Trump’s DOJ to tackle ‘barbaric Hamas terrorists’ with new Oct 7 task force
The Justice Department is cracking down on Palestinian militant group Hamas with a new task force aimed at providing justice to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the group, known as Joint Task Force October 7, would focus on identifying, charging and prosecuting those who conducted the 2023 attacks, which took the lives of roughly 1,200 people — including 47 U.S. citizens. Hamas also took more than 250 people hostage, including eight U.S. citizens. Specifically, the task force will investigate acts of terrorism and civil rights violations by those who have provided support to and financially backed Hamas, other related Iranian proxies, and antisemitism from these groups. “The barbaric Hamas terrorists will not win — and there will be consequences,” Bondi said in a Monday statement. WHO IS MAHMOUD KHALIL, THE ANTI-ISRAEL COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ACTIVIST ICE ARRESTED? A senior counterterrorism prosecutor from the Justice Department’s National Security Division will lead the task force, along with a senior FBI special agent serving as the task force commander, and an FBI intelligence analyst as deputy task force commander, according to the Department of Justice. FBI agents, analysts, forensic accountants, data scientists and linguists will all serve on the task force and will work on investigating and prosecuting domestic and extraterritorial terrorism cases. Likewise, the FBI will start to embed agents within Israel’s National Bureau of Counter Terror Financing and will coordinate with foreign counterparts with the FBI’s Legal Attaché office in Israel under the task force. The task force’s efforts will expand upon the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations into those involved in the Oct. 7 attack and advance the agency’s efforts to hold “Hamas supporters accountable,” the Justice Department said in a news release. The Justice Department’s announcement of the new task force coincides with the arrest of anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, who played a major role in the protests against Israel at Columbia University. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took Khalil, a Palestinian raised in Syria and a permanent U.S. resident, into custody on March 9. FEDERAL AGENCIES TO REVIEW COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY’S CONTRACTS, GRANTS AFTER ‘FAILURE’ TO PROTECT JEWISH STUDENTS The Department of Homeland Security said that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration would revoke the green cards of any Hamas supporters in the U.S. and deport them. White House officials told Fox News Digital following Khalil’s arrest that the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and State Department are investigating Khalil as a possible national security threat. The investigation has detected “antisemitic and hateful” posts on Khalil’s social media, and determined he organized multiple antisemitic protests on Columbia’s campus, the officials said. Meanwhile, Khalil’s attorneys have challenged the Trump administration’s actions and filed motions asserting that ICE violated Khalil’s constitutional rights.
Trump calls for judge in deportation legal battle to be impeached
President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a judge in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, apparently referring to U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg who recently sought to block deportation flights to El Salvador. “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump declared in the post. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” the president added. This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
Vice President JD Vance to play key role with RNC to ‘fully enact MAGA mandate,’ grow GOP majority in 2026
EXCLUSIVE: Vice President JD Vance will serve as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair, telling Fox News Digital that he will work with the party to “fully enact the MAGA mandate” and grow the Republican majority in Congress in 2026. The RNC Executive Committee voted unanimously to confirm Vance in the role, an RNC official told Fox News Digital. This is the first time in the history of the GOP that a sitting vice president will serve in the role. RNC BRINGS ON NEW SENIOR LEADERSHIP TO ‘WORK AROUND THE CLOCK’ TO SUPPORT TRUMP AGENDA, ELECT REPUBLICANS An RNC official told Fox News Digital that Vance serving as finance chair is “unprecedented” and shows “just how much the White House and the RNC are in lockstep this cycle.” “Everyone is laser-focused on growing our majorities in 2026, and we are going to aggressively fundraise to be ready for next year.” Vance, in a statement to Fox News Digital, reflected on Trump’s “historic election victory, taking back the White House and helping Republicans regain control of the Senate and retain control of the House.” “But to fully enact the MAGA mandate and President Trump’s vision that voters demanded, we must keep and grow our Republican majorities in 2026,” Vance said. “I am excited to work with Chairman Whatley and the RNC leadership to build the war chest we need to deliver those victories next November,” Vance added. “JD will do a fantastic job as RNC Finance Chair,” President Trump said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “He knows how to fight and win tough races.” RNC CHAIR WHATLEY VOWS TO BE ‘TIP OF THE SPEAR’ TO PROTECT TRUMP AFTER COASTING TO RE-ELECTION VICTORY The president added, “I’m glad he’ll be working with Michael Whatley to help us secure our elections, get out the vote, and win big next year!” RNC Chair Mike Whatley told Fox News Digital that Vance is “the definition of an American success story, rising from a childhood where his family faced great struggles to become one of the youngest vice presidents in our nation’s history.” “Vice President Vance is not only one of our Party’s most talented messengers, he is also a thought leader who has helped remake the GOP into the party of working Americans representing the forgotten men and women of our country,” Whatley wrote. “I am continuously thankful to President Trump for the leadership and direction he provides the Party and am honored to work with Vice President Vance to grow our party and ensure President Trump has the votes in Congress to Make America Great Again.” Vance is succeeding outgoing National Finance Chair Richard “Duke” Buchan III. Trump appointed Buchan to serve as ambassador to Morocco. Whatley thanked Buchan for his “tremendous service” to the RNC and the GOP and for his “support for President Trump.” “His efforts were an essential contribution to our success in 2024,” Whatley said.
