Police ‘spread thin’ as anti-Israel agitators challenge understaffed NYPD: expert
New York City has become the epicenter of campus protests at the hands of radicals denouncing Israel and Jews worldwide, forcing the NYPD to juggle yet another public safety concern and hundreds of arrests, in addition to ongoing crime trends, the immigration crisis, police understaffing and even security surrounding the unprecedented trial of former President Trump in Manhattan. “We believe that they, too, should contribute to the cost,” Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said last week when asked if Columbia University should foot the bill for a recent massive NYPD operation to remove radicals from campus. “One way to prevent the costs from escalating is to have a zero tolerance. As soon as the tents go up, it comes down. Do not allow this to continue to expand,” Adams continued. “That is what we saw at Columbia University and that is what we saw at CUNY as well.” Just last month, anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus spiraled, with students and outside agitators seen on camera with a poster outlining that Jewish students on campus would become Al-Qasam’s “next targets,” referring to terrorist organization Hamas’s military wing. That same weekend, a rabbi at Columbia warned Jewish students to leave campus immediately until the situation was quelled. NYPD RELEASE VIDEO SHOWING PROFESSIONAL ‘PROTEST CONSULTANT’ AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY “The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy,” Rabbi Elie Buechler wrote. “It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.” The situation did not dramatically improve. Instead, an encampment on campus dubbed the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” grew and radicals overtook a building on campus, Hamilton Hall. The encampment and occupation of Hamilton Hall only ended when the NYPD stormed the campus, clearing the encampment and removing throngs of agitators from the building. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROTESTS: REP. ELISE STEFANIK URGES TRUSTEES TO REMOVE SHAFIK AFTER MOB SEIZES BUILDING Between Columbia’s and The City College of New York’s campuses last week, police arrested 282 people and worked to dismantle illegal encampments. The NYPD revealed half of those arrested were outside agitators not affiliated with the universities. Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this month that the NYPD is spread thin as it juggles safety concerns revolving around the protests, in addition to a handful of other public safety issues in the city. “The department being spread as thin as it is, is really going to constrain its ability to respond to any kind of major shift,” Mangual said. “Again, we’re hoping … that the beginning of this trend of a crime decline continues. But if this summer turns out to be a very hot summer on the crime front, I mean, that can be particularly disastrous at a time in which the department is spread as thin as it is.” IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS’ PROTESTS SPIRAL INTO ‘ACTUAL TERROR ORGANIZATION,’ PROFESSOR WARNS Adams has praised the police for their strong showing and ability to shut down the protests, while denouncing the agitators on campus disrupting the city. “They are attempting to disrupt our city, and we are not going to permit it to happen,” Adams said last week. “And we’re proud to say they have been removed from the campus. The NYPD is precision policing ensured that the operation was organized, calm, and that there were no injuries or violent clashes.” The protests come after the NYPD saw historical losses of staffers leaving the force or retiring in recent years. In 2022, roughly 3,700 officers retired or quit — the largest figure recorded in the last 20 years, Fox News Digital previously reported. Police leaving the NYPD has been an issue stretching back decades, with Mangual explaining that staffing levels sat around 40,000 members in the early 2000s, before falling to under 34,000. COLUMBIA RABBI TELLS JEWISH STUDENTS TO LEAVE CAMPUS, WARNS THAT SCHOOL, NYPD ‘CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY’ “I think there’s no question that resources are getting strained. The NYPD is certainly a beneficiary of its very, very high levels of staffing. But it’s also important to remember that that high level of staffing has been pretty steadily decreasing for two decades now. I mean, I think of the year 2000, the department had about 40,000 officers, close to 41,000 at one point in the early aughts, and they’re down to about 33,500,” he said. The staffing issue woes are illustrated by how response times for calls of service have increased in recent years, along with the number of actual calls for service skyrocketing, Mangual reported in a New York Post opinion piece in March. Mangual compared NYPD response times in January 2018 to December 2023, finding response times for critical calls increased by 22% in December, “serious” calls for service response times increased by 45.5% and non-critical calls by 28.7%, sitting around 27 minutes or more for officers to respond. The NYPD also fielded a whopping 1 million more calls for service in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic 2018, Mangual found. “The NYPD fielded a million more calls for service in 2018,” Mangual told Fox News Digital. “Most police departments, you know, are fielding maybe 100,000 calls for service ready at a midsized Police Department in an American city. The NYPD is like the LAPD, it’s a mega department. So you’re talking about 7 million calls for service a year.” “That’s an enormous amount. And … that growth in calls for services is coming at a time in which the number of officers on the street has been declining. And it’s important to understand, too, that that 33,500 number includes all uniformed members of service, not all of whom are patrol officers who are going to be responding to these calls.” New York City was among cities across
Progressive champion and two-time presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders announces re-election bid
