As tensions with Pakistan rise after Pahalgam terror attack, India to conduct defence mock drills after 54 years: Here’s what happened in 1971
The last time India conducted such a nationwide mock drill was 54 years ago, during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. That war led to the creation of Bangladesh.
Lawyer of whistleblower in Trump impeachment case sues administration over revoked security clearance
A lawyer who represented a government whistleblower in a case that led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment sued the Trump administration on Monday for “unconstitutional retaliation” after his security clearance was revoked. Lawyer Mark Zaid argued that the administration’s decision to pull his clearance in March was in retaliation for representing former Department of Homeland Security intelligence chief Brian Murphy, who was key to Trump’s 2019 impeachment. Murphy filed a whistleblower complaint in 2019 alleging Trump, amid his re-election campaign, pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate then-U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. The U.S. House of Representatives voted later that year to impeach Trump for abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress, but he was later acquitted by the Senate. HAKEEM JEFFRIES BLAMES TRUMP FOR NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS, ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF ‘BREAKING THE FAA’ Zaid’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., claims the decision to rescind his security clearance represents a “dangerous, unconstitutional retaliation by the President of the United States against his perceived political enemies” that “eschews any semblance of due process.” The complaint accuses the Trump administration of violating the Administrative Procedures Act, the First Amendment and parts of the Fifth Amendment. “No American should lose their livelihood, or be blocked as a lawyer from representing clients, because a president carries a grudge toward them or who they represent,” Zaid said in a statement. “This isn’t just about me. It’s about using security clearances as political weapons.” FORMER VP PENCE VOWS TO SPEAK OUT IF PRESIDENT TRUMP VEERS FROM ‘CONSERVATIVE AGENDA’ The lawsuit cites a 2019 incident in which Trump called Zaid a “sleazeball” at a Louisiana rally and told reporters that the lawyer was a “disgrace” who “should be sued.” The move to pull Zaid’s clearance was “a bald-faced attack on a sacred constitutional guarantee: the right to petition the court or federal agencies on behalf of clients,” the lawsuit says, noting that an “attack on this right is especially insidious because it jeopardizes Mr. Zaid’s ability to pursue and represent the rights of others without fear of retribution.” Trump has also revoked clearances of several other political foes, including former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and his own former national security advisor John Bolton, as well as attorneys at other law firms. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Zaid urged the court to rule that Trump’s revocation decision was unconstitutional and reinstate his clearance. He has had access to classified information since 1995 and a security clearance since 2002. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment. Reuters contributed to this report.
What happens on ‘bad days’: Troubling revelations about John Fetterman and Joe Biden
John Fetterman has always been an eccentric character on a star-crossed path. He is the only United States senator who has adopted a hoodie as his official uniform. He is also the only one who suffered a stroke on the eve of his primary victory, making it difficult for him to speak, but won the general election anyway. And the Pennsylvania Democrat doesn’t toe the line on all party positions, especially when it comes to his fierce support for Israel. AS JUDGE IS CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE IN MIGRANT CASE, SPINNERS CAST IT AS AN ANTI-TRUMP STORY But now comes a troubling story in New York Magazine that casts the senator in a much darker light. The New York Times put it this way: Fetterman’s former chief of staff “was so alarmed with his ex-boss’s erratic behavior last year that he wrote a lengthy letter to his doctor warning that the senator was spiraling out of control and that his mental health issues could cost him his life.” The staffer, Adam Jentleson, added in writing Fetterman’s Walter Reed doctor: “I’m worried that if John stays on his current trajectory he won’t be with us for much longer.” Other former staff members told the Times that colleagues were sometimes “frightened” to be in his presence when he was manic, and that his “volatile” behavior has gotten worse since the election. Fetterman issued a statement saying that “my ACTUAL doctors and my family affirmed that I’m very well.” He called the magazine story a “hit piece” and promoted the idea that its author, Ben Terris, was “best friends” with Jentleson and that they “sourced anonymous, disgruntled staffers with lies or distorted half-truths.” Terris, for his part, disclosed in the article that Adam Jentleson is a “personal friend.” So it wasn’t a state secret. Jentleson wrote to the medical director who supervised Fetterman’s hospitalization for mental health problems in 2023: “He does not see his doctors. I am not sure when he last saw a cardiologist, but I don’t think he’s seen one since he was released. He long ago ordered us to stop putting regular drop-bys with Dr. Monahan on his schedule, despite the fact that he had agreed to those as part of the plan.” Brian Monahan is the Capitol and Supreme Court physician. Fetterman was the first Democratic senator to visit Trump, who carried Pennsylvania and the other swing states, at Mar-a-Lago. STATE OF WAR: HOW TRUMP IS FIGHTING A 9-FRONT BATTLE Jentleson wrote another doctor: “We do not know if he is taking his meds, and his behavior frequently suggests he is not.” Among other things, wrote Jentleson, his ex-boss drives recklessly and recently bought a gun. There are “high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.” Joe Biden, who does his first post-White House interview today, with his wife on “The View,” is a whole other story. His problem was not depression but making other Democrats depressed when he insisted on running for a second term. We now know how his wife and his staff protected him from the press and even his own staff to avoid revealing his mental decline. And that blew up on them in the horrible debate with Trump. Ron Klain has gone on the record with his frustration that his longtime boss walked out on one prep session and fell asleep by the pool. Now comes a new revelation in a forthcoming book by Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of the New York Times and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post. The Times writes, citing the book, that “his top White House aides debated having him undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term” in