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Longtime Rep. Nita Lowey dead at 87

Longtime Rep. Nita Lowey dead at 87

Former Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., has died at age 87, according to her family. Lowey, who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years and was the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, died Saturday after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer, according to a report from the New York Post. “Nita’s family was central to her life as she was to all of ours,” the longtime lawmaker’s family said in a statement. “We will miss her more than words can say and take great comfort in knowing that she lived a full and purposeful life.” NITA LOWEY, LONGTIME DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRWOMAN, TO RETIRE The New York lawmaker was born Nita Sue Menikoff in the Bronx in 1937, later graduating from Bronx High School of Science before going on to receive a degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1959, the Post report noted. She married attorney Stephen Lowey in 1961, and was first elected to Congress in 1988 to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District. A longtime ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton family, Lowey became chair of the House Appropriations Committee in 2019. She frequently clashed with President Donald Trump during his first term in office in her time as chair, telling Lohud in 2019 that the president was an “embarrassment.” DEMOCRATS LASH OUT AT SCHUMER FOR ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SIDING WITH TRUMP “The president is an embarrassment and as a member of the Congress and as the leader of the Appropriations Committee, we have the responsibility to serve the people,” she said at the time. Lowey announced her retirement that same year, with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., telling the New York Post that the longtime lawmaker was a “principled, passionate and powerful public servant.” “Over the course of her historic career, Congresswoman Lowey courageously served her constituents and stood up for New Yorkers while shattering multiple glass ceilings along the way,” Jeffries said Sunday, adding that Lowey was a “mentor and friend.” Lowey is survived by her husband, three children and eight grandchildren.

DOGE chain of command revealed in court filing, showing Musk is not the boss

DOGE chain of command revealed in court filing, showing Musk is not the boss

The acting administrator of DOGE detailed that Elon Musk is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, a court filing shedding additional light on the internal workings of the office shows.  “Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House,” Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing on Friday.  Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, as President Donald Trump celebrates the billions of dollars in savings his administration has secured through DOGE’s work to gut the federal government of overspending, mismanagement and fraud. Musk, however, “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself” and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing in February. The White House identified Gleason as the official acting chief of DOGE last month. Gleason, a little-known government employee who also worked in the first Trump administration, provided a declaration in a court filing involving a lawsuit against DOGE last week that further explains how the government office operates.  WHO IS DOGE’S NEWLY IDENTIFIED ADMINISTRATOR AMY GLEASON? ‘WORLD-CLASS TALENT’ “In my role at USDS, I oversee all of USDS’s employees and detailees to USDS from other agencies,” Gleason wrote in her declaration. “I report to the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.” Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE.  MEET THE FAR-LEFT GROUPS FUNDING ANTI-DOGE PROTESTS AT GOP OFFICES ACROSS THE COUNTRY In addition to overseeing USDS, Gleason also oversees the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization – an office established by Trump in January that sits under the USDS umbrella and will expire on July 4, 2026.  Gleason explained in her declaration that under Trump’s executive order establishing DOGE, agency chiefs were charged with creating their own DOGE teams to find and eliminate overspending. Gleason said the respective agency DOGE teams are comprised of agency employees or detailees who do not report to her.   WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS WHO WAS APPOINTED AS ACTING ADMINISTRATOR OF DOGE “Every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency. The DOGE Team members – whether employees of the agency or detailed to the agency – thus report to the agency heads or their designees, not to me or anyone else at USDS,” she wrote.  “In some instances, members of agency DOGE Teams are detailees from USDS to the agency. Where USDS detailees are assigned to an agency DOGE Team and acting in their capacity as a detailee to the DOGE Team, they are supervised by personnel of the agency to which they are detailed,” she added.  Gleason has been described by former colleagues as “world-class talent” who frequently works long hours and is apolitical.  DOGE’S PLANS TO OFFLOAD GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS SUPPORTED BY FORMER GSA OFFICIAL DOGE has saved an estimated $115 billion in government spending in the form of workforce reductions, contract cancellations, regulatory savings and other initiatives, according to its website. Trump has touted DOGE’s work repeatedly in public remarks, including rattling off a list of government grants that were axed since his inauguration during his first address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.  “Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma,” Trump said as he provided examples of federal waste on March 4 after thanking Musk and DOGE for its work. “Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Democrats and federal employees have railed against DOGE since the investigations and mass terminations at various agencies got underway following Trump’s inauguration, including staging protests outside federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and specifically protesting Musk for his involvement with DOGE. 

