Texas Legislature approves $338 billion two-year spending plan with a focus on property tax relief
A boost in public school spending, school vouchers, and money for water systems are other highlights of the state budget, which was bolstered by a $24 billion surplus.
India top general admits aerial ‘losses’ in recent conflict with Pakistan
General Anil Chauhan appears to confirm India lost at least one aircraft during the brief conflict with Pakistan earlier this month. India’s chief of defence staff says the country suffered initial losses in the air during a recent military conflict with neighbouring Pakistan, but declined to give details. “What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we will do after that,” General Anil Chauhan told the Reuters news agency on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, but there are competing claims on the casualties. India says more than 100 “terrorists” were killed in its “precision strikes” on several “terror camps” across Pakistan, which rejects the claim, saying more than 30 Pakistani civilians were killed in the Indian attacks. New Delhi, meanwhile, says nearly two dozen civilians were killed on the Indian side, most of them in Indian-administered Kashmir, along the disputed border. Advertisement The fighting between the two nuclear powers was triggered by an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 people, almost all of them tourists. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the armed group behind the attack, an allegation Islamabad denied. During their conflict, Pakistan had also claimed to have downed at least five Indian military jets, including at least three Rafale fighters. But Chauhan on Saturday dismissed it as “absolutely incorrect”, confirming his country had lost at least one aircraft. “I think what is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” he told Bloomberg TV in a separate interview in Singapore. On May 11, a day after the ceasefire, India’s Air Marshal AK Bharti told reporters in New Delhi that “all our pilots are back home”, adding that “we are in a combat scenario, and that losses are a part of combat”. Chauhan said on Saturday India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict and established a decisive advantage. “So we rectified tactics and then went back on the [May] 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes,” he said. Islamabad has denied it suffered any losses of planes but has acknowledged its airbases suffered some hits, although losses were minimal. Chauhan said while the fighting had ceased, the Indian government had made it clear that it would respond “precisely and decisively should there be any further terror attacks emanating from Pakistan”. Advertisement “So that has its own dynamics as far [as] the armed forces are concerned. It will require us to be prepared 24/7,” he said. Chauhan also said that although Pakistan is closely allied with China, which borders India in the north and the northeast, there was no sign of any actual help from Beijing during the conflict. “While this was unfolding from [April] 22nd onwards, we didn’t find any unusual activity in the operational or tactical depth of our northern borders, and things were generally all right,” he told Reuters. Asked whether China may have provided any satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence to Pakistan during the conflict, Chauhan said such imagery was commercially available and could have been procured from China as well as other sources. Adblock test (Why?)
Saudi Arabia says it will jointly fund Syria state salaries with Qatar
Saudi and Qatari efforts aim to stabilise Syria by funding public-sector salaries and boosting economic recovery plans. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has said that the kingdom and Qatar will offer joint financial support to state employees in Syria. His statements came on Saturday during a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shibani in Damascus. The two Gulf nations have been among the most important regional supporters of Syria’s new authorities, who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after nearly 14 years of war. Saturday’s statement did not provide details on the exact amount of the support for Syria’s public sector. However, it comes after Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Yosr Bernieh said earlier in May that Qatar was going to provide Syria with $29m per month for an initial three months to pay civilian public sector worker salaries. The Reuters news agency had also reported that the United States had given its blessing to the Qatari initiative, which came a few days before President Donald Trump announced that sanctions on Syria imposed during the al-Assad regime would be lifted. The European Union has since also lifted sanctions on Syria. Advertisement Further evidence of Saudi Arabian and Qatari support came in mid-May, when it was announced that the two countries had paid off Syria’s debt to the World Bank, a sum of roughly $15m. International ties Syria’s new government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has sought to rebuild the country’s diplomatic ties and convince wary Western states that he has turned his back on past ties with groups such as al-Qaeda. The Syrian leader has repeatedly disavowed extremism and expressed support for minorities, but incidents of violence