Travis County district attorney faces removal attempt under Texas’ “rogue” prosecutors law
A county resident accuses José Garza of “indiscriminately” pressing charges against law enforcement and refusing to prosecute certain crimes.
Republican North Texas congressional candidates debate Ken Paxton’s impeachment, Ukraine relief funding
State Rep. Craig Goldman and construction company owner John O’Shea are in a runoff for the GOP nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Kay Granger
Squad Democrats push Israel aid package amendment in failed cease-fire effort: ‘Death warrant on Palestinians’
U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., offered an amendment to a bill in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent aid from going to Israel unless Hamas releases its hostages and a cease-fire was put in place, measures the terror group has repeatedly rejected. The House Rules Committee refused to consider the measure and House lawmakers on Saturday showed overwhelming bipartisan support for a $26 billion foreign aid bill providing funding for Israel and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The failed amendment called for a lasting cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the release of hostages held by the terror group and “arbitrarily detained Palestinians” held by Israel as well as diplomacy to secure self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis. TENSIONS ERUPT ON HOUSE FLOOR AS CONSERVATIVES CONFRONT JOHNSON ON $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN However, Hamas has rejected multiple offers of a cease-fire that call for the release of hostages its terrorist fighters have held captive since Oct. 7. “This bill that passed today is a death warrant. It’s a death warrant on Palestinians,” Bush said Saturday at an anti-Israel rally on Capitol Hill. “It’s a death warrant that says it means that. Apparently, it means that Palestinians are not as valued, that their lives are not as valuable as Israeli lives. And I have to say this. For those that feel that way, shame on you.” Progressive Democrats have called for the Biden administration to halt aid to Israel over concerns about the fighting in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis unfolding there as well as three death toll of residents in the Hamas-controlled territory. On Friday, Bush said Congress was fueling genocide rather than saving Palestinian lives. For her part, Tlaib, who has Palestinian roots, has been a vocal critic of Israel even before Oct. 7. HOUSE TAKES KEY TEST VOTE FOR JOHNSON’S $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN AFTER DEMS HELP IT ADVANCE Fox News Digital has reached out to Tlaib’s office. Republicans, for the most part, have been united in their support for Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Many critics have accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of committing genocide as it battles Hamas fighters in Gaza. Israeli and U.S. leaders have pushed back against those claims. “If we don’t move now, if we don’t say cease fire now. So many will die,” Bush said. “So we didn’t have to be at 34,000, plus tens of thousands more under rubble, plus folks dying from starvation. We don’t have to be in a famine right now.: “We don’t have to have 200,000 buildings decimated and destroyed and whole communities gone and hospitals gone and educational facilities gone,” she added. “We don’t have to be there right now. Yes. We won’t stop fighting for humanity. We won’t stop fighting for every single Palestinian. For every single person in the region. Because they’re taking it even further than Gaza.” Israel recently carried out limited strikes against Iran in retaliation for a barrage of airstrikes Tehran fired on Israel, the first such direct attack from the Islamic fundamentalist government. No large-scale damage or casualties were reported in either incident.
