Election board in crucial swing state issues controversial ruling requiring hand counting of ballots
The election board in one of the most crucial swing states in the 2024 presidential election approved a controversial new rule that will require the hand counting of ballots on election night. The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 to approve a rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand after voting is completed in a decision that was opposed by the state attorney general’s office, the secretary of state’s office and an association of county election officials but supported by many conservatives. Three board members who were praised by former President Donald Trump during a rally last month in Atlanta voted to approve the measure. Critics of the move say that the measures came at the last minute and will delay reporting results in the state. TRUMP LEADS HARRIS WITHIN MARGIN OF ERROR IN TIGHT GEORGIA RACE, POLL FINDS In a memo sent to election board members Thursday, the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr said no provision in state law allows counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level before the ballots are brought to county election superintendent for vote tallying. As a result, the memo says, the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and is “likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.” The new rule, according to the Associated Press, requires that the number of paper ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day. The board’s chair, John Fervier, a Republican, voted against the rule, saying the “overwhelming number of election officials” who reached out to him were opposed to the change. NEW TRUMP VOTER FRAUD SQUADS BEGIN GEARING UP FOR ‘ELECTION INTEGRITY’ FIGHT “I do think it’s too close to the election,” Fervier said. “It’s too late to train a lot of poll workers.” Other conservatives on social media praised the move as a step in the right direction to avoid voter fraud including former Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington who posted on X that the decision was “great news.” “YES!!!” Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X. “Way to go GA State Election Board!! Thank you for taking every step to fight for election integrity!!” In 2020, approximately five million votes were cast in the presidential race statewide, more than half in early voting. Recent polling shows that Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in Georgia with approximately 46.9% of voters currently saying they would vote for Trump, compared to 44.4% of voters who say they would cast their vote for Harris. Fox News Digital’s Timothy HJ Nerozzi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
After repeated promises from Biden administration that a cease-fire is close, war in Middle East is escalating
After months of public optimism about the prospects of a ceasefire, Biden administration officials have soured on the prospects of an end to the war between Israel and Hamas. “We aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted to reporters on Wednesday. He called the prospects of a completed deal “daunting.” “No deal is imminent,” one U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.” Israelis point the finger at Hamas for killing six hostages earlier this month, including a U.S. citizen. Arab officials lay blame on Israel for explosive pagers and walkie-talkies and airstrikes aimed at killing Hezbollah fighters for making the prospect of a multi-front war more likely. “There’s no chance now of it happening,” an Arab official said after the recent campaign against Hezbollah. “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration.” For Biden, a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who ran on his diplomacy chops, failure to secure a deal would be a blow to his legacy. It would mean a presidency bookended by a chaotic pullout from Afghanistan at the start and the false hope that peace — and the return of some 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 — was just around the corner after the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Along with the recent attacks on Hezbollah, officials cited another main reason for pessimism to the Journal: the number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel would be asked to release to bring home its hostages. Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state, told Fox News Digital he’s less pessimistic about the potential for a deal. “Nobody’s walked away from the table. They haven’t stated they’re done. Qatar and Egypt are still partnering with us on these talks. The three-stage agreed-upon framework is still in place,” he said. “The hangups are on the implementation side, not the framework side,” he said, noting that negotiations as far as which prisoners will be released, how their safety will be guaranteed and what to do with Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar remain open-ended. ISRAEL STRIKES HEZBOLLAH TARGETS IN LEBANON “These implementation issues keep coming up,” he said. “That’s where you keep hearing Hamas growing its demands, adding new names, expecting more. And that’s where you hear Israel, you know, calling for the Philadelphia corridor, which suddenly has dropped out of the discussion, right? They both want more and more advantage and gains on their side, which is why negotiators are exasperated.” While the Biden administration continues to try to find ways forward on a deal, public comments that have strung along hope for months are now conflicted by some of the privately held sentiment that cease-fire efforts are futile. On July 19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a cease-fire deal was within sight. “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” Blinken said. On Aug. 17, President Biden said he was “optimistic” a deal could be reached. “We are closer than we’ve ever been,” he said, adding that he was sending Blinken to Israel to continue “intensive efforts to conclude this agreement.” On Aug. 19, Blinken said that Israel had “accepted a proposal” and the next step was for Hamas to agree. “The next important statement is for Hamas to say ‘yes,’ and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. HOW DID THE HEZBOLLAH PAGER EXPLOSIONS HAPPEN? 5 THINGS TO KNOW “This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.” But those comments came one day after Hamas had said it would not agree to that proposal. They objected to Israel having control of the Rafah and Philadelphia corridors, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had demanded. Then again on Sept. 2, Biden claimed the U.S. was “very close” to finalizing a cease-fire deal that would see the release of hostages. Asked why he was optimistic despite other deals having failed, he said, “Hope springs eternal.” Even this week, Blinken expressed optimism about a deal, though he warned after the pager blasts that “escalation” threatens to thwart progress. “It’s imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict,” Blinken said at a news conference in Egypt. He said he was focused on a deal that would bring calm on all fronts, including Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Blinken said that 15 out of 18 paragraphs of a deal had been agreed by all sides. He blamed long wait times for messages to be passed between the parties for leaving space to disrupt the talks. “We’ve seen that in the intervening time, you might have an event, an incident — something that makes the process more difficult, that threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it — and anything of that nature, by definition, is probably not good in terms of achieving the result that we want, which is the cease-fire,” Blinken said. After Egypt, he went to Paris to discuss the prospects of a deal with his European counterparts. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the seven remaining U.S. hostages held in Gaza, where the families said they “expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan. On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised address called the pager attacks “a declaration of war” and that attacks against Israel would continue until the war
