‘Will share what we have been suffering from past so many years’, Shashi Tharoor on India’s fight against terrorism
Tharoor also shared a photograph of the members of the delegation on X and said that others would join en route.
Eviction bill now focuses on squatters in Texas House rewrite
The chamber jettisoned a provision tenants’ advocates warned would make it easier for Texas landlords to evict renters.
Food aid cuts and other changes: What the U.S. House spending bill could mean for Texans
Many low-income families would see cuts in health care and food benefits. The state hopes for a big reimbursement for border security spending.
Trump administration plans to overhaul National Security Council, weeks after Waltz’s departure
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are spearheading plans to overhaul the National Security Council and shift its main functions to other agencies like the State and Defense departments. The move is the latest effort to slim down a federal agency and comes weeks after Trump announced former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would depart his post at the White House overseeing the agency. Trump announced the same day that Waltz was nominated to serve as United Nations ambassador. HEGSETH, SIGNAL QUESTIONS DOG WALTZ AS POTENTIALLY PERILOUS UN AMBASSADOR CONFIRMATION HEARINGS LOOM The plans to upend the agency would include whittling down the size of the National Security Council, which the Trump White House believes is full of long-term, bureaucratic staffers who don’t align with Trump’s agenda. Additionally, the restructuring will move Andy Barker, national security advisor to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, assistant to the president for policy, into roles serving as deputy national security advisors. Axios was the first to report the Trump administration’s restructuring plans. A White House official confirmed Axios’ reporting to Fox News Digital. A White House official involved in the planning said Trump and Rubio are driving the change in an attempt to target Washington’s so-called “Deep State.” “The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,” a White House official told Axios. NEXT US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR? HERE’S WHOM TRUMP MIGHT PICK TO REPLACE WALTZ The National Security Council is located within the the White House and provides the president guidance on national security, military and foreign affairs matters. Waltz’s departure from the agency followed his involvement with other administration officials, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the Signal chat controversy over strike plans against the Houthis in March. MIKE WALTZ, OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL STAFFERS OUT IN LATEST TRUMP PURGE FOLLOWING SIGNAL CHAT LEAK Since Waltz’s departure earlier this month, Rubio has taken on the role of national security advisor. That’s in addition to leading the State Department and serving as acting archivist and acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the administration is aiming to dismantle this year. Fox News Digital was the first to report that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs USAID runs so it would no longer function as an independent agency. The move requires cutting thousands of staff members in an attempt to bolster the efficiency of the existing, “life-saving” foreign assistance programs, according to a State Department memo Fox News Digital obtained. Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Google chatbot slammed for ‘anti-American’ claims about ‘White Memorial Day’
Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot is being slammed for “anti-American” claims about the supposed White supremacist origins of Memorial Day. The Media Research Center (MRC) Free Speech America project, a conservative media watchdog, is calling out Google for alleged bias coded into its AI chatbot “Gemini” after the group found the bot said that Memorial Day is controversial for a range of reasons, including problems with “inclusivity and representation” from the Jim Crow era. MRC said it asked Gemini the question “Is Memorial Day controversial?” May 16. According to MRC, the Google-run chatbot responded, “Yes, Memorial Day is a holiday that carries a degree of controversy, stemming from several factors.” AMERICANS SHOULD HONOR MEMORIAL DAY IN THIS WAY, MILITARY SERVICE MEMBERS SUGGEST Among the reasons listed for the supposed controversy was a bullet point titled, “White Memorial Day,” which claimed “historically, especially during the Jim Crow era, Memorial Day observances in many communities became predominantly ‘white,’ overlooking the contributions and sacrifices of Black service members. This historical exclusion remains a sensitive point.” WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? MRC also said that Gemini claimed Memorial Day is “often intertwined with national identity and patriotism,” which the chatbot asserted “can be complex and controversial for individuals with differing perspectives on American history and foreign policy.” The group also said Gemini claimed another problem with Memorial Day is the “glorification of War,” saying “some argue that the focus on military sacrifice can inadvertently glorify war, rather than solely honoring the fallen and reflecting on the cost of conflict.” MEMORIAL DAY: THE HISTORY AND MEANING OF THE HOLIDAY Fox News Digital asked Gemini the same question Friday and was given the answer that while “the primary purpose of Memorial Day is to honor all U.S. military personnel who died while serving,” the history of the holiday “does contain elements that can be viewed through the lens of race.” Among the reasons for the controversy Gemini gave to Fox News Digital were “the continued observance of separate Confederate Memorial Days in some Southern states, honoring those who fought to preserve slavery, [which] is seen by many as racially insensitive and a painful reminder of a divisive past.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Gemini told Fox News Digital that “while the act of honoring fallen service members is not inherently racist, the historical context, the selective narratives and the existence of Confederate observances mean that the history and observance of Memorial Day have been intertwined with racial issues.” Google did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Trump DOJ moves to dissolve Flores decree which governs detention of unaccompanied minors in the U.S.
