Will Ratan Tata receive Bharat Ratna posthumously? CNMS writes to President Droupadi Murmu
Demand for Bharat Ratna to Ratan Tata revived as CNMS writes to President Droupadi Murmu. Earlier, Maharashtra government passed a resolution seeking the honour.
Pahalgam terror attack: Man, who helped LeT terrorists, arrested
In a breakthrough in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, a key Lashkar-e-Taiba (TRF) operative was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police. He was accused of providing logistical support to terrorists responsible for the killing of 26 tourists in Pahalgam’s Baisaran Valley.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi makes BIG statement ahead of Bihar polls: ‘Willing to join…’
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has expressed readiness to join the Mahagathbandhan alliance if he gets to contest on six seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. Speaking to reporters in Kishanganj, Owaisi said AIMIM had already approached the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav with its proposal.
What is cloud seeding? Delhi to launch its first-ever artificial rain; check date
Residents of Delhi will soon get relief from high pollutant levels in the air, i.e., from toxic air, especially during the winter. In a first such initiative, the DGCA has allowed IIT Kanpur to initiate cloud seeding activity.
Texas teachers, parents fear STAAR overhaul won’t take testing pressure off kids
Skeptics of the replacement, which requires three exams throughout the year, want to see less restrictions on testing day and more teacher input.
Starbase will take partial control of beach near Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch site
The deal between the new South Texas city and Cameron County mirrors a similar agreement with South Padre Island and requires a plan to combat beach erosion.
Cornyn nabs endorsements from 15 former GOP members of Congress in primary vs. Paxton
It’s a further sign of how the Washington establishment has consolidated behind the senior Texas senator, who is being backed by the Senate GOP’s campaign arm in his primary.
At least two people dead after shooting at Dallas ICE facility
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X that the shooter “is deceased by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Ex-US attorney warns prosecutors could face many hurdles in case against Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer
A former U.S. attorney turned first-term congressman is warning prosecutors could face several hurdles in the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused killer, cautioning the trial will be anything but straightforward. Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., is a freshman House lawmaker who resigned from the office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina in late 2023 to run for Congress. Looking at the case of Tyler Robinson from an outside perspective, Knott said he believed law enforcement officials were “proceeding appropriately” but noted from his past experience that high-profile cases such as this were “never as cut and dry” as they appeared to some members of the public. “In some ways, I pity the prosecution because there’s so many unique angles here,” Knott told Fox News Digital. “The hardest part about these types of cases is to begin the process with no conclusion. And that’s especially hard when you look at the Tyler Robinson case.” 58 HOUSE DEMS VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION HONORING ‘LIFE AND LEGACY’ OF CHARLIE KIRK He anticipated there would be “many in the media” and “some, even in law enforcement” who may come to a conclusion too soon that the case is already solved. “And proceeding when this case is as public as it is, when it is as widely viewed and reviewed as it is, keeping all of that noise outside of your purview as an investigator, as a prosecutor, as a forensic analyst, as a custodian of the evidence… going forward as though the conclusion is not in hand, that’s the hardest part here,” he said. Knott pointed out that it cannot even be assumed that Robinson committed the killing until it’s decided in a court of law – stressing there were many moving parts. “We know that there was conversations with other individuals leading up to this criminal act, the killing. We know that there were lots of individuals who were surrounding the suspect,” he said. “We know that there are a lot of people who have an interest in solving this case that are not in law enforcement. I mean, go on X, go on social media. All of that can make it harder to get an objective sample of evidence, right?” Robinson is facing multiple state charges in Utah, including aggravated murder. Officials there have said they plan to seek the death penalty. The 22-year-old is accused of killing Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist, while he spoke at a college campus event in Utah earlier this month. Kirk was shot in the neck and was soon declared dead. In addition to the public pressure on prosecutors, Knott noted there would be “intense scrutiny” on people surrounding Robinson. “Whenever that type of scrutiny is levied on somebody, whether it’s his former classmates, his colleague, his friends, his social circles, his family – what you want is just sort of a firsthand account with no inferences whatsoever,” Knott said. HOUSE PASSES TRUMP-BACKED PLAN TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN “You don’t want them to conclude anything. You want them to describe, you want them to recount. And when you have all of this publicity and the sensational posture of this case, it makes it very hard to objectively be a witness.” And if Robinson does not plead guilty, Knott predicted a full-throated attempt at defense from his lawyers. “If Mr. Robinson is in fact guilty of the charges that are brought against him, there is going to be an extreme defense if he does not plead. And whenever there’s an extremely vigorous defense, it’s never straightforward,” he said. “A win for the defense may be defeating one of the aggravated murder charges, or it might be to defeat the death penalty – whatever it may be. There is never a straight path when a defense comes forward like Mr. Robinson would probably have. And that’s assuming he doesn’t cooperate…he just walls up and says, ‘You’ve got to prove this and we’re going to fight you every step of the way.’” Knott said he would anticipate a host of challenges from the defense team, as well as a bid to evoke some kind of sympathy for their client. “What I anticipate is, every search warrant is going to be challenged. Every type of digital evidence is going to be challenged. The admissibility of the most damning evidence will be challenged. The seating of the jury will be challenged. Everything will be resisted,” he said. “And so I don’t anticipate that there will be a very easy path forward.”
