Major security breach in Lok Sabha, two persons seen jumping over benches, open tear gas canisters; watch video
One person was seen leaping over the benches of the Lok Sabha while another was seen dangling from the public gallery spraying some tear gas, when Zero Hour was in progress.
Mahua Moitra seeks urgent hearing in SC of her plea against expulsion from LS
Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha on Friday after a discussion on the report of the Ethics Committee in the ‘cash for query’ that was tabled in the Lower House.
RIJAC’s revolutionaRY step towards the production of vegan leather bags for a sustainable future
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REVEALED: Identity of two persons who breached Lok Sabha security and sprayed gas in the House
According to the Delhi Police, the accused were protesting with coloured smoke outside the Parliament building.
Haley facing heat for bringing Chinese company to South Carolina, standing next to CCP flag praising them
Former United Nations Ambassador and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley is facing heat, most recently at the last GOP primary debate, for working to recruit a Chinese-owned company to South Carolina while she was governor and giving a warm speech about the company while standing next to a Chinese flag. “This is rich because when she was governor of South Carolina, she was the number one ranked governor of bringing the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] into her state,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on the debate stage last week. “She wrote a love letter to the Chinese ambassador saying how great a friend China is.” “There’s also a video of her as governor standing in front of a Chinese flag with a Chinese business saying that she now works for them, talking about this Chinese company. So, she’s been very weak on China.” The company DeSantis was referencing was Bluestar Silicones, which acquired 20 acres of land in York County, South Carolina after receiving $600,000 in incentives from the county and state, The Herald reported in 2011. NIKKI HALEY VOWS CHINA WON’T ‘THREATEN OR INTIMIDATE’ AMERICAN BUSINESSES UNDER HER ADMINISTRATION The Herald also reported that Haley was instrumental in bringing the company to South Carolina and got on the phone to encourage the company’s CEO, Pascal Chalvon-Demersay, to come to South Carolina instead of an explored move to North Carolina. “I don’t lose well,” Haley reportedly said at the time, with The Herald adding that her “charm” was an important aspect of getting the deal done and bringing the jobs to her state. The Herald reported that the deal came down to more than just dollars but hinged on a commitment from Haley’s state to “making things happen in the future” and Haley reportedly gave Bluestar leadership her personal cell phone number and said, “I want them to call.” In order to get the move finalized, officials at the South Carolina Economic Development office matched the incentive dollar amount that North Carolina was offering and the county also provided property tax relief that cut the company’s tax bill by around 45%, Charlotte Business Journal reported. WAR OF WORDS: DESANTIS, HALEY TRADE FIRE OVER WHO WAS MORE CHINA-FRIENDLY GOVERNOR In July 2017, Bluestar Silicones was renamed Elkem Silicones which is a subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinochem Holdings Corp as two Chinese entities were integrated. In 2020, the State Department deemed Sinochem and several other Chinese entities as owned or controlled by the Chinese military. On the campaign trail, the GOP presidential candidates have attacked each other on previous ties to China and attempted to position themselves as leaders who will be tough on the communist regime. Haley has faced heat from her opponents for recruiting Chinese businesses as governor and Never Back Down, the main super PAC supporting DeSantis, went after her on social media recently for saying during a meeting with Bluestar, “I officially work for you.” In 2016, Haley praised a $300 million investment in Richland County, South Carolina, by the Chinese fiberglass manufacturer China Jushi Co. Ltd., which cited “great support” from the state government for doing so. “The USA project is a big move for the strategic development of China Jushi. With the dynamic development of the American composite global market, plus the great support from South Carolina state government and Richland County, we believe that this USA project will achieve great success,” China Jushi CEO Zhang Yuqiang said in a statement at the time, according to China Daily USA. Haley characterized the Chinese company’s investment in South Carolina as a “huge win for our state.” Critics have pointed to the fact that China Jusi’s facilities are located near a U.S. Army base, raising concerns about a Chinese company’s presence near a military installation. NIKKI HALEY LAUNCHES FIRST CAMPAIGN AD, CALLS FOR ‘MORAL CLARITY,’ MOVING ON FROM ‘CHAOS AND DRAMA’ South Carolina Gov. Harry McMaster, who has endorsed former President Trump, recently said that Jushi has not caused any issues since moving near the plant, although the company has been fined for environmental violations, The State reported. “As far as anybody