Saying that “today I am announcing my intention to seek another term” in the Senate, longtime independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday formally launched his bid for re-election. The 82-year-old progressive champion who caucuses with the Democrats is running for a fourth six-year term representing the blue state of Vermont in the Senate. Sanders, the runner-up for the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nominations, is the chair of the Senate’s top health care committee, a senior member on both the Budget and Veterans committees, and is part of the Democrats’ leadership team in the chamber. “I have been, and will be if re-elected, in a strong position to provide the kind of help Vermonters need in these difficult times,” Sanders touted in an on-camera announcement posted on social media. FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BERNIE SANDERS Sanders emphasized that “in recent years, working together, we have made important progress in addressing some very serious challenges. But much, much more needs to be done if we are to become the state and the nation our people deserve.” The senator, who has long worked to push the Democratic Party to the left, pushed for trillions in spending during the first two years of President Biden’s administration, as the nation rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic. But his efforts to pass legislation expanding Medicare and weakening the filibuster were unsuccessful. But Sanders has also worked to seek compromise with more moderate members of the Democratic conference and at times with the GOP minority. While a Biden ally, Sanders has been a vocal critic of the White House and Democrats in recent months over their push to provide aid to Israel as it battles Hamas in the war in Gaza. BIDEN CAMPAIGN BUSHES OFF SANDERS TAKE ON COLLEGE CAMPUS PROTESTS Sanders acknowledged that “Israel had the absolute right to defend itself from this terrorist attack,” as he pointed to the bloody October attack by Hamas that left of 1,200 Israelis dead. “But it did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people,” he added, as he pointed to the Israeli war in Gaza that has reportedly left over 34,000 Palestinians dead. “U.S. tax dollars should not be going to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people.” Sanders, a former Socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, later served in the House of Representatives before winning election to the Senate in 2006. He was narrowly edged by Hillary Clinton in a marathon and divisive 2016 Democratic presidential primary battle, and was the last candidate standing against Biden in the race for the 2020 nomination. Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. 6 KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER Three of those seats are in red states that former President Trump carried in 2020 – Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. And five more are in key general election battleground states. Democrats are also defending an open seat in blue Maryland, where popular former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is running for the Senate. With Sanders running for re-election, Vermont’s seat is not considered in play and he’s expected to easily win another term. Republican Gerald Malloy, who lost the 2022 election in Vermont, is running again. Framing his re-election effort, Sanders highlighted what’s at stake. “There are very difficult times for our country and in world. And, in many ways, this 2024 election is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Will the United States continue to even function as a democracy, or will we move to an authoritarian form of government?” the senator asked. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Presidential polls show deadlocked race as party conventions quickly approach
With six months to go until Election Day 2024, the rematch between President Biden and former President Trump is as close as it can get. The race is tied, according to a new national poll released by USA Today and Suffolk University on Monday. Biden and Trump each stand at 37% support among registered voters, with Democrat turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 8%, and 5% backing other independent or third party candidates. HAS BIDEN FLATLINED IN THE LATEST POLLS? “We’re basically at the doorstep of the election, and the outcome is a coin flip,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos said. The survey is the second in a day to indicate an extremely close contest between the Democratic incumbent in the White House and his Republican predecessor. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING IN THE 2024 ELECTION According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, Trump held a 46%-44% advantage among adults, but Biden has the edge 46%-45% among registered voters and up 49%-45% among those likely to vote in the presidential election. In a five-way contest that includes Biden, Trump, Kennedy, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West, Trump has the slight edge among all adults, he is tied with the president among registered voters, and Biden holds the edge among likely voters. DO THE LATEST POLLS SPELL TROUBLE FOR BIDEN? The Suffolk poll suggests that nearly a quarter of voters (24%) say they might change their minds ahead of the fall election, with 12% saying they have not made their choice yet in the presidential race. “When we think about the race tied with just 26 weeks to go, we have to consider that people tune out politics and the party conventions in July and August,” Paleologos emphasized. “That leaves just 17 weeks for candidates to actively campaign, and it’s actually 13 or 14 weeks when you consider states where early voting starts weeks before Election Day.” While national surveys garner plenty of attention, the race for the White House is a battle for the states and their electoral votes, which places a spotlight on battleground state polling. The most recent polling in the key swing states, including surveys from Fox News, indicate close contests. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Speaker Johnson to discuss issues with Marjorie Taylor Green ahead of her threats to oust him
House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to meet privately, one-on-one, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday at 3:30 p.m. amid speculation that she may trigger a motion to remove him from his post, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital. Over a month ago, Greene filed a motion to vacate, accusing the Louisiana Republican of having “betrayed the confidence” of the House GOP Conference by ushering through a bipartisan $1.2 trillion federal funding bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. Her resolution earned two co-sponsors in Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., after the House passed a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine earlier this month. Last week, Greene announced plans to trigger the motion this week, as early as Monday evening. “We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are gonna get this done,” Greene said last week, holding up a red “Make America Great Again” hat. “Not working for Hakeem Jeffries. Not working for Joe Biden, and not going to be twisted and lulled into continuing the disgusting practices of Washington, D.C.” MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FILES MOTION TO OUST SPEAKER JOHNSON Johnson said in a statement after her announcement, “This motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country.” Greene responded to accusations that her push would fuel more chaos for congressional Republicans by arguing