Complaint against Goa Sunburn Festival organisers for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ with Lord Shiva’s pic
Congress politician Vijay Bhike filed a police complaint at Mapusa on Friday night against Sunburn’s organisers, while AAP Goa chairman Amit Palekar stated that the state government ought to prosecute them for allegedly undermining “Sanatana Dharma”
Six dead in Maharashtra hand glove factory fire, dousing operation underway
According to Fire department officials, the blaze erupted around 02:15 am at the factory in Waluj MIDC area.
California law barring guns from most public spaces set to go into effect after appeals court ruling
A federal appeals court on Saturday put a temporary injunction on hold for a California law that would bar most gun owners from carrying guns in many public spaces, including banks, playgrounds and churches, that goes into effect on New Year’s Day. The Dec. 20 injunction called the law, “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court” after gun owners, the California Rifle & Pistol Association, the Second Amendment Foundation and Gun Owners of America sued over it. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney wrote in his Dec. 20 ruling that the law, “turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place,’ effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public.” The law was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, and prohibits gun owners from carrying firearms in 26 types of “sensitive” places and would include permit holders. It also bars owners from carrying concealed weapons in a privately owned business open to the public — like a restaurant — unless the owner posts a sign that concealed guns are allowed. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS ILLINOIS SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS BAN TO STAY IN PLACE Saturday’s administrative stay on the Dec. 20 injunction by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will remain until another panel of judges from the same circuit decides if a longer hold on the law is necessary. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a similar law in New York that limited concealed carry, saying gun laws must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” California Democrats said the new law complies with the Supreme Court ruling in New York. ARMED MOM SCHOOLS CONGRESS ON BOOMING FEMALE GUN OWNERSHIP: ‘REFUSE TO STAND BY’ After the Dec. 20 ruling, Chuck Michel, the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s president, said, “California progressive politicians refuse to accept the Supreme Court’s mandate from the [New York] Bruen case and are trying every creative ploy they can imagine to get around it. The Court saw through the State’s gambit,” NPR reported. California Secretary of State Rob Bonta had said the state would appeal the Dec. 20 ruling, and on Saturday afternoon Newsom responded to the appeals court’s ruling. “This ruling will allow our common-sense gun laws to remain in place while we appeal the district court’s dangerous ruling,” he said. “Californians overwhelmingly support efforts to ensure that places like hospitals, libraries and children’s playgrounds remain safe and free from guns.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital has reached out to the California Rifle & Gun Association for comment. Reuters contributed to this report.
Late ITR filling window closes on December 31: What happens if you miss deadline?
If you miss the December 31 deadline for belated ITRs, you can file updated ITRs. The Finance Act of 2022 introduced updated returns to extend timeframe to file the return of income.
US appeals court allows California to ban guns in most public places
A federal appeals court put on hold a judge’s ruling that declared the law, set to take effect in 2024, unconstitutional. A federal appeals court in the United States has cleared the way for a law passed by the state of California that bans carrying guns in most public places. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday suspended a December 20 injunction issued by a judge who concluded the Democratic-led state’s law violated the right of citizens to keep and bear arms under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment. The law is set to take effect at the start of 2024. The three-judge panel issued an administrative stay that put the injunction on hold until a different 9th Circuit panel can consider whether to issue an even longer pause while the litigation plays out. The measure, which was set to take effect on January 1 after being signed into law in September by California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, was enacted after a landmark ruling in June 2022 by the conservative-majority US Supreme Court that expanded gun rights nationwide. The Supreme Court in that case struck down New York’s strict gun permit regime, offering a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, the basis for gun rights in the US. Series of court challenges The ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen, limited legislators’ ability to restrict firearm possession in public. It also led to a series of court challenges. California, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, was among a group of states with similar laws as New York and following the Supreme Court’s decision, moved to revamp its firearms regulations. Under California’s new law, people could not carry concealed guns in 26 categories of “sensitive places” including hospitals, playgrounds, stadiums, zoos and places of worship, regardless of whether they had permits to carry concealed weapons. The law, Senate Bill 2, also barred people from having concealed guns at privately owned commercial establishments that are open to the public, unless the business’s operator posts a sign allowing license holders to carry guns on their property. A group of concealed carry permit holders and gun rights groups including the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America and the California Rifle & Pistol Association sued, arguing the new law was unconstitutional. US District Judge Cormac Carney, an appointee of the former Republican President George W Bush, on December 20 agreed and blocked the law pending the outcome of the case. The law “turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place’, effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” Carney wrote. California Attorney General Rob Bonta quickly asked the 9th Circuit to put that injunction on hold pending an appeal, saying that leaving the law blocked would mean that “tens of millions of Californians will face a heightened risk of gun violence”. Similar laws adopted by other states have faced litigation as well. A federal appeals court on December 8 ruled that New York state could bar gun owners from carrying weapons in many “sensitive locations” including parks, zoos, bars and theatres. Adblock test (Why?)