knows, they’ve caused no trouble and pose no threat,” McMaster told reporters. “But again, we got companies from all over the world people coming in South Carolina from all over the place, but this issue we’ve been aware of the potential threat. We’ve been very careful.” Bluestar’s 20 acre property is also located roughly 10 miles from a National Guard training center. Haley and her team have defended her record on China multiple times and have said that DeSantis “aggressively recruited Chinese companies to Florida including a sanctioned Chinese military manufacturer.” On the campaign trail, Haley has spotlighted that she would rescind federal funding for universities that accept money from China, take back land in the U.S. that China’s already purchased, and end “all normal trade relations with” China until it stops flooding the U.S. with fentanyl. “Every governor running for president tried to recruit Chinese businesses to their state. Nikki Haley did it ten years ago,” Haley spokesperson Ken Farnaso told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Ron DeSantis aggressively recruited Chinese companies and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies to Jinko Solar, a Chinese company raided by the Department of Homeland Security. Ron DeSantis is a hypocritical phony who will say anything to try and save his flailing campaign.” Fox News Digital’s Kyle Morris and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report
Ukraine aid threatens to fall through cracks as Republicans, Democrats play blame game
The likelihood that Congress approves new aid for Ukraine before year’s end is growing smaller with each passing day, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pointing fingers at their rivals. “Zero chance,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital when asked whether Congress will work out a deal before the end of the year, “because the Democrats don’t want to close our southern border.” Republican leaders in the House and Senate have insisted that any aid for Ukraine be paired with conservative policy concessions on border security and asylum laws. Democrats have called Republican demands for Trump-era immigration policies to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis unreasonable. Now, with less than a week before both chambers of Congress are scheduled to leave for the holidays, Democrats and Republicans have each insisted the other side is to blame if a deal isn’t reached. BORIS JOHNSON: WEST MUST GIVE UKRAINE ALL IT NEEDS “I’m deeply concerned that both Ukraine and Israel aid won’t pass. And I’m deeply concerned [what] message that sends to our allies, that the United States can’t live up to its commitments,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “I don’t think Democrats are the issue here. It’s the chaos with the Republicans.” Moskowitz pointed to GOP leaders pulling a key program renewal off the expected vote schedule as evidence of dysfunction in their ranks. SEAN PENN SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HIS TIME IN UKRAINE, MEETING ZELENSKYY “They can’t agree amongst themselves,” he said. “Democrats are willing to make a deal, the president’s willing to make a deal. We’re not going to cave to ridiculous extreme measures. That won’t work. But no, we’re here to make a deal.” Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., blamed President Biden’s White House “for not having a plan for Ukraine to begin with.” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday that while he supports Ukraine’s goal of defeating Russia’s invasion, the House would not budge until they were satisfied with oversight of both the border and the dollars going to Kyiv. “What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight or clear strategy to win, and none of the answers that I think the American people are owed,” he said. “I have also been very clear from day one that our first condition on any national security supplemental spending package is about our own national security first.” JOHNSON DIGS HEELS IN ON BORDER SECURITY AFTER MEETING WITH ZELENSKYY ABOUT UKRAINE AID Meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled Senate is teeing up a vote on a $110 billion supplemental aid package, roughly $61 billion of which is aimed at Ukraine. It also includes money for Israel and humanitarian causes in Gaza and elsewhere. The White House has warned that Ukraine could face catastrophic losses if aid is not replenished by the end of the year. Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., accused Republicans of “playing games with the emergency supplemental,” doubting that Ukraine aid or any other part of it will pass Congress. “I don’t know when the Republican leadership is going to get its act together,” Ivey told Fox News Digital. On the other hand, Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, said he would “love to find a way” to pass both Ukraine aid and border security measures this year. “Whether that happens before Christmas or not, I’m not sure,” he added. “The administration still has a lot of work to do to sell their case to some of my colleagues. And Speaker Johnson has made it very clear what his terms of the deal are. So, if it’s that important, the administration, they’ll find a way to [do] it.”