that has led to hundreds of deaths continue to cause international trepidation – even as the government and al-Sharaa denounce the killings. Syria’s new government has also made a concerted effort to solidify ties to Gulf Arab states who have begun to play a pivotal role in financing the reconstruction of Syria’s war-ravaged infrastructure and reviving its economy. On Tuesday, the European Union announced it had adopted legal acts lifting all economic restrictive measures on Syria except those based on security grounds. It also removed 24 entities from the EU list of those subject to the freesing of funds and economic resources, including the Central Bank of Syria. And after Saudi Arabia and Qatar cleared Syria’s debt to the World Bank, the US-based financial institution said that it would restart operations in the country following a 14-year pause. The World Bank has begun to prepare its first project in Syria, which will focus on improving electricity access – a key pillar for revitalising essential services like healthcare, education, and water supply. It also marked the start of expanded support to stabilise Syria and boost long-term growth. Advertisement Syria’s gradual re-integration into the global economy is in large part due to Trump’s dramatic shift in Washington’s policies towards the country. After announcing the lifting of US sanctions on May 13, Trump also became the first US president in 25 years to meet with a Syrian counterpart. The US had already removed a $10m reward for the capture of al-Sharaa, and the Syrian president has been able to travel internationally and meet world leaders, including in Saudi Arabia and France. Still, there is a lot to be done. A February report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that at current growth rates, Syria would need more than 50 years to return to the economic level it had before the war, and it called for massive investment to accelerate the process. The UNDP study said nine out of 10 Syrians now live in poverty, one-quarter are jobless and Syria’s gross domestic product “has shrunk to less than half of its value” in 2011, the year the war began. Adblock test (Why?)
Two killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine before possible talks in Turkiye
Russia has confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul, but Kyiv has not yet accepted the proposal. Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have killed at least two people, according to officials, as Ukraine ordered the evacuation of 11 more villages in its Sumy region bordering Russia. Russian troops launched an estimated 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine on Friday and overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday, adding that three of the missiles and 42 drones were destroyed and another 30 drones failed to reach their targets without causing damage. The attacks came amid uncertainty over whether Kyiv will take part in a new round of peace talks early next week in Istanbul. In the Russian attacks on Saturday, a child was killed in a strike on the front-line village of Dolynka in the Zaporizhia region, and another was injured, Zaporizhia’s Governor Ivan Fedorov said. “One house was destroyed. The shockwave from the blast also damaged several other houses, cars, and outbuildings,” Fedorov wrote on Telegram. A man was also killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram. Advertisement Moscow did not comment on either attack. Meanwhile, authorities in Ukraine’s Sumy region said they were evacuating 11 villages within a roughly 30-kilometre (19-mile) range from the Russian border. “The decision was made in view of the constant threat to civilian life as a result of shelling of border communities,” the regional administration said on social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some 50,000 Russian troops have amassed in the area with the intention of launching an offensive to carve out a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said on Saturday that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Torets and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area. Syrskii added that Ukrainian forces are still holding territory in Russia’s Kursk region – a statement Moscow has repeatedly denied. The evacuations and attacks came just two days before a possible meeting between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul, as Washington called on both countries to end the three-year war. Russia has confirmed it will send a delegation, but Kyiv has not yet accepted the proposal, warning the talks would not yield results unless the Kremlin provided its peace terms in advance. Zelenskyy said Saturday it was still not clear what Moscow was planning to achieve at the meeting and that so far, it did not “look very serious”. Adblock test (Why?)
‘India’s national interests are non-negotiable’: says S Jaishankar, vows no tolerance for nuclear intimidation
EAM S. Jaishankar asserted that India will never surrender to nuclear threats and strongly condemned Pakistan-backed terrorism, highlighting India’s firm response and commitment to national interest.
7 killed in landslide in Arunachal Pradesh’s Seppa
Seven people have been killed due to a landslide on the National Highway in Seppa West assembly constituency, Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister Mama Natung said on Saturday.