that House Republicans would lose the majority in November if Johnson remained at the helm. She also denied that she was defying former President Trump, who backed Johnson in comments on a radio show last month. Greene’s push to oust Johnson just six months after he took the gavel mostly fell flat within the House GOP, with even Johnson’s critics showing little appetite to go through another three weeks of chaos and disorder that followed the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in early October last year. HOUSE DEMS SAY THEY’LL BLOCK MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FROM OUSTING SPEAKER JOHNSON The Republican Main Street Caucus, including Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas., announced they would hold a press event Monday following floor votes to discuss the motion to vacate. Crenshaw on Sunday told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Greene “needs her time in the spotlight” and is a “last-ditch effort to get a little attention.” Crenshaw said there’s a “large and strong majority” who will likely table the motion, noting that there is very little support for Greene and Massie’s effort. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE CALLS JOHNSON’S FOREIGN AID PACKAGE HIS ‘3RD BETRAYAL’ OF AMERICAN PEOPLE “And it’s based in what exactly, that Mike Johnson brought bills to the floor that were necessary for our national security, that the vast majority of members wanted to vote on? So allowing the democratic process to move forward is apparently the crime of the century, according to these people,” Crenshaw chided. “They make it impossible for us to have any leverage with our very slim majority, and then they turn around and punish the speaker when they can’t actually make a deal that we want,” Crenshaw added. “It’s a game, and voters have to stop falling for it.”
Boy, 5, dies amid floods in Southeast Texas; storms ease but risks remain
Forecasters expect storms to begin tapering off but some roads remain closed due to flooding.
Ex-top Biden DOJ official now prosecuting Trump was once paid by DNC for ‘political consulting’
EXCLUSIVE: The Democratic National Committee paid Trump prosecutor Matthew Colangelo thousands of dollars for “political consulting” in 2018, Fox News Digital has learned. Colangelo delivered opening statements in the unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump and serves as a top prosecutor with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Office on the case. Colangelo joined Bragg’s office in December 2022 after the resignations of Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne — prosecutors who were investigating Trump and resigned in protest of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to indict the former president. Colangelo left a senior role at the Biden Justice Department to join Bragg’s team. Bragg afterward brought charges against the former president in April 2023, raising questions among some in the GOP about alleged politicization of the case. House Republicans are investigating Colangelo and his past work as he prosecutes Trump. NY V. TRUMP: HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATES BRAGG PROSECUTOR WHO HELD SENIOR ROLE IN BIDEN DOJ According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Fox News Digital, DNC Services Corp/Democratic National Committee paid prosecutor Matthew Colangelo twice on Jan. 31, 2018. Colangelo was given two payments of $6,000, for a total of $12,000. The “description” for the purpose of payment is labeled “Political Consulting.” Neither the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office nor the DNC immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. At the time, Colangelo was serving in then-New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman’s office as the deputy attorney general for social justice, assuming the role from Bragg. Bragg, at the time, was appointed as chief deputy attorney general. TRUMP PROSECUTOR QUIT TOP DOJ POST FOR LOWLY NY JOB IN LIKELY BID TO ‘GET’ FORMER PRESIDENT, EXPERT SAYS Schneiderman resigned in May 2018 amid allegations of sexual assault. Barbara Underwood replaced him as New York attorney general. Just months after Colangelo received the payments from the DNC, in June 2018, Underwood, with Colangelo as executive deputy attorney general, filed a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation. The lawsuit claimed that Trump used the foundation’s charitable assets to pay off his legal obligations. The Trump Foundation ultimately agreed to dissolve in December 2018. BRAGG ‘ALLOWED POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS’ TO ‘INFECT’ PROSECUTION OF TRUMP, HOUSE JUDICIARY GOP SAYS Colangelo stayed in the New York Attorney General’s Office after Underwood’s tenure, and under the leadership of current AG Letitia James, who took over in 2018, where he continued to work on Trump lawsuits and investigations. But on Jan. 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden administration, Colangelo began serving as acting associate attorney general in the Justice Department. Colangelo then became the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Biden Justice Department. Colangelo helped to oversee multiple departments, including the Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust and Tax Divisions. Colangelo joined Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in December 2022. TRUMP TRIAL: FORMER PRESIDENT ‘INNOCENT,’ DEFENSE SAYS AS DA ALLEGES ‘CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY’ Prior to his work in New York and in the Biden Justice Department, Colangelo worked in the Obama administration, serving in a number of different roles. Colangelo worked in the DOJ’s civil rights division and served as the chief of staff to then-Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who later served as chair of the DNC in 2017. Perez was DNC chairman at the time Colangelo was paid for “political consulting.” Colangelo also worked as a deputy assistant to then-President Obama and as the deputy director of the White House Economic Council. The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland turn over records related to Colangelo’s employment at the Justice Department as it conducts “oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials.” Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. A charge of falsifying business records typically is a misdemeanor, but Bragg, Colangelo and New York prosecutors must convince the jury that Trump allegedly falsified those records in the furtherance of “another crime.” Prosecutors suggest that other crime was in violation of New York State law — to prevent or promote election. On its face, as a stand-alone offense, that charge is also typically a misdemeanor. Coupling the alleged falsification of business records with alleged prevention or promotion of election becomes a felony crime, according to Bragg.