Sen Joni Ernst scores ‘step forward’ on border security in must-pass military funding bill
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, scored a few border security provisions in the 3,000-page must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that the upper chamber is expected to advance by Wednesday evening. Ernst negotiated with the Democrat-led upper chamber on provisions that direct the Pentagon to create a counter-narcotics strategy focused on fentanyl, which involves increased collaboration with Mexico. There’s also a mandate for the secretary of defense to present and implement a plan for utilizing, transferring or donating wall materials for ports of entry and construction initiatives aimed at curbing illegal migrant and vehicle movement across the southern border. “How are we going to use those materials? Are we going to allow local entities to use those materials? What is the plan to strengthen our southern border and submit that to Congress? It’s very common sense, it’s straightforward,” Ernst told Fox News Digital. TUBERVILLE ENDS BLOCKADE OF MOST MILITARY PROMOTIONS AFTER MONTHS-LONG ABORTION FIGHT In August, the Biden administration reportedly sold approximately $260 million worth of unused border wall materials on the auction website called GovPlanet. “We’re trying to end waste and address the humanitarian and national security crisis at the border,” Ernst said. “We’ve already purchased a lot of border material; it’s just lying there out in the desert, so let’s have the secretary of defense come up with a plan and provide that to Congress.” Ernst sees the forward movement of her border line item in the NDAA as a silver lining amid the slow-moving border security provisions Republicans are fighting to get in Biden’s $106 billion national supplemental package. “I do see this as a step forward. It’s not the entire solution, but any movement in the right direction is appreciated,” Ernst said. GOP SENATORS RAIL AGAINST TUBERVILLE’S MILITARY HOLDS NEARLY ALL NIGHT The NDAA has to be passed before the end of the year to ensure military funding for fiscal year 2024. The NDAA was advanced by the Senate in an 85-15 vote Tuesday, ending debate on the package with broad bipartisan support. The full package is expected to pass Wednesday night, granting authorization for $886 billion over the next year to bolster national defense. Senate Republicans were able to get provisions in the bill that prevent mandating the inclusion of preferred pronouns in official correspondence as well as a proposed hiring freeze on “new diversity, equity, and inclusion positions.” The compromise bill between the House and Senate includes several key victories for the GOP on issues like COVID-19 vaccines and “woke ideology,” among other topics. It will also stop money from being used to teach critical race theory in the military, as well as in service academies and Pentagon-run schools, and it would similarly prevent any money from being used to hold drag shows or drag story hours. Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Biden nominates major campaign donor, private jet owner to oversee key transportation board
FIRST ON FOX: President Biden’s nominee for a key Washington, D.C.-area transportation board is a billionaire Biden campaign donor and bundler who flies frequently on a private jet and co-owns a professional sports franchise. Biden first nominated Samuel Slater to serve on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) shortly after taking office in 2021, but he was forced to renominate him this year after his nomination was stalled in the Senate Commerce Committee. The MWAA is mainly tasked with overseeing the operations of Reagan National and Dulles International, the region’s two central airports. “I am excited about this opportunity to serve and believe the depth of my private sector experience will be a benefit to the Authority,” Slater remarked during his confirmation hearing in November. “In addition to safety, MWAA’s primary objectives are to plan, provide and actively manage world-class facilities and access to the global aviation system in a way that anticipates and serves the needs of the National Capital region.” “The diversity of my professional experiences requires me to be similarly focused on consumer needs and desires, from the needs of residential, commercial and retail tenants, to the public consumer experience within sport, media and live entertainment,” he continued. “Throughout these activities, I continually engage with the end-user perspective and study how to improve customer enjoyment and satisfaction with a service.” BIDEN OFFICIAL DOGGED BY ETHICS PROBE FACES KEY SENATE VOTE OVER TAXPAYER-FUNDED SALARY: ‘SERIOUS SCANDAL’ However, Slater is the managing partner of the Boston-based real estate firm Tremont Asset Management, a subsidiary of his family’s firm, Slater Family Holdings, of which he is a managing partner as well. He also serves on the board of the Seattle Kraken NHL team and co-founded Burn Later Productions, a Hollywood film studio, in 2012. And Slater — who is a prolific Democrat campaign donor — did considerable work for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Slater individually contributed nearly $140,000 to Biden’s campaign, according to Federal Elections Commission data, while serving on the campaign’s National Finance Committee and as a “bundler,” a person who collects and organizes other campaign donors’ contributions. CONSERVATIVES REJOICE AFTER KEY BIDEN NOMINEE WITHDRAWS: ‘ENORMOUS VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH’ Slater donated another $150,000 to Biden’s inaugural committee in December 