Federal judge orders NC to certify Supreme Court election results with Democrat leading
A federal judge on Monday ordered the North Carolina elections board to certify results showing Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of the state Supreme Court race against Republican Jefferson Griffin, ruling that thousands of contested ballots in the November contest must remain in the final count. U.S. District Judge Richard Myers – who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019 – agreed with Riggs and others who argued it would violate the U.S. Constitution to carry out recent decisions by state appeals courts that could remove potentially thousands of ballots for overseas military and their family members who were not required to attach a copy of their photo IDs, as well as ballots for a category of “Never Residents,” or U.S. citizens with family ties to North Carolina who have never lived in the United States. Myers wrote that votes could not be removed six months after Election Day without damaging due process or equal protection rights of the affected residents. Myers ordered the State Board of Elections to certify results that, after two recounts, had Riggs as the winner — by just 734 votes — over Griffin. FEDERAL JUDGE KICKS BATTLE OVER NC SUPREME COURT ELECTION BACK TO STATE COURT “The State Board SHALL certify the results of the election for Seat 6 based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period on December 10, 2024,” Myers wrote, denying Griffin’s petitions for judicial review and injunctive relief. The judge delayed his order for seven days in case Griffin wants to appeal the ruling to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. More than 5.5 million ballots were cast in what has been the nation’s last undecided race from November’s elections. Myers said the “case concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals.” The board “must not proceed with implementation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court’s orders, and instead must certify the results of the election for (the seat) based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period,” Myers wrote. Griffin, himself a state Court of Appeals judge, filed formal protests after the election in hopes that removing ballots he said were unlawfully cast would flip the outcome to him. Griffin’s legal team was reviewing Myers’ order Monday night and evaluating the next steps, Griffin campaign spokesperson Paul Shumaker told the Associated Press. FEDERAL JUDGE WEIGHS IN ON LAST UNDECIDED 2024 ELECTION “Today, we won,” Riggs said in a statement. “I‘m proud to continue upholding the Constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina’s Supreme Court Justice.” Griffin wanted Myers to leave undisturbed the state courts’ decisions, which also directed that most of the voters with otherwise ineligible ballots get 30 days to provide identifying information for their race choices to remain in the tally. Riggs, the state Democratic Party and some affected voters said Griffin was trying to change the 2024 election outcome after the fact by removing ballots cast by voters who complied with voting rules as they were written last fall. Myers wrote that Griffin’s formal protests after the election, which were rejected by the State Board of Elections, constituted efforts to make retroactive changes to the voting laws that would arbitrarily disenfranchise only the voters who were targeted by Griffin. Griffin’s challenges over voters not providing photo identification only covered at most six Democratic-leaning counties in the state. “You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done,” Myers wrote in a 68-page order. “Permitting parties to ‘upend the set rules’ of an election after the election has taken place can only produce ‘confusion and turmoil’” that “‘threatens to undermine public confidence in the federal courts, state agencies, and the elections themselves,’” he added. One category of ballots that state appellate courts found to be ineligible covered military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification or an ID exception form with their absentee ballots. A state rule exempted them from the requirement. The appeals courts had permitted a “cure” process for these voters, so their ballots could still count in the race. The other category of ballots that the appellate courts declared violated the state constitution were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were declared North Carolina residents. A state law had authorized these persons to vote in state elections. Griffin filed formal protests that appeared to cover more than 65,000 ballots. Ensuing state court rulings whittled down the total to between 1,675 and 7,000, according to court filings. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kamala Harris takes next step in return to political stage
Former Vice President Kamala Harris headlines a top-dollar Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner on Tuesday, marking the latest step back into the political spotlight by the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee. The New York City gathering of top party officials, politicians and donors, where tickets range upwards of $25,000 per person, according to an invitation obtained by Fox News, comes as Harris is mulling her political future after last November’s election defeat at the hands of Republican President Donald Trump. Among her campaign options that she’s weighing is a 2026 run for the open governor’s seat in her home state of California and another bid in 2028 for the White House. The event also comes as the Democratic Party, facing historically low favorable ratings in national polling, aims to leave the political wilderness after the party lost control of the White House and the Senate and fell short in its bid to regain the House majority in the 2024 elections. KAMALA HARRIS REVEALS POLITICAL TIMETABLE FOR MAKING KEY DECISION And it is being held as an increasingly angry and energized base of Democrats is pushing for party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against Trump’s sweeping and controversial agenda during the opening months of his second administration. “Kamala Harris understands the fight that we are in,” DNC committee member and veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told Fox News. She added that “Kamala Harris is a beloved figure in the Democratic Party.” “The DNC is using every tool in their toolbox to bring people together, to get people excited about the campaigns that are coming in the next two cycles,” said Cardona, a member of the DNC’s influential Rules and Bylaws committee. “I think it’s super smart for the DNC to use her, to use every other elected [official], to use governors, to use former administration officials. … I think this is just par for the course for what the DNC needs to do going forward.” CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING AND OPINION ON FORMER VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS The fundraiser is being held the day after the president helped haul in big bucks as he headlined a gathering of major donors at one of his golf courses in Virginia for MAGA Inc., which was the top Trump-aligned super PAC during the 2024 election cycle. Harris proved her fundraising prowess last year, hauling in over $1 billion during her three-and-a-half-month White House campaign after replacing then-President Joe Biden atop the Democrats’ national ticket in late July, amid mounting questions over the then-81-year-old president’s physical and mental stamina. “She raised an eye-popping record amount of money,” Cardona noted. “She is still a tremendous draw for the Democratic faithful and donors and that will continue to be the case going forward.” The DNC is using much of the money brought in at its fundraisers to build its ground operations and messaging efforts ahead of next year’s midterm elections. A top progressive leader agreed that using Harris to help fundraise for the DNC makes sense. HERE ARE THE DEMOCRATS WHO MAY EVENTUALLY RUN FOR WHITE HOUSE IN 2028 But Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a major grassroots organization that promotes economic populism and democracy through electoral and issue advocacy efforts, pointed to Harris’ 2024 setback as well as her flameout in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary when asked about how the left would receive a potential 2028 White House bid by Harris. “She had her chance. Sometimes you have to know when to step away,” Green told Fox News. He argued that Harris felt more like a candidate from the party’s establishment than a shake-up of the system, populist, during her two presidential campaigns, and that the more voters got to know her, the less they supported her. Harris’ appearance at Tuesday’s DNC fundraiser, where she’ll take part in a question-and-answer session with national party chair Ken Martin, comes a week after she made some of her first major public remarks since her 2024 defeat. The former vice president at an event in San Francisco took aim at Trump’s economic agenda. She said the president’s controversial implementation of tariffs, which initially triggered a massive stock market selloff, “as I predicted, are clearly inviting a recession.” The stepped-up appearances by Harris come as she continues to meet with advisors and friends as she considers her political future. A source in the former vice president’s political orbit confirmed to Fox News Digital two months ago that Harris had told allies she would decide by the end of summer on whether to launch a 2026 gubernatorial campaign. TOP TRUMP ALLY TEASES BID FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR IF HARRIS RUNS Harris served as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and represented the Golden State in the U.S. Senate before joining Biden’s 2020 ticket and winning election as vice president. And Harris would be considered the clear frontrunner for governor in heavily blue California in the race to succeed term-limited Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom. Meanwhile, extremely early polls in the next Democratic Party presidential nomination race, which are heavily reliant on name recognition at this point, indicate that the former vice president holds a significant lead over other potential White House contenders. It is unlikely she could do both. Running and winning election in 2026 as governor of California, the nation’s most populous state and home to the world’s fifth-largest economy, would likely take a 2028 White House run off the table, allies and political analysts have indicated. While no decisions have been made, the former vice president has vowed to remain politically involved. Harris, in a video message to the Democratic National Committee as it huddled for its winter meeting in early February, pledged to be with the party “every step of the way.” And in an early April speech in California, Harris reiterated that she’ll stay politically active, noting that “I’m not going anywhere.” 2028 WATCH: VIRAL VIDEO SPARKS MORE AOC SPECULATION But Harris is far from
US intel agencies say Venezuelan regime doesn’t direct Tren de Aragua gang, undercutting Trump admin: report
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime does not direct the activities of the Tren de Aragua, according to a newly public memo released by U.S. intelligence agencies last month. The memo, published Monday by the New York Times, undercuts President Donald Trump’s justifications for using the Alien Enemies Act to facilitate deportations. The report represents the “sense of the community” of the National Intelligence Council and states they have not found a direct link between Maduro’s regime and TdA leadership. “While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the report states. “The IC bases this judgment on Venezuelan law enforcement actions demonstrating the regime treats TDA as a threat; an uneasy mix of cooperation and confrontation rather than top-down directives [that] characterize the regime’s ties to other armed groups; and the decentralized makeup of TDA that would make such a relationship logistically challenging,” the memo continues. FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING While the memo cuts against the claim that support for TdA is a direct policy from Maduro’s regime, it does note that FBI analysts agree that “some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members’ migration from Venezuela to the United States and use members as proxies … to advance what they see as the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety in these countries.” NOEM RIPS DEMOCRATS OVER SUPPORT FOR DEPORTED MIGRANT The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing, has been invoked three times, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. Trump’s administration declared in March that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years or older who are members of TdA, are within the U.S. and are not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the U.S. may be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as “alien enemies.” Key to the White House’s argument is its claim that TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolás Maduro regime-sponsored narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela. In 2020, Maduro and other regime members were charged with narco-terrorism and other crimes in an alleged plot against America. Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
Democrat floats work visa suggestion in response to Trump admin’s $1,000 self-deportation offer