‘Harassment’ of Christian college by Biden administration blasted by state education official
FIRST ON FOX: Arizona’s education department is pushing back against the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) threat to shut down Grand Canyon University, calling it “the latest episode of harassment” against the school by the federal government. “It is unwarranted and unjust,” Arizona state Superintendent Tom Horne told Fox News Digital Friday. “In the U.S., anyone accused of wrongdoing is presumed innocent and entitled to their day in court. Secretary Cardona’s threat is contrary to those constitutional guarantees and unworthy of his position.” Horne said he wrote to DOE Secretary Miguel Cardona last year about GCU’s “excellent” reputation and urged him to sit down with GCU leadership to hash out their issues. “That is a reasonable request, but, so far, he has chosen to be unreasonable,” Horne said. LARGEST CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY IN THE NATION ALLEGES IT’S BEING UNJUSTLY TARGETED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES The Biden administration is trying to take down the largest Christian university over “ideological” differences despite the school being audited several times by separate state entities, according to the university’s president. “We are very, very universally loved and respected in the state of Arizona on both sides of the aisle,” Grand Canyon University (GCU) President Brian Mueller told Fox News Digital Thursday. “This thing is absolutely not political for us. There’s a small group of people in Washington, D.C., in the Department of Education and the Federal Trade Commission, but none of the allegations that they’re lobbing are corroborated any place else.” While GCU will first try to appeal within DOE, Mueller said he believes “the Supreme Court will hear this.” “There’s so much at stake here,” he said. NEW MEXICO UNIVERSITY SUED FOR ‘VIEWPOINT DISCRIMINATION’ AFTER CHARGING ‘HEFTY FEE’ TO CONSERVATIVE GROUP GCU’s accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, also described GCU’s doctoral disclosures as “robust and thorough” in its 2021 comprehensive review of GCU’s enrollment practices, a GCU executive told Fox News Digital. The Arizona State Approving Agency (SAA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which recently audited GCU specifically to investigate the DOE’s claims, also concluded there were “no substantiated findings.” LIBERTY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT CRIES FOUL AFTER LEAK OF DEPT OF EDUCATION REPORT ON SCHOOL’S SAFETY COMPLIANCE “The Arizona SAA did not have any substantiated findings based on our review of Grand Canyon University,” SAA’s letter to GCU in March stated. “There are no findings impacting the continued approval of Grand Canyon University at this time. There are no follow-up actions required by Grand Canyon University at this time.” Mueller’s comments come as DOE Secretary Miguel Cardona vowed to shut down the school for being “a predatory for-profit school” during a House Appropriations Committee hearing about cracking down on GCU and other universities like it last week. The DOE claims that GCU “lied to students” and “falsely advertised” the cost to complete a doctoral program, which the GCU rejects. In higher education, doctoral programs that include dissertations rarely have a fixed cost because the number of continuation courses varies for each individual student, a GCU spokesperson said in response. Cardona made comments during a House Appropriations Committee hearing about cracking down on GCU and other universities like it April 10. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked Cardona how the administration is working to shut down GCU, which she called “a predatory for-profit school.” Cardona openly embraced the enforcement methods. “Last year, your department took action against Grand Canyon University, a predatory for-profit college, over the school’s failure to accurately disclose its cost to students, driving up the true cost for those students and requiring for them to pay for continuation courses before they would graduate. Scam courses added about $10,000 or more to the cost of education to these kids,” DeLauro said. “Going after predatory schools preying on first-generation students,” Cardona responded. “They have flashy marketing materials, but the product is not worth the paper it is printed on. Increased enforcement budget to go after these folks and crack down. Levied largest fine in history against a school that lied about costs and terminated a school from Title IV. We are cracking down not only to shut them down, but to send a message not to prey on students.” GCU appealed a $37.7 million fine imposed by the department in November based on allegations the Arizona-based higher learning institution misled students about the cost of its doctoral programs over several years. The department said in an October press release an investigation conducted by the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) found GCU “lied” to over 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs. The release also said GCU “falsely advertises” a lower cost for its doctoral programs, adding that about 98% of students ended up paying more than the advertised cost. Fox News’ Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this report.
