London mayor urges foreign leaders to condemn Trump as racist, sexist, homophobic
London Mayor Sadiq Khan branded former President Trump a racist, a sexist and a homophobe as he urged his own Labour Party to do more to “call him out.” Ahead of the presidential election in November, the U.K.’s Labour Party appears to be working to strengthen its relationship with Republicans should Trump take back the White House. However, Khan, a fierce Trump critic, insists the party “shouldn’t be literally rolling out a red carpet for a state visit.” Khan’s remarks on the former president came after foreign affairs chief David Lammy appeared to extend an olive branch earlier this month while insisting Trump is “often misunderstood” when it comes to policy and “wants Europeans to do more to ensure a better defended Europe.” LONDON MAYOR UNDER FIRE FOR REPORTEDLY SNUBBING QUEEN STATUE IN FAVOR OF ART CELEBRATING TRANS PROSTITUTES Rejecting Lammy’s position, Khan told Politico, “I’m quite clear, I understand, on Trump. He’s a racist. He’s a sexist. He’s a homophobe. And it’s very important, particularly when you’ve got a special relationship, that you treat them as a best mate. “If my best mate was a racist, or a sexist or a homophobe, I’d call him out, and I’d explain to him why those views are wrong,” the London mayor added. MAYOR SADIQ KHAN RIDICULED FOR BLAMING CELL PHONES WHEN CHALLENGED ON KNIFE CRIMES IN LONDON Khan, who was recently re-elected to a third term leading Great Britain’s most populous city, told the outlet he worries “about a Donald Trump presidency.” “You know, I’ve been speaking to governors from America. I’ve been speaking to mayors from America. Of course, we’ll have a relationship, whoever the president is. But we shouldn’t be literally rolling out a red carpet for a state visit,” he said. “It’s really important that we, of course, have good relations with Democrats and Republicans. But I lost count of the amount of Republicans I’ve spoken to who are also worried about a Trump presidency.” Khan and Trump have a history of feuding and not seeing eye to eye on a number of topics, including immigration. In 2019, prior to his arrival in London for a state visit, Trump referred to Khan as a “stone cold loser” who is “very dumb.” Responding to those comments in his interview with Politico, Khan said: “I’ve got more latitude as a mayor to just to say what I feel about Trump, and I make this point. He called me a ‘stone cold loser.’ I’ve won three. How many has he won?” Khan’s remarks come as the Labour Party is expected to return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months. Lammy, who has criticized Trump in the past as a “neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath,” recently traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with a number of Democrats and several Trump allies, including Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. “Were his words in office shocking? Yes, they were,” Lammy told Politico of the former president. “Would we have used them? No. But U.S. spending on European defense actually grew under President Trump, as did the defense spending of the wider alliance during his tenure.” Lammy also argued Trump helped matters by pushing European nations to increase their own defense spending. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “When he began his campaign, only four countries were spending their 2% of GDP. The number was 10 by the time he left office. And it is 18 today.” Lammy added. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Swing state voters tell NYT why they’re ditching Biden for Trump in 2024
Recent polls of swing state voters showed former President Trump with an edge over President Biden in six key battleground states where he was narrowly defeated four years ago. Now, some of those voters who supported Biden in 2020 are explaining why, looking ahead to the 2024 election, they want Trump back in office. Frederick Westbrook, a retired Las Vegas hotel worker, told The New York Times in an interview that voting for Biden to kick Trump out of office was “the biggest mistake of my life.” “As a Black man in America, I felt he was doing unjust things,” Westbrook said of Trump. “He’s got a big mouth, he’s not a nice person.” But while his view of Trump has not changed in the last four years, Westbrook told the Times his cost of living has risen too high under Biden’s watch. TRUMP AHEAD OF BIDEN IN THESE KEY SWING STATES: POLL “Everything is just about the economy,” said Westbrook, who now drives for Lyft to support his fixed retirement income. “I don’t really trust Donald Trump at all. I just think housing, food, my car, my insurance, every single piece of living has gone up.” The view that Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago is shared by others who were among the 14% of survey respondents who said they won’t vote for Biden a second time, according to polls released Monday by The New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The survey results and follow-up interviews reported in the Times on Friday suggest discontent over the economy and the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, and a deterioration in support for Biden by younger, Black and Hispanic voters, “threaten to unravel the president’s Democratic coalition.” Jaredd Johnson, a 25-year-old voter who works in marketing in Atlanta, told the Times he had hoped Biden would restore the country to a pre-pandemic normal, but doesn’t think he has. Despite his reservations about Trump, he said he plans to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee in November. ‘WARNING SIGNS FLASHING’: BIDEN, TRUMP