not to approve the agreement. Meanwhile, the conservative Heritage Foundation has argued that the point of the consent decree coming so late in Biden’s term is “to bind the Trump 47 Administration and future elected Louisville administrations who may well vehemently and categorically disagree with the Proposed Consent Decree.” Both Minneapolis and Louisville were flash points for debates around police reform after both cities saw the high-profile deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Both cities, and numerous others, saw protesters rampage through the streets following their deaths, leading to multiple fatalities and billions of dollars in damage that year. Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment, but they declined to comment.
Trump announces $20 billion in new data centers in post-certification address
President-elect Trump addressed the nation for the first time since the certification of his November election victory on Tuesday. Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home just one day after Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris certified his electoral college victory. Trump took the opportunity to announce $20 billion in new data centers across the country. Trump says the $20 billion will come over a “short period of time” from DAMAC Properties. Trump and the company’s owner, Hussain Sajwani, detailed that the investment will center around Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Sajwani said the investment is aimed at facilitating the development of AI and cloud-based technologies. SCOTT JENNINGS CLASHES WITH CNN HOST OVER CRITICISM OF MUSK’S FOREIGN DEALINGS Trump also said his administration would adopt a policy of expediting approvals for any company seeking to invest $1 billion or more in the U.S. He said that many international companies view U.S. regulations as a “quagmire.” BIDEN MOVING TO BAN OIL AND GAS LEASES FOR 20 YEARS IN NEVADA REGION, JUST WEEKS BEFORE TRUMP INAUGURATION “If you invest a billion dollars or more, we’re going to move them quickly through the environmental process,” Trump said, going on to reference other regulations as well. Trump’s back-and-forth with reporters also touched on the Panama Canal, which Trump has expressed interest in retaking for the U.S. He criticized President Jimmy Carter for selling the canal during his administration. The body of the late president, who passed away on Dec 29, is currently en route to the U.S. Capitol and will lie in state from 7 p.m. until midnight. Trump also announced plans to “immediately” reverse President Biden’s bans on new oil drilling, particularly off the U.S. coasts. He says his administration plans to “drill baby, drill.” Trump’s comments come after Biden issued an 11th-hour executive order Monday morning aimed at limiting oil growth exactly two weeks before his term ends, announcing a permanent stop to most new oil and gas drilling across U.S. coastal and offshore waters in an area that spans about 625 million acres.
Trump says Meta has ‘come a long way’ after Zuckerberg ends fact-checking on platforms
EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Meta’s move to end its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram and its other platforms, telling Fox News Digital that the company has “come a long way.” Fox News first reported that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free expression” across its platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have “gone too far.” META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said he thinks Meta’s “presentation was excellent.” “They have come a long way,” Trump said. Trump’s comments come after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video Tuesday morning, saying his company is “going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.” Meta plans to replace fact-checking with a “Community Notes” model similar to the one used on X. Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to “manage content” and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to “political pressure,” executives said, but admitted the system had “gone too far.” UFC HEAD DANA WHITE, STRONG TRUMP SUPPORTER, JOINS META’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS Meta Chief Global Policy Director Joel Kaplan told Fox News Digital that Meta is also changing some of its own content moderation rules, especially those that they feel are “too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender.” “We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship,” Kaplan told Fox News Digital. “We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules.” Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make “too many mistakes” and removes content “that doesn’t even violate our standards.” He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation. However, as for the timing of the changes, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has “a real opportunity now.” ZUCKERBERG, EXPRESSING REGRETS, ADMITS BOWING TO BIDEN ADMINISTRATION PRESSURE TO REMOVE CONTENT “We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression,” Kaplan said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. “It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on.” Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID-19 content, and even subjects like satire and humor. “The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies],” Kaplan explained. “We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home.” MUSK PROVES HUNTER BIDEN CENSORSHIP CAME FROM COLLUSION AMONG BIDEN CAMPAIGN, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND TWITTER Kaplan also said Meta sees “opportunities for partnership” with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in “promoting American business and America’s technological edge.” “Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector,” Kaplan said. “And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals.” Meanwhile, Meta also said it plans to take a more personalized approach to political content, so that users who want to see more posts of that kind can do so. Meta said it will refocus its enforcement efforts to “illegal and high-severity violations.” Meanwhile, this week, Trump ally UFC CEO Dana White joined Meta’s board. “I love social media,” White wrote. “And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies.” Also joining the Meta board is former Microsoft Corp. executive Charlie Songhurst, who has been working with the company already on artificial intelligence products, and Exov NV CEO John Elkann. Elkann’s company has stakes in many European businesses, including Ferrari NV and Italy’s popular soccer team, Juventus Football Club.