Republicans feature 9/11 conspiracy theorist in South Texas ads
The small business owner featured in the ad previously shared memes calling 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic inside jobs and mocking U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
Illegal immigrant bites Border Patrol agent in the face amid ‘significant rise’ of attacks on CBP
An illegal immigrant coming across the U.S. border bit a Border Patrol agent in the face while being taken into custody, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Fox News on Friday. The agency said that on Thursday an agent encountered a group of illegal immigrants who had crossed the border near Sunland Park, New Mexico. While taking them into custody, one agent “was physically assaulted and bitten” by one of the illegal immigrants. The agency said that one subject had been arrested for assault and taken to a hospital for medical evaluation. CAUGHT ON CAMERA: FENCE-CUTTING MIGRANTS BUSTED BY FEDS CBP later confirmed to Fox News that the agent had been bitten in the face by the illegal immigrant, and that three of the four migrants in the group had crossed back into Mexico. The agency says that Mexican officials were nearby and grabbed the group as they came across, taking them to the edge of the border for the Border Patrol agents to identify. Customs and Border Protection recently warned in a press release that it has seen “a significant risk in attacks on Border Patrol Agents recently.” In the El Paso sector of the border, where the latest assault took place, 66 agents have been assaulted so far this fiscal year. Last fiscal year, 104 agents were assaulted. Sunland Park has been a key crossing area for migrants at the southern border. But apprehensions in the sector are down this year, compared to last year, something agents have put down to an increase in technology and surveillance, as well as existing border barriers. EX-BORDER PATROL CHIEF RIPS BIDEN ADMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY SUPPRESSING INFO ON MIGRANTS WITH POTENTIAL TERROR TIES Immigration and border security have become top issues in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The Biden administration has pointed to a recent drop by more than 50% in border apprehensions since President Biden signed an executive order in June limiting arrivals. It has also called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill to provide additional funding and resources to the border. Republicans have accused the administration of causing the historic border crisis in the first place, arguing that the ending of Trump-era policies and expansion of “catch and release” encouraged millions of migrants to travel to the border and be released into the interior. Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Secret Service overhaul talk hits Capitol Hill after Trump assassination attempts
The recent attempts on former President Trump’s life have left some House Republicans questioning whether the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) should remain under the control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “I think that’s something that we should look at — if we need to remove them from Homeland, make them a standalone agency or answer to someone else. I mean, their mission, I think, is entirely different than a lot of the agencies under that Department of Homeland Security umbrella,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., vice chair of the Committee on Homeland Security, told Fox News Digital. The Secret Service was established in 1865 as a bureau of the Treasury Department to tackle counterfeiting and was authorized by Congress to provide full-time protection to the president in 1913, according to the agency’s website. It was transferred from the Treasury Department to the newly created DHS in 2003. The agency has faced a barrage of scrutiny after two assassination attempts against Trump. In July, Trump was injured after a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee. Last weekend, officers arrested a 58-year-old man who appeared to have been waiting for Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course with an AK-47. WATCH ON FOX NATION: THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS OF DONALD TRUMP No legislative proposal has surfaced on this specific issue, but several GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital the incidents spurred wider conversations among some members about DHS in general. “I think what this opens up is the extent to which, 20 years later, the wisdom of creating the Department of Homeland Security in the first place should be questioned,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. “Frankly, DHS is failing as a whole, on multiple levels. “That’s not a testament to any of the line folks. … But the top folks in the bureaucracy, it’s killing us. … Secret Service would be a step.” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said DHS being “a catch-all agency” was “not working.” “I just honestly feel that the Secret Service isn’t getting the sunshine or the attention it needs from [Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas], simply because his agency is massive. And I think there’s nothing wrong with us breaking that up,” Donalds said. “And it’s not just Secret Service. It’s border security. It’s immigration processes and all the other stuff.” TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN-HARRIS ‘RHETORIC’ FOR LATEST ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, SAYS HE WILL ‘SAVE THE COUNTRY’ Donalds added that it would likely not feasibly be done this year, but he suggested there could be a more serious push if Republicans kept the House majority in November. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, recalled that, during his time in the White House medical unit, there was some discontent among agents about being moved to DHS. “For a while, when it first happened, I know for a fact — because I was around these guys every day being at the White House 14 years — they weren’t big fans of it. … They were kind of a big fish in a little pond when they were with Treasury, and then when they got rolled into this massive, you know, bureaucracy of DHS … they felt like it kind of downgraded their importance and their abilities,” Jackson said. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., similarly told Fox News Digital he “wouldn’t be opposed” to looking at breaking up DHS. NEW WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS ON FIRST TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ‘HIGHLY DAMAGING’ TO SECRET SERVICE: HAWLEY And Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., wrote on X in recent days, “We don’t need to throw more money at the U.S. Secret Service — we need new leadership. “I believe we should move the USSS back under the Treasury Department, away from Homeland Security — which has become a political tool under the biggest liar since Pinocchio, Alejandro Mayorkas,” Alford said. Several other House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital, however, were either skeptical of the idea or said they had not had such discussions. “People say a lot of things that, I don’t know if it’s just off the cuff, but they say things are – it’s just a thought process that they’re going through,” said House Trump shooting task force chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa. “There’s a structure in place right now.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Secret Service and DHS for comment but did not receive responses prior to publication.
