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Day: June 12, 2025

FIRST ON FOX: High ranking DOJ official resigns post to run for attorney general in red state

FIRST ON FOX: High ranking DOJ official resigns post to run for attorney general in red state

FIRST ON FOX: Aaron Reitz, a top official in President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, has resigned his post in the administration to run for attorney general of Texas, entering what he is calling a “fight for the soul of Texas.”  Reitz, a former Marine and chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, served in the Trump administration under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi as the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy.  Following speculation of a possible run for Texas attorney general, one of the most powerful positions in the state, Reitz resigned his position with the DOJ on Wednesday and officially launched his campaign the day after.  “If we lose Texas, we lose the Republic,” Reitz said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. 205 ARRESTED IN FBI CHILD SEX OPERATION, PATEL AND BONDI ANNOUNCE “This is no time for half-measures or untested cowards,” he said, adding, “We are in a fight for the soul of Texas, our nation, and Western civilization itself.”   “As Attorney General, I’ll use every ounce of legal firepower to defend President Trump, crush the radical Left, advance the America and Texas First agenda, and look out for everyday Texans,” he said.  This comes as current Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is running in hopes of replacing incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in one of the most hotly contested primary races of the year.  Reitz pledged to partner with the Trump administration to “clean up the border catastrophe with mass deportations and enhanced border security, take down the Soros-backed district attorneys, obliterate woke indoctrination, expose and root out election fraud, and defend our Constitutional rights without apology.”  JOHN CORNYN SCORES TIM SCOTT ENDORSEMENT, BUT JOHN RICH CALLS CORNYN ‘THE LINDSEY GRAHAM OF TEXAS’ Reitz touted his conservative bona fides, saying, “I’ve spent my entire career in the trenches with the toughest conservatives in America.” He is likely to garner endorsements from some of the country’s leading Republicans, with DOJ officials, including Bondi, giving him a string of fond farewells after he announced his departure.  In an X post Bondi said: “I’m proud to have worked with @aaron_reitz at @TheJusticeDept. Aaron played a central role in our work to Make America Safe Again — his next chapter will surely contribute to @POTUS’s mission, and I look forward to seeing what Aaron does next in his home state of Texas!”  FBI Director Kash Patel also chimed in, saying “Aaron is a personal friend, great American, and a relentless advocate for law and order. Thanks for serving our country, now it’s time to deliver on his next mission. Good luck.” BONDI ANNOUNCES ONE OF LARGEST FENTANYL SEIZURES IN US HISTORY Before serving in the Trump administration and on Cruz’s staff, Reitz previously held the position of Texas Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy under Paxton.  In December, Paxton spoke very highly of Reitz, saying, “he’s a proven and effective fighter for our Constitution and American Values” who was “our ‘offensive coordinator’ leading my very aggressive Texas-v-Biden docket.”  Paxton said that while working in his office Reitz “spearheaded some of our agency’s most consequential actions on border security, immigration, Big Tech, Covid, energy, the environment, and election integrity.” Texas Republican state Senator Mayes Middleton, another pro-Trump conservative, is also running for attorney general. 