STRUGGLE TO LOCK UP BASE VOTERS AHEAD OF FIRST DEBATE While Jonson said he understands the importance of supporting Ukraine and Israel, supplying Gaza with aid and helping immigrants, conversations with his friends and family “are suddenly less about what’s happening overseas and more about how we are struggling here, too.” Christopher Sheffield, 61, a counselor for veterans in Thomasville, Georgia, told the Times that whatever concerns he may have about Trump’s attitude toward race are not as important as crises abroad that could lead to another world war. “I’m an African American — of course I worry about racism,” he told the paper. “But guess what? I’ve been dealing with that my whole life.” Biden is “a good guy,” Sheffield said. “But when I look at him, he looks weak. With North Korea, Putin, and all those boys ready to act, I think they will be a little bit more reluctant to challenge Trump than they would with Biden.” He said he would vote for Trump in November. TRUMP PREDICTS ‘JACKED UP’ BIDEN AT UPCOMING DEBATES, BLASTS BIDENOMICS IN BATTLEGROUND SPEECH Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell said it’s no surprise that Black voters like Westbrook and Sheffield are moving away from Biden and towards Trump. “The pundits and analysts view the Black voters supporting Trump as an anomaly, and they are wrong,” Caldwell said. “Many Black voters were browbeaten into voting for Biden in 2020 by the media and celebrity cultural figures like Charlemagne the God with promises and predictions of a presidency that would serve the Black community well, and Black folks now realize they have been bamboozled by the left and media.” “Considering their economic conditions under the Biden administration are now far worse than under Trump, many feel they have no choice but to support the man who actually got the job done and made many feel more financially secure,” he added. Other voters told the Times that persistent inflation — which clocked in at 3.4% in April, down from the 2022 high of 9% but still well above the Federal Reserve’s target 2% rate — illegal immigration and Biden’s decision to withhold an arms shipment to Israel demonstrate a need for big change in America. “All of our core values are gone, gone, and I’m just not pleased at all,” said Amelia Earwood, 47, a safety trainer at the U.S. Postal Service in Georgia. She told the Times she thinks Trump is “a horrible human being,” but said, “I’m voting on his policies, and I think that he could straighten this country out, while Biden made a ginormous mess out of it.” The Trump and Biden campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Catholic group questions NFL’s commitment to ‘inclusion’ after response to player’s religious speech
A top Catholic political advocacy group is calling out the National Football League (NFL) for claiming to have a “commitment to inclusion,” then attempting to distance itself from a player over his faith-filled commencement speech. CatholicVote came to the defense of Chiefs player Harrison Butker in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt on Thursday, after the kicker was shamed for his speech at Benedictine University on how “truth is in the minority.” Within the first few minutes of his speech, Butcker hit President Joe Biden for having a pro-abortion stance while identifying as Catholic, saying the president is “delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally.” Along with detailing his Catholic faith, Butker touched on several other controversial political topics, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), diversity, equity, and inclusion. The NFL released a statement saying that the league was committed to inclusion and that Butker’s “views are not those of the NFL as an organization,” prompting CatholicVote to pen a letter to the league saying their reaction “calls into question your commitment to genuine diversity and inclusion.” HARRISON BUTKER’S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH ‘SHOWED COURAGE AND COMMITMENT,’ LOU HOLTZ SAYS The group asked whether the NFL’s inclusion efforts include “Catholics, pro-life Americans, mothers, and those who hold to traditional moral beliefs.” CatholicVote also highlighted the rising backlash against Butker, including from the wife of LA Rams quarterback, who said the speech had “dangerous gender ideologies.” “The View” also said Butcker’s religious beliefs are “cult-like” and that he should go to therapy. KELLY STAFFORD, WIFE OF SUPER BOWL CHAMPION QB, TAKES ISSUE WITH HARRISON BUTKER’S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH “The growing hatred, intimidation, and now threats of violence against him for publicly defending our deeply-held beliefs represent the worst kind of anti-Catholic bigotry, and cannot be tolerated,” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, said in the letter. The group added that Butker’s speech was “courageous” and encouraged “Catholics to live up to the high ideals of our Faith.” “These ideals are not controversial for millions of Americans and indeed remain sacred for millions of religious believers, including millions of your fans and customers,” CatholicVote said. CatholicVote added that “we are hopeful, however, that you do not intend to send a message to Catholics, or to those that still uphold basic moral tenets of a civilized society, that they are outsiders and no longer welcome. To paraphrase a famous quote from NBA star Michael Jordan, “Catholics watch NFL games, too.” The NFL did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment for this story and has not yet responded to the letter, according to CatholicVote.