The Department of Homeland Security is offering $1,000 to illegal aliens who opt to self-deport via the CBP Home App, but Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., floated the idea of charging fines and granting work visas instead. “Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior,” he asked in a Monday post on X. Gallego suggested in another post that immigrants would pay for the cost of their background check. DHS UNLEASHES POSSIBLE MONEY-SAVING MEASURE FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS TO SELF-DEPORT: ‘SAFEST OPTION’ “Make them pay. That is what we do now for other immigrants. Part of the filing fee,” noted Gallego, who defeated Republican Kari Lake in Arizona’s 2024 U.S. Senate contest. The $1,000 offer comes as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration and seeks to conduct a mass deportation effort. ICE NABS ILLEGAL MIGRANT AFTER BLUE CITY AUTHORITIES DROP HOME INVASION, CHILD ABDUCTION CHARGES “Any illegal alien who uses the CBP Home App to self-deport will also receive a stipend of $1,000 dollars, paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app,” a DHS release noted. “Even with the cost of the stipend, it is projected that the use of CBP Home will decrease the costs of a deportation by around 70 percent. Currently, the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien is $17,121.” DHS also indicates that illegal aliens will receive travel assistance to return to their home country. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED BY BIDEN ADMIN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO MURDER OF GEORGIA GRANDMOTHER CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The first use of travel assistance has already proven successful. An illegal alien that the Biden Administration allowed into our country recently utilized the program to receive a ticket for a flight from Chicago to Honduras. Additional tickets have already been booked for this week and the following week,” DHS noted.
The Texas Lottery and billions in school funding in limbo as deadline nears at Capitol
Lawmakers must act on two bills in order to ensure the lottery continues past September, or find a way to make up the $2 billion for schools the game provides yearly.
Lawmakers want to expand Texas’ teacher pay raise program. Many educators will still be left out.
The Teacher Incentive Allotment gives raises to teachers based on performance. But it leaves out many educators and school staff who contribute to students’ success.
China and Egypt wrap first joint military exercise as Beijing looks to cozy up to American allies
Egypt and China wrapped up their first-ever joint military exercises on Sunday, in a show of force involving the U.S.’ top rival and one of its top recipients of military aid. Running from mid-April until Sunday, the drills consisted of joint aerial exercises, simulated air combat and modern warfare lectures. China deployed its J-10C fighter jets, KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft and Y-20 transport tankers in a display of its military prowess beyond Asia, according to footage posted by Chinese state media outlet CCTV. Egypt has, in recent years, also purchased large amounts of military machinery from Russia, prompting questions about how the U.S. should address a top Middle East ally and aid recipient growing closer to its biggest adversaries. CHINESE FIRM AIDING HOUTHI ATTACKS ON US VESSELS “We’ve never seen a crisis like this,” said Joel Rubin, a former senior State Department official who worked on the Egypt desk under former President George W. Bush and pens “The Briefing Book” on Substack. “Egypt is essentially flouting us right now and looking to China, looking for more stable, long-term partners after nearly four and a half decades of stability in terms of the peace deal under Camp David.” Egypt operates a number of U.S.-made aircraft – F-16 fighter aircraft, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters – and is slated to receive C-130 J transport aircraft. Egypt also possesses 32 American Patriot missile defense systems. The China-Egypt Eagles of Civilization 2025 is expected to bolster Beijing’s ties to Africa’s strongest military and a longtime strategic U.S. ally. Egypt has received roughly $1.3 billion each year in U.S. military aid since the Camp David Accords that normalized relations between Israel and Egypt. That figure puts it behind only Israel, which scores around $3.8 in U.S. military aid. Ukraine receives more aid than Egypt and Israel, but only since Russia’s invasion – prior to 2022, it got between $200 and $350 million each year. ISRAEL APPROVES PLAN TO CAPTURE ALL OF GAZA, CALLS UP TENS OF THOUSANDS OF RESERVE TROOPS When the Trump administration took office and froze all foreign aid, Egypt and Israel were the only two nations who were exempted from the freeze. Egypt partners with U.S. security forces across the region to fight terrorism in places like Iraq and Syria. The Camp David Accords, per Rubin, were the “final piece to the puzzle that peeled off the most important Arab military from the Soviet Union.” Prior to the accords, Egypt was aligned with Russia’s priorities in the Middle East. “It was about getting them into our column, and this is a sign they may be again moving into a different column.” Around $300 million of U.S. military aid to Egypt can be conditioned on human rights concerns, and that money has been frozen and unfrozen in recent years due to complaints about Egypt’s human rights record under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. “Cairo’s hedging tactics are not new. This has been a slow and steady effort, and this exercise marks a clear escalation. For Cairo, they want to diversify their patrons. Washington has long conditioned its aid to Egypt on human rights and democratization efforts. While the U.S. has routinely issued waivers on these conditions and allowed the aid to flow, Cairo does not want to remain beholden to Washington,” said Mariam Wahba, an Egypt-focused researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. However, with a new administration with little appetite for foreign aid, Egypt may be concerned that further aid cuts are on the table. “This exercise should certainly sound the alarm in Washington,” said Wahba. The exercises, according to former Deputy Assistance Secretary of Defense Simone Ledeen, “are both about capability building and sending a geopolitical signal.” “Egypt is hedging, showing the U.S. it has options,” added Ledeen, who worked in the first Trump administration. “China is making clear it intends to expand its influence in the Mediterranean. Everyone should be paying attention.” The latest development, according to Rubin, calls for “very agile diplomacy.” “It’s indicative of the broader global uncertainty and panic about the Trump administration’s position towards international affairs,” he said. “If we do threaten in a way that pushes them out, then even if we might feel justified morally, we could potentially be losing a crucial ally and partner, one that has significant impact on global shipping routes, counterterrorism work across the Arab Middle East, and we would be giving China a toe hold right into the heart of the Middle East at the worst possible time.”