2020, according to the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a right-leaning nonprofit watchdog group that investigated Slater’s campaign contributions. In a questionnaire Slater returned to Senate Commerce Committee Republicans ahead of his confirmation hearing last month, he said he didn’t believe his considerable donations to Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee presented a conflict of interest. “This is as swampy as it gets. Biden is rewarding a billionaire donor who flies around the world in his private jet by giving him a government job for which he’s completely unqualified,” AAF co-founder and President Tom Jones told Fox News Digital. “This is everything the American people hate about how Washington, D.C., operates,” Jones added. “It is an absolute disgrace. We hope the U.S. Senate will not go along with this and restore honest good government to our Capitol.” CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In addition, Boston Magazine reported in September that Slater, who the outlet described as a billionaire, recently purchased a luxury private jet from adult entertainment company Playboy. And social media posts from him and his wife indicate that the two frequently travel via private jet. The White House and Slater Family Holdings didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Gov. Abbott warns Texas universities they must ensure nobody on campus advocates for genocide, antisemitism
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told colleges and universities in the Lone Star State on Tuesday that they should avoid teaching students about any social agendas and should work to root out antisemitism on their campuses. Abbott was speaking at the annual conference of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board at the University of Texas in Austin when he warned universities that business executives are not interested in the social or political motivations of the academic institutions prospective employees attend, according to Fox 7. “There’s been none of them who have asked me what is the ideological bent of what is being taught in our universities? How are students being indoctrinated? They don’t ask that because that is not applicable to what they are trying to achieve when they hire an employee,” Abbott said. The governor also urged university officials to ensure Jewish students are not subject to antisemitism when they step foot on campus in Texas, a reference to the controversial testimonies about the rise of antisemitism on campus delivered before Congress last week by Harvard University President Claudine Gay, then-University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth. NEW YORK GOV. KATHY HOCHUL THREATENS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST UNIVERSITIES THAT FAIL TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM “You have a leadership responsibility, to ensure that there is no one on your campuses that are advocating for genocide or antisemitism. It is completely unacceptable in the state of Texas, period,” Abbott told the Texas institutions. During last week’s hearing before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, House GOP Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., demanded Gay, Magill and Kornbluth answer whether calls on campus for intifada, or the genocide of Jews, violated their respective universities’ codes of conduct or rules against bullying and harassment. The Ivy League presidents would not give direct answers, leading to backlash and calls for their resignations. Magill stepped down on Saturday but Gay and Kornbluth are holding onto their positions. “It can be, depending on the context,” Gay told Stefanik, prompting the lawmaker to press her for a yes or no answer. “Antisemitic speech when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation — that is actionable conduct, and we do take action,” Gay added. Stefanik asked, “So the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s code of conduct, correct?” “Again, it depends on the context,” Gay replied. Gay apologized for her comments in a statement released after the hearing, in which she said calls for violence against Jewish students have no place at Harvard. Stefanik later accused Harvard officials during a news conference of making no changes to their School Code and criticized them for declining to fire Gay. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SUSPENDS STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE CHAPTER The controversy over the Ivy League presidents’ testimonies on Capitol Hill has cost the institutions donor money and could hurt students’ future job opportunities. “If we have university leaders who are so hinged to ideological concepts, where they are unable to say what is and what is not antisemitism,” Abbott said in his remarks. “What is and what is not; attempts at genocide. Then we have educational institutions that have lost their way as it concerns what their mission is.” Earlier this year, the GOP-controlled Texas legislature passed legislation that was later signed into law to shut down diversity, equity and inclusion programs at all public universities in Texas. Abbott did not speak about the new law during his speech on Tuesday, but he did emphasize that he wants professors to focus on education instead of pushing any social agendas. “Drifting from your core mission. It’s not only exposing your universities to extraordinary condemnation like what some Ivy League schools have been subject to,” Abbott said. “You’re causing us if you do it, to drift away from what our real core mission is, and that’s to keep America the number one country in the world.”
