White House unleashes on ‘rogue bureaucrats’ after agency head refuses DOGE entry to headquarters
The White House is calling out “rogue bureaucrats” at a small federal agency for attempting to bar members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from entering their headquarters this week. Elon Musk’s DOGE team members and acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Peter Marocco, in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to downsize the federal government, sought to enter the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) building on Wednesday, but were denied entry after reportedly being intentionally locked out by members of the staff. The cost-cutting team returned to USADF the next day with U.S. marshals after the Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that they had a right to enter the building, a White House official told Fox News Digital, prompting a lawsuit from USADF President Ward Brehm, who asked a district court to bar the administration from removing him from his position. Brehm, who admitted to directing employees to deny DOGE entry, is attempting to block DOGE from entering the USADF offices, but the White House responded that “entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.” DOGE SAYS GOVERNMENT PAYING FOR 11,020 ADOBE ACROBAT LICENSES WITH ZERO USERS, PLUS MORE ‘IDLE’ ACCOUNTS “President Trump signed an executive order to reduce the federal bureaucracy, which reduced the USADF to its statutory minimum, and appointed Peter Marocco as acting Chairman of the Board,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. In the lawsuit, filed on Thursday, Brehm alleges “unlawful overreach” from DOGE and asks the court to give him a “clear entitlement to remain in his office as the President of USADF” after Trump, according to the White House, appointed Marocco to serve as acting Chairman of the Board. CNN STUNNED BY ‘SHOCKING’ POLL NUMBERS SHOWING PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR DOGE SPENDING CUTS “The threatened termination of Brehm from his position as President of USADF, whether by Marocco, President Trump, Director Gao, or any of the remaining Defendants, is unlawful,” the 26-page complaint reads. On Friday, District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order preventing Brehm’s removal. Trump has applauded DOGE’s efforts to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in “waste” from the federal government as he makes “bold and profound change” within the federal government. “My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again,” Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. “Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately, because we are draining the swamp. It’s very simple,” the president said. “The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.” Fox News Digital reached out to Brehm and USADF for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Women on the front line
On International Women’s Day, Al Jazeera’s journalists Teresa Bo, Fahmida Miller, and Maram Humaid reflect on what it’s like to report from some of the world’s most challenging regions. From their experience, it’s clear that women’s voices are not only vital in journalism but also in the communities they serve. Adblock test (Why?)
International Women’s Day is for the few, not the many
Every March 8, the world is flooded with glossy campaigns urging us to “accelerate action” and “inspire inclusion”. International Women’s Day has become a polished, PR-friendly spectacle where corporate sponsors preach empowerment while the women most in need of solidarity are left to fend for themselves. I can only hope that this year’s call to “accelerate action” means action for all women – not just those who fit neatly into corporate feminism, media-friendly activism, and elite success stories. But if history is any guide, the only action that will be accelerated is the branding of feminism as a marketable commodity, while the women enduring war, occupation, and systemic violence face erasure. Year after year, International Women’s Day is paraded as a global moment of solidarity, yet its priorities are carefully curated. The feminist establishment rallies behind causes that are palatable, media-friendly, and politically convenient- where women’s struggles can be framed as individual success stories, not systemic injustices. Advertisement When Iranian women burned their hijabs in protest, they were met with widespread Western support. When Ukrainian women took up arms, they were hailed as symbols of resilience. But when Palestinian women dig through rubble to pull their children’s bodies from the ruins of their homes, they are met with silence or, worse, suspicion. The same feminist institutions that mobilise against “violence against women” struggle to even utter the words “Gaza” or “genocide”. In the UK, in the run-up to this year’s International Women’s Day, an MP and feminist organisations have hosted an event on “Giving a Voice to Silenced Women in Afghanistan”, featuring feminists who had spent months calling for boycotts of the Afghan cricket team. Because, of course, that’s how you take on the Taliban – by making sure they can’t play a game of cricket. This is what passes for international solidarity: Symbolic gestures that do nothing for the women suffering under oppressive regimes but make Western politicians feel morally superior. Let me be clear: Afghan women deserve every ounce of solidarity and support. Their struggle against an oppressive regime is real, urgent, and devastating – and yes, what they are enduring is gender apartheid. But acknowledging their suffering does not excuse the rank hypocrisy of those who wield feminism as a political tool, showing up for Afghan women while staying silent on the Palestinian women being starved, bombed, and brutalised before our eyes. The Taliban’s rise was not some act of nature – it was a direct product of UK and US intervention. After 20 years of occupation, after handing Afghan women back to the very men the West once armed and enabled, these same voices now weep over their fate. Advertisement Where were these women MPs, prominent feminists, and mainstream feminist organisations when pregnant Palestinian women were giving birth in the streets of Gaza because hospitals had been bombed? Where was the outcry when Israeli snipers targeted women journalists, like Shireen Abu Akleh? Where were the boycotts when Palestinian girls were pulled from the rubble of their homes, killed by US-made bombs? Time and time again, we see the same pattern: Feminist outrage is