DNA TV Show: What role does politics play in Tirupati laddoo row? Is this battle for ownership of temple trust?
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on Wednesday, alleged that substandard ingredients and animal fat were used in making the Tirupati laddu, a consecrated sweet, during the previous YSRCP government.
Watch an Oct. 2 conversation with Houston lawmakers
Members of the Legislature’s Houston delegation will discuss some of the key issues of the 2025 legislative session.
Biden holds first Cabinet meeting in nearly a year, first lady joins for first time
President Biden convened his Cabinet on Friday for the first time in nearly a year – this time with First Lady Jill Biden joining him for the meeting. It was the first time the Cabinet has met since Oct. 2, 2023. Jill Biden spoke about a White House initiative on women’s health research before the president fielded a question about the escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon. “We’re continuing to try to do who we’ve tried from the beginning. To make sure that both the people in northern Israel, as well as southern Lebanon, are able to go back to their homes and go back safely,” Biden said. “And the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, our whole team is working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it till we get it done. But, we’ve got a way to go.” FLASHBACK: BIDEN’S CABINET DOUBLES DOWN ON SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT FOLLOWING DEBATE Biden, when asked about the chances of an Israel-Hamas cease-fire in Gaza, responded “If I ever said ‘it’s not realistic’ we might as well leave.” “A lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done. We have to keep at it,” Biden said. SECRET SERVICE, HOMELAND SECURITY SUED OVER FIRST TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Biden also highlighted during the meeting the need for Congress to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government. At the last Cabinet meeting in October 2023, Biden said he was convening the gathering “to get an update on the progress we’re making on pressing priorities for our country” — specifically the “promise and peril of artificial intelligence” and “taking action on gun violence.”
Tirupati Laddoo Row: Rahul Gandhi reacts to alleged use of ‘animal fat’, says ‘this issue will hurt every devotee…’
He urged prompt action, saying, “Authorities across India have to protect the sanctity of our religious spaces.”
House passes bill blocking Biden admin attempt to require two-thirds of new cars to be electric within years
The Biden administration’s attempt to set new emissions standards on electric vehicles was blocked by a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Friday. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule in March under the Clean Air Act to set new emissions standards that would require up to two-thirds of new cars sold to be electric vehicles by 2032. The new standards would affect “light-duty vehicle manufacturers, independent commercial importers, alternative fuel converters, and manufacturers and converters of medium-duty vehicles,” according to the EPA’s final rule. The House passed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution on Friday, introduced by Rep. John James, R-Mich., to block the “out-of-touch regulation” from being enacted. BIDEN-HARRIS’ TAXPAYER-FUNDED ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS PROGRAM IS ‘ENRICHING’ THE CCP: HOUSE REPORT The amendment was passed with bipartisan support, with eight Democrats voting for the bill. Democrats who opposed the bill argued that the EPA’s rule was “very important” in reducing emissions, but James, speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, called the Biden administration’s new standards “catastrophic.” 5 INSANE BIDEN-HARRIS APPLIANCE REGULATIONS HEADING YOUR WAY “The Biden-Harris Administration’s EPA tailpipe emission rule is another out-of-touch regulation that will crater the Michigan auto industry and decimate our middle-class and most vulnerable,” James said in a press release after the bill passed. “This is a de-facto electric vehicle mandate that will put all 77,580 manufacturing jobs in MI-10 at great risk of extinction. I am grateful that the House passed this measure to prevent the Biden-Harris administration’s rule from ravaging the livelihoods of thousands in Michigan and across the country.” “Vice President Harris made it clear from the start that one of her top priorities is mandating electric vehicles and getting rid of combustion engines, and like she said, her values haven’t changed. The Biden-Harris EPA continues to place extreme standards on pollutants and greenhouse gasses for vehicles in an attempt to make Americans to switch to EVs, taking away consumer choice, forcing unaffordable options on American families and workers, and crushing jobs,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a press release following the vote. The bill’s passing comes just one day after the American Energy Alliance and over two dozen energy groups sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to pass the CRA. “This rule on tailpipe emissions standards is a massive overreach, using a novel application of EPA motor vehicle authorities in an attempt to force a transition in the motor vehicles market to products that align with the ideological preferences of the Biden administration,” the groups wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday. The bipartisan legislation is being mirrored in the Senate by Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who introduced the chamber’s CRA version in May.