WATCH: Possible Trump VP pick makes major prediction about Black voters as Biden bleeds support
EXCLUSIVE: A Republican considered to be among the frontrunners in the race to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate is making a major prediction about Black voters as President Biden continues to bleed support among the traditionally Democrat-supporting community. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only Black Republican in the Senate and a staunch supporter of Trump’s third White House bid, told Fox News Digital on Friday that Biden’s planned weekend campaign swing aimed at shoring up support among the Black community in Georgia and Michigan is actually just about “pandering” to a community worse off under his leadership, and that they would instead show up for Trump in “historic” numbers. “For 52 consecutive paychecks, Black folks, like the rest of Americans, lost spending power, because inflation was higher than wage increases. What does that mean? It means devastation to single moms like the one that raised me,” Scott said. POTENTIAL TRUMP RUNNING MATE RIPS BIDEN’S OUTREACH TO BLACK VOTERS: ‘ALWAYS PANDERING’ “The one thing that we can expect from the Biden administration is more of the same. More misery, more devastation, more catastrophes. That’s one of the reasons why you see so many Black voters shifting to the GOP under Trump. Why? Because Donald Trump delivered,” he said. The Biden campaign announced early Friday that the president would be attending an event in Atlanta on Saturday focused on engaging Black voters before delivering the commencement at Morehouse College, a renowned historically Black men’s liberal arts college, on Sunday. The president will then meet with small-business owners in Detroit later on Sunday before delivering an address that evening in Michigan to the NAACP. Biden’s re-election team highlighted in its announcement that “no administration has delivered for Black America like President Biden and Vice-President Harris.” “This campaign will not take a single voter for granted,” Biden campaign senior adviser Trey Baker wrote in the memo. “We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote.” BIDEN CAMPAIGN HIGH ON DOJ’S MARIJUANA SHIFT, ‘SMOKES’ TRUMP FOR INACTION DURING HIS TERM A slew of polls this spring — both nationally and in the key swing states — have indicated that Trump has gained support with Black voters at Biden’s expense, something Scott said is being driven by the positive economy for Black Americans under Trump’s administration. “We had the strongest, most powerful and inclusive economy in the history of the country in my lifetime. Unemployment for Black folks [was] under 6% for the first time ever; the wages growing at the bottom faster than the top. He also supported my opportunity zones, bringing nearly $70 billion committed to the poorest communities,” Scott said, referencing his signature legislation that provided more investment opportunities in low-income areas. “[Biden] sometimes says, ‘You can’t be Black if you don’t vote for me.’ Or he’ll say something as asinine as ‘Republicans want to put you back in chains.’ But last time I checked, the only person restraining Black economic growth is Joe Biden and Bidenomics. So please don’t pander to people smart enough to smell what you’re cooking, and it’s a rat,” he said. TRUMP VEEP STAKES: THE PROS AND CONS OF SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. KRISTI NOEM “Historic shifts towards President Trump are already happening. Here’s what we know: Without question, the pandering tour is because without the Black vote, there is no Democrat party,” Scott later added. Scott also addressed Trump’s ongoing trial in New York City, arguing that it is politically driven, as well as the qualities his future running mate needed to possess. Those traits included “someone who understands the House and Senate,” plus “someone who understands being a business owner in the private sector,” and “someone who understands the pain and the misery of rising from the bottom and going to the top” — all traits Scott himself possesses, considering his upbringing and business experience before his time in Congress. “There’s no doubt that it would be such an honor for anyone to even be in the conversation. But this should not be about me or any other potential VP, as they describe us. This should only be about America’s future and who gets us there the fastest. That’s Donald Trump,” Scott said when asked whether he was still open to being Trump’s running mate should he be approached about the role. “Whatever I can do to make sure we have four more years of Donald Trump, count me in,” he added. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment. Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
ICE declines to reveal names of Jordanians nabbed for Marine base breach; former officials weigh in