‘Bring it on’: Sheriff pushes back after blue state leaders sue to stop immigration enforcement
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer is calling out the “lunacy” of Democratic leadership in deep blue Washington after state Attorney General Nick Brown launched a lawsuit against one of his colleagues for helping enforce immigration law. “They honestly feel that they can just run over everybody,” he said, adding, “Bring it on, I’ll fight them.” Brown, a Democrat, sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, accusing the office of “illegally collaborating” with federal officials and the Trump administration. The lawsuit, which was filed in Spokane County Superior Court, claims that the Adams County Sheriff’s Office’s holding of illegal immigrants in custody based on their immigration status, helping federal agents question people in custody, and “routinely” sharing personal confidential information of Washington residents with federal officials “expressly violates state law.” TOM HOMAN WARNS MAJOR SANCTUARY STATE WILL ‘GET EXACTLY WHAT THEY DON’T WANT’ The suit cites a 2019 law called the Keep Washington Working Act, which prohibits law enforcement in the state from providing aid in immigration enforcement. Brown is asking the court to force the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, led by Sheriff Dale Wagner, to comply with the Keep Washington Working Act. This comes the same week that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks posted on X that agents had partnered with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office to arrest a Mexican national and suspected illegal firearms dealer, including rifles, shotguns and pistols. A representative for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office declined Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Songer, who has vowed to help ICE, told Fox News Digital that the attorney general’s lawsuit is part of a broader effort by Washington’s leading Democrats, including Gov. Bob Ferguson, to intimidate sheriffs into complying with the state’s sanctuary policies. ‘GET GEARED UP’ BECAUSE ‘ICE IS COMING,’ SAYS LEADING HOUSE GOP MEMBER He shared that two days after Trump’s inauguration his office received a public records request from an individual named Charles Harvey for all of his personal and official phone, text and email communications with federal authorities from 2021 until the present. The request stated that if any communications between Songer and ICE were found they would be reported to the attorney general’s office. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “In my opinion, it’s lunacy. They are whack nuts,” he said. “Why would a governor and legislator and Brown, the new attorney general, why would they not want law enforcement to cooperate with ICE to go after bad people that are illegally in our country that have committed felonies and very serious felonies?” He commended Wagner and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for standing their ground, calling the attorney general’s lawsuit “flat ridiculous.” YOUNG FATHER KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HIGHLIGHTS ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SANCTUARY CITIES, SAYS REPUBLICAN Songer said he would not be intimidated by the threat of investigations or lawsuits because he believes the Constitution is on his side. “I hope my fellow sheriffs will stand up to the governor and this state and tell them these laws are unconstitutional and we’re not going to cooperate,” he said. “We just need to pay attention and follow the Constitution and I think if we do that, we’re going to have a better country.” “Citizens come first,” he concluded. “And I pray, I absolutely pray for Tom Homan to come to Washington state, the blue state and sanctuary state, because I really believe Ferguson, Brown and their cohorts, elected politicians, are in violation of federal law. And if they are, lock them up.”