Netanyahu says Gaza-Egypt border zone should be under Israeli control
BREAKINGBREAKING, The Israeli prime minister also predicts the war in Gaza and on other regional fronts would last many months. The border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, as he predicted the war in the Palestinian enclave and on other regional fronts would last many months. As Israel entered the 13th week of its war in Gaza on Saturday, Netanyahu held a news conference where he renewed his promise to eliminate Hamas and bring home all Israelis held captive in Gaza. “The Philadelphi Corridor – or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] – must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek,” he said. Israel has said it intends to destroy Hamas in Gaza and demilitarise the territory to prevent any repeat of the October 7 cross-border killing and kidnapping spree by the armed group. “The war is at its height. We are fighting on all of the fronts. Achieving victory will require time. As the [Israeli army] chief of staff has said, the war will continue for many more months,” Netanyahu said. He also added a rare threat to attack Iran directly over the near-daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border. “If [the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group] Hezbollah expands the warfare, it will suffer blows that it has not dreamed of – and so too Iran,” Netanyahu said without elaborating. The war has triggered fears of a regional conflagration amid rising tensions with other Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Israel’s relentless bombing and ground offensive on Gaza since October 7 has killed at least 21,672 people, most of them women and children, with thousands of others buried under the rubble. The military operation has also displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population of the besieged territory. About 1,140 people were killed by Hamas in Israel in the October 7 attacks. Adblock test (Why?)
Former top Obama adviser says if Trump prevented from running it ‘would rip the country apart’
Former top Obama adviser David Axelrod warned Friday that a court decision removing former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot “would rip the country apart.” “I have very, very strong reservations about all of this,” Axelrod said on CNN on Friday. “I do think it would rip the country apart if he were actually prevented from running because tens of millions of people want to vote for him.” Axelrod said that the Democrats’ best bet on beating Trump is in the polls. “I think if you’re going to beat Donald Trump, you’re going to probably have to do it at the polls,” he continued. DEMOCRATS AND POLITICAL EXPERTS WARN BARRING TRUMP COULD ‘BACKFIRE’ The former political advisor argued that Maine’s decision to remove the Republican frontrunner from the state’s primary ballot plays into Trump’s narrative that the Democratic Party is only “coming after him” because of his presidential bid. “A lot of the motivation for [Trump’s] candidacy was as a legal defense strategy,” Axelrod said. “He wanted to set up a construct … which says that they’re coming after him because he’s running for president, and they’re trying to prevent him from being president.” Axelrod said that the effort by the left to remove Trump has backfired, and he has only “gained” popularity since his many indictments. “We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted,” he said. POLL SHOWS BIDEN HITTING RECORD LOW APPROVALS, FALLING BEHIND AGAINST TRUMP IN 2024 MATCHUP “What you thought might be kryptonite for him has turned out to be battery packs, and this is a big one for him,” Axelrod said. FBI, DENVER POLICE INVESTIGATING THREATS AGAINST COLORADO JUDGES WHO BARRED TRUMP FOR STATE’S BALLOTS A ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this month booted Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Colorado’s secretary of state then announced she would keep Trump on the ballot pending the state GOP’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Colorado is a Democratic-leaning state that is not expected to be competitive for Republicans in November. On Thursday, Dec. 28, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows disqualified former President Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot. Bellows also cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a final decision on Trump’s eligibility. Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
How an impasse in the South China Sea drove the Philippines, US closer