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Friday that it is not yet releasing the identities of two Jordanian nationals who attempted to breach a Marine Corps base in Virginia — something former officials say raises a number of possibilities about the case. “We cannot proactively release the names, as this could potentially affect their removal proceedings,” ICE said in a statement. Officials had confirmed Thursday that there was an attempted breach on May 3 at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. A Marine base spokesperson said that two people in a box truck had been stopped at a gate. The driver allegedly told military police officers they were making a delivery to the post office and worked for a company subcontracted by Amazon. 2 FOREIGN NATIONALS IN ICE CUSTODY AFTER ALLEGED ATTEMPTED BREACH AT MAJOR MARINE BASE “It was at that time, one of the military police officers noticed the driver, ignoring the direct instructions of the officers, continued to move the vehicle past the holding area and attempted to access Marine Corps Base Quantico,” spokesperson Capt. Michael Curtis said in a statement. Officials later turned them over to ICE after their arrest for trespassing. In a statement, ICE confirmed the arrest of two Jordanian noncitizens and said they were in Enforcement and Removal Operation (ERO) custody, but did not provide any more information about their cases. “Regardless of nationality, ICE makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with U.S. law and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, considering the circumstances of each case. ICE officers make decisions on associated enforcement actions and apply prosecutorial discretion in a responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement professionals and in a way that best protects the communities we serve,” a spokesperson said. The White House also declined to comment, noting it was a law enforcement matter. That came hours after acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner had said he was familiar with the case and that the two nationals were in removal proceedings — but did not comment further. Former officials who spoke to Fox News Digital noted that officials are limited by regulation 8 CFR 208.6, which generally blocks disclosure of information to third parties pertaining to asylum applications, credible fear determinations, except for limited circumstances. “This regulation safeguards information that, if disclosed publicly, could subject the claimant to retaliatory measures by government authorities or nonstate actors in the event that the claimant is repatriated, or endanger the security of the claimant’s family members who may still be residing in the country of origin,” DHS says of the regulation. There is a similar DOJ regulation. NEW DATA REVEALS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ELUDING BORDER PATROL SPIKED UNDER BIDEN, SURPASSING PREDECESSORS Former officials said this likely means that one or both of the nationals have an asylum claim pending, and noted that releasing the information could impact efforts to remove them. “They probably made a claim of asylum, or they already had an asylum claim made,” former acting ICE Director Tom Homan told Fox News Digital. “So ICE is protecting information based on [the regulation].” However, Homan noted that the DHS secretary has authority to override that regulation if there is derogatory information about the nationals, for instance if they have prior criminal or terrorist charges or convictions. Homan said if that’s the case, then DHS should override the regulation and provide the information. “I think if there’s derogatory information, these guys are a terror threat then the Secretary has a duty to override 8 CFR. The American people have a right to know, are there terrorists in this country, and it’d be further proof that the border is open to those who want to do us harm.” He said that if there’s derogatory information on the nationals, then the impact on any asylum case would be irrelevant. “I think if there is derogatory information, the Secretary should override 8 CFR for the interests and safety of America, because if there’s [derogatory information] on them, it’s not like we’re going to release them into the United States anyways, at that point I don’t care about their asylum case,” he said. “I think that the safety and security of the United States is a little more important.” BORDER PATROL OFFICIALS SAY THREAT POSED BY ‘GOTAWAYS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER ‘KEEPS US UP AT NIGHT’ John Fabbricatore, a former ICE field office director who is now running for a congressional seat in Colorado as a Republican, agreed with Homan’s assessment. However, he said that ICE could still be more forthcoming with information. “If it is an asylum claim, I think ICE should just come out and say, ‘Due to an asylum claim, we’re not going to release these two names, but these two individuals did enter, say, on the southern border illegally, or they entered as students and then claimed asylum later on,” he said. “I don’t see the negative in at least allowing the public to know how the method of entry was, at least that.” “I don’t think they’re releasing it because I believe that they probably entered illegally over the southern border,” he said. BORDER PATROL OFFICIALS SAY THREAT POSED BY ‘GOTAWAYS’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER ‘KEEPS US UP AT NIGHT’ Fabbricatore, who authored the new book “DE-ICED,” said the only way ICE doesn’t know their immigration history is if they had somehow managed to enter the U.S. with no detection whatsoever as a gotaway. “But that’s even more alarming. If these two were gotaways and got in a truck and tried to enter a military base, that’s even more concerning, right?” he said. Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub. Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
Are seed-sowing drones the answer to global deforestation?
