Palestinian journalists in Gaza awarded World Press Freedom prize
NewsFeed All Palestinian journalists covering Israel’s war on Gaza have been awarded UNESCO’s World Press Freedom prize. The agency said it was a tribute to the courage of journalists facing ‘difficult and dangerous’ conditions. More than 100 have been killed during the war. Published On 3 May 20243 May 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Strategic Values in Action: Prioritizing Knowledge, Quality, and Trust for Success in Demanding Work Environments
By continuously seeking new insights and staying abreast of industry trends, organizations can not only stay ahead of the curve but also position themselves as thought leaders within their respective fields.
Texans get their first crack at electing the people overseeing the state’s complicated property appraisal process
In the state’s larger counties, voters can now elect people to the agencies that appraise property values.
UT-Austin student protesters balance end-of-year work with fallout from police crackdowns
Many students participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations fear their involvement might affect their plans for after college.
Heavy rain, rising rivers pose dual threat to Southeast Texas Friday as flooding warnings persists
Residents in several counties, including some parts of Harris County, were told to evacuate.
“Trust in yourself”: Colony Ridge residents rely on business savvy to establish life in U.S.
Despite several daily and systematic challenges, the Liberty County community is home to industrious entrepreneurs from across the Latin American diaspora.
Biden brings up Islamophobia amid the worst antisemitism outbreak in decades
President Biden broke his silence and condemned violent protests shaking college campuses across the U.S. amid the worst antisemitism outbreak in decades and added that Islamophobia has no place in America. “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden said. “There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American.” Law enforcement sources indicated to Fox News Digital there has not been a spike in Islamophobia across the U.S., so when Biden summoned Islamophobia during his speech, it had some observers scratching their heads, including Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz. “Why can’t President Biden simply denounce antisemitism without pandering to Muslims and Arabs,” Dershowitz posted on X, before later saying the crisis at hand was about antisemitism, discrimination and violence against Jews, not other groups. “Why won’t he just condemn Jew hatred?” PRESIDENT BIDEN CONDEMNS VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS, WON’T CALL UP NATIONAL GUARD Mobs of anti-Israel agitators have invaded college campuses and set up encampments, demanding the schools completely divest in supporting war efforts in Gaza. Jewish students report feeling threatened at Columbia, and a Jewish student was blocked from entering UCLA’s campus. On Tuesday morning, anti-Israel agitators at Columbia University in New York City continued to call for the “intifada revolution,” chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as a mob invaded and occupied an academic hall. That chant calls for the eradication of Israel. CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY REVEALS ‘TRUE COST’ OF ANTI-ISRAEL MOB THAT TOOK OVER ACADEMIC BUILDINGS It was not until the next night that university officials permitted the New York Police Department to enter university grounds and remove the agitators. Agitators at the University of Chicago have also called to globalize the intifada. Hugh Hewitt, host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” called Biden out in a social media post for taking two minutes and forty seconds to get to the hatred displayed against Jews before mixing in Islamophobia. “It is a teleprompter, of course, but his writers are spent,” he said. “They don’t have the ability to compose, nor he to deliver, a forceful speech.” TRUMP SAYS 4 WORDS ABOUT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AS ARRESTS SKYROCKET Hewitt told Fox News Digital Islamophobia “is real and a cause for concern” as is hate speech of all sorts. He also addressed antisemitism on college campuses. “Jew hatred is the ancient evil, and it’s on dozens of campuses right now,” Hewitt said. “That should be the president’s exclusive focus today, tomorrow and for as long as antisemitism is sweeping the country and would be if he wasn’t concerned with his re-election.” Shortly after Biden made the remarks, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called the president “impotent” on social media. VIRGINIA TECH POLICE PHYSICALLY CARRY AWAY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AMID EFFORT TO RESTORE PEACE ON CAMPUS “President Biden still won’t forcefully condemn the Hamas mobs on campuses. He’s terrified of them,” the senator said. “A complete lack of leadership from an impotent president.” Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., issued a statement to Fox News Digital on Biden’s remarks. “To have any chance of winning Michigan in November, Joe Biden has made the political calculation that he needs to equivocate on Israel, equivocate on defending American Jews and equivocate on protecting Jewish students at universities,” Zeldin said. “Hamas sympathizers have taken over college campuses across this country calling for the death of Jews. Weak leadership is the play call at the White House, demonstrating an incredible lack of moral clarity and courage. This is a time to singularly, emphatically and powerfully condemn antisemitism.” The FBI declined to comment about a rise in Islamophobia in the U.S., directing all questions on the matter to the White House. The White House defended the president’s comments, backing them with instances in the news where Muslims were attacked. “In Chicago, a 6-year-old child was brutally killed and his mother stabbed. Three college students of Palestinian descent, two of whom are American citizens, were shot in Vermont – paralyzing one,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “The FBI has sounded the alarm about rising crime and threats against Muslims, Arab Americans and Palestinian Americans in recent months. Appalling language, threats and violence have targeted the Muslim community. “President Biden cares about the rights, dignity and safety of all Americans,” Bates added. But others would not hold back, including Rich Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a nonprofit, non-partisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy. HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE CENTER PRESIDENT COMPARES ANTI-ISRAEL MOBS AT COLUMBIA TO NAZIS AT GERMAN UNIVERSITY “What people need to understand is that the Biden administration itself is like one of these college campuses. You have a protest movement inside the government with leaks, anonymous letters, [protesters] outside the White House wearing masks, resignations, threats of resignation, shouting, staffers at town hall meetings and more,” Goldberg said. “And Biden is sort of like that weak college president who is afraid of the Hamasniks on his campus. So, when he condemns antisemitism, he makes sure to balance it out, so his own Hamas encampment doesn’t get agitated.” When Biden condemned the violence at school campuses on Thursday, he said “order must prevail.” “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden said. Biden had been facing mounting media and political pressure to speak out against the violence. EMORY UNIVERSITY RIPS ANTI-ISRAEL ‘ACTIVISTS’ DISRUPTING CAMPUS; POLICE USE TEAR GAS, ZIP-TIES DURING ARRESTS “Throughout our history, we’ve often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation. And moments like
VP Stakes: Trump meeting with potential running mates this weekend
Former President Donald Trump moves from the courtroom in New York City to the banquet rooms in South Florida on Friday, as he headlines a gathering of top Republican donors and teams up with potential running mates. Trump starts his day in a Manhattan courtroom, where the former president is being tried on nearly three-dozen state felony charges for falsifying business records in relation to hush-money payments during the 2016 election he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress. Trump has repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels. But the conclusion of court on Friday will free the former president to travel home to Palm Beach, Florida, where he’ll be the main attraction at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) Spring Donor Retreat. HAS BIDEN’S BUMP AGAINST TRUMP FLATLINED? The closed-to press gathering – held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palm Beach and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club a few miles north – comes as he aims to close his fundraising gap with President Biden in their 2024 election rematch. And listed as “special guests” at the confab are a number of Republican politicians considered to be on Trump’s shortlist for running mate, according to an agenda of the weekend’s events obtained by Fox News. FORMER RIVAL DESANTIS TO HELP FUNDRAISE FOR TRUMP “This event takes on even greater significance in light of the fact that the President is constrained from travel due to his trial. While at the same time, Biden can travel all over the country to raise money,” Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks told Fox News Brooks, who has close ties to the GOP donor class, said that “major donors are stepping up now in a big way as we watch in horror the nightly images on TV of our country spiraling out of control.” And he predicted that “this weekend will be a huge success.” Among those listed as “special guests” are possible running mates Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, JD Vance of Ohio, and Marco Rubio of Florida. So are Govs,. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Kristi Noem from South Dakota. Two top Trump supporters in the House – Reps. Elise Seefanik of New York and Byron Donalds of Florida – will also be there, as will entrepreneur and former 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Also attending the gathering are the recently Trump-installed leadership at the RNC – chair Michael Whatley and the former president’s daugther-in-law Lara Trump, who is co-chair of the national party committee. House Speaker Mike Johnson is also attending, as will a handful of top GOP Senate candidates. While Trump’s team won’t say whether the former president will hold one-on-one meetings with the potential running mates during the weekend confab, it’s not hard to imagine that such encounters may occur. While the appearance of the potential vice presidential candidates will grab media attention, those involved in the gathering say fundraising is the emphasis. “The events this weekend are really more about raising money for the presidential race than it is about auditions for the potential VP candidates,” a Republican strategist with ties to Trump world told Fox News. Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News the gathering “is certainly an opportunity for a collection of the most dynamic leaders of our common sense movement to demonstrate the winning messages we have to end Biden’s weak and dangerously dishonest presidency. Those who financially support President Trump and the America First agenda will see that they are helping save our nation with victory in November.” The Biden campaign took aim at Trump ahead of the RNC donor retreat. “Donald Trump will spend the weekend off the campaign trail again, hiding behind closed doors with billionaire donors, boot lickers, abortion banners, Social Security cutters, and a puppy killer,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer charged. The “puppy killer” reference was to South Dakota’s Noem, whose anecdote in her upcoming book about shooting and killing a family dog has stirred controversy amid plenty of media attention. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