WATCH: DeSantis’ top moments on Israel, immigration, Trump and Haley at CNN town hall: ‘An easy answer’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took part in a CNN town hall event on Tuesday night discussing a wide range of topics with top moments that included immigration, funding overseas conflicts, former President Donald Trump, and the state of the GOP race. DeSantis was asked by a member of the audience which conflict was most worthy of United States support: Israel or Ukraine. “That’s an easy answer. It’s the state of Israel, they are our strongest allies in the Middle East,” DeSantis said, later adding that “in terms of the two-state solution, I don’t think you can have a two-state solution when the Palestinian Arabs will view it as a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel.” The Florida governor also discussed focusing on the ongoing crisis at the southern border before looking overseas. DESANTIS DOWNPLAYS SIGNIFICANCE OF GOV. SUNUNU’S NEW HAMPSHIRE ENDORSEMENT OF HALEY: ‘SO MANY PROBLEMS’ “Day one, we’re going to declare it a national emergency. I’m sending the military to the southern border. We’re going to stop the invasion,” DeSantis said when speaking about the ongoing border crisis, before making a repeated complaint about Trump’s handling of border wall contruction. “If Trump had built the border wall, it would have been very difficult for Biden to bring in all those many people,” DeSantis told Tapper, echoing his campaign pledge to tax remittances from Mexico to pay for a border wall and criticizing Trump for not completing a wall. “Talk is cheap and I’m sick of Republicans using the issue every election cycle to try to get donations and to try to tell the people they’re going to do it. We are going to bring the issue to a conclusion.” DeSantis continued to take several swings at Trump, who currently holds a commanding lead in polls both in Iowa and nationally, before saying he is the “only” GOP candidate who could beat the former president for the nomination. “I’m the only one running that can beat Trump one on one. Why? Because the other candidates cannot get enough support from core Republicans and transitional conservatives.” “He’s a different Donald Trump than 2015 and 2016. Back then he was colorful, but it was really America first about the policies. Now a lot of it’s about him,” DeSantis told Tapper, before calling out the former president not participating in any of the four presidential primary debates. TRUMP HOLDS MASSIVE LEAD IN IOWA 5 WEEKS FROM CAUCUSES THAT KICK OFF GOP RACE: POLL DeSantis also hit Trump on abortion, saying that Trump “flip-flopped” on the “right to life” issue. On healthcare, DeSantis criticized Trump again for saying during his 2016 campaign he was going to repeal Obamacare, but failing to accomplish it. DeSantis said “they failed because they didn’t have anything to replace it with.” The DeSantis campaign would be releasing a healthcare policy plan in the future, the governor said. The Republican noted that he believes “the biggest health care issue we’ve had in this country in the last four or five years is COVID-19,” adding that “I am going to bring a reckoning to those agencies that lied to this country, the CDC, NIH, FDA, people like Fauci, all those things that really harm this country. And yet nobody’s been held accountable.” “Another thing we’re going to deal with because health care, the biggest health care issue we’ve had in this country in the last four or five years is COVID 19. I am going to bring a reckoning to those agencies that lied to this country, the CDC, NIH, FDA, people like Fauci, all those things that really harm this country. And yet nobody’s been held accountable.” DeSantis used some of his time to criticize former Ambassador Nikki Haley, who many believe represents his biggest challenge in terms of positioning himself as the alternative to Trump, on issues like social security. The Florida governor took another jab at Haley after her key endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., Tuesday. “Even a campaigner as good as Chris is not going to be able to paper over Nikki being an establishment candidate. I mean, she’s getting funded by liberal Democrats from California, like the founder of LinkedIn, people on Wall Street like the head of JP Morgan,” DeSantis said. “She’s really reflective of the old failed Republican establishment of yesteryear. We do not need to go back to that.” DeSantis was also asked about his wife Casey’s successful battle against breast cancer and he praised her decision to get a second opinion after a doctor told her she was cleared but she still felt something was wrong and “really fought for herself.” “When you see somebody that you love go through the chemo and it just sucks the life out of you and everything she had to go through, as a husband, I’m there doing what I can to be the helping hand and to help with the family and everything,” DeSantis said. “But you almost wish I could do a chemo for her so she didn’t have to do it all this time. But it was not fun, but I’d say she’s better than ever now with her health. So that’s really all that matters. People’s prayers were answered.” The Real Clear Politics average of polls in Iowa shows DeSantis with 19.7% of the vote — in second place behind Trump, who is polling at 50%, and ahead of former Ambassador Nikki Haley who is polling in third at 15.7%.