the early weeks of 2024. Here was the dilemma, according to “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.” And that’s an accurate title. Biden’s closest aides “worried that the mere fact of his taking one would raise new questions about his mental abilities.” SENATOR’S WARNING FOR DISTRICT JUDGES AS SUPREME COURT SET TO HEAR LANDMARK CASE Which is precisely what would have happened. Rather than persuading the former president not to run, they wouldn’t even let him do a soft-focus Super Bowl interview. During this period in 2022, the Times published an interview with David Axelrod, the former Obama White House official turned CNN commentator. Axelrod said Biden “looks his age”–then 79–and added: “The stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.” Axelrod angrily called Klain, then the chief of staff, to ask why he was fueling doubts about a Democratic president. “There’s no Obama out there, Axe,” Klain told him, according to the book. “Who’s going to do it if he doesn’t do it?” This was also around the time that special counsel Robert Hur, declining to prosecute Biden on the classified documents he voluntarily turned over, called the president “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” That seems incredibly mild now. Biden held a news conference to declare his memory was fine, but referred to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Talk about good days and bad days. Everyone has bad days, but it has national and international resonance when it involves a senator or a president. None of this should be used to stigmatize those with mental health or mental acuity problems. But there are red flags here that deepen our understanding of what’s really happening.
Trump administration bars Harvard from future research grants
US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon halts funding in escalation of dispute centred around anti-Semitism claims. The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that Harvard University will no longer receive public funding for research in a sharp escalation of its dispute with the top university. In a letter to Harvard on Monday, US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon said the elite university had made a “mockery” of higher education and should no longer seek federal grants, “since no will be provided”. “Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni,” McMahon wrote in the letter. The move comes after the Trump administration last month froze nearly $2.3bn in federal funding to Harvard over what it claimed was its failure to tackle rampant anti-Semitism on campus. The administration announced the freeze after Harvard rejected a series of demands that it said would subject the university to undue government control, including that it accede to external audits of faculty and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity”. Advertisement In her letter, McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, outlined a series of grievances often made by conservatives against the university, including that it had fostered lax academic standards and admitted foreign students who “engage in violent behaviour and show contempt toward the United States of America”. “Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, and how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE?” McMahon wrote in the letter, emulating Trump’s use of all-capital letters to emphasise certain words. “These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?” Harvard, which is fighting the Trump administration’s earlier funding freeze in court, said in a statement that McMahon’s latest demands would have “chilling implications for higher education”. “Today’s letter makes new threats to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing its lawsuit on April 21,” a university spokesperson said. “Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community. Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure.” US universities have faced controversy over alleged anti-Semitism on their campuses since the eruption last year of nationwide student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Advertisement In two reports released last month, separate Harvard task forces said that students and staff had faced both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias on campus. In response to the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber expressed concern that some students had been pushed “to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe”, and pledged to redouble efforts to ensure the university was a place where “mutual respect is the norm”. Trump and prominent conservatives in the US have also long accused Harvard and other universities of propagating extreme left-wing views and stifling right-wing perspectives. Adblock test (Why?)
US Defense Secretary Hegseth orders 20% cut in ranks of top officers
Pentagon chief says cuts will maximise ‘strategic’ and ‘operational readiness’. United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has announced steep cuts in the number of top-ranked officers in his latest move to streamline the world’s most powerful military. In a memo on Monday, Hegseth ordered a 20 percent reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals – currently the highest-ranked personnel in the US military – as well as a 10 percent reduction in the number of general and flag officers. Hegseth’s memo also ordered a 20 percent cut in the number of general officers in the National Guard. The US military had 38 four-star generals or admirals as of March 31, 2025, according to US Department of Defense data. In a video explaining the “Less Generals More GIs Policy”, Hegseth said the US military currently has one general for every 1,400 troops, compared with one for every 6,000 during World War II. “More generals and admirals does not equal more success,” Hegseth said in the video posted on X. “Now this is not a slash-and-burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth. This has been a deliberated process, working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with one goal: maximising strategic readiness and operational readiness by making prudent reductions in the general and flag officer ranks.” Advertisement Hegseth did not specify which positions would be cut. The nearly 40 active four-star generals in the US military include the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the army, the chief of naval operations, and the chief of staff of the Air Force, as well as the heads of US Africa Command, US European Command and US Forces Korea. The cuts come as part of a broader drive by President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce the size of the federal government and purge perceived political enemies. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump or his underlings have fired several top military leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q Brown and Navy chief Admiral Lisa Franchetti. Adblock test (Why?)
