WH Security Council’s John Kirby mocks Putin re-election campaign
National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby mocked the upcoming Russian presidential election while speaking with the press aboard Air Force One. Kirby, answering questions from the press, was asked for comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement he was running to retain his office. “Well, that’s going to be one humdinger of a horse race, isn’t it?” Kirby joked. UKRAINE’S HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY CALLS FOR A FASTER WAY TO BRING BACK CHILDREN DEPORTED BY RUSSIA He added, “That’s all I’ve got to say on that.” Putin, 71, announced his decision to stand for re-election in March following a Kremlin award ceremony after which war veterans and others reportedly pleaded with him to run. With a firm grip on power already, Putin is widely expected to win another six-year term in office, although a change to the country’s constitution will allow him to run again in 2030, which could see his authority extend to 2036. He secured 76% of the vote in the 2018 election. KREMIN REAPPROVES PANDEMIC-INSPIRED 3-DAY VOTING WINDOW FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Kirby touched on the United States’ waning financial support for Ukraine in a White House press conference Friday. Asked by a reporter about reports that Putin’s regime is celebrating Republican opposition to continued funding of the conflict, Kirby said the failure of Western powers to sustain defense of Ukraine was playing into the dictator’s hands. “This is a great gift to Vladimir Putin that we would walk away from Ukraine. He’s banking on that. He’s been banking on that kind of a development since early on in this war, because he didn’t believe that the West could stay united,” said Kirby. He continued, “He didn’t believe NATO could stay united. He didn’t believe the United States had the staying power.” Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny last week urged his supporters to vote for anyone but Putin. “Putin views this election as a referendum on approval of his actions,” Navalny said in an online statement. “A referendum on approval of the war. Let’s disrupt his plans and make it happen so that no one on March 17 is interested in the rigged result, but that all of Russia saw and understood: the will of the majority is that Putin must leave.” Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
Mayawati’s BSP suspends its MP Danish Ali for ‘anti-party’ activities
Citing “anti-party” activities as the reason for his suspension from the party, the BSP said, “However, it seems you have forgotten the promises made by you that time. Therefore, you are being suspended from the party.”
Houston voters to decide whether John Whitmire or Sheila Jackson Lee will be mayor
The winner will lead Texas’ largest city and the fourth largest city in the U.S.
Centre bans onion exports till March 2024
India had previously imposed a minimum export price of $800 per metric ton, until Dec. 31, 2023, to discourage exports, in an effort to curb surging local prices.
Texas Supreme Court pauses lower court ruling allowing woman to receive abortion after fetal fatal diagnosis
The Texas Supreme Court placed a hold Friday night on a lower court judge’s ruling that would have allowed a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis to receive an abortion despite the Lone Star State’s ban on the procedure. The order by the state Supreme Court, made up of all Republicans, came more than 30 hours after 31-year-old Kate Cox received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevented the state from enforcing its abortion ban in her case. The court said in a one-page ruling that it was temporarily staying Thursday’s ruling “without regard to the merits.” The order gives the court more time to weigh in on the case. “While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state’s request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” said Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox. “We are talking about urgent medical care. Kate is already 20 weeks pregnant. This is why people should not need to beg for healthcare in a court of law.” PREGNANT TEXAS WOMAN CHALLENGES STATE ABORTION BAN WITH LAWSUIT AFTER RECEIVING FETAL FATAL DIAGNOSIS Cox’s attorneys have said they will not disclose their client’s abortion plans due to safety concerns. Her attorneys indicated in a filing with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday that she was still pregnant. The Dallas-area mother of two was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she filed a lawsuit requesting that she be approved to have an abortion in Texas in what is believed to be the first of its kind challenge to the state’s abortion ban since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, allowing states to make their own abortion laws. The order issued Thursday applied to Cox but no other pregnant women in Texas. Cox discovered she was pregnant for a third time in August before she was told weeks later that her baby was at high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to her lawsuit. TEXAS JUDGE RULES STATE’S ABORTION LAW IS TOO RESTRICTIVE FOR WOMEN WITH PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS Doctors have also told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat stops, inducing labor would risk a uterine rupture because of her two previous cesarean sections, and that another one at full term would endanger her ability to carry another child. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception to the state’s abortion ban, and he called on the state’s Supreme Court to take action. “Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” Paxton’s office told the court. Paxton also warned three hospitals in Houston that they could face legal consequences if they allowed Cox’s physician to perform the abortion. This, despite Thursday’s ruling from state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton described as an “activist” judge. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Who is Akbaruddin Owaisi, AIMIM MLA who is appointed as Pro-tem speaker of Telangana Assembly
The Pro-tem Speaker serves a temporary role, officiating the Assembly session until the newly-elected members are sworn in and a Speaker is elected.