NY v Trump: Judge threatens jail time for ‘possibly the next president’ for future gag order violations
Judge Juan Merchan said on Monday he will consider a jail sentence for former President Trump if he continues to violate the gag order imposed upon him in his unprecedented criminal trial. Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump before the trial began, ordering that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case – other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff. NY VS TRUMP: THE EVIDENCE PROSECUTORS CAN PRESENT IF FORMER PRESIDENT TESTIFIES Bragg and prosecutors have alleged more than a dozen violations of the gag order and have already fined the former president $9,000 for those violations. Merchan, on Monday, fined the former president $1,000 for an additional violation, but said it is “clear” that the fine — $1,000 per violation — is not effective. The filing states that Trump is “hereby put on notice that if appropriate and warranted, future violations of its lawful orders will be punishable by incarceration.” Merchan said Monday that, going forward, the court will have to consider “a jail sentence.” TRUMP SAYS BIDEN ‘SHOULD BE IN JAIL’ AND ‘ON TRIAL,’ WHILE BLASTING NY CASE: ‘THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING’ “The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” Merchan, though, said that he worries about “that step” for Trump, pointing to Secret Service protection. “The magnitude of that decision is not lost on me,” Merchan said. “Your continued willful violation of the court’s order…constitutes a direct attack…and will not be allowed to continue…It is not allowed to continue.” Trump and his defense attorneys have argued that the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee should not be bound by the gag order, saying it violates his First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of his supporters.
Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency election 2024: Know polling date, candidates and past results
The Election Commission of India (ECI) formally announced the final voting date and results on March 16.
Delhi LG recommends NIA probe against CM Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from…
The move comes a day ahead of the Supreme Court considering granting CM Kejriwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
‘Yemen at a crossroads’: Nearly 200 aid groups issue urgent funding appeal
Only a fraction of funds needed to provide aid to millions in the war-torn country is secured, the groups say. Dozens of aid groups have called for more donor funding to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of Yemen, warning that inaction would lead to “catastrophic consequences” for people in the war-ravaged country. In a joint statement released on Monday, 188 humanitarian organisations including United Nations agencies said they had secured only $435m of the $2.7bn required to provide crucial assistance, warning of threats such as food shortages and diseases. “Underfunding poses a challenge to the continuity of humanitarian programming, causing delays, reductions and suspensions of lifesaving assistance programmes,” the statement said, warning that 18.2 million people – more than half the population – needed help after more than nine years of war. Dire needs despite relative calm Yemen has been gripped by conflict since late 2014 when the country’s Houthi rebels seized large swaths of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. It escalated in March 2015 when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates assembled a United States-backed military coalition in an attempt to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 has seen reduced hostilities, but humanitarian needs remain dire. Meanwhile, recent Houthi attacks on ships transiting through the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and US retaliatory strikes threaten to shatter the relative calm. A shrinking economy, deteriorating public services, low-intensity violence and climate change vulnerabilities continue to drive humanitarian crises in the country, the aid groups’ statement said, adding that nursing women, older people and children are particularly vulnerable to rising levels of food shortages. The spread of cholera in the current rainy season, as well as unexploded munitions that have caused deaths and injuries, are also serious concerns, the groups said, noting that Yemen is a country “at a crossroads”. “We cannot ignore the significant humanitarian needs that remain and that cannot be addressed without adequate funding to respond,” the statement said. With a population of 33 million, Yemen is one of the world’s poorest countries and among the most vulnerable to climate change. Hundreds of thousands have died in the war or from indirect causes such as a lack of food, according to the UN. In March, NGOs warned that two in five Yemeni children are not attending school, while more than 17 million people – half of them children – require health assistance. Monday’s appeal to boost the country’s 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan came a day before a meeting of high-ranking European Union officials in Brussels to discuss aid for the country. Adblock test (Why?)