Delhi govt issues Modal Code of Conduct guidelines after polls date announced; check here
The general administration department (GAD) in its order directed various departments to immediately remove photographs and references of the council of ministers, political parties and their leaders from official websites.
Conservatives rejoice over ‘jaw dropping’ Meta censorship announcement: ‘Huge win for free speech’
Conservatives on social media took a victory lap on Tuesday in response to the news that Meta had ended its controversial fact-checking practices and promised to move toward a system more focused on free speech. “Meta finally admits to censoring speech…what a great birthday present to wake up to and a huge win for free speech,” GOP Sen. Rand Paul posted on X on Tuesday in response to news, first reported by Fox News Digital, that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free expression” across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have “gone too far.” “Jaw dropping—he explicitly says Meta will ‘adopt a system like X has of community notes’ because of the bias/abuse of 3rd party fact checkers,” Independent Women’s Forum visiting fellow Lyndsey Fifield posted on X in response to Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, speaking to Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning for an exclusive interview to discuss the changes. FACEBOOK ADMITS ‘MISTAKE’ IN CENSORING ICONIC TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT PHOTO: ‘THIS WAS AN ERROR’ “Nature is healing,” Fifield said. “There is absolutely 0 chance this would have happened if Trump didn’t win,” Abigail Jackson, communications director for GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, posted on X. “Here is the full video from Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of censorship and misinformation policies,” Breaking Points co-host Sagaar Enjeti posted on X. “I highly recommend you watch all of it as tonally it is one of the biggest indications of ‘elections have consequences’ I have ever seen.” “Zuck is committed to cleaning house,” journalist Jordan Schachtel posted on X. “Question the motives or not, this is a very real commitment and it’s good news for speech on the internet. Of course, probably not possible to pull off without Trump winning.” Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to “manage content” and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to “political pressure,” executives said, but admitted the system has “gone too far.” Since then, the process has drawn the ire of conservatives who have accused the platform of politically driven censoring while pointing to several examples of content being silenced, including the bombshell New York Post reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which Zuckerberg admitted the Biden White House pressured him to do and later called the move a mistake. FACEBOOK HAS ‘INTERFERED’ WITH US ELECTIONS 39 TIMES SINCE 2008: STUDY Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make “too many mistakes” and removes content “that doesn’t even violate our standards.” He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation. Zuckerberg also pointed out in his video message on Tuesday that moderation teams will be moving from California to Texas, where he suggested there will be “less concern about the bias of our teams.” “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said. “More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Why Delhi Assembly elections scheduled on Wednesday; Know what CEC Rajiv Kumar said
While announcing the delhi election schedule live, the CEC emphasised that 2025 delhi election date will be on a Wednesday, like it happened for Maharashtra polls.