Walz, Hochul, Pritzker face off with Congress as Newsom battles Trump

Walz, Hochul, Pritzker face off with Congress as Newsom battles Trump

Democratic “sanctuary governors” will face a barrage of tough questions at a highly anticipated congressional hearing Thursday morning, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump continue to throw jabs over immigration policy. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will testify before the House Oversight Committee and sources tell Fox that Los Angeles riots over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and Newsom’s battle with Trump will likely be prominent topics of discussion.   GOP LEADERSHIP UNLEASHES FURY ON DEM GOVERNOR AHEAD OF BLOCKBUSTER CONGRESSIONAL HEARING Fox News Digital obtained opening remarks to be delivered by Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, which will set the tone for the fiery hearing.  “These Governors handcuff law enforcement from doing their jobs, harbor predators, and call it ‘compassion,’” Comer’s opening remarks explain. “It is NOT compassion, and it is costing lives, hurting Americans, and draining taxpayer money. Congress must consider whether to defund every single penny of federal dollars going to cities and states that prioritize criminal aliens over the American people.”  GAVIN NEWSOM MOCKED FOR TECH ISSUES DURING ANTI-TRUMP ADDRESS TO CALIFORNIANS: ‘ABSOLUTE FAIL’ “Americans want a return to common sense. The Trump Administration and this Republican Congress aims to restore our safety and sovereignty. It is past time for these governors to put Americans first.” All three Democratic governors testifying at the hearing sided with Newsom in a statement Sunday addressing Trump’s use of the National Guard to dispel riots that have been raging over the past few days in Los Angeles. Rioters set cars on fire, looted businesses, and clashed with law enforcement.  “We stand with Governor Newsom who has made it clear that violence is unacceptable and that local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation,” the statement signed by Walz, Pritzker, and Hochul reads. LOS ANGELES BUSINESS OWNERS ‘SICK AND TIRED’ OF ‘STUPID’ ANTI-ICE RIOTERS LOOTING THEIR STORES Since LA’s riots, protests over President Trump’s immigration policies have since spread to Pritzker and Hochul’s states on Tuesday with large gatherings in Lower Manhattan in New York and Federal Plaza in Chicago, blocking off streets and causing disruptions. Fox News Digital also received J.B. Pritzker’s opening remarks, where the governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate said his state “could not simply ignore the suffering” illegal migrants faced in Illionis. “The crisis at the southern border in recent years has been devastating; the response from some of our political leaders even more so,” Prtizker’s statement reads. “As individuals fleeing poverty, violence, and persecution arrived at our border, our nation’s leaders were confronted with a choice: would we do everything possible to make the promise of America the practice of America?”  JB PRITZKER RIPS TRUMP AS ‘AUTHORITARIAN,’ RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT CALLING OUT HIS WEIGHT “Some border state governors and mayors abandoned our nation’s highest ideals – instead of choosing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to treat people as pawns, busing them to states like ours in a dehumanizing attempt to leverage the crisis for political gain. The State of Illinois chose a different path.” Republican members on the Oversight Committee spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of Thursday’s action, saying the three governors testifying “are willing to trade public safety for left-wing virtue signaling.” “Democrat-run sanctuary states shield criminal aliens from federal immigration enforcement, put law enforcement in unnecessary danger, and disregard the safety of millions of Americans,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told Fox News Digital. “Seventy-seven million people gave President Trump a mandate last November to put an end to the Democrats’ prioritization of illegal aliens over American citizens. And he’s doing just that.”  NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS DETAIN ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS IN LOS ANGELES UNDER TRUMP’S ORDERS “To folks like Walz, Hochul and Pritzker, sanctuary state policies are a badge of honor. They are willing to trade public safety for left-wing virtue signaling,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, explained to Fox News Digital.  “Perhaps Governor Gavin Newsom will take a break from defying federal authority to tune in and see why Americans are fleeing California in droves to escape his failed policies that invite illegal migrant crime and anarchist thugs,” Fallon added.  The stage is set for the hearing, which will take place on Thursday at 10 AM eastern time. Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul and Walz but did not receive a response. 

Air India flight crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 people on board

Air India flight crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 people on board

An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board has crashed in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, the airline says. Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff on Thursday, and an adjacent multistorey building. The airline said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of those, Air India said, there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, told The Associated Press news agency that Air India Flight 171 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38pm (08:08 GMT). He said 244 people were on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers. All efforts were being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X. Advertisement The 787 Dreamliner is a wide-body, twin-engine plane. This is the first crash ever of the aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing said it was aware of the reports of the crash and was “working to gather more information”. The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people. The deadliest air disaster in India was on November 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 people on board the two planes. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Catastrophic’ Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad: What we know

‘Catastrophic’ Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad: What we know