In a motion filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the Trump DOJ is moving to dissolve the ‘Flores Consent Decree.’ Attorney General Pam Bondi maintains the decree is incentivizing illegal immigration at the southern border. The Flores decree has governed the detention and release of migrant children since 1997. The motion, filed by the DOJ and jointed by HHS and the Department of Homeland Security, asks a federal court in southern California to dissolve the decree. BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE KEEPS BLOCKING TRUMP ADMIN FROM NIXING FUNDING FOR LAWYERS FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN However, the motion to terminate the Flores decree will be heard at a July 18 hearing before US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles. Judge Gee has presided over the case for years, and it is unlikely she will agree to get rid of the Flores decree, setting up a possible battle before the federal appeals court, and ultimately the Supreme Court. “The outdated Flores consent decree was implemented as a stopgap measure almost 30 years ago but in recent years has directly incentivized illegal immigration at our southern border. Congress and various federal agencies have already solved the problems that Flores was designed to fix, and this consent decree is now an unacceptable restriction on our America-first immigration agenda,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement to Fox News. FEDERAL JUDGE BUCKS TRUMP ADMIN, DELAYS DISMISSAL OF OF MS-13 LEADER’S CASE DOJ officials also tell Fox News the idea is to put the power back into the hands of elected officials in Washington, rather than a single federal judge in California. In the filing the DOJ says the government is moving, “to terminate the FSA completely and with respect to all Defendants, and to dissolve the Court’s injunction of DHS’s regulations for apprehension, processing, care, and custody of alien minors…After 40 years of litigation and 28 years of judicial control over a critical element of U.S. immigration policy by one district court located more than 100 miles from any international border, it is time for this case to end.” More from the filing: In light of the significant changes in circumstances since this Court entered the FSA 28 years ago, including the promulgation of regulations incorporating the goals of the FSA, and Supreme Court precedent that is inconsistent with continuing such a long-term decree, further continuation of the FSA is no longer equitable or in the public interest. TRUMP DOJ DROPS BIDEN-ERA LEGAL CHALLENGE TO TEXAS BORDER SECURITY LAW This Court entered the FSA as a consent decree in 1997 and amended it in December 2001. The FSA has governed the care and custody of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) ever since, notwithstanding intervening legislation by the U.S. Congress and agency regulations. In 2015, this Court expanded the FSA to accompanied children, see Flores v. Lynch, 828 F.3d 898, 906, 909 (9th Cir. 2016), even though it is obvious from the FSA’s terms that the parties did not contemplate their inclusion. Thus, as to accompanied children, the national policy has long been set by a district court (and not the President or Congress), notwithstanding that the consent decree providing the basis for district-court supervision does not claim to regulate this class of aliens. That simply cannot be. During the 28 years that this Court has controlled federal policy regarding the custody of alien children who are in the United States without immigration status, enormous, cardinal changes have occurred: surges of aliens have entered the U.S. in between ports of entry across the southwest border, including large groups of aliens who voluntarily surrendered to Border Patrol—surrenders orchestrated by traffickers; the demographics of aliens arriving at the border have shifted to include significantly higher numbers from countries outside the Western Hemisphere and higher numbers of children; a global pandemic necessitated the government’s utilization of its expulsion authority to protect public health; and the subsequent lifting of the policy led to an upheaval in immigration policy for over two years. The Executive has not been able to react fully and meaningfully to these changes because the FSA has ossified federal immigration policy. Successive administrations have tried unsuccessfully to free themselves from the strictures of the consent decree and this Court’s gloss on it. But detention of juvenile aliens continues to be—as it has been for more than a generation—dominated by the strictures of a 1997 agreement.