Victims of ‘gender industrial complex’ will get justice in court, attorney for detransitioners pledges
Lawsuits against doctors, hospitals and gender clinics will proceed despite President Donald Trump’s executive order halting federal funding for the “surgical mutilation” of minors, an attorney representing several detransitioners said. This comes as the Department of Education invited detransitioners to a meeting on Detrans Awareness Day last week. “These are young women who, as early as 13 years old, were victimized by this gender industrial complex,” Mark Trammell, executive attorney at the Center for American Liberty, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We have other clients who had double mastectomies at 15, 16, they’re all put on puberty blockers, all put on off-label cross-sex hormones, and all without being afforded informed consent.” Shortly after Trump’s executive order took effect, a federal judge in Baltimore last month issued a temporary restraining order, halting the order’s implementation. TRANS INMATE IN PRISON FOR KILLING BABY MUST GET GENDER SURGERY AT ‘EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY’: JUDGE As such, some hospitals that had previously complied with Trump’s order reversed course, Trammell said, citing the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as an example that had re-introduced some of its so-called gender-affirming treatments. “But what can stick is lawsuits,” Trammell said. “And at the end of the day, we can achieve justice. We can secure justice for these young women by hopefully recovering financial damages for what they’ve suffered.” Trammell noted that their involvement with gender ideology lawsuits began with cases involving social transitions in schools, such as the case of Jessica Konen, which resulted in a settlement with a school district. He said many parents became aware of the issue when they discovered that schools were socially transitioning children, sometimes as young as fifth grade, without notifying parents. One of Trammell’s clients, Aurora Regino, learned her daughter was being socially transitioned from female to male in school, including using a male name and pronouns, without any communication with her mother. “We’re suing doctors individually, holding them personally liable,” Trammell said. “We’re also suing the hospitals that employ them. And so these are, again, these are cases that are being brought in tort. So the idea is we’re going to sue the individuals who caused the injury.” BLUE STATE’S LGBT ‘CONVERSION THERAPY’ BAN VIOLATES CONSTITUTION, ‘VERY EASY CASE’ FOR SCOTUS, SAYS EXPERT Last week, the Department of Education hosted a meeting with six detransitioners and activists “fighting to protect children from the serious harms caused by radical gender ideology,” the department said in a March 10 news release. The group shared its concerns about gender ideology in schools with new Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. Trammell said the administration’s meeting with the activists was “encouraging” to see them “even recognizing just their existence.” “No teacher should attempt to persuade or coerce a student to undergo a gender transition,” McMahon said in a statement. “No parent should be lied to or prevented from knowing what is going on with their child’s mental or physical health. We stand firmly alongside parents, professionals, advocates, and especially detransitioners, who understand firsthand the damage caused by indoctrinating kids to believe that they can ever be ‘born in the wrong body.’” The federal judge’s restraining order also hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing full steam ahead to stamp out what he calls “radical gender ideology” as the administration reminded hospitals of “the dangerous chemical and surgical mutilation of children, including interventions that cause sterilization,” in a Department of Health and Human Services memo sent out to hospitals and medical providers last week. HOSPITALS WARNED THEY MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION: HHS AGENCY MEMO The notice also said, “CMS may begin taking steps in the future to align policy, including CMS-regulated provider requirements and agreements, with the highest-quality medical evidence in the treatment of the nation’s children in order to protect children from harmful, often irreversible mutilation, including sterilization practices.” “In recent years, medical interventions for gender dysphoria in children have proliferated,” the memo reads. “Initiated with an underdeveloped body of evidence and now known to cause long-term and irreparable harm to some children, CMS may begin taking steps in the future to adjust its policies to reflect this reality and the lack of medical evidence in support of these harmful treatments.”