An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane has crashed close to an airport on the edge of India’s western city of Ahmedabad with at least 242 people on board. According to Reuters, rescue workers said between 30 and 35 bodies had been recovered from the crash site in a densely populated area of the city. So far, no survivors have been reported. Flight AI171 was headed to London Gatwick Airport on Thursday where it was due to land at 6:25pm local time (17:25 GMT). “Of these [on board], 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals,” Air India said in a statement. The airline described the incident as “a tragic accident”. “Many people” have died in the crash, the country’s health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda wrote in a post on X. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. “Have been in touch with ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected.” Advertisement This incident is the latest in a series of serious and fatal events in the civil aviation industry this year, including a midair collision in Washington in January between a military helicopter and an aircraft. Where and when did the plane crash? The plane crashed in a residential area called Meghani Nagar, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, told The Associated Press. The city of 7-8 million people is in President Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Modi has directed the Ministry of Civil Aviation to take “all possible action” to assist at the crash site. There is a large Gujarat population in Great Britain, and the Ahmedabad-London route is a popular one. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the plane’s final signal was received just seconds after takeoff at 1:38pm local time (08:08 GMT). It had reached an altitude of 625 feet (190 metres) before crashing back to the ground outside the airport, close to densely populated residential areas on the outskirts of the city. The plane issued a mayday alert to air traffic control before all communications from the aircraft ceased. Ahmedabad airport has been closed and all flight operations have been suspended until further notice. Wreckage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner lies at the site, showing part of its registration ‘VT-ANB’, where the Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025 [Amit Dave/Reuters] What do we know about the crash site? Footage shared on social media of the crash site showed debris on fire, with huge plumes of thick, black smoke rising into the sky near the airport. Advertisement They also showed people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances. India’s CNN News-18 TV channels said the plane crashed on top of the dining area of state-run B.J. Medical College hostel, killing many medical students as well. It showed a visual of a portion of the aircraft perched atop the building. “The building on which it has crashed is a doctors’ hostel…We have cleared almost 70 percent to 80 percent of the area and will clear the rest soon,” a senior police officer also told reporters. Local journalist Sunil Vaidya told Al Jazeera: “The crash site is very close to a civil hospital where there is a medical college,” he said. “It is quite possible that students studying there are staying in a hostel nearby.” How bad is this incident? This could be a very serious crash, experts say. Alex Macheras, an independent aviation analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Boeing 787 is a long-haul craft, which means it has capacity for a large number of passengers. “This is probably going to be one of the worst aviation incidents for Indian aviation history in recent decades,” Macheras said. However, he added that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, of which there are 1,100 in operation around the world, has a very good track record for safety. “There has never been a fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner before this,” Macheras said. He said the incident would raise serious questions about what could have gone wrong with this flight and why the aircraft was “struggling to gain altitude” after takeoff. Advertisement What do we know about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner craft? “The 787 has been in service for 15 years – this is a mid to long-haul passenger aircraft, one of the latest from Boeing in terms of the development and the introduction of carbon-fibre aircraft,” Macheras told Al Jazeera. “It provides airlines with immense efficiency but also with the promise of stellar safety record that the 787 has. In fact, in its 15 years of commercial service globally, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has never been involved in a crash or a whole loss or a fatal accident,” Macheras said. “So combined, it’s an aircraft that the industry knows is of the highest standards in terms of meeting safety regulations globally, across different markets but also one that is trusted and essentially a workhorse of the skies when it comes to long-haul travel”. Macheras added that he is hearing from executives within the aviation industry who are “utterly shocked” at the footage. They “can’t quite believe that an aircraft with an impeccable safety record was involved in something that looks like is going to be so catastrophic”, he said. What are the authorities doing now? ANI news agency reported that at least 90 emergency response workers are currently deployed at the site of the crash. India’s Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said he was “shocked and devastated” by the plane crash. “I am personally monitoring the situation and have directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action. Rescue teams have been mobilised, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site.” Advertisement “My thoughts and

Gaza boy who lost 9 siblings speaks out as he’s evacuated to Italy

Gaza boy who lost 9 siblings speaks out as he’s evacuated to Italy

NewsFeed Video shows 11-year-old Adam al-Najjar arriving in Italy for treatment after surviving an Israeli strike that killed his father and nine siblings. As he speaks about the attack and his injuries, the UN says Israel is waging a “war on children.” Published On 12 Jun 202512 Jun 2025 Adblock test (Why?)