GOP senator blasts Schumer, Dems as ‘forcing’ shutdown while demanding price tag report
FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to know the exact cost of a partial government shutdown as GOP and Democratic leaders are at an impasse to keep the government open. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, called on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide a detailed report on the sprawling impact that a partial government shutdown could have, including payments throughout the federal government and the possible broader economic impact. The House GOP passed its short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), last week, but the bill was later blocked by Senate Democrats. For now, Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber are at odds on a plan to keep the government open. And the deadline to fund the government by Sept. 30 is fast approaching. TOP HOUSE DEM FIRES BACK AT TRUMP’S ‘UNHINGED’ SHUTDOWN REMARKS AMID COLLAPSE OF GOV FUNDING TALKS Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus named after tech-billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, laid the fault of a potential shutdown on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in her letter to CBO Director Phillip Swagel. “The same politicians who whined and complained about the Department of Government Efficiency laying off unnecessary bureaucrats just a few months ago are now forcing a government-wide shutdown themselves to expose who is and isn’t an essential employee,” she wrote. Ernst requested a sweeping economic operational impact analysis from the agency, including how a shutdown could affect back pay costs for furloughed non-essential employees, military pay, congressional pay and the broader economic impact that the government closing could have on the private sector. TRUMP CANCELS MEETING WITH SCHUMER, JEFFRIES OVER ‘RIDICULOUS DEMANDS’ AS FUNDING DEADLINE LOOMS Specifically, she wanted to know how businesses could be impacted by a temporary stoppage of government services, like loans, permits and certifications, and how companies and businesses could recoup losses after a shutdown ended. She also wanted information on lost efficiencies in the government and the costs that could accrue from unfulfilled procurements or allowing contracts to lapse, and whether the burden of keeping national parks open would fall onto the states or if they’d be shuttered, too. The CBO did provide an analysis of the cost of the last time the government shuttered in 2019, when Schumer and President Donald Trump were at odds on providing funding to construct a wall at the southern border. That 35-day shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, and no funding for a border wall was granted. The report, published in January 2019, found that the shutdown saw roughly $18 billion in federal spending delayed, which led to a dip in that year’s first quarter gross domestic product of $8 billion. The report noted roughly $3 billion of that would not be recovered. THUNE SLAMS DEMOCRATS’ ‘COLD-BLOODED PARTISAN’ TACTICS AS FUNDING DEADLINE NEARS It also found that federal workers who received delayed payments and private businesses were the hardest hit. “Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income,” the report stated. It remains unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Schumer can strike a deal. After Trump canceled a planned meeting Tuesday with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., both Democrats blamed the president for the looming shutdown. However, Democrats’ asking price for a short-term funding extension is too high for Republicans. They want permanent extensions to Affordable Care Act subsidies, a full repeal of the “big, beautiful bill’s” health care title, which includes the $50 billion rural hospital fund, and a clawback of the canceled funding for NPR and PBS. “Once again, Donald Trump has shown the American people he is not up to the job,” Schumer said. “It’s a very simple job: sit down and negotiate with the Democratic leaders and come to an agreement, but he just ain’t up to it. He runs away before the negotiations even begin.”