Michelle Obama facing backlash over claim about women’s reproductive health
Former First Lady Michelle Obama is facing backlash after saying that creating life is “the least” of what a woman’s reproductive system does. On the latest episode of the podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” the former first lady and her brother were joined by OB/GYN Dr. Sharon Malone, whose husband, Eric Holder, served as Attorney General under former President Barack Obama. During the discussion, the former first lady lamented that women’s reproductive health “has been reduced to the question of choice.” “I attempted to make the argument on the campaign trail this past election was that there’s just so much more at stake and because so many men have no idea about what women go through,” Obama said. She went on to claim that the lack of research on women’s health shapes male leaders’ perceptions of the issue of abortion. MICHELLE OBAMA AND ERIC HOLDER’S WIFE BONDED OVER BEING ‘RELUCTANT SPOUSES’ TO FAMOUS MEN “Women’s reproductive health is about our life. It’s about this whole complicated reproductive system that the least of what it does is produce life,” Obama added, “It’s a very important thing that it does, but you only produce life if the machine that’s producing it — if you want to whittle us down to a machine — is functioning in a healthy, streamlined kind of way.” In the same episode, the former first lady seemed to scold Republican men by saying that the men who “sit on their hands” over abortion are choosing to “trade out women’s health for a tax break or whatever it is.” Obama also criticized Republican women, suggesting they voted for President Donald Trump because of their husbands. “There are a lot of men who have big chairs at their tables, there are a lot of women who vote the way their man is going to vote, it happened in this election.” MICHELLE OBAMA URGES PARENTS NOT TO TRY TO BE FRIENDS WITH THEIR CHILDREN The “Becoming” author’s remarks drew criticism from pro-life activists, including Danielle D’Souza Gill, the wife of Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas. The couple announced the birth of their second child earlier in May. “Motherhood is the most beautiful and powerful gift God gave women. Creating life isn’t a side effect, it’s a miracle. Don’t let the Left cheapen it,” D’Souza Gill wrote in a post on X. Isabel Brown, a content creator and author, also slammed the former first lady as a “supposed feminist icon.” “I am SO sick [and] tired of celebrities [and] elitists attempting to convince you that your miraculous superpower ability to GROW LIFE from nothing is somehow demeaning [and] ‘lesser than’ for women,” Brown wrote. At the time of this writing, Obama’s podcast is ranked 51 on Apple Podcasts and doesn’t appear on the list of the top 100 podcasts on Spotify. However, it is ranked 91 on the list of 100 trending podcasts on Spotify. The entire episode with Malone is available on YouTube, where it currently has just under 41,150 views so far.
Trump posts video thanking Elon Musk as billionaire ends White House tenure
The Trump White House released a video on Friday marking the end of Elon Musk’s time working with the administration. The billionaire has been leading the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) since January. The video, which was posted on multiple social media platforms, is a highlight reel, starting with Musk’s endorsement of President Donald Trump in July 2024, just after the then-candidate was nearly assassinated, and goes up to his last day in D.C. WHITE HOUSE DISCLOSES WHO WILL LEAD DOGE EFFORTS AFTER MUSK’S DEPARTURE In addition to the video, the White House published several posts on X thanking Musk for his service, including a list of “DOGE Wins,” which include saving American taxpayers $170 billion, canceling approximately 523,000 active U.S. government credit cards/accounts it uncovered in an audit, cleaning up records at the Social Security Administration, among other initiatives. During a joint news conference on Friday, Trump awarded Musk a “key to the White House.” The White House quoted the president as saying that “Elon’s delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington… Elon Musk’s service to America has been without comparison in modern history.” WHAT’S NEXT FOR DOGE AFTER ELON MUSK’S DEPARTURE? ‘ONLY JUST BEGUN’ Another Republican leader joined Trump in recognizing the changes Musk worked to implement in Washington. House Speaker Mike Johnson thanked Musk for his “selfless, patriotic service” and praised both the billionaire and DOGE, saying they “dug through the bureaucracy and shined a light on MASSIVE waste, fraud, and abuse.” “They have saved the American people BILLIONS of dollars, and are updating old and inefficient systems across the federal government — all while providing Republicans with a list of targets of pointless programs that Congressional action will address.” MUSK OFFICIALLY STEPS DOWN FROM DOGE AFTER WRAPPING WORK STREAMLINING GOVERNMENT CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP While some wonder about the future of DOGE, the Trump administration is insisting that the department will go on without Musk at the helm. The Tesla founder addressed this question as well just as Trump marked 100 days in office. He told a small group of reporters that “DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism. You wouldn’t ask who would lead Buddhism. Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?” A few days before the end of his White House tenure, Musk vowed in a post on X to go “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,” a big switch from the Lincoln Bedroom, where the billionaire allegedly slept multiple times. However, Trump teased that even though it was Musk’s last day, it wasn’t “really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way.”