FLASHBACK: Biden confidante made revealing admission about Obama DOJ in unearthed interview
FIRST ON FOX: A former U.S. senator and longtime political confidante of President Biden openly acknowledged that the Department of Justice was “full of Biden people” during the Obama presidency, sparking criticism from skeptics as Biden’s DOJ continues to fight questions about its impartiality in high-profile investigations. “The Justice Department is full of Biden people!” Former Delaware Democratic Sen. Ted Kaufman said in a 2012 “Oral History” Senate interview reviewed by Fox News Digital in response to a question about Biden’s input on cabinet positions. “I mean full of Biden people. If you want a list of where Biden people are, there are a whole bunch of people in the Justice Department, and a whole bunch of them in our foreign policy establishment, and a whole bunch of them in the White House, OMB, and places like that.” NEW YORK TIMES OPINION VIDEO DECLARES ‘DEEP STATE’ IS ‘KIND OF AWESOME’ “But since financial reform wasn’t one of his major interests, he didn’t have people in it. Although I must say, after I left the Senate I was offered two major positions in the financial area of the administration which I turned down,” Kaufman continued. “He would have had one person in the financial area if I had not decided that my time of full-time employment days was over and that I had a different view of where I was going to go.” Kaufman, who Biden referred to as one of his “closest friends in the world” during a White House event last year, has a long history of working with President Biden and says the two met when Biden was not yet 30-years-old contemplating a run for Senate in 1972. Biden’s sister Valerie, who was serving as Biden’s campaign manager, recruited Kaufman to help with the campaign and Kaufman later joined Biden’s Senate staff where he worked for 22 years ultimately becoming Biden’s chief of staff. Kaufman was appointed in 2008 to fill the Delaware Senate seat vacated by Biden when he went to the White House to serve as Obama’s vice president and the Delaware Democrat served there for about a year before current Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., took the job after winning a special election. He was most recently the head of Biden’s 2020 transition and was described in a Politico profile piece as the “man who literally wrote the laws on presidential transitions” and said Kaufman, who lives a few minutes away from Biden’s main Delaware residence, “likely has more control over a future Biden administration than anyone other than the Democratic presidential nominee himself.” JESSE WATTERS: A DARK AND DANGEROUS CHAPTER IN AMERICA IS HERE White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates did not address the Kaufman quote, but instead told Fox News Digital that “President Biden is proud to have restored the full independence of the Department of Justice from politics, a bipartisan tradition.” “He’s also proud that after the Trump Administration became the first since Herbert Hoover to in total lose jobs and left him with a spiking violent crime rate, he delivered unprecedented job creation and the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years,” Bates continued. The resurfacing of Kaufman’s remarks comes as Biden’s DOJ is involved in high-profile investigations into former President Donald Trump as well as Biden’s son, Hunter, which conservatives have long argued have been politically motivated. “Joe Biden is the epitome of a corrupt, career politician,” the Trump campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “The only jobs Crooked Joe has ever created are for his equally crooked family members at foreign companies or for his partisan leftist friends in the federal government. Biden’s witch-hunts against his political opponent, President Trump, have been carefully coordinated and led by Biden’s deep state Democrat friends who make a living by ripping off American taxpayers,” Leavitt continued. “On the contrary, President Trump has employed thousands of people at his successful companies for decades and had an unparalleled record of job creation in his first term as President, which will only continue when he is re-elected in November.” Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas recently sent a scathing letter to the DOJ and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last month, highlighting the hiring of Michael Colangelo on the team attempting to charge the former president with 34 counts of falsifying his business records, including alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Colangelo was previously employed as a senior official at President Biden’s DOJ, but reportedly left his role in December 2022 to work as Senior Counsel at the DA’s office a few months before the indictment of Trump. GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a vocal critic of theBiden DOJ, told Fox News Digital that “it is clear to the American people that Joe Biden’s weaponization of the Department of Justice is an illegal form of election interference targeting President Trump” after reviewing the unearthed Kaufman quote. Donald Trump Jr. blasted “Crooked Joe” in a statement to Fox News Digital and said Biden “has been a creature in the DC swamp for over 50 years and the DOJ is the beating heat of the swamp, and so his influence over it is no surprise.” “Anyone with a working brain can see that the purpose of these corrupt cases against my father is to try to save Biden politically,” Trump Jr. continued, defending his father. “It’s shameful that Biden’s minions at the DOJ are willing to turn America into a Banana Republic, all to try to stop my father from retaking the Presidency.” Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, who heads the Biden DOJ, has come under intense scrutiny over the handling of multiple investigations. Earlier this year, Garland pushed back on critics who accused the DOJ of political bias. “Look, we have reasserted and clarified the norms of this Justice Department,” Garland replied. “We follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. Politics is not a part of our determinations. It would be improper and it’s not. The Department has