Manila, Philippines – On February 2, 1995, just over two years after the last American soldiers had left the Philippines, a Filipino navy patrol boat found a newly built structure on stilts flying a Chinese flag on a submerged reef, some 240 kilometres (149 miles) off the Philippine island of Palawan. The sailors had gone to Mischief Reef in the South China Sea after a Filipino fisherman reported being taken captive by Chinese soldiers in the area. Beijing, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, dismissed the allegations and insisted that the octagonal structure on the reef – which was equipped with a satellite dish for communications with the Chinese mainland – was merely a shelter for its fishermen. Today, Mischief Reef is a fully fledged Chinese military outpost, with a 3,000-metre airfield runway, radar systems and warehouses probably housing surface-to-air missile systems on land reclaimed from the sea. Chinese navy and coastguard vessels patrol the area, harassing Filipino troops, including by using military-grade lasers and water cannon, and blocking Filipino fishermen from the rich fishing grounds in the waterway by ramming their boats and seizing their catches. The reef, which is submerged at high tide and part of the Spratly Islands, is nearly 1,000km (620 miles) from China’s Hainan Island. Beijing has now fully militarised a total of three islands in the Spratlys, according to officials in the United States, and maintains seven military outposts in the area. Across the top military brass in the Philippines, the view is that China would not have taken over Mischief Reef had US forces stayed in the country. “If in 1992, the US didn’t leave, I don’t think that we will be losing Mischief Reef,” said Jay Tarriela, spokesman for the Philippine Coast Guard. “The Philippine government – during the time that we have enjoyed the security umbrella of the United States – have tremendously strengthened the military deterrence of the Philippine government. So supposing that those bases are still here, I am 100 percent sure that none of all this maritime features will be taken away from us.” (Al Jazeera) Now, three decades after the Philippines ended a vast US military presence that began with the capture of the archipelago from Spain in 1898, American troops are again returning. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who took office last year, has pivoted to Washington, in a reversal of his predecessor’s policy, expanding the US’s military footprint in the country under their Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 and a pact called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). He has now authorised the Pentagon to pre-position equipment and rotate forces through a total of nine sites in the Philippines. Some are in Palawan, near the disputed Spratlys, and some face north towards Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory. Marcos has also extracted a promise from US President Joe Biden that American troops will come to the Philippines’ defence in the event of an attack on the Southeast Asian nation’s armed forces in the South China Sea, something Washington had been reluctant to commit to earlier. “It is only natural for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China, Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific region,” Marcos told Biden during a summit in Washington, DC, in May. While Marcos Jr’s decisions have largely been driven by the South China Sea territorial dispute, he has also shared concerns about the impact of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, saying that “it’s very hard to imagine a scenario where the Philippines will not somehow get involved”. Beijing, however, has hit back at the expansion of EDCA, saying the move will “seriously harm Philippine national interests and endanger regional peace and stability”. The decision would “drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife”, it claimed. China’s ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, also advised the Philippines in April to “unequivocally oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ rather than stoking the fire by offering the US access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait”. Analysts say the Philippines is a prime example of how China’s actions have driven its neighbours closer to Washington, which has been strengthening an arc of alliances in the Asia Pacific to deter China. These include allies such as Japan, which has protested over Chinese incursions near the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, and non-aligned India, which fought a bloody border battle with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in the Himalayas in 2020. These territorial disputes “alienate other regional countries with whom [China] often has very close economic ties” said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank. “And so in some ways it hurts China’s image in the region and its soft power and perhaps in some ways its influence,” he said. ‘Problems remain’ Marcos’s pushback against China in the South China Sea marks a reversal from the policy of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte took office in 2016, shortly before a United Nations-backed tribunal ruled that China’s “Nine Dash Line” claims to the South China Sea – which overlap with the Exclusive Economic Zone claims of the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia – had no legal basis. But Duterte downplayed the ruling, shelving talks on the issue after declaring a “separation” from the US and pivoting towards China. He then threatened to terminate the US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement, which serves as the legal foundation for Washington’s bilateral military cooperation in the Philippines, suspended joint military exercises and froze US access to Philippine bases under the EDCA. Instead, he turned to China, seeking financing for infrastructure projects throughout the country as part of his “Build Build Build” programme. That year, China pledged $6bn in official development assistance, $3bn in loans, and $24bn in investments