Game-changer for Noida! Double-decker bus service from Morna Depot to Pari Chowk route coming soon; check fare, stops and other details
Noida is set to introduce double-decker buses later this month, marking a significant step forward in enhancing the city’s public transport infrastructure. This new service is expected to benefit commuters, including students and office workers, by offering a more efficient and spacious mode of transport.
Linda McMahon blasts Harvard in scathing letter telling elite university it will no longer get federal grants
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a scathing letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber on Monday, not only blasting the Massachusetts Ivy League school’s handling of antisemitism on campus but also advising school officials to refrain from applying for future federal grants because they will not “be provided.” In her no-holds-barred letter, McMahon told Garber that the federal government has a “sacred responsibility” to be an important steward of American taxpayer funds, adding that the school has amassed a largely tax-free $53.2 billion endowment and receives billions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year. “Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right,” she wrote. “Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?” She also said the university has “made a mockery” of the higher education system in the U.S., inviting foreign students to its campuses who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the U.S. TRUMP SAYS HE’LL REVOKE HARVARD’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS McMahon slammed the school for adopting an “embarrassing” remedial math program for undergraduates, questioning why a school that’s so difficult to get admitted to has to teach low-level mathematics. She called Harvard out for being embroiled in plagiarism scandals and lambasted the school for allowing Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review to engage in “ugly racism.” McMahon blasted Harvard for hiring former Mayors Bill de Blasio of New York City and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago to teach “leadership” at its School of Public Health. “This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea,” she said. IVY LEAGUE SUICIDES, PRINCETON’S 8TH STUDENT DEATH IN 4 YEARS EXPOSE CRISIS AT ELITE SCHOOLS “The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard’s consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided,” McMahon later wrote. “Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni. “You have an approximately $53 billion head start, much of which was made possible by the fact that you are living within the walls of, and benefiting from, the prosperity secured by the United States of America and its free-market system you teach your students to despise,” she added. In closing, McMahon reminded Garber that the Trump administration had been willing to maintain federal funding to Harvard as long as the school complied with federal law to protect and promote student welfare and stop racial preferencing. HARVARD PRESIDENT APOLOGIZES FOR FAILURE TO ADDRESS ANTISEMITISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AFTER NEW REPORTS RELEASED “The proposed common-sense reforms – which the Administration remains committed to – include a return to merit-based admissions and hiring, an end to unlawful programs that promote crude identity stereotypes, disciplinary reform and consistent accountability, including for student groups, cooperation with Law Enforcement, and reporting compliance with the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal Agencies,” McMahon said. “The Administration’s priorities have not changed, and today’s letter marks the end of new grants for the university.” Harvard confirmed to Fox News Digital that it received a letter from the administration on Monday. “Today, we received another letter from the administration doubling down on demands that would impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University and would have chilling implications for higher education,” a Harvard spokesperson said. “Today’s letter makes new threats to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing its lawsuit on April 21. “Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community. Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,” the spokesperson continued. TRUMP BRANDS HARVARD ‘ANTISEMITIC’ AND A ‘THREAT TO DEMOCRACY’ DURING FUNDING BATTLE McMahon’s letter comes just days after President Donald Trump declared that his administration was going to be taking away Harvard’s tax-exempt status. Trump made the announcement after Fox News reported that his administration asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status. The Ivy League school’s failure to address antisemitism on campus is grounds for losing its 501(c)(3) status, sources said at the time. Trump argued in mid-April that Harvard had “lost its way” and didn’t deserve federal funding. “Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States Congress.” Harvard has become a target of Trump’s broader crackdown on universities, much of which is in response to last year’s anti-Israel unrest that erupted on campuses across the country. On April 11, the Trump administration sent a letter to Garber and Harvard Corporation Lead Member Penny Pritzker outlining the institution’s failures and a list of demands from the White House. In the letter, the administration accused Harvard of failing to uphold civil rights laws and to foster an “environment that produces intellectual creativity.” The Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding if Harvard did not reform governance and leadership as well as its hiring and admissions practices by August 2025. The letter emphasized the need for Harvard to change its international admissions process to avoid
Trump admin continues Biden defense of abortion drug mifepristone, asks court to dismiss lawsuit