Santa Cruz Cabralia, Bahia, Brazil – With a loud whir, the drone takes flight. Minutes later, the humming sound gives way to a distinctive rattling as the machine, hovering about 20 metres above the ground, begins unloading its precious cargo and a cocktail of seeds rains down onto the land below. Given time, these seeds will grow into trees and, eventually, it is hoped, a thriving forest will stand where there was once just sparse vegetation. That is what the startup which operates this drone, a large contraption that looks a bit like a Pokemon ball with antennae, hopes. The 54 hectares (133 acres) here which have been badly degraded by agriculture and cattle farming in the Brazilian state of Bahia are just the start. Franco-Brazilian company Morfo has set itself the target of restoring one million hectares of degraded land in Brazil by 2030, using seed-sowing drones and a rigorously researched preparation and monitoring process. Forest engineer Yan Marron e Mota loads seeds into a drone adapted for sowing [Constance Malleret/Al Jazeera] How big a problem is deforestation? Deforestation is a rapidly growing problem in many countries. In Brazil, for example, deforestation in the Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Spain between 2000 and 2018, a study by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network (RAISG) showed in 2020. Although preliminary data from the government’s space research institute (INPE) shows Amazon deforestation fell by 50 percent last year, forest loss continues to rise in other biomes, like the Cerrado. In Afghanistan, years of war and fighting have had a devastating effect on forests. Many have been completely destroyed. According to the research group World Rainforests, more than one-third of Afghanistan’s forests were destroyed between 1990 and 2005. By 2013, this had risen to half because of the additional problem of illegal logging. And, in Colombia, internal violence and displacement have pushed armed groups, farmers and cattle farmers into the forests, causing more deforestation. In 2016 alone, after a peace deal was rejected by some armed groups, deforestation rose by 44 percent. President Gustavo Petro has since overseen a decrease in forest loss, by as much as 49 percent in 2023 according to Global Forest Watch, but deforestation has increased in other Amazon countries like Bolivia. Wildfires in many parts of the world, notably Australia, California and around the Mediterranean in recent years, have also contributed to deforestation. Most recently, thousands of people have been evacuated in the past week because of wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta in Canada. Scientists check on progress one year after seeds have been sown in Bahia. The data collected will be used to design optimum sowing processes and monitoring systems [Pedro Abreu/Morfo/Divulgação] Why is forest restoration important? “Climate change is happening, temperatures are rising, it’s already too late. So we need to be planting [trees] now,” says Adrien Pages, Morfo’s co-founder and CEO. Healthy forests are a critical resource in the fight against climate change; they provide valuable ecosystem services such as carbon storage, temperature regulation, water resources and biodiversity conservation. Nearly one billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Simply conserving those forests which remain is insufficient, so the United Nations has urged countries to meet pledges to restore a combined one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030 to avoid large-scale ecosystem collapse. But that is a daunting task. Brazil, for example, has promised to reforest 12 million hectares by the end of this decade – a target which requires planting an area the size of England, or eight billion trees, according to ((o))eco, the Brazilian environmental journalism platform. Crispim Barbosa de Jesus, 51, a