Pentagon deploys Navy warship that fought Houthis to new US southern border mission in line with Trump order
A U.S. Navy destroyer was deployed to the southern border over the weekend to help with the Trump administration’s maritime efforts to halt illegal immigration and drug smuggling. USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, departed Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Virginia for a scheduled deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border to carry out President Donald Trump’s southern border executive orders, Navy officials said in a statement on Saturday. “Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot of U.S. Northern Command. Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Joint Staff director for operations, told reporters Monday that USS Gravely will go to the Gulf of America to carry out missions to intercept drug smugglers at sea. TRUMP PUTTING TROOPS ON BORDER WAS GAME CHANGER, SAN DIEGO SECTOR CHIEF SAYS: ‘FORCE MULTIPLIER’ Navy officials said the deployment highlights the Pentagon’s dedication to “combating maritime related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne immigration.” USS Gravely, which has previously been deployed to the Red Sea to intercept missiles that the Iranian-backed Houthis fired at commercial vessels, will enhance “maritime efforts” and “fill critical capabilities gaps” in support of the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, officials said. “This is an important step in the whole-of-government efforts to seal the southern border and maintain U.S. sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Guillot said. “It’s not only vital for the United States to have control of our border via land,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters Monday. “It’s equally important to control our territorial waters, and this deployment directly supports U.S. Northern Command’s mission to protect our sovereignty.” A Coast Guard captain told Fox News Digital earlier this month that there were about 200 migrant boat encounters near the San Diego coast over the previous 90 days, attributing the uptick to the Trump administration’s increase in land border security. TRUMP POLICY ON BORDER JUMPERS EMPOWERS USE OF ‘MAXIMUM CONSEQUENCES,’ BORDER AGENT TELLS FOX “They’re locking down the land border pretty good… where they used to get thousands a day. Now, they’re now down in the hundreds a day,” Coast Guard District 11 Capt. Jason Hagen said. “So, the migrants have to go somewhere. The smugglers have to move their operations somewhere. And we’re starting to see an uptick in the maritime environment.” Hagen said those encountered aboard migrant boats include foreign nationals from U.S. adversary countries. “We’re starting to see an uptick in other nationalities, as well, which is a… national security concern because it’s not just your economic Mexicans looking to come to the United States for work,” Hagen said. “It’s also… bad actors coming from other countries. We’ve seen nationalities to include Chinese, Russian, Uzbekistan[i], Pakistan[i]. It’s really all over the place.” Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
PM Modi pens emotional message for ‘daughter of India’ Sunita Williams: ‘I could not stop…’
As the world awaits the return of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who have spent nearly nine months on the ISS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written a letter to Williams expressing the pride of billions of Indians in her achievements and sent her wishes for her safe return.
India raids global ads giants GroupM, Dentsu and broadcasters’ body for…
Indian antitrust body raided top global ad agencies and broadcasters over alleged price-fixing in ad rates and discounts.
Trump tells illegal immigrants to ‘self-deport’ using CBP Home app in new video
President Donald Trump will urge illegal immigrants to “self-deport” from the U.S. using a newly announced app from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Axios reported Monday. Trump will send the message in a video set to release on social media platforms this week, calling on illegal immigrants to use the CBP Home app to announce their departure from the country. The DHS unveiled the app earlier this month after removing the Biden-era CBP One app, which was used to allow migrants into the U.S. “People in our country can self-deport the easy way, or they can get deported the hard way, and that’s not pleasant,” Trump says in the video. “The Biden administration exploited the CBP One app to allow more than 1 million aliens to illegally enter the United States. Now, my administration is launching the CBP Home app to give people in our country illegally an easy way to leave now and self-deport voluntarily,” he continues. NEARLY 17 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN THE US, 16% INCREASE SINCE 2021: ANALYSIS “If they do, they will have the opportunity to potentially return legally at some point in the future, but if they do not avail themselves of this opportunity, then they will be found. They will be deported, and they will never be admitted to the United States ever, ever again,” Trump adds. NOEM ENDS BIDEN-ERA USE OF CONTROVERSIAL APP TO ALLOW MIGRANTS TO BOARD FLIGHTS, EXCEPT TO SELF-DEPORT Trump goes on to say that using the CBP Home app is the “safest option” for both illegal immigrants and law enforcement, in addition to allowing law enforcement to focus resources on apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes. The CBP Home app allows illegal immigrants to “Submit Intent to Depart” and submit information regarding their intent to leave the U.S. They can also provide information to verify they have left the U.S., a function limited to those who were paroled into the U.S. using the Biden-era app. The Trump administration has moved rapidly to expand deportations and also cut the number of migrants entering the U.S., including via humanitarian parole, which dramatically expanded under the Biden administration. Trump ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants on his first day in office. His administration has also paused applications for parole programs and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants. Last month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ended the use of CBP One to allow migrants to board domestic flights, unless it is being used for their self-deportation. The administration has also canceled extensions of Temporary Protected Status for some nationalities. Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report
Ex-IAS trainee Puja Khedkar gets relief from SC, top court asks police to…
The SC bench posted for April 15 to hear an anticipatory bail plea filed by Puja Khedkar.