The Trump administration is asking a federal judge in Texas to dismiss a case that aims to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The request continues the Biden administration’s position in defense of the drug: that Texas isn’t the proper venue for the lawsuit. In a Justice Department court filing, the Trump administration said Idaho, Missouri and Kansas have no ties to Texas, where the lawsuit was filed, arguing they lack standing in the suit against the Food and Drug Administration over its rules over the pills, which are available online and by mail. MAJOR DRUG STORES START SELLING ABORTION PILL SOME SAY IS ‘DANGEROUS’ FOR WOMEN AHEAD OF LANDMARK SCOTUS CASE “Aside from this litigation, the States do not dispute that their claims have no connection to the Northern District of Texas,” the DOJ wrote. “The states cannot keep alive a lawsuit in which the original plaintiffs were held to lack standing, those plaintiffs have now voluntarily dismissed their claims, and the States’ own claims have no connection to this District.” The three Republican-led states are challenging FDA actions that loosened restrictions on the drug in 2016 and 2021, including allowing for medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a clinician in-person, Reuters reported. ABORTION PILL USE HAS SPIKED IN RECENT YEARS, NEW REPORT REVEALS: ‘SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE’ A lower court previously rebuffed a request to reverse FDA approval of mifepristone. “The States are free to pursue their claims in a District where venue is proper,” the federal attorneys said. But the brief pointed to weaknesses in the states’ argument beyond standing, noting, for instance, that their challenge to the FDA’s 2016 action allowing the pills to be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy rather than the previous seven is outside the statute of limitations. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Last year, the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion doctors and medical associations after the justices ruled the plaintiffs could not show they had been personally harmed by the federal government’s regulation of the pill. The Trump administration also argued for the dismissal, saying the states’ challenge to FDA’s 2016 actions is outside the six-year statute of limitations. Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.
Pro-Palestine protestors disrupt Dutch WW2 anniversary event
[unable to retrieve full-text content] 5 pro-Palestine protestors were arrested after disrupting a World War II anniversary event in Wageningen, Netherlands.
Michigan drops charges against pro-Palestine US student protesters
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has dropped charges against seven student protesters from the University of Michigan, citing legal delays and controversies surrounding the US case, which she said has become a “lightning rod of contention”. The decision on Monday puts an end to the case that started in May 2024 when the students, who pleaded not guilty, were charged with trespassing and resisting a police officer while attending a pro-Palestinian campus protest. “We feel vindicated that the case was dismissed,” said Jamil Khuja, a member of the defence team for the students. “These individuals committed no crime whatsoever. They were exercising their right to protest and engage in political speech on public property.” Despite dropping the charges and growing criticism of the case, Nessel on Monday defended her decision to pursue felony charges against the students, saying “a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the crimes alleged”. However, Nessel added in a statement that she dropped the charges nearly a year later because she did not believe “these cases to be a prudent use of my department’s resources”. Advertisement While hundreds of students were arrested during the wave of pro-Palestine campus encampments that swept the United States last year amid Israel’s war on Gaza, most were immediately released. The case in Michigan gained national attention and became symbolic of the nationwide crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrations, with Palestinian rights advocates arguing that the Nessel case was an attack on freedom of speech and assembly. Defence lawyers for the accused had filed motions for Nessel to recuse herself from the case, citing accusations of bias – assertions that the attorney general dismissed as “baseless and absurd”. “These distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere to these proceedings,” the attorney general said in her statement. Khuja, the defence lawyer, said the team was “absolutely confident” of winning the case, either by judicial dismissal or not-guilty jury verdict, and criticised Nessel’s characterisation of the pretrial proceedings as “circus-like” as untrue. He said requesting Nessel’s removal from the case was warranted, adding that the charges should have been brought by the county and not the state’s attorney general, according to Michigan’s prosecution procedures. Free speech ‘under attack’ To underscore the alleged bias, the defence lawyer also noted that weeks before filing the charges last year, Nessel had clashed with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “the only Palestinian in Congress”, for defending the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which has been used by student protesters. Advertisement Soon after Nessel charged the students, Tlaib accused the attorney general of “possible biases” within her agency, underscoring that other protest movements did not face a similar legal crackdown. The attorney general responded by accusing Tlaib of anti-Semitism, although the congresswoman made no mention of the attorney general’s religion or Jewish identity. “Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It’s anti-Semitic and wrong,” Nessel wrote in a social media post in September. The controversy stretched for weeks, with CNN and pro-Israel outlets echoing Nessel’s anti-Semitism allegations against Tlaib without evidence. Khuja said the attorney general ultimately wanted to “make an example out of those protesting for Palestine”. He added that the case was larger than the students and politicians involved. “The First Amendment applies to all speech, but it’s been under attack in order to shield Israel from criticism lately,” Khuja told Al Jazeera. “And this case proved that those who believe in Palestinian rights, their views are just as legitimate as anybody else’s, and the First Amendment protects those views and your right to express them.” Adblock test (Why?)