Biden admin working to effectively ban cigarettes in 11th hour proposal a ‘gift’ to cartels, expert says
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital. “Biden’s ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it’s cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It’s going to keep America smoking, and it’s going to make the streets more violent,” Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital of the proposal. The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products had completed a regulatory review, but that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. “The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3,” an FDA spokesman told Fox Digital. “As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation. At this time, the FDA cannot provide any further comment until it is published.” Fox New Digital reached out to the White House regarding concerns over the proposal if it were to take effect but did not receive a response. BIDEN ADMIN FACING CONGRESSIONAL PROBE OVER PROPOSED BAN ON MENTHOL CIGARETTES Former President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which granted the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. In the years since, the agency has worked to lower nicotine levels, including in July 2017 under the Trump administration, when then-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced it would seek to require tobacco companies to drastically cut nicotine in cigarettes in an effort to help adult smokers quit. In 2022, the FDA under the Biden administration announced plans for the proposed rule that would lower levels of nicotine so they were less addictive or non-addictive. “Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at the time. POPULAR ITALIAN CITY OFFICIALLY BANS CIGARETTE SMOKING OUTDOORS Lowering the levels of nicotine in commonly purchased cigarettes and other tobacco products would open the floodgates to the illicit trafficking of tobacco products into the U.S., Marianos told Fox News Digital. “This decision is being thrown down the public’s throat without one ounce of thought and preparation. Nobody sat down with law enforcement, nobody sat down with any doctors, No one sat down with any regulators to find out, ‘Hey, look, what are the unintended ramifications of such a poor choice,’ and that’s what I’m going to call it, a poor choice,” Marianos said. He explained that Mexican cartels are well-positioned to bring illegal tobacco across the border, as they do with substances such as fentanyl that have devastated communities across the U.S., while Chinese criminal organizations have some of the best counterfeit operations stretching from baby formula to cigarettes, and Russian organized crime groups have their foot in the door in cities across the nation, including in bodegas and other stores that sell tobacco products. Marianos said that criminal groups would likely quickly catch on to the proposal if it takes effect and subsequently amplify their tobacco operations – which he says will serve as an economic boon for the criminals. Americans who want to purchase cigarettes with higher levels of nicotine would then need to go through the illicit channels to obtain them, similar to buying “loosie” cigarettes on the streets of New York, putting average Americans at further criminal risk while also offering them cigarettes that are not regulated and originating from foreign nations. WANT TO STOP SMOKING FOR GOOD? CDC LAUNCHES NEW CAMPAIGN WITH FREE RESOURCES TO QUIT Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have already warned that tobacco trafficking in the U.S. poses a grave national security threat and already has its foot in the door. “In 2015, the State Department cited activity by terrorist groups, and criminal networks who have used tobacco trafficking operations to finance other crimes, including ‘money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, and the trafficking in humans, weapons, drugs, antiquities, diamonds, and counterfeit goods,’” Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; and then-Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wrote in a 2023 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. BIDEN ADMIN ABRUPTLY DELAYS PLAN TO BAN MENTHOL CIGARETTES AMID WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION “Recently, public reporting has also noted these financial linkages between Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) involved in narcotics and fentanyl trafficking, and these tobacco smuggling activities. Mexican TCOs pose a grave threat to American national security and public health.” Marianos added that in addition to the criminal effect posed to America and its residents, lowering nicotine levels would also defeat the stated mission of weaning smokers off cigarettes and instead lead to an increase in smoking. “You’re going to create more smoking. And I thought that’s what we’re trying to get away from, right? Smoking is bad. I thought we’re trying to do everything possible to get away from that and get the country safer. Well, if you take down the nicotine levels, people are going to smoke more. That is proven. All you have to do is just drive here in DC and see, you know workers on their smoke break,” he said, saying work productivity will even be driven down as people take more smoke
Laken Riley Act: House poised to pass 1st bill of 119th Congress
The House of Representatives is poised to vote on its first piece of federal legislation on Tuesday afternoon. Lawmakers will be voting on the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia’s campus. The bill would require federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants found guilty of theft-related crimes. It also would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration. KAMALA HARRIS MAKES TRUMP’S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL WIN OFFICIAL DURING JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS Jose Ibarra, who was sentenced to life in prison for Riley’s murder, had previously been arrested but was never detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the agency previously said. The bill passed the House along bipartisan lines last year after it was first introduced by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga. All voting Republicans plus 37 Democrats voted for the bill by a margin of 251 to 170. All the “no” votes on the bill were Democrats. PRO-ISRAEL DEM COULD TIP SCALES IN KEY SENATE COMMITTEE AS MIDDLE EAST WAR CONTINUES It was not taken up in the Senate, however, which at the time was controlled by then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “[T]he Laken Riley Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins, holds the Biden Administration accountable for their role in these tragedies through their open border policies, requires detention of illegal aliens who commit theft and mandates ICE take them into custody, and allows a state to sue the Federal government on behalf of their citizens for not enforcing the border laws, particularly in the case of parole,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said in his daily House floor lookout. HOUSE REPUBLICANS REJOICE OVER QUICK SPEAKER VOTE WITH ONLY ONE DEFECTOR “House Republicans won’t stop fighting to secure the border and protect American communities. When will Democrats finally decide enough is enough?” The Senate is also poised to vote on the bill this week. It is one of several border security bills House Republicans have reintroduced this year as they prepare to take over all the levers of power in Washington, D.C. Republicans held the House and took over the Senate in the November elections. President-elect Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20.