ISRO’s PSLV rocket carrying ESA satellites Proba-3 lifts off, WATCH here
Proba-3 mission, consisting of two satellites, will study the Corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere.
At this Fort Worth charter school, Texas adults are getting a second chance at a diploma
The Texas Legislature has prioritized getting high school dropouts the skills they need to enter the workforce.
Texas weighs social media bans for minors as schools and police face challenges
A Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill prohibiting minors from using social media accounts as school districts become a “hunting ground” for online dangers.
BJP alleges LoP Rahul Gandhi ‘traitor of highest order’, trying to destabilise India
BJP MPs K Laxman and Sambit Patra cited a report in the French media outlet ‘Mediapart’ to target Gandhi after the ruling party raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, which was adjourned amid noisy interventions by both sides.
Senate DOGE leader Ernst to take on government telework abuse at first meeting with Musk, Ramaswamy
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Joni Ernst is rolling out a proposal for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that would reduce government employee telework and sell empty government office space. Ernst, R-Iowa, is the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus and has been working with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy since President-elect Trump tapped them to lead the new agency. Musk and Ramaswamy will visit Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with Republican lawmakers to discuss ways to reduce government waste. MUSK, RAMASWAMY TO DISCUSS DOGE PLANS WITH GOP LAWMAKERS Ernst will roll out her new proposal and a 60-page report during her first Senate DOGE Caucus meeting Thursday morning, which Musk and Ramaswamy are expected to attend. House Speaker Mike Johnson will then hold an event with Musk and Ramaswamy Thursday afternoon for all Republican legislators in the House and Senate, which Ernst will attend. Ernst has been investigating telework abuse for two years and based her recommendations to DOGE on her findings. First, Ernst proposes the federal government relocate Washington’s workforce across the country. Ernst suggested legislation that would relocate the headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies outside Washington to areas with “existing expertise for carrying out the mission and goals of each.” MUSK AND RAMASWAMY LAY OUT DOGE VISION IN WSJ OP-ED: 5 TAKEAWAYS She also proposed legislation to relocate at least 30% of the employees from Washington, D.C., headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies to field offices in communities across the country. Ernst also suggested that the White House and executive branch agencies consider relocating some staff, without any congressional directive. Next, Ernst is proposing Congress set a goal for all federal government agencies to achieve a 60% daily occupancy at their headquarters, while noting that, currently, not a single agency sees even half capacity occupancy. “There are thousands of other government buildings around the country sitting totally vacant and unused,” the report states. “Much of this is leased space. “There is a simple answer,” the report continues. “Use it or lose it!” Ernst proposed that the General Services Administration auction “vacant, unneeded, and underutilized buildings and property without unnecessary strings and conditions.” She said agencies should “immediately cancel or allow to expire the $15 million worth of underutilized leased office space and property.” “Not a single headquarters of a major agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full,” Ernst’s report said. “Government buildings average an occupancy rate of 12%.” According to the report, maintaining and leasing government office buildings costs approximately $8 billion every year, with another $7.7 billion spent on the energy to keep them up and running. Ernst said the government owns 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are partially empty. She proposed that Congress pass a bipartisan bill, the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA) Reform Act to extend the Public Buildings Reform Board’s mission identifying unused properties for the government to sell. She also proposed Congress pass legislation that requires the “reduction and consolidation of unused space to ensure all buildings achieve a utilization rate of 60 percent or more.” Meanwhile, Ernst is proposing that performance determine whether a federal employee may work from home. Ernst proposed that Congress pass nearly half a dozen bills that would “make telework transparent and accountable.” COMER TO CREATE DOGE SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRED BY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TO WORK WITH ELON MUSK, VIVEK RAMASWAMY Ernst also noted that federal employees have been “padding their paychecks” by claiming to be working in areas with higher pay rates, while actually living elsewhere. “My audits are finding as many as 23-68% of teleworking employees for some agencies are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay,” she said. “Some employees live more than 2,000 miles away from their office, and one ‘temporary’ teleworker collected higher locality pay for nearly a decade.” Ernst will introduce her proposal to Musk and Ramaswamy during Thursday’s meeting, after the two said they are largely focused on how DOGE could assist in identifying waste and regulations that could be eliminated through the executive branch. Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of the legislature when President-elect Trump returns to office in January.