Syria granted sanctions waiver by Trump administration to encourage rebuilding
The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions relief for Syria as part of a series of steps to end decades of penalties and to stabilize the country. The Treasury Department said it will grant Syria a 180-day waiver, known as GL 25, to ease financial restrictions that target the country’s former rulers in an effort to give its new leaders a chance to rebuild a nation still scarred by more than a decade of civil war. It will facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “As President Trump promised, the Treasury Department and the State Department are implementing authorizations to encourage new investment into Syria,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Syria must also continue to work towards becoming a stable country that is at peace, and today’s actions will hopefully put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous, and stable future.” US AMBASSADOR BARRACK NAMED SPECIAL ENVOY TO SYRIA AMID SANCTIONS RELIEF PLAN The waiver will allow Syria to engage in Syrian reconstruction and other economic activity. The sanctions relief has been extended on the condition that Syrian leaders will not offer a safe haven for terrorist organizations and will ensure the security of its religious and ethnic minorities, the Treasury Department said. “Today’s actions represent the first step in delivering on the President’s vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States,” Rubio said in a statement. “President Trump is providing the Syrian government with the chance to promote peace and stability, both within Syria and in Syria’s relations with its neighbors. The President has made clear his expectation that relief will be followed by prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities.” The move came after Tom Barrack, US Ambassador to Turkey and former advisor to President Donald Trump, announced on Friday that he would be filling the role of U.S. Special Envoy for Syria, while highlighting recent sanctions relief. TRUMP ASKS SYRIA TO JOIN ABRAHAM ACCORDS, NORMALIZE TIES WITH ISRAEL IN RETURN FOR SANCTIONS RELIEF “The cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity of our primary objective — the enduring defeat of ISIS — and will give the people of Syria a chance for a better future,” he wrote Friday on X. “In this way, we, together with regional partners including Turkiye and the Gulf, are enabling the Syrian government to restore peace, security, and the hope of prosperity. In the words of the President, we will work together, and we will succeed together.” Syria’s former autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad, ruled the country for decades after succeeding his father. Assad’s government, long sustained by Russia and Iran, presided over 13 years of civil war, and collapsed last year during a major offensive by rebel fighters. Assad and his family left Syria for Moscow to seek asylum. The waiver announced on Friday prohibits the new Syrian government from engaging in transactions that benefit Russia, Iran, North Korea or key supporters of the former Assad regime.
“See how we do things”: Austin cannabis shop invites Texas lawmakers wanting to ban THC
A bill that would make it illegal to sell THC products could soon head over to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. For a cannabis store employee, lawmakers don’t know enough about the industry they’re trying to shut down.
Trump sanctions are ‘full-frontal assault’ on organized crime at the border, expert says
The Trump Treasury Department’s new sanctions are a “full-frontal assault” on one of the deadliest southern border cartels, a local border official told Fox News Digital. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two high-ranking Cartel del Noreste (CDN) members, Mexican nationals Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, Wednesday. CDN was one of eight cartels and transnational criminal groups labeled “foreign terrorist organizations” by the Department of State Feb. 20. Under new sanctions announced this week, all property and interest in properties belonging to De Anda and Gonzalez that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. EXCLUSIVE: ILLEGAL ALIEN WHOSE DEPORTATION WAS PAUSED BY ‘ACTIVIST’ JUDGE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED A DISABLED WOMAN While announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department is “working toward the total elimination of cartels to make America safe again” and that the Trump administration “will hold these terrorists accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence.” “CDN and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border,” said Bessent. “We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money and guns that enable their violent activities.” ICE BEGINS NEW, NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO ARREST ILLEGAL ALIENS AT IMMIGRATION HEARINGS Paul Perez, who leads the National Border Patrol Council chapter in the South Texas Rio Grande Valley, told Fox News Digital even though the Trump administration’s border crackdown has dramatically reduced illegal crossings, the cartels, including CDN, continue to present a threat to the lives and safety of American citizens living on the border. “The threat of cartels is still there,” Perez said in an interview with Fox News Digital. He noted that “the thing about the cartels is that they’re very sophisticated,” explaining they have begun using advanced technology like drones to carry out their operations. “They’re not the street gang-level managers,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of people on their side that have been in this industry for a long time. They know how to get their products moving. They know how to get their product across.” In Mexico, Perez said, the cartels control the border and “act with impunity all along the border,” while the Mexican police and military are unable to stop them. He said cartel gunfights along the border often lead to cartel members fleeing north into the U.S., where “they’re going to do everything they can to get away and get back. And if that means harming American citizens, then they’re going to do that.