Will Trump’s unprecedented general election campaign style work during primary season?
Three of the main contenders challenging former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination will be in heavily Republican northwest Iowa on Saturday, joining conservative Rep. Randy Feenstra for a candidate forum. But Trump isn’t attending. He doesn’t have to. Trump, the commanding front-runner for his party’s presidential nomination, will be in New York City on Saturday evening, to headline the New York Young Republican’s annual gala. It’s the latest example of Trump mostly ignoring his rivals and keeping his focus on President Biden as he makes his third straight White House run. WAS THE REAL WINNER SO FAR IN THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES THE GUY WHO DIDN’T SHOW UP? From skipping the first four GOP presidential nomination debates to running ads that spotlight his record in the White House and target Biden, Trump is shining his spotlight on his likely general election opponent rather than taking aim at his nomination challengers during the primary process. “You just look at the numbers alone, and he is so strong with Republican voters,” longtime New Hampshire-based GOP strategist Michael Dennehy emphasized. “It’s a typical strong front-runner campaign strategy.” TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREVIEWS ‘EXTREMELY AGRESSIVE’ PUSH IN IOWA Dennehy, a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, said Trump “can run the campaign he wants without having to interact with the other Republican candidates.” It’s a sea change from a year ago, when Trump launched his 2024 campaign to lackluster reviews and plenty of fellow Republicans were blaming him for the party’s less than impressive performance in the 2022 midterm elections. Fast-forward a year and Trump enjoys extremely large and formidable double-digit leads in the most recent public opinion polls in the crucial early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who are the remaining major contenders for the GOP nomination. Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including those in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County Court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss — have only fueled his support among Republican voters. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL OF IOWA’S 99 COUNTIES, BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? At Wednesday’s fourth debate, despite Christie’s best efforts, the former president once again emerged with relatively few bruises. Christie, a vocal Trump critic, repeatedly chastised his rivals for failing to verbally confront the former president. But his scolding appeared to fall on deaf ears, as DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy mostly avoided direct criticism of Trump even when the moderators asked a series of questions regarding the former president. A source in Trump’s political circle, asked about the campaign’s strategy, told Fox News, “it’s like being the incumbent, and you don’t need to punch down.” Pointing to the rest of the 2024 Republican field, the source emphasized “there’s no need to engage with these guys.” But while Trump is keeping his eyes on Biden and next November’s general election, his campaign is definitely not blowing off the primary process. As Fox News first reported earlier this week, the Trump campaign said it’s shifting into a higher gear in the final weeks leading up to the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, which lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar. “We have an extremely aggressive operation and an extremely aggressive schedule,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News Digital. LaCivita spoke as he accompanied the former president to Davenport, Iowa on Tuesday, where Trump sat down with Fox News’ primetime opinion host Sean Hannity for a town hall. “The last couple of weeks, we’ll be blitzing” Trump touted at the end of the town hall. “We’re up by like 30 or 40 points, but we’re not taking any chances.” LaCivita previewed that the Trump campaign is planning a slew of Iowa visits not only from the former president but also from “dozens of surrogates that are going to be storming the state campaigning… in every venue that has people.” He said there were “close to 1500-1600 precinct captains throughout the state that, literally, their sole job is to run each individual caucus that takes place and making sure that the list of the targeted voters supporting President Trump show up.” Trump’s campaign has also assembled a large grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote team in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and votes second after Iowa. And while the Trump campaign commercials ignore his nomination rivals, they’re running in Iowa and New Hampshire ahead of the two kick-off contests. Trump’s campaign says it’s not taking anything for granted. Looking ahead to the final stretch leading up to the caucuses, LaCivita said “our only concern is complacency.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
GOP lawmaker’s bill would expand DOJ’s genealogy testing for cold case victims
FIRST ON FOX: Unsolved crimes are a burden on victims, their families and the police as they try to apprehend criminals when all leads go cold. Amid the cold cases, one Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker is aiming to alleviate part of that burden at the federal level. House Republican Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler is introducing the Cold Case Modernization Act this week to expand genealogy testing at the federal level for cold case victims. SENATE WARNS OF INCREASED CRIME ON CAPITOL HILL AS LAWMAKERS AND STAFF FACE STRING OF ROBBERIES, CARJACKINGS Reschenthaler’s bill looks to solve cold cases by expanding Department of Justice (DOJ) criteria for grant funding toward forensic genealogy testing for unidentified human remains. “Across the United States, investigators lack the critical resources to solve the cases of tens of thousands of unidentified human remains,” Reschenthaler said. “The Cold Case Modernization Act puts these deceased Americans and their grieving families first, using state-of-the-art DNA technology to uncover answers and find the truth,” he continued. Specifically, Reschenthaler’s bill says that any DOJ “grant awarded to States and units of local government for forensic genetic [genealogy] may be used to identify unidentified human remains without regard to whether the manner of death is determined to be a homicide.” Currently, DOJ interim policy for “Forensic Genetic Genealogical