Biden decline was so bad he got lost in White House closet, whistleblower tells Senator
As more reports emerge about former President Biden’s alleged cognitive decline during his time in office, a Republican senator has made an explosive new claim: that Biden would sometimes get lost in a closet inside the White House while serving as commander-in-chief. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., made the stunning claim on “Hannity” Friday, citing an unnamed Secret Service whistleblower who Hawley said was assigned to Biden. “He [Secret Service member] told me that Biden used to get lost in his closet in the mornings in the White House,” Hawley said. “I mean, the guy literally stumbling around in the White House residence couldn’t find his way out of his own closet. The president of the United States. I mean, this is outrageous. We were lied to.” BIDEN FAMILY MISLED PUBLIC, CONCEALED DETAILS ON SON BEAU’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS, NEW BOOK SAYS Hawley said the claims were made to him while the senator was investigating the attempted assassination of Trump at a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. A gunman’s bullet grazed the ear of then-candidate Trump while one attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally struck. Hawley said the brewing scandal about the Biden administration’s use of an autopen to sign executive orders amounts to “one of the worst constitutional crises of our country’s history.” “We need to find out who actually signed off, so to speak, on all those autopen signatures and all of those pardons and all of those clemencies.” BIDEN SAYS HE COULD ‘BEAT THE HELL OUT OF’ AUTHORS OF NEW BOOK ARGUING HIS COGNITIVE DECLINE “It’s a rogue’s gallery of crooks and criminals and terrible people, rapists and others, I mean who actually was doing that, we know it wasn’t Biden, he didn’t know anything about it. “we’ve got to figure out who was actually in charge cos it sure as heck wasn’t Joe Biden.” President Trump on Friday said the autopen is going to become “one of the great scandals of all time” and said he can’t’ believe that a competent Biden would have ever signed off on many of his executive orders, particularly in terms of the border. House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier this month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said this week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if need be. Last week, Comer sent out letters to five of the former president’s closest confidants, including his former doctor in the White House, seeking further answers about Biden’s cognitive health while in office. All five have made contact with the Oversight Committee, but Comer has threatened subpoena power if they refuse to testify. Hawley, meanwhile, also railed against left-wing media for failing to press the president or his office on instances of physical and mental lapses Biden showed while in public. The news comes as a new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson details the length at which those closest to Biden apparently went to cover up his limitations while in office. “The press has a huge role in this… They’re supposed to report the truth,” Hawley said. “It’s what you do every night. It is not what the liberal media did though. They sold this country out for years and they did it for power and they need to be held accountable as well.” Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
The sudden surge of genocide critique in the West
As attacks intensify and starvation in Gaza worsens, some of Israel’s allies finally start speaking up. More than 600 days into its genocidal war in Gaza, some of Israel’s closest allies have begun to condemn its actions. Alongside the changing global narrative, growing opposition in Israel to the Netanyahu government’s war methods has seeped into the media coverage – fracturing a consensus that dates back to October 7, 2023. Contributors: Yara Hawari – Co-Director, Al-ShabakaNatasha Lennard – Contributing writer, The InterceptOrly Noy – Editor, Local CallMuhammad Shehada – Visiting fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations On our radar: Over the past couple of weeks, dispatches coming out of Gaza’s hospitals have grown more and more desperate. Meenakshi Ravi reports on the healthcare workers getting the story out and filling the vacuum in the news coverage. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: ‘Aid washing’ in the Gaza Strip Formed a matter of months ago, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a United States-Israeli coalition of private military contractors that includes former CIA and military personnel. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, who has investigated the GHF, together with Palestinian journalists on the ground. Advertisement Featuring:Jeremy Scahill – Co-Founder, Drop Site News Adblock test (Why?)