US senators call on Biden to sanction Sudan’s RSF over human rights abuses
Lawmakers say Hemedti’s and the RSF’s activities and abuses make them deserving of sanctions from the United States. United States senators have written an open letter to US President Joe Biden, calling on him to recognise Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, as violators of human rights. The letter, dated Friday, follows the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), two rival military factions fighting for control of the country after a coup in 2021. The lawmakers cite the US’s Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as a basis for sanctions, adding that the RSF and Hemedti’s activities include “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against human rights defenders and persons seeking to expose illegal activity by government officials”. The lawmakers have given Biden 120 days to act on the request. The letter lists human rights abuses in Sudan, such as accounts of rape, extrajudicial killings, and targeting of journalists, including when Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Fadl and Rashid Gibril were detained and beaten up in Khartoum. Additionally, it makes reference to a December 2023 statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the RSF had committed “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing” since the outbreak of the war last April. The lawmakers also called on Biden to investigate the activities of the RSF to determine further sanctions that may be warranted. “We ask that you also examine the RSF’s financial networks and sources of revenue, such as gold smuggling, and relationships with the Russian Federation and Wagner Group, to assess whether they are also deserving of sanction under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for acts of significant corruption by government officials.” The US Department of the Treasury imposed similar penalties in September 2023, said the senators. This includes sanctions against Hemedti’s brother and visa restrictions on RSF General Abdul Rahman Juma over the group’s violent activities, including “targeted abuses against human rights activists and defenders”, according to the US Department of State. The letter was brought forward by US Senators Ben Cardin and Jim Risch, who serve, respectively, as chair and as a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and by US Representatives Michael McCaul and Gregory Meeks, chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The RSF and SAF have both been accused of attacking civilians and blocking humanitarian aid access over the past year. Ceasefire agreements have collapsed several times and international mediators are still working to achieve conclusive peace talks. Sudan has been left with a major humanitarian crisis while nearly eight million people are displaced and facing shortages of food, water, and medical supplies. Adblock test (Why?)
Will India’s election be free and fair?
Opponents and rights groups allege repression has increased in recent years. Six weeks of voting have begun in an election where India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term. Opponents say repression and sectarianism have increased under his leadership. So, what are the issues? And will the election be free and fair? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: Mohan Krishna – Spokesperson for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Arshpreet Khadial – Chief Spokesperson for the opposition Indian National Congress Sravasti Dasgupta – Reporter for The Wire who specialises in Indian politics Adblock test (Why?)
Thousands protest against over-tourism in Spain’s Canary Islands
Demonstrators say mass tourism is overwhelming the Atlantic archipelago. Tens of thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets of Spain’s Canary Islands to demand changes to the model of mass tourism they say is overwhelming the Atlantic archipelago. An estimated 57,000 people joined the protests, which began at midday (11:00 GMT) on Saturday, Spanish media reports said, citing the central government’s representative in the islands. Flag-waving crowds packed the streets of the main towns across all of the archipelago’s seven islands, chanting and whistling, and holding placards with slogans like: “The Canary Islands are not up for sale!”; “A moratorium on tourism”; and “Respect my home”. “It’s not a message against the tourist, but against a tourism model that doesn’t benefit this land and needs to be changed,” one of the protesters told the Reuters news agency during the march in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Smaller marches were held elsewhere in the island group and other Spanish cities, all of them organised by about two dozen environmental organisations ahead of the peak summer holiday season. The protests were called by some 20 social and environmental groups who say tourist overcrowding perpetuates an economic model that harms local residents and damages the environment. They want the authorities to limit the number of visitors and have proposed introducing an eco-tax to protect the environment, a moratorium on tourism and a clampdown on the sale of properties to non-residents. “The authorities must immediately stop this corrupt and destructive model that depletes the resources and makes the economy more precarious. The Canary Islands have limits and people’s patience [does], too,” Antonio Bullon, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters. A woman shouts next to a banner with the word “tourism” during a demonstration in the Canary Islands [Borja Suarez/Reuters] ‘We can’t keep looking away’ The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13 percent from the previous year, according to official data. Authorities in the islands are concerned about the impact on locals. A draft law expected to pass this year – one that toughens the rules on short lets – follows complaints from residents priced out of the housing market. Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo said on Friday that he felt “proud” that the region was a leading Spanish tourist destination, but acknowledged that more controls were needed as the sector continues to grow. “We can’t keep looking away. Otherwise, hotels will continue to open without any control,” he told a press conference. Anti-tourism protests have multiplied in recent months across Spain, the world’s second-most visited country, prompting authorities to try to reconcile the interests of locals and a lucrative sector that accounts for 12.8 percent of Spain’s economy. The Canary Islands, which lie off the northwestern coast of Africa, are known for their volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine attracting millions of visitors every year, with four in 10 residents working in tourism – a sector that accounts for 36 percent of the islands’ gross domestic product (GDP). Before the coronavirus pandemic brought the global travel industry to its knees in 2020, over-tourism protest movements were already active in Spain, notably in Barcelona. After travel restrictions were lifted, tourism surged, with Spain welcoming a record 85.1 million visitors last year. Adblock test (Why?)