conditional, activism is selective, and solidarity is reserved for those whose struggles do not challenge Western power. Afghan women deserve support. But so do Palestinian women, Sudanese women, Yemeni women. Instead, their suffering is met with silence, suspicion, or outright erasure. International Women’s Day, once a radical call for equality, has become a hollow spectacle – one where feminist organisations and politicians pick and choose which women deserve justice and which women can be sacrificed at the altar of Western interests. Feminism has long been wielded by the powerful as a tool to justify empire, war, and occupation – all under the pretence of “saving women”. During the Algerian War of Independence, the French launched a campaign to “liberate” Algerian women from the veil, parading unveiled women in propaganda ceremonies while simultaneously brutalising and raping them in detention centres. The French, of course, were never concerned about gender equality in Algeria; they readily restricted education and employment for Algerian women. Their actions under the guise of helping women were about domination. Advertisement This same narrative of the helpless brown woman in need of white saviours has been used to justify even more recent Western military interventions, from Afghanistan to Iraq. Today, we see the same playbook in Palestine, as well. The West frames Palestinian women as victims – but not of bombs, displacement, or starvation. No, the real problem, we are told, is Palestinian men. Israeli officials and their Western allies rehash the same Orientalist trope: Palestinian women must be saved from their own culture, from their own people, while their actual suffering under occupation is ignored or dismissed. The systematic slaughter of women and children is treated as an unfortunate footnote to the conflict, rather than its central atrocity. We see the same pattern again and again – concern for women’s rights only when it serves a political agenda, silence when those rights are crushed under the weight of Western-backed airstrikes and military occupation. This is not solidarity. It is complicity wrapped in feminist rhetoric. So, who will actually benefit from International Women’s Day this year? Will it be the women whose oppression fits neatly into Western feminist narratives, allowing politicians, feminist organisations, and mainstream women’s advocacy groups to bask in their self-congratulatory glow? Or will it be the women who have been silenced, erased, and dehumanised – those for whom “accelerate action” has meant 17 months of genocide and 76 years of settler colonial violence? Is this just another “feel-good” exercise, where you can claim to support women across the world without confronting the fact that your feminism has limits? Because if this is truly about accelerating action, then after 17 months of bombing, starvation, and displacement, we should finally hear you stand for Palestinian women. Advertisement But we know how this goes. The speeches will be made, the hashtags will trend, the panel discussions will be held – but
ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final: India have ‘no advantage’ over New Zealand
India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak blasts back at assertion that India’s Champions Trophy hopes boosted by Dubai venue. India playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai was a pre-tournament decision, and talk of it giving India an unfair advantage is baseless, the team’s batting coach says as he blasts back against the criticism. Rohit Sharma’s India face New Zealand in the title clash on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, where the tournament favourites have been unbeaten in their four matches. India refused to tour hosts Pakistan in the eight-nation tournament due to political tensions and were given Dubai as their venue in the United Arab Emirates. “The draw that happened, it happened before,” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak told reporters before the final. “After India winning four matches, if people feel that there is an advantage, then I don’t know what to say about it.” The tournament’s tangled schedule with teams flying in and out of the UAE from Pakistan while India have stayed put has been controversial. South Africa batsman David Miller said “it was not an ideal situation” for his team to fly to Dubai to wait on India’s semifinal opponent and then fly back to Lahore in less than 24 hours. Advertisement Even nominal hosts Pakistan had to jump on a jet and fly to Dubai to play India rather than face them on home soil. India’s Virat Kohli salutes the crowd in Dubai after achieving a century against Australia in the semifinal [Christopher Pike/AP] The pitches have been vastly different in the two countries. Pakistan tracks produced big totals in contrast to the slow and turning decks of the Dubai stadium. “End of the day, I think in a game you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up,” Kotak said. “So the only thing they [critics] may say is that we play here. But that is how the draw is.” “So nothing else can happen in that. It is not that after coming here, they changed something, and we got an advantage,” he added. India have been the team to beat after they topped Group A, in which they faced New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They then beat Australia in the first semifinal. New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, lost the last group game to India by 44 runs before they beat South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore. India’s Varun Chakravarthy, centre, celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips , right, in Dubai during the final Champions Trophy group-stage match [Altaf Qadri/AP] Kotak said the previous result between the two teams will have no bearing on their mindset going into the final. “That depends how the New Zealand team thinks, but I think we should not think that,” Kotak said. “We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket because there is no use thinking about the last match.” Advertisement New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said they are not too worried about India’s advantage. “I mean, look, the decision around that’s out of our hands,” Stead said. “So it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai. But as you said, we have had a game here, and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience there as well.” “And if we’re good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I’m sure we’ll be very, very happy,” he added. Adblock test (Why?)