Trump assassination attempt task force holds final hearing; Secret Service director to testify
The House task force on the two assassination attempts of President-elect Trump will gather for its final hearing Thursday ahead of the release of its highly anticipated report. U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Director Ronald Rowe will testify before lawmakers. Task force members will then huddle behind closed doors to consider their final report. Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said the hearing was about restoring confidence in federal law enforcement. “What we’re working on more than anything else is the public has to know what happened that day because there’s still a lot of confusion about it,” Kelly told Fox News Digital Wednesday. TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT TASK FORCE SAYS ATF ‘FAILED TO PRODUCE’ REQUESTED MATERIALS “When we look at Secret Service, that’s always the elite of the elite. So, I think what we’re trying to do is establish the situation where … we can restore that confidence.” Trump held a rally in Kelly’s district July 13, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on the event from just outside its security perimeter, injuring Trump and others. One rally attendee was killed. Later in September, USSS agents opened fire on a 58-year-old man who had a rifle aimed at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where the president-elect was out for the day. TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: SECRET SERVICE FAILURES MAY WARRANT DISCIPLINE, AGENCY REPORT SAYS The incidents prompted heavy scrutiny of the USSS and its security practices and led to the ouster of USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle. And while Kelly admitted he “would have rather had” Cheatle testify before his task force, he praised Rowe’s handling of the situation since succeeding her. “From the very start, he said, ‘Look, it was entirely our fault. This is the worst state the Secret Service has ever had,’” he said. SECRET SERVICE KNEW AIRSPACE PROTECTION WOULD END WITH FORMER PRESIDENT ONSTAGE Kelly said he anticipated the final report being released around Dec. 13, the task force’s “due date” for producing the results of its investigation. The panel released an interim report in late October detailing “a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.” USSS personnel at the event “did not give clear guidance” to state and local authorities about how to manage security outside their hard perimeter, nor was there a central meeting between USSS and the law enforcement agencies supporting them the morning of the rally, according to findings presented as key failures in the 51-page report.
House Ethics Committee to meet with vote on releasing Gaetz report looming
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet Thursday after the panel failed to come to an agreement last month on whether to release its report about former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. The report could still be made public, however, even if history repeats itself. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., moved to force a vote on releasing the report via a measure known as a “privileged resolution” Tuesday. Designating a resolution “privileged” gives House leaders two legislative days to consider it, putting that deadline on Thursday. The House Ethics Committee has been conducting a years-long investigation into accusations against Gaetz that involve sex with a minor and illicit drug use. HACKER OBTAINS HOUSE ETHICS TESTIMONY ON MATT GAETZ AS TRUMP MAKES CALLS FOR AG NOMINEE Gaetz has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and a parallel federal investigation into the Florida congressman ended without him being charged. The House Ethics Committee’s investigation came to an abrupt halt last month after he resigned from Congress, hours after President-elect Trump tapped him to be his attorney general. Gaetz dropped out of consideration amid quiet but steady GOP opposition, but the committee lost jurisdiction over the probe when Gaetz left the House of Representatives. His resignation came just before the committee was expected to meet to consider releasing the report. That meeting wound up taking place roughly a week later and ended on a tense note. GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR? Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters there was no agreement on releasing the report, while the remainder of the normally secretive committee said little to journalists crowded outside the meeting room. His comments prompted Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the committee, to return and criticize Guest for discussing the meeting at all. “We just concluded a two-hour meeting of the ethics committee, and it was not my intention to make any comment. I walked out of this committee without making one and walked back to my office,” Wild began. “We had agreed that we were not going to discuss what had transpired at the meeting. But it has come to my attention that the chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report.” She called it “untrue to the extent that that suggests that the committee was in agreement or that we had a consensus on that.” But with Gaetz now out of the running for attorney general, there is likely not as much pressure on Republicans to consent to releasing the report. A significant number of GOP lawmakers who suggested they would be open to it argued it was in the public’s best interest to see the report if Gaetz were to lead the Department of Justice, a factor no longer in play.