Democrats who called for ICE to be abolished under Trump largely silent as border crisis rages
A handful of high-profile Democrats in the Senate and House previously supported the notion of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — the agency tasked with enforcing immigration law in communities and at the border. Despite their previous calls for ICE to be scrapped, there has been little resistance or pushback from Democrats about ICE enforcement under President Biden as the border crisis continues to wreak havoc on U.S. citizens, cities and communities. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — two Democrats who sought their party’s nomination for president in 2020 — are prominent leaders who previously led calls for ICE to be abolished outright, or broken up during former President Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House. VULNERABLE HOUSE DEMS DO A U-TURN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AFTER CALLING CRISIS ‘NON-EXISTENT THREAT’ In 2018, during an appearance on CNN, Gillibrand said: “I don’t think ICE today is working as intended. . . . I believe that it has become a deportation force, and I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues.” “I think you should reimagine ICE under a new agency with a very different mission and take those two missions out,” she added at the time. “We believe that we should protect families who need our help and that is not what ICE is doing today, and that’s why I believe you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it and build something that actually works.” Warren also took issue with the agency in 2018, writing in a Facebook post in June 2018: “[Trump’s] deeply immoral actions have made it obvious that we need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom, starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our values.” Though he didn’t directly call for ICE to be abolished, a 2019 plan released by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and sought the party’s nomination for president in 2016 and 2020, included breaking up ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Deportation and enforcement would return to the Department of Justice, customs matters to the Treasury, and naturalization and citizenship to the State Department under Sanders’ proposal. Several House Democrats also called to “terminate” ICE under Trump and expressed their support for the agency to be “abolished.” House Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., introduced legislation in 2018 that would have led to ICE being “terminated” and called for the establishment of a commission “tasked with establishing a humane immigration enforcement system.” It never received a vote in the House. CAUGHT ON CAMERA: FENCE-CUTTING MIGRANTS BUSTED BY FEDS Pocan’s bill was co-sponsored by seven other Democrats who remain in Congress, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Adriano Espaillat of New York, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Adam Smith of Washington, Nydia Velázquez of New York and Yvette Clarke of New York. “From conducting raids at garden centers and meatpacking plants, to breaking up families at churches and schools, ICE is tearing apart families and ripping at the moral fabric of our nation. . . . The agency can no longer accomplish its goals effectively,” Pocan said at the time. “I’m introducing legislation that would abolish ICE and crack down on the agency’s blanket directive to target and round up individuals and families,” he added. Speaking about the effort in July 2018, Jayapal said in a statement: “There was enforcement of our immigration laws before ICE was created, and there will be after ICE, as an agency, is gone. As it stands, ICE is out of control.” The effort was also favored heavily by Espaillat, who said then that the lawmakers were “pushing to bring an end to ICE as the agency has strayed too far from its original mission, intent and purpose.” “We are witnessing a human rights crisis, and our bill would bring forward a new model and dismantle ICE once and for all,” he added. Joining her colleagues, Velázquez also said then that “the time has come to abolish ICE.” Blumenauer also called for an end to the agency in 2018, insisting the Trump administration had “made the agency so toxic that it’s time to abolish ICE, and start over.” The Oregon lawmaker’s office noted in a press release at the time that he had been “one of the first members of Congress to call for ICE to be abolished” and voted against the formation of ICE. Like Blumenauer, McGovern also voted against the formation of ICE. In a 2018 comment, the Massachusetts congressman said, “It’s time to abolish ICE.” “We need to start a fresh conversation,” he added at the time. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS COVERAGE ON IMMIGRATION Though she wasn’t sworn in as a member of Congress until January 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has also made calls to abolish ICE and even suggested that she would like to eliminate the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency. The congresswoman’s remarks came in a July 2019 discussion with The New Yorker Radio Hour’s David Remnick about the possibility of reforming or abolishing ICE. “Would you get rid of Homeland Security, too?” Remnick asked. “I think so, I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious, a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush administration did. I feel like we are at a very, it’s a very qualified and supported position, at least in terms of evidence, and in terms of being able to make the argument, that we never should’ve created DHS in the early 2000s,” Ocasio-Cortez responded at the time. Ocasio-Cortez renewed her call for ICE to be abolished in January 2021, writing in a post on social media, “Abolish ICE.” In 2022, the New York lawmaker sold “Abolish ICE” t-shirts, posters, and magnets on her official team shop that featured an ice cooler with the word “abolish” spray-painted in red above the word “ice.” Today, however, it appears the only available item in her
US military begins process to remove troops from troubled African nation
The Biden administration has begun the process of removing U.S. troops from Niger, though a timeline on the effort is not immediately clear. A U.S. defense official confirmed the beginning stages of the removal process in a statement to Fox News Digital on Saturday, saying discussions between the U.S. and Niger for the “orderly removal” of troops had started. “We can confirm the beginning of discussions between the U.S. and Niger for the orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country,” the official said. The official did not provide a timeline for when troops would be removed from the West African country, but noted that individuals from the Pentagon and the U.S. Africa Command would be engaged in the conversations related to the removal process. US RENEWS EFFORT TO RETAIN FOOTHOLD IN NIGER AS JUNTA LOOKS TO PUSH TROOPS OUT “The DoD is providing a small delegation from the Pentagon and U.S. Africa Command to participate in the discussions. In terms of departure timing, we do not want to speculate and get ahead of the planning discussions,” the official said. The planned departure, which some experts view as a blow to Washington and its allies in the region in terms of staging security operations in the Sahel, comes as U.S. officials said they were trying to find a new military agreement. Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region, an area on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Washington is concerned about the spread of jihadi violence, where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups. Niger is home to a major U.S. air base in the city of Agadez, about 550 miles from the country’s capital of Niamey. The air base has been used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since it began operations there in 2013. ZIMBABWE GRANTS CLEMENCY TO OVER 4,000 PRISONERS, SOME OF WHOM WERE SENTENCED TO DEATH But relations have frayed between Niger and Western countries since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president in July. Niger’s junta has since told French forces to leave and turned instead to Russia for security. Earlier this month, Russian military trainers arrived to reinforce the country’s air defenses and with Russian equipment to train Nigeriens to use. There was an attempt on the behalf of the U.S. to revise the military agreement with Niger that would allow them to stay, U.S. officials told The Associated Press. However, the agreement between Ali Lamine Zeine, Niger’s prime minister, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell shows that the effort has failed. The loss of access to air bases in Niger is a major setback for the U.S. and its allies in the region because of its strategic location for security operations in the Sahel, Peter Pham, the former U.S. special envoy for the Sahel region, said, according to The Associated Press. “In the short term, they will be hard to replace,” said Pham, adding that remaining European Union military presence would likely pull out of Niger following the news of a U.S. departure. The rupture of relations between the two nations would impact the development and humanitarian aid funds destined for Niger, a country at the bottom of many indicators of well-being, Pham said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
DNA Exclusive | PM Modi is the most popular political leader on social media, check his LSS score
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.