DNA Analysis and Searching” allows funding to be used for declared homicide victims. Reschenthaler’s legislation would open up the funds to non-homicide victims as well as victims whose causes of death are undetermined. Reschenthaler’s bill comes as America sees rampant crime, including in the nation’s capital. In October, the Senate warned lawmakers and Capitol Hill staffers to take precautions amid a rise in crime throughout Washington, D.C., following a series of violent attacks against members of Congress and those who work for them. In a bulletin to Senate chiefs of staff, administrative managers, chief clerks and staff directors, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms suggested tips to reduce the risk of being carjacked and warned of an increase in carjackings around the nation’s capital. The warning came the day after a Senate staff member was robbed at gunpoint and weeks after a House Democrat was carjacked. “Local authorities note an increase in carjacking incidents in and around Capitol Hill and the District of Columbia,” the bulletin, obtained by Fox News Digital from multiple Senate sources, states. Listed on the bulletin were a variety of safety tips and reminders, such as “Always keep doors locked and windows up” and “Don’t stop to assist a stranger with a broken-down car; call the police from a safe location instead.” Another section primarily discussed what an individual should do if “confronted by a carjacker with a weapon.” “Your safety is paramount; surrender your car without argument and swiftly leave the area,” the bulletin stated. “Attempt to recall the carjacker’s physical details (gender, race, age, hair/eye color, distinctive features, clothing).” Fox News Digital’s Kyle Morris, Tyler Olson and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
Former Trump comms director tells his ‘redemption story’ in new book to help others overcome addiction
EXCLUSIVE: Former 2020 Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said working for the former president was “the highest honor” of his career, while telling his “redemption story” in the hopes of helping others to overcome addiction. Murtaugh, a political consultant who has served on numerous national political committees and campaigns, is rolling out a new book — “Swing Hard in Case You Hit It,” set to be released in April but available for pre-order on Amazon. Murtaugh’s book will focus on his “escape” from alcoholism to “the top of the political world on the 2020 Trump campaign.” In an interview with Fox News Digital, Murtaugh said his initial idea to write the book came after political opposition researchers approached reporters in 2019 with stories about his alcohol-related legal problems in, what he called, an attempt to “harm the Trump campaign through bad stories about my past.” TRUMP CAMPAIGN LAUNCHING ‘EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE OPERATION’ IN FINAL STRETCH TO IOWA CAUCUSES “I wanted to tell this story on my terms to take away the power of some of these dark times in my life, and hopefully help other alcoholics see that there can be a pathway through for them as well,” Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. “I was able to make it thanks to the support of my wife, family, and friends; and I now have two young sons who have never seen their father take a drink.” “My recovery also allowed me to experience some amazing things on the Trump 2020 campaign, and there are some stories in there that people have never heard before,” Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. “This is far from a regular political book.” Fox News Digital obtained excerpts from the book exclusively. The book “has some stories from inside the Trump 2020 presidential re-election campaign, but it’s not totally about that race, or Donald J. Trump, for that matter,” Murtaugh writes in the preface. “It’s about the path that I took, starting early in life, and the poor choices that I made that eventually threatened to ruin everything I had tried to achieve over my first forty-five years on this planet,” he continues. “It’s about going to jail — twice — because I couldn’t stop guzzling alcohol, and it’s about very nearly losing my loving wife, my career, and all my self-respect, and still somehow recovering to hold a prominent job for the president of the United States less than four years later.” Murtaugh adds: “I am proud to have worked for President Trump, and proud to have run comms on his re-election campaign. To have been trusted with that responsibility remains the highest honor of my professional career.” Murtaugh’s book is filled with stories from Trump rallies to COVID, to Election Day 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021, and beyond. The title of his book comes from what his father used to say to him before he left for baseball practice growing up: “Swing hard in case you hit it.” Murtaugh is the grandson of Danny Murtaugh, who was the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates and won the World Series twice. Murtaugh writes that he “truly” hopes that his story can “help other alcoholics to get closer to being sober.” “I know that writing it all down for once certainly helped me to continue to avoid drinking, one day at a time, because I was reminded of how farcical my whole existence once was,” he relates. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL OF IOWA’S 99 COUNTIES, BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? Murtaugh’s book alternates between stories from the 2020 Trump campaign, his experience leading communications for the former president’s re-election and his time struggling to combat alcohol addiction. Murtaugh had his last drink in May 2015, after alcohol-related legal troubles threatened to send him to jail for almost three months and “ruin” his career and personal life. At the time, Murtaugh was working for Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., in Congress as his communications director. Murtaugh, who has been critical of Hunter Biden and his foreign business dealings, at one point in his book says he never targeted the president’s son over his addiction because he “understood.” The book reads: “I never sought to attack Hunter for things directly related to his addiction, or for his condition of being an addict.” “I knew what it was like to be controlled by a substance, and I wanted to stay away from bashing him for that,” Murtaugh writes. “But anything involving foreign payments that could have involved his father were totally in bounds.” “Swing Hard in Case You Hit It” is being published by Bombardier Books, an imprint of Post Hill Press.