Houthis post cryptic video of American flag-draped coffins

Houthis post cryptic video of American flag-draped coffins

Houthi rebels in Yemen posted an animation online that depicted American flag-draped coffins floating near destroyed Navy ships. “These terrorists really cannot tell the difference between delusions and reality,” Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a post on X along with the Houthi animation. The animation starts out with somber music and depicts a coffin draped in an American flag floating in water, then slowly zooms out to reveal dozens of similar flag-draped coffins floating away from destroyed warships. TRUMP ANNOUNCES ‘DECISIVE AND POWERFUL’ AIRSTRIKES AGAINST HOUTHI TERRORISTS IN YEMEN The animation comes after President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful” airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen on Saturday, arguing on Truth Social that the group has “waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.” “It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden,” Trump said in the post. “The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times…. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.” “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!”  The White House on Sunday released photos of Trump watching the strikes on the Iran-backed terrorist group along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz. TRUMP WATCHES STRIKE ON IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN IN NEW WHITE HOUSE PICS AS LARGE-SCALE OP CONTINUES “President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,” the White House wrote in a post on X. “For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency.” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Saturday that it “initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation.” Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen told the Associated Press that the strikes killed at least 31 people. Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

‘Unimaginable loss’: North Macedonia reels from deadly nightclub fire

‘Unimaginable loss’: North Macedonia reels from deadly nightclub fire

A fire tore through a nightclub in the eastern town of Kocani in North Macedonia, killing 59 people, according to the country’s interior minister. More than 100 people were also wounded in the fire early on Sunday in the “Club Pulse”, Interior Minister Pance Toskovsk said. Toskovski said the fire was probably caused by the use of pyrotechnic devices “used for light effect at the concert”. As they were set off, “the sparks caught the ceiling, which was made of easily flammable material, after which the fire rapidly spread across the whole discotheque, creating thick smoke,” he said. The establishment had been packed with more than 1,000 mostly young fans to see a popular hip-hop duo called DNK. Helicopters ferried some of the injured to hospitals in the capital Skopje, some 100km (62 miles) to the west. Twenty-seven of them were admitted to the Naum Ohridski clinic, a doctor at the facility, Nebojsa Nastov, told online media outlet SDK. In September 2021, a major fire killed 14 people at a unit for COVID-19 patients in the northwestern town of Tetovo. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Roadside nets aim to thwart Russian drone attacks in Ukraine

Roadside nets aim to thwart Russian drone attacks in Ukraine

NewsFeed Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports on the method being used to stop Russian drones from attacking Ukrainian vehicles near the border, not far from the Russian region of Kursk where fierce fighting is ongoing. Published On 16 Mar 202516 Mar 2025 Adblock test (Why?)

Trump, Putin call expected this week, as admin edges closer to Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal: Witkoff

Trump, Putin call expected this week, as admin edges closer to Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal: Witkoff

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Sunday that President Donald Trump will likely speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.  In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Witkoff was asked when a deal to end the war in Ukraine could be anticipated.  “The president uses the timeframe weeks, and I don’t disagree with him. I am really hopeful that we’re going to see some real progress here,” Witkoff said. “Nobody expected progress this fast. This is a highly, very complicated situation, and yet we’re bridging the gap between two sides. So, lots of things that remain to be discussed, but I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week.”  ‘WE HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS CLOSE TO PEACE’ SINCE RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE, LEAVITT TELLS REPORTERS Trump’s special envoy met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, days after U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia agreed to the terms of a potential ceasefire with Russia.  Witkoff said he met with Putin for between three and four hours and had a “positive” and “solution-based” discussion.  “Before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart,” Witkoff told CNN host Jake Tapper. “The two sides are, today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of the Saudi Arabia discussion led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and our secretary of state, Marco Rubio.”  “I describe my conversation with President Putin as equally positive,” Witkoff said. “The two sides have… we’ve narrowed the differences between them, and now we’re sitting at the table. I was with the president all day yesterday, I’ll be with him today, we’re sitting with him, discussing how to narrow it even further.”   TRUMP ‘HOPES’ PUTIN AGREES TO CEASEFIRE AS MOSCOW SIGNALS NO TRUCE YET It was the second time Witkoff had met with Putin in the last month. The first sit-down in mid-February resulted in the Russians releasing U.S. prisoner Marc Fogel.  Witkoff said he briefed Trump, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and Waltz from the U.S. embassy within five to 10 minutes of meeting with Putin last week.  “President Trump has been involved in every aspect and dimension of these discussions,” Witkoff said. “The president is getting updates in real time on everything that’s happening, and he’s involved in every important decision here. I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversations with the Ukrainians. We’re advising them on everything we’re thinking about.”  “The four regions are of critical importance here,” Witkoff said of the terms of the deal. “And we’re in discussions with Ukraine, we’re in discussions with all these stakeholder European countries, so that includes France, Britain, Norway, Finland… the whole host.… And we’re in discussions with the Russians too about those regions. We’re also in discussion with all other elements that would be encompassed in a ceasefire.”  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  Witkoff flew to Moscow last week from Doha, Qatar, where he mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a potential extension of their ceasefire agreement.