NASA backs Trump budget blueprint with $6B cut to agency
President Donald Trump unveiled a budget blueprint last week that includes roughly $6 billion in federal funding cuts to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Despite the multibillion-dollar slash, a senior official at the space agency told Fox New Digital that the reduction in funding is actually beneficial for efficiency and exploration. “The reductions in the President’s blueprint budget counterintuitively represent an opportunity to truly innovate in how we conduct our space missions,” senior NASA official Ryan Whitley told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. “Now is the time to reduce the bureaucracy at NASA and turn our attention to the execution of bold new human missions to the Moon and Mars.” HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS EMBRACES TRUMP BUDGET PROPOSAL ‘PARADIGM SHIFT’ The proposed plan would cut roughly 24% of NASA’s entire budget, and could phase out some major projects like the Artemis moon program. Artemis, which was conceptualized by Trump in his first term, was designed to push the U.S. to return to moon exploration and came after President Barack Obama canceled the Constellation program in 2011. The original timeline of the Artemis program included a mission to land astronauts on the moon by 2024 via the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, but technical challenges have delayed the undertaking several years, and it is now set for at least September 2026 should the program survive the cuts. While funding reduction threatens some existing programs, the White House touted new investments that would bolster the agency in an effort to beat Chinese space innovations. TRUMP, GOP PUSH FOR MAJOR REDUCTION OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN NEW BUDGET PLAN “By allocating over $7 billion for lunar exploration and introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs, it ensures that America’s human space exploration efforts remain unparalleled, innovative, and efficient,” the White House topline preview reads. “To achieve these objectives, the Budget would streamline the NASA workforce, IT services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities.” Aligning with the Trump administration’s movement to improve government efficiency, the White House clarified that the budget “refocuses [NASA] funding on beating China back to the Moon and on putting the first human on Mars.” With a heavy reduction in federal funding, it is most likely that outside contractors and companies like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX will most likely play a bigger role in launching rockets and exploring space. SpaceX has conducted 479 launches thus far, and Blue Origin has conducted 31. As the current head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), though he has announced his intention of leaving the agency to focus more on Tesla and his other ventures, Musk clarified he had no involvement in NASA budget discussions in a post on X last month. GOP LEADERS FIND NEW MAJOR HOLIDAY DEADLINE FOR TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AMID MEDICAID, TAX DIVISIONS The budget blueprint and the funding changes to NASA still have to make their way through the legislative process, but the U.S. space agency has stood fast in its position that the current proposal will bolster innovation and exploration. “We have accomplished the impossible time and time again, but even the best organizations need to take a hard look in the mirror,” Whitley told Fox News Digital. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “For the past 25 years, NASA has had access to billions of dollars to advance human exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit. Despite that, in all that time, the United States has only successfully conducted one—uncrewed—test flight around the Moon,” he said. “We know we are capable of accomplishing much more.”
Amid India-Pakistan tensions, mock drills to be held across 244 locations tomorrow: Here’s what we know so far
According to the ministry, the drills will take place in 244 civil defence districts across the country. These areas have already been categorised for civil defence activities.
Who is Indian-origin billionaire Balvinder Singh Sahni, once paid Rs 80 crore for Rolls Royce fancy number, now sentenced to 5 years in jail in Dubai for…
Balwinder Sahni, 53, is the founder and chairman of the RSG Group, a property development firm with projects in several countries.