Trump team drops new nickname for GOP contender Nikki Haley: ‘Nikki New Taxes’
Former President Trump’s campaign team released a new nickname for fellow Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley on Friday, calling her “Nikki New Taxes.” In the missive entitled “KISS OF DEATH: Nikki New Taxes”, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the former South Carolina governor for allegedly having a “troublesome record.” “The truth is finally coming out about Nikki Haley’s troublesome record showing her total disdain for the working-class and a willingness to sellout to lobbyist parasites,” the letter read. “She pushed for a WHOPPING 60% increase in the state gas tax in South Carolina after promising voters she would never do so.” “She also voted for an unconscionable 20% increase in the state sales tax, making her the enemy of the working-class and an ally of lobbyist cronies taking advantage of impressionable politicians looking for their approval,” Cheung added. MAINE GOP STATE LAWMAKER MOVES TO IMPEACH STATE SECRETARY OVER TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL Haley and Trump have often been at odds on the campaign trail, despite Haley serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under his watch. During a sit-down interview on ABC’s “This Week” earlier in December, Haley criticized American media for being “obsessed” with Trump. “The thing is, normal people aren’t obsessed with Trump like you guys are,” Haley said to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “The normal people care about the fact that they can’t afford things. They feel like their freedoms are being taken away. They think government is too big. I know you all want to talk about every single word he says and every single tweet he does.” COLORADO TO INCLUDE TRUMP ON 2024 BALLOT AS STATE GOP APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT Haley added that she and the former president have their disagreements, but said that she had “a good working relationship” with him. “Anti-Trumpers want me to hate him, pro-Trumpers want me to love him, but this is where I stand. There are things I agree with the president on…I don’t agree with the fact that, yes, we had a good economy while he was there, but he put us $8 trillion in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for,” she explained. “I don’t agree with how he handles national security,” Haley added. “He focused on trade with China, but he did nothing about the fentanyl flow. He did nothing about the fact that fentanyl has killed so many of our Americans.” Fox News Digital reached out to Haley’s campaign team for a response, but has not heard back. Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Maine secretary of state’s house ‘swatted’ day after Trump ballot disqualification decision
The home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was “swatted” Friday evening, police confirmed Saturday. Maine State Police responded after an unidentified man lied about having broken into the house. Bellows and her family were away at the time of the hoax call. The incident comes after Bellows disqualified former President Trump from the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot late Thursday, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection” over his alleged incitement of the Jan. 6 riot. MAINE GOP STATE LAWMAKER MOVES TO IMPEACH STATE SECRETARY OVER TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s position on the ballot. “Swatting” is when someone calls the police under dangerous false pretenses to trigger a law enforcement response, especially a SWAT team to a location. Some swatting calls in the past have ended in the victim being killed. An Ohio man was sentenced to prison in 2019 after a Kansas man he swatted was accidentally killed by police. On Saturday, Bellows called the swatting call “unacceptable” in a lengthy statement on Facebook. HOW RECENT ‘SWATTING’ CALLS TARGETING OFFICIALS MAY PROMPT HEAVIER PENALTIES FOR HOAX POLICE CALLS “Thank you for the messages of love and support,” she wrote. “I’ve been moved by every one and especially by those from friends and loved ones who disagree with my decision but have reached out to express love and respect.” Bellows added that her staff had faced “unacceptable” and “non-stop threatening communications” on Friday after her decision. “It’s designed to scare not only me but also others into silence, to send a message. I am so grateful to have such an amazing team of employees at the Department of Secretary of State. [Her husband] Brandon and I are grateful for incredible, dedicated support from law enforcement in this time.” Maine State Police said officers investigated Bellows’ home at her request and nothing suspicious was found. The investigation is ongoing. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP On Christmas Day, Republican U.S. Reps. Brandon Wiliams of New York and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia were also the targets of swatting calls. Then on Tuesday, Republican state Rep. Kevin D. Miller of Ohio reported that he was swatted.