Musk, Ramaswamy visit Capitol Hill to discuss Trump’s DOGE vision for cutting government waste
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are expected to visit Capitol Hill Thursday morning to meet with Republican lawmakers in both chambers of Congress to discuss ways to reduce waste in the federal government just weeks after the creation of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur, are the co-heads of the new agency created by President-elect Trump to root out government waste. The two will visit Washington, D.C., for meetings with top lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate, signaling they will work alongside Congress to slash abuse of taxpayer money. MUSK, RAMASWAMY TO DISCUSS DOGE PLANS WITH GOP LAWMAKERS Musk and Ramswamy are expected to attend the first Senate DOGE Caucus meeting Thursday morning. The caucus is chaired by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. Later, the pair will cross to the other side of the Capitol for a bicameral event hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who invited legislators from both the House and Senate to the event. Johnson, in his save-the-date announcement, said he plans to discuss “major reform ideas” with Musk and Ramaswamy to “achieve regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings,” while also reviving “the principle of limited government.” Johnson declared that Trump “has made this possible.” Musk and Ramaswamy are wasting no time laying out their vision for slashing government bloat through DOGE. The pair penned an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal last month, explaining how the outside-government agency will operate to determine suggestions for cuts. The entrepreneurs have vowed to scrap entire government agencies through the DOGE initiative, which they intend to wrap up by July 4, 2026. MUSK AND RAMASWAMY LAY OUT DOGE VISION IN WSJ OP-ED: 5 TAKEAWAYS In their op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy largely focused on how DOGE could assist in identifying waste and regulations that could be eliminated through the executive branch. Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of the legislature when Trump returns to office in January, and many GOP lawmakers have already expressed interest in assisting the agency. In the House, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he will establish the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, which will be chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to work with DOGE. The subcommittee is expected to investigate wasteful spending, examine ways to reorganize federal agencies to improve efficiency and identify solutions to eliminate bureaucratic red tape. COMER TO CREATE DOGE SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRED BY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TO WORK WITH ELON MUSK, VIVEK RAMASWAMY Sources told Fox News Digital Comer and Ramaswamy have already met to discuss how best to work together. Trump said last month he hopes DOGE will become the “Manhattan Project of our time,” a reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s secretive atomic bomb endeavor during World War II. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of DOGE for a very long time,” Trump said.
Trump trumps Biden as president-elect overshadows White House incumbent on world stage
President Biden is returning to the White House after a history-making trip to Angola this week, as Biden became the first American president to visit the sub-Saharan African nation. But Biden, likely on his last overseas trip before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in the White House next month, is already being overshadowed on the world stage by his predecessor and successor. “While President-elect is still weeks away from taking the oath of office, loyalties and the attention of world leaders has shifted to the incoming President and from Washington to Mar-a-lago with breathtaking speed,” Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and president of New England College, told Fox News. Matt Mowers, a veteran GOP national public affairs strategist and former diplomat at the State Department during Trump’s first administration, made the case that “Joe Biden’s essentially been a lame duck” for months and that “world leaders have been shifting their gaze to the next administration.” WHAT TRUMP TOLD CANADA’S LEADER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS While members of the Biden White House would likely disagree with such sentiments – especially after the current administration played a large role in hammering out the cease-fire that halted fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah – it is undeniable that world leaders have already started to engage directly with the incoming president and administration. TRUMP GETS READY TO MAKE A SPLASH ON THE WORLD STAGE Trump will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron after the French president invited him to attend Saturday’s star-studded VIP event for the official reopening of the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a devastating fire wrecked the Paris landmark. The president-elect’s appearance will serve as Trump’s unofficial return to the global stage, and it is another reminder that he is quickly becoming the center of the world’s attention. The trip to Paris comes a week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hastily made an unannounced stop in Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump after the president-elect threatened a trade war with Canada and Mexico. Trump argued that Canada had failed to prevent large amounts of drugs and undocumented people from crossing the northern border into the U.S. and also pointed to America’s massive trade deficit with Canada. According to reporting from Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump suggested to Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state. Trump also weighed in this week in the volatile Middle East, warning in a social media post that there would be “ALL HELL TO PAY” if Hamas does not release all the hostages held in Gaza before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20. Hours later, Trump pledged to block the purchase of U.S. Steel – a top American manufacturer – by the Japanese company Nippon Steel. “I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan,” Trump said on social media. “As President, I will block this deal from happening.” Trump, who reiterated comments he made earlier this year on the presidential campaign trail, is on the same page as Biden, who has vowed that U.S. Steel will remain American-owned. Biden’s trip to Africa is putting a spotlight on his administration’s commitment to the continent, which has increasingly been courted by massive investments from China. Biden is also highlighting America’s wide-ranging effort to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa, a continent Trump never visited during his first term in the White House. However, the president’s trip was overshadowed by Trump’s upcoming stop in France, as the president-elect is increasingly courted by world leaders. While the spotlight traditionally shifts from the outgoing to the incoming president, Mowers argued that “it is more pronounced this time because the difference in the Biden and Trump approach to foreign policy is so different.” Mowers emphasized that Trump is already aiming “to shape world events” by “being bold, not timid, in the statements he’s putting out, and the world is already reacting to that kind of American strength.” “World leaders that want to get something done… have to engage with Trump,” he added. Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who served at the State Department during Trump’s first term, told Fox News that “the world is demanding leadership” and that “the Oval Office has been replaced by Mar-a-Lago.” Lesperance, pointing to Biden’s swing through Africa, noted that lame duck presidents’ final weeks are “usually filled with celebratory moments and efforts to cement one’s legacy. Often the focus is on their role on the world stage on behalf of America and its allies.’ However, he argued that “Biden’s pronouncements on Ukraine, Gaza and the importance of climate change go largely ignored by world leaders. Instead, they focus on Trump’s picks for his foreign policy team and pronouncements about changes in U.S. foreign policy position. It’s pretty evident that while Biden attempts a victory tour, the world has turned the page.”
US says ‘Salt Typhoon’ Chinese hacking group behind major metadata theft
Senior US official says that dozens of telecoms providers around the world have been targeted as China slams cybersecurity ‘slander’. Chinese hackers have stolen the metadata of a large number of Americans in a wide-ranging cyber-espionage campaign that has targeted at least eight United States telecom firms, as well as dozens of other countries, officials say. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said on Wednesday that the hacking group, dubbed Salt Typhoon, gained access to communications of senior US government officials and political figures, but that “classified communications” had not been compromised. A senior official, speaking while US government agencies gave senators a closed-door briefing on the matter on Wednesday, said “the Chinese government” had focused on “a large number of individuals” in the ongoing campaign, which has targeted dozens of telecommunications and telecom infrastructure companies around the world, including “at least” eight US providers. This is not the first alleged Chinese breach of US data. In October, federal authorities confirmed hackers linked to China targeted then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance, along with people associated with Vice President Kamala Harris. Advertisement US officials have previously alleged Chinese hackers hacked Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Lumen and others. T-Mobile said it does not believe hackers got access to its customer information. Lumen said there is no evidence customer data was accessed on its network. On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Washington rejected accusations that it was responsible for the hack after US federal authorities issued new guidance for telecom companies on areas like encryption and monitoring. “The US needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cybersecurity to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. Call record metadata does not include the content of a call but can include who a call was placed to, how long it lasted, and where it was made from. Even without the content, call record metadata – especially when captured in bulk – can reveal extraordinarily granular details about a person’s life, work and intimate relationships. A Senate commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on December 11 on Salt Typhoon and security threats to communications networks. Adblock test (Why?)