subsistence farmer in southern Bahia, supplements his income with seed collecting for the reforestation project here [Constance Malleret/Al Jazeera] How can drone technology help? Traditional reforestation, where seedlings are grown in a nursery and then planted by hand, is effective, but it is labour intensive and time consuming. Drones can help speed up the process and reach areas which are dangerous or inaccessible to humans. Morfo uses two drones which have been adapted to carry 10kg to 30kg of seeds and can sow up to 50 hectares per day, piloted automatically or manually depending on the terrain. The height at which the drone flies and the density and type of seeds it disperses all depend on a sowing plan, designed following an examination of the land’s environmental conditions. “For us, it’s not about the drone. The most important thing is the preparation and the seeds,” says Pages. With data from drone and satellite imagery as well as information collected by a team on the ground, data scientists use computer vision – a form of artificial intelligence – to develop models that can recognise trees and seed species. These are used to automate the creation of an optimal seeding strategy and to monitor results. “The scalability of the solution is what’s important to us. The starting costs of the project are going to be high, to allow for diagnosis, research, adequate preparation, but after that, costs per hectare are relatively low and fall as the area grows,” says Pages. Biodegradable seedpods have been specially developed to sow smaller and more fragile seeds [Pedro Abreu/Morfo/Divulgação] What sorts of seeds are used? “Seed availability is one of the biggest concerns. And the survival rate of seeds is low, so you need to have a lot of seeds,” says Mikey Mohan, the founder of ecoresolve, a US-based ecosystem restoration company. Morfo is working to address this. It has developed a biodegradable seedpod to sow smaller and more fragile seeds which have an 80 percent survival rate in the lab. The project in southern Bahia, a region where the Atlantic Forest began to be cleared for agriculture centuries ago and which is now overrun with monocultures of eucalyptus and sugarcane, is a testing ground for different seeding methods to work out how best to grow native species. It is also researching these species’
Violent protests rage in New Caledonia amid growing civil unrest
Mass protests erupted in New Caledonia this week after France’s parliament voted to allow French residents who have lived in the Pacific Islands territory for 10 years or more to vote in provincial elections. The French government has argued that these reforms uphold democracy in the archipelago. But local people – particularly those from the Indigenous Kanak community, who make up 40 percent of the islands’ population – fear this will undermine their efforts to win independence from France. France deployed troops to New Caledonia’s ports and international airport, banned TikTok as the government imposed a state of emergency on May 16. Anger among the Indigenous Kanak people has been simmering for weeks over plans to amend the French constitution, diluting a 1998 accord that limited voting rights. Hundreds of heavily armed French marines and police on Saturday patrolled the capital, Noumea, where streets were filled with debris following several nights of looting, arson and armed clashes in which six people have died. French officials have accused a pro-independence group known as CCAT of being behind the protests. Ten activists accused of organising the violence have been placed under house arrest, according to authorities. New Caledonia has been French territory since colonisation in the late 1800s. Centuries on, politics remains dominated by debate about whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent – with opinions split roughly along ethnic lines. Adblock test (Why?)