Republican attorneys general from 23 states demand major firms stop supporting ‘debanking’ of conservatives
Nearly two dozen Republican state attorney generals signed a public letter addressed to two major voting advisory firms asking them to treat all shareholders fairly and stop supporting their purported efforts to “debank” conservative clients. Led by Iowa AG Brenna Bird, the letter sent this week to Glass, Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. — proxy services who provide recommendations to shareholders regarding corporate governance matters and voting decisions — expressed “deep concern” that the pair are “prioritizing certain environmental, social, and governance initiatives” that allegedly violate their contracts. “Last year shareholders sought to hold financial institutions accountable for denying or restricting service to clients based on their political or religious beliefs through the resolution process,” the letter reads. “Politicized debanking harms businesses and their shareholders and undermines the freedom of every American to participate in the marketplace on equal footing.” CHRISTIAN NONPROFIT CLAIMS IT WAS ‘DEBANKED’ BY BANK OF AMERICA OVER ITS RELIGIOUS VIEWS It continued, “Unfortunately, all available evidence shows that you oppose those resolutions—contrary to your claims to be apolitical and neutral.” According to the letter, banks will cite “hate speech” or “reputational risk” as reasons to debank organizations or individuals. ISS and Glass Lewis reportedly recommended voting against resolutions aiming to hold corporations accountable for these policies, the letter stated. “Indeed, your recommendations opposing those shareholder resolutions reflect the oppositeof your stated commitment to fairness and diversity,” the letter said. “Viewpoint discrimination has its own legal liabilities—but so does lying in publicly available policies and disclosures. Your lack of transparency is troubling. And your voting recommendations on debanking proposals may breach your legal obligations.” Attorney generals from Florida, Indiana, Montana, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, were among the signers. NIGEL FARAGE ON HIS EFFORTS TO EXPOSE ‘DE-BANKING’ Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a grassroots conservative legal advocacy group, shared information with Bird’s office about data they’ve gathered based on cases they are representing of instances where alleged debanking has occurred. “This is a story we usually get — usually it’s under very suspicious circumstances where there’s no good reason for it, lots of times clients who get debanked have been banking with the bank for many, many years, and just out of the blue they get told they are no longer going to do business with you for vague reasons,” AFP’s senior vice president of corporate engagement Jeremy Tedesco told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday. Bank of America, one of ADF’s clients, banned the accounts of the Christian-nonprofit Indigenous Advance in April. The organization claims it is engaged in charitable efforts for orphaned children in Uganda through various partnerships. They were warned without explanation by Bank of America that the organization was “operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America” and would be closed within 30 days. In May, Bank of America sent another letter stating its “risk profile no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance.” The ministry — which believes in pro-life values and that marriage is between one man and one woman on its website — reportedly maintained two accounts with the bank since 2015. Bank of America defended its actions, claiming the accounts were closed due to its “internal debt collection policy” that does not support that service. The bank declined to provide a copy of the policy to Fox News Digital. WATCHDOG GROUP ACCUSES BANK OF AMERICA CEO OF USING BANK AS ‘POLITICAL CLUB’ AGAINST AMERICANS “We are proud to provide banking services to non-profit organizations affiliated with diverse faith communities throughout the United States,” bank spokesman Bill Halldin said in a statement. “Religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision.” The effort by the state attorneys general comes as “debanking” has become a more frequent complaint. Nigel Farage, former leader of Brexit, had his account closed by Coutts, a private bank affiliated with British banking group NatWest, in July. Last year, JPMorgan Chase closed the bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, a newly established nonprofit led by Sam Brownback, the former senator and U.S. ambassador. “We think banks should provide their services on a viewpoint neutral basis, and not get caught up in some of the cultural wars that are going on,” Tedesco said. Fox News reached out to ISS and Glass, Lewis & Co. for comment.