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE When it comes to CDN, Perez said “they engage in grotesque conduct,” such as beheadings and kidnappings and “will harm anybody that gets in their way” regardless of whether they are American or otherwise. “What I can tell you about the Noreste cartel, they’re no different than any other cartels out there, the Sinaloa cartel. They’re all deadly cartels. They all traffic in fentanyl. They all traffic in drugs. They are trafficking people,” he explained. TRUMP ADMIN PROMISES TO BE ‘RUTHLESSLY AGGRESSIVE’ IN RESPONSE TO SUSPECTED CARTEL KILLING OF US CITIZEN By targeting CDN’s leadership, Perez said the Trump administration is effectively weakening the cartel by creating a power vacuum that will cause infighting that will further sap the organization’s strength. “The cartels are definitely going to feel it,” he said. “So, it’s a full-frontal assault from the United States. “That’s the protection that we’re bringing to the border that we weren’t able to bring under President Biden,” he added. “President Trump, on the campaign trail, and since he’s been in office, has repeatedly said he’s going to do everything he can to protect the United States, to protect its citizens and make sure that there’s nobody around that can do harm to our country. And he’s doing that. He’s taking on the cartels. He’s not afraid of them. “We want to decimate the cartel activity that’s going on in the United States. So, he’s done what he said he was going to. We support that 100%.”
Bipartisan effort launched to onshore manufacturing of key supplies never before ‘Made in USA’
EXCLUSIVE: Senators from both sides of the aisle will put forward a resolution calling on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to seek out new sites and critical infrastructure for high-demand products that are currently not made in America, and analyze the viability of making such products here. Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee chairwoman Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., came together Friday to launch the effort – citing the dual need for onshoring supply chains while bolstering the U.S. workforce. The Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act would force Lutnick to report within 18 months on critical infrastructure sectors where products face material, sourcing, or supply-chain constraints that prevent them from being domestically produced. The Commerce Department would then have to analyze the feasibility of producing that product in the U.S. – and whether such products’ newly-onshore production can be established in underserved rural areas and industrial parks. LAWMAKERS TAKE ACTION AFTER REPORT SHOWS BIDEN-ERA SBA FAILED TO PROBE 2 MILLION TO ALLEGED COVID AID FRAUDSTERS Both Ernst’s and Blunt Rochester’s states are vastly rural. In the latter, suburban sprawl from Wilmington gives way to miles of coastal plain. In recent years, the cities of Newark and Middletown have seen a boom in industrial parks and warehouses for major companies like Amazon seeking out the First State’s famously low-tax and tax-free environs. “Supply chains are key to global competitiveness and our national security,” Blunt Rochester told Fox News Digital. “This bipartisan legislation will help us identify where we rely too heavily on foreign imports for critical infrastructure and explore how we can bring that manufacturing home.” HOUSE SMALL BUSINESS COMMITTEE RELEASES REPORT ON BIDEN-ERA ELECTIONEERING The Delawarean added that strengthening domestic production not only protects our supply chains, “it supports American jobs, revitalizes local economies, and reinforces our nation’s resilience if global manufacturing disruptions occur.” Ernst added that the bill seeks to make the U.S. less dependent on foreign adversaries for critical infrastructure and key manufacturing supply chain preservation. “I am working to make ‘Made in America’ the norm instead of the exception,” she said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “That starts with ensuring that our manufacturers are able to get the materials they need right here instead of having to import supplies from halfway around the world. Beyond boosting domestic industry, this bill is also about safeguarding our national security by ensuring that we are not dependent on any foreign adversary for critical goods that we need.” Ernst has also spearheaded efforts to onshore the pharmaceutical supply chain from China. Many key ingredients in medicines are not produced in the U.S., and instead predominantly in Ireland and China. While one is a longtime U.S. ally, the other’s involvement in the supply chain could lead to national security risks, critics have said.