Indicted House Democrat under fire for being on DCCC’s ‘frontline’ list: ‘Sleazy politician’
Rep. Henry Cuellar, who is facing charges of bribery and acting as a foreign agent, is now on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “frontline list” for the 2026 election, which is gaining scrutiny from the group’s GOP rival. Cuellar, who represents a district along the southern border, was not part of the program meant to assist Democrats at risk of losing their election in 2024, but he still won re-election in November. “The DCCC throwing cash at Henry Cuellar, an indicted congressman facing bribery and foreign agent charges, is certainly a choice. Do other frontline Democrats stand by pumping campaign cash into defending a corrupt and sleazy politician?” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement Thursday. DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN ADMITS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DID NOT ‘FOCUS ENOUGH’ ON CURBING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION The Department of Justice under the Biden administration indicted Cuellar and his wife for allegedly taking roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-owned energy company and a Mexican bank, according to a news release at the time. “I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas. Before I took any action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm,” Cuellar said in a statement at the time, according to KGNS. At the time of the indictment, President Donald Trump said it may have had to do with border politics. “Biden just Indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game,” Trump said in a Truth Social post at the time. “He was for Border Control, so they said, ‘Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!’ This is the way they operate. They’re a bunch of D.C. Thugs, and at some point they will be paying a very big price for what they have done to our Country.” Cuellar also recently told Fox News he’s disagreed with some aspects of the Biden administration’s approach on the border crisis. In 2024, some Democrats opposed his campaign in the primary due to his belief that abortion should be a state issue, according to Punchbowl News. His office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. Two “advisors” tied to the case have already pleaded guilty, according to The Texas Tribune. As for Cuellar, his trial was pushed back to this year. The DCCC declined to comment. The DCCC program has 26 incumbent members of Congress it plans to invest resources in to retain their seats. TEXAS DEMOCRAT SAYS HE CAN FIND ‘COMMON GROUND’ WITH TRUMP’S INCOMING BORDER CZAR “These 26 House Democrats are battle-tested and laser-focused on pocketbook issues. Democrats are poised to retake the majority in 2026, and these members will help us do that,” the DCCC tweeted on Thursday. Republicans have an narrow House majority they hope to defend and expand in 2026.
Denied wheelchair by Air India, 82-year-old woman falls at airport, admitted to ICU: ‘Such little value for…’
In a post on X, Parul Kanwar, the woman’s granddaughter, narrated their plight saying they had booked an Air India flight from Delhi to Bengaluru for Tuesday this week. The ticked, shared by Kanwar, mentions a special request for a “wheelchair to aircraft door.”
Delhi Cabinet approves ‘Mahila Samridhi Yojana’ to provide Rs 2500 per month to women
Delhi CM Rekha Gupta on Saturday (March 8, 2025) said that the Delhi cabinet has passed a government scheme for giving ?2,500 per month to women.
Gov. DeSantis makes push to repeal Florida’s red flag laws
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signaled that he wants to repeal the red flag law in the Sunshine State, arguing that it infringes on gun owners’ Second Amendment rights. The governor made his intentions known during Tuesday’s State of the State Address. The state’s red flag law was signed by then-Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who is now a U.S. senator, in the aftermath of the Feb. 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 people were killed. RON DESANTIS CHIRPS AT CANADA’S ‘BOYCOTT’ OF FLORIDA, COUNTRY’S STANLEY CUP DROUGHT The legislation allows law enforcement to seek a court order to confiscate firearms from someone who is considered a threat to themselves or others and prevents them from purchasing more weapons in the future. This is different from other states with red flag laws where family members and roommates can also petition the court to confiscate firearms. The Florida law also raised the minimum legal age for purchasing guns in Florida to 21. DeSantis argues that red flag laws, or risk protection orders, are unconstitutional. He said he would have vetoed the law if he was governor when it was signed in 2018. “If you look at this red flag law that was passed, they can go in and say, ‘this person’s a danger, they should have their firearms taken away,’ which is property in addition to being something connected with a constitutional right,” DeSantis said. “The burden shifts where you have to prove to a court that you are not a menace or a threat. That’s not the way due process works.” Nearly 10,000 risk protection order petitions have been filed by law enforcement across the state between July 2022 and the end of 2024, state records show, according to Fox 13. FLORIDA GOVERNOR SPOTLIGHTS TIMELY GOLF OUTING HE AND CASEY DESANTIS HAD WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP No bills have been filed in either chamber of the Florida legislature to repeal the red flag law.