NY v Trump: Remaining alleged gag order violations hang in balance as trial resumes
Former President Trump’s unprecedented trial in Manhattan resumes for its 11th day on Friday, when the presiding judge could rule on the former president’s remaining alleged gag order violations, and the court is expected to hear continued testimony from a computer forensics expert. Trump is expected back in court at 9:30 a.m. Friday for the final day of the third week of his trial. Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing Thursday morning to consider the remaining alleged gag order violations against Trump. The 45th president was fined $9,000 on Tuesday for violating the order — which bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials — on nine separate occasions. The district attorney’s office argued Trump violated the gag order on 14 separate occasions. Merchan did not deliver a ruling on the remaining alleged violations Thursday but could issue a decision Friday. In his initial gag order ruling, Merchan warned that Trump could face jail time if there are “continued willful violations” of the order. Trump said he would appeal the gag order during remarks after the trial adjourned Thursday evening. NY V TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY During the trial on Thursday, the jury heard continued testimony from Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as the trial’s seventh witness, Doug Daus, a computer forensics expert with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Daus is expected to resume testimony Friday morning under cross-examination. The computer expert testified on Thursday about the “unusual” number of contacts on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s cellphone, which totaled nearly 40,000 contacts, and confirmed the metadata for audio recordings on Cohen’s phone, at least of of which appeared to be a conversation between Cohen and Trump. The New York v. Trump case focuses on Cohen paying Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels. Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony. TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN Davidson testified Thursday that the $130,000 payment to Daniels was not a “payoff” or “hush money,” as it is frequently called in the media, but a “consideration” payment. Consideration is a legal term for what someone gives in return for the promise to abide by a contract. In the case of Daniels, money was given in return to abide by the contract. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass pressed Davidson about a 2018 statement Daniels released denying any affair with Trump, detailing that her interactions with the former real estate mogul only included “a few public appearances and nothing more.” Davidson prepared the statement for Daniels. TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN “I don’t believe that Stormy ever alleged that any interaction with Trump was ‘romantic,‘” Davidson said Thursday, but he added that, to his understanding, Daniels had a sexual encounter with Trump. Davidson’s testimony also focused on Cohen, who Davidson said became “despondent and saddened” following the 2016 election, allegedly lamenting he did not lock down a White House job under the Trump administration. “Can you f–ing believe I’m not going to Washington after everything I’ve done for that guy? I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington … I’ve saved his a– …,” Davidson recounted of a conversation he had had with Cohen in December 2016. NY V TRUMP: HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATES BRAGG PROSECUTOR WHO HELD SENIOR ROLE IN BIDEN DOJ Davidson testified that Cohen had been hoping to land a position as White House chief of staff or attorney general in the lead-up to Trump’s inauguration. The lawyer’s testimony Thursday stands in contrast to Cohen’s remarks to Congress in 2019. “Sir, I was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the president of the United States of America. I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs,” Cohen told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan in 2019 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. MICHAEL COHEN TIKTOK VIDEOS, FUNDRAISING STUN LEGAL OBSERVERS: MAY HAVE ‘TORPEDOED CASE AGAINST TRUMP’ “I did not want to go to the White House,” Cohen added later in his testimony to Congress. “I retained, I brought an attorney in, and I sat with Mr. Trump, with him for well over an hour, explaining the importance of having a personal attorney, that every president has had one in order to handle matters like the matters I was dealing with.” Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and he has slammed the case as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration and led by a “conflicted judge.” Court proceedings on Friday are expected to wrap up by 3:45 p.m., earlier than the usual 4:30 p.m. end time, because a juror has an appointment. Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herlihy and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.