Three Afghans, three Spanish tourists killed in Bamyan shooting
Group of tourists and their companions was fired on while walking through a market in central Afghanistan. Three Afghan nationals and three Spanish tourists were killed in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, the Taliban government has said, as it raised the death toll from the attack in a market. On Saturday, the government said that the bodies of the three Afghans and three Spanish tourists were transported to the capital, Kabul. The group was fired on while walking through a bazaar in the mountainous city of Bamyan, about 180km (110 miles) from Kabul, on Friday. “All dead bodies have been shifted to Kabul and are in the forensic department and the wounded are also in Kabul. Both dead and wounded include women,” Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told the AFP news agency. “Among the eight wounded, of whom four are foreigners, only one elderly foreign woman is not in a very stable situation.” According to hospital sources in Bamyan, the wounded were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain. Qani said that the fatalities included two Afghan civilians and one Taliban member. A Taliban soldier stands guard in front of the ruins of a destroyed 1,500-year-old Buddha statue in Bamyan, Afghanistan [File: Ali Khara/Reuters] “They were roaming in the bazaar when they were attacked,” he added. Seven suspects were in custody and one of them was wounded, according to Qani, who said the investigation was continuing. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Spain’s government on Friday announced that three of the dead were Spanish tourists, adding that at least one other Spanish national was wounded. “Overwhelmed by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X. The bodies would likely be brought back to Spain on Sunday, according to Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, who spoke on Spanish public television TVE. He said one of the wounded had already undergone surgery in Kabul. Afghanistan’s flailing tourism sector has seen the number of foreign tourists up 120 percent year on year in 2023, reaching nearly 5,200, according to official figures. Bamyan is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up during their previous rule of Afghanistan in 2001. Since taking over the country again in 2021 after the withdrawal of United States-led forces, the Taliban have promised to restore security and encourage a small but growing number of tourists. Friday’s attack was the deadliest since the Taliban took over three years ago. The Spanish embassy was evacuated in 2021, along with other Western missions, after the Taliban took back control of Kabul. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Coming to BJP headquarters tomorrow…’: Delhi CM Kejriwal after Bibhav Kumar’s arrest
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said that he along with senior AAP leaders will be present at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters tomorrow noon.
Schools across country disbanding DEI programs in droves; education expert explains why
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last summer to ban affirmative action practices in college admissions, in addition to various state legislation and mounting political pressure, a growing number of institutions for higher learning are dismantling their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and practices. The Chronicle of Higher Education has tracked changes at 158 college campuses in 22 states since January 2023, saying the tracker “collects changes that public colleges have made to offices, jobs, training, diversity statements, and other DEI-related activities as the result of bills, executive orders, system mandates, and other state-level actions.” Most recently, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees dismantled its DEI programs and transferred millions in funding instead to public safety and campus police on the heels of sweeping anti-Israel demonstrations. Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, a national grassroots group aimed at urging schools to “educate — not indoctrinate,” told Fox News Digital in an interview that the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision provided a legal backstop for some universities already unhappy with the lack of results from bloated DEI departments receiving millions in funds. ELITE UNIVERSITY ELIMINATES DEI HIRING REQUIREMENT: ‘THEY DON’T WORK’ “I think it’s an opportunity to start to rein in these excesses, because as much as all these districts and educators and universities talk about ‘we want evidence based’ — where is the evidence that this programming has worked or made an impact? I mean, are our campuses calmer and more chill than 10 years ago? Absolutely not,” she said. Neily explained that in some institutions, DEI “proxies” are starting to arise, perhaps to evade accountability. “A couple years ago, it was critical race theory. And then everybody said, ‘No, we’re not doing critical race theory. Now what we’re doing is culturally responsive teaching,’” Neily explained. “I think the same thing is happening with the DEI moniker. We’re sort of watching this shift in real time. For a while it was JEDI — justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Now, we’re seeing a lot of so-called ‘belonging.’” Neily added that part of the problem has been “there’s just a really significant public choice conundrum built into it.” RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SAYS WITHOUT DEI OFFICES, THERE IS ‘NO ABILITY TO MAKE MEANINGFUL PROGRESS’ “If you have a fiefdom, if you are the DEI dean or the DEI director, you can’t actually go at the end of a fiscal year and say, ‘Hey, incidents of hate on campus have dropped a lot, or it looks like we’re like we brought in the most diverse class ever,’ because then you have a smaller budget, and then you have to find your staff. It’s a solution in search of a problem kind of thing,” she explained. But now in light of the Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard case, in which the Supreme Court in June ruled that using race as a factor in college admissions is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Neily says school administrators who are not in favor of DEI problems but “felt like they had to” have them now have legal cover to dismantle them. SEN MIKE LEE TARGETS UNIVERSITY GRANTS, CITES ‘WOKE DEI PROGRAMS,’ ANTI-ISRAEL RIOTS The Chronicle reported that legislation in over 20 states has already impacted schools’ DEI programs. But Neily says she hopes to see more. “The governors do have a lot of control over this, as do the state legislatures. So I would like to see a little bit more urgency from them about this, that we believe in a colorblind society, we believe in America. We don’t believe in Balkanizing humans based on immutable characteristics. So why are our federal and state tax dollars being used for that purpose?” she said. Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.