Gautam Adani’s heartfelt message on International Women’s Day: ‘As I cradled my first granddaughter’s delicate fingers…’
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Adani Group, Chairman, Gautam Adani reaffirmed his commitment to gender equality and empowering women in all walks of life.
Trump withdraws slew of Biden-era lawsuits tied to abortion, racial discrimination, financial regs and more
President Donald Trump has used his new powers to dismiss a slew of lawsuits filed under former President Joe Biden, including challenges to state abortion bans, allegations of racism in police and fire departments, environmental and anti-whistleblower cases, and various business-related disputes. Meanwhile, he has largely left Biden-era antitrust lawsuits untouched. The Trump administration took steps as recently as this week to drop a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s abortion ban that only permits the procedures when necessary to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest. The Biden administration tried to circumvent the state ban with its lawsuit that argued the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) required doctors to provide abortions in cases when they are needed to prevent serious health consequences, not just the life of the mother. “Democrats’ abortion extremism cost them the election,” said Katie Daniel, Director of Legal Affairs & Policy Counsel at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “With President Trump and a new administration in charge, Biden’s weaponization of the federal government is over — no more lawfare. The will of the people is clear and activist judges must not interfere.” PRO-LIFE LEADERS URGE TRUMP TO REVERSE HIS IVF STAND, SAY THE TECHNOLOGY IS ‘NOT PRO-LIFE’ Multiple federal civil rights cases revolving around hiring discrimination have also been dropped under Trump. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it intends to drop a 2023 case alleging anti-immigrant hiring practices at Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Additionally, several federal civil rights lawsuits accusing police and fire departments of racial discrimination based on their provision of certain physical fitness tests and other requirements like credit checks have also been dropped. “American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety — not to meet DEI quotas,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement after dismissing the lawsuits that had been levied against multiple jurisdictions around the country. TRUMP TO SHIFT AWAY FROM DEI VISA POLICY THAT ‘SURGED’ UNDER BIDEN, EXPERT SAYS A former DOJ civil rights attorney, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Spakovsky said that in one of the cases against a fire department in Cobb County, Georgia, a judge refused to grant a settlement proposed by the Biden administration due to a lack of evidence proving physical fitness tests and credit report checks are racially discriminatory toward minorities. Spakovsky noted that settlements are typically approved by judges, but the one in Cobb County sought to set up racial hiring quotas that the judge likened to “a racial spoils system,” he said. “Here’s a direct quote from the judge: ‘The court will not approve of an agreement which may violate the rights of others without a sufficient evidentiary basis to show that such race-based action is warranted,’” Spakovsky said. “The broad scope of all of these dropped civil rights cases,” he concluded, “is that they are throwing out the ones — in my opinion — that call on defendants to violate federal laws against discrimination.” TRUMP WANTS ‘ACTIVIST’ GROUPS THAT SUE THE GOVERNMENT TO PUT UP MONEY IF THEY LOSE Two other high-profile lawsuits recently dropped by the Trump administration include a Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency case against local Louisiana regulators and the synthetic rubber manufacturer Denka, which alleged failure to adequately protect the predominantly minority community near its plant from cancer risks linked to air pollution. Another dropped case involved a medical whistleblower, Dr. Eithan Haim, who faced prosecution from Biden’s DOJ after he leaked documents to the media revealing Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston was performing transgender medical procedures on minors, even after it said it had stopped complying with new state regulations. Trump has also dropped a number of consumer protection and cryptocurrency lawsuits, but has done little in the way of disrupting the Biden administration’s antitrust enforcement, something tech professionals were expecting after the last administration challenged Big Tech companies aggressively for allegedly building monopolies. “It’s a big plus for the crypto and fintech sector as a whole, because you just see them celebrating, like you see social posts online of a lot of these executives at those companies that just missed lawsuits who are really happy,” said Kison Patel, a financial tech entrepreneur and the host of “M&A Science,” a podcast about mergers and acquisitions. “It seems like there’s going to be less scrutiny and regulations around that sector.” Patel added that while mergers and acquisitions were expected to ramp up this year, he isn’t so sure anymore considering the approach Trump has signaled towards antitrust enforcement. “I think there’s still a lot to watch in the antitrust area,” said Patel, who pointed to a new case the Federal Trade Commission has brought against a medical device company on antitrust grounds. “But, the take home is there doesn’t appear to be a big shift in position in the realm of regulations around antitrust.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Justice Department for comment on this story, but did not hear back by press time.