A South Texas candidate sues his town for records he says will prove his opponent’s corruption
Rio Grande City officials called Ediel Barrera’s requests “vague or ambiguous.”
House Speaker Johnson to push Israel aid this week, could include package with billions to Ukraine, Taiwan
House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to bring a spending package to the House floor this week that will provide wartime aid for Israel after it suffered a drone and missile barrage from Iran over the weekend. The spending package also includes billions for Ukraine and Taiwan. Johnson, R-La., is facing immense political pressure to clear through his chamber a $95 billion supplemental package that would send support to the U.S. allies, as well as provide humanitarian aid for civilians in Ukraine and Gaza and funding to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan. However, the GOP maintains only a slim majority in the chamber and Republicans are divided on whether to continue supporting Kyiv, who is defending itself from Russia’s invasion. Iran’s attack on Israel late Saturday further increased the pressure on Johnson, but it could have given him an outlet to underline the urgency in approving the aid. Johnson told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that Republicans “understand the necessity of standing with Israel.” “The details of that package are being put together right now,” Johnson said Sunday, adding that he would try to advance the aid bill this week. “We’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues.” HOUSE TEES UP 17 BILLS RELATED TO IRAN/ISRAEL FOR THIS WEEK The White House and Senate members are urging Johnson to put a bill already approved by the Senate onto the House floor. The Republican leader could also start fresh with a new bill that has spending levels more favorable to certain members, in an effort to win over their support. The speaker has expressed support for legislation that would structure some of the funding for Kyiv as loans, pave the way for the U.S. to tap frozen Russian central bank assets and include other policy changes. Johnson has pushed for the Biden administration to lift a pause on approvals for Liquefied Natural Gas exports and has demanded policy changes to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. It is not immediately clear how Johnson would proceed. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a statement Saturday that the House would change its legislative schedule this week to “consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” but did not provide additional details on which path Johnson may take. Johnson’s legislative push this week comes after he traveled to Florida on Friday for an event with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. HOW CAN ISRAEL RESPOND TO IRAN’S BRAZEN ATTACK? Following the meeting, Trump expressed support for Johnson and said he has a “very good relationship” with him. “He and I are 100% united on these big agenda items,” Johnson added. “When you talk about aid to Ukraine, he’s introduced the loan-lease concept, which is a really important one, and I think has a lot of consensus.” Johnson’s push for aid comes amid pressure from Biden’s White House and the Democrat-controlled Senate. On Sunday, Biden called congressional leaders and urged them to act quickly to send aid to both Israel and Ukraine. Following the call, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there was “consensus” among the participants. “The best way to help Israel rebuild its anti-missile and anti-drone capacity is by passing that supplemental immediately. As I said, Israel expended about over a billion dollars in defending itself and the security supplemental would replenish the kind of anti-missile and anti-drone defenses that are in the Arrow, in the David’s Sling, and in the Iron Dome,” Schumer said at a news conference in New York, ABC News reported. He added: “It’s vital for the future of Ukraine, for Israel and the West.” BIDEN CALLING FOR G7 MEETING IN RESPONSE TO IRAN’S ‘BRAZEN’ ATTACK The Senate previously passed a bill that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel. The White House said on Sunday’s call, Biden “discussed the urgent need for the House of Representatives to pass the national security supplemental as soon as possible.” “We didn’t need any reminders in terms of what’s going on in Ukraine,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on NBC. “But last night certainly underscores significantly the threat that Israel faces in a very, very tough neighborhood.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: ‘Ten years of NDA rule only a trailer, more yet to come,’ says PM Modi
“What happened in the last 10 years was only a trailer; there is more to be done for Kerala and India,” Modi said.
UP Board Exams 2024: Class 10, 12 results to be out on this date; check updates here
The results of the UP Board exams for classes 10 and 12 are anticipated to be released by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) this month.
Top lawmaker shares ‘biggest fear’ about her kids’ data online as Congress eyes federal privacy rules
Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said it is her “biggest fear” as a parent for her children’s sensitive data to be exploited online, and she is aiming to quell those fears for herself and millions of Americans with a new federal data privacy standard. “There’s very dangerous activity online, and data collection is foundationally how these algorithms are developed and then ultimately used to target children, but also people in general,” Rodgers told Fox News Digital in an interview. “This is really my biggest fear as a parent, having three school-aged children, other friends who have had kids that have been targeted online. We know that these algorithms have been targeting children with dangerous content, targeted advertising that leads to dangerous life-threatening behaviors.” HOW TO STOP PHONE NUMBER SPOOFING AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SCAMMERS Rodgers cited reports about predatory groups and malign actors who target children on social media, usually connecting with them via the wealth of personal data floating online. “We’ve all heard way too many stories of the eating disorders, the mental health issues that are increasing, self-harm. Unfortunately, kids have been connected with drug dealers or been sold pills that are tainted with fentanyl and died,” she said. The Washington Republican teamed up with Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to unveil a bipartisan framework aimed at giving Americans more control over personal data they share online and empowering them to take action when that sensitive information falls prey to bad actors. It would also minimize the amount of sensitive data, like location information and biometrics, that companies can collect without expressed permission. END OF ANNOYING ROBOCALLS? FTC CRACKS DOWN ON DECEPTIVE PRACTICES “This bill has extremely strong accountability measures,” she said, adding that it would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the ability to go after those malign forces. It also gives people the right to sue if a company does not respect their wishes and continues to harvest and sell their data without their permission, and if a data breach or hack caused “clear harm,” Rodgers explained. Rodgers told Fox News Digital to expect a hearing this week as the legislation begins to make its way through Congress. The ambitious proposal would set the first-ever federal data privacy standard if passed. However, the issue of data privacy has been around for a long time – almost as long as the internet itself. MORE: HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM STREAMING HACKS “It is imperative that we move this bill. It’s been decades that Congress has been grappling with a privacy data security law, and it is past time for us to put people in control of their data,” she said. Rodgers added that it also sets Congress up to deal with future data privacy issues that could come with the rapid advancement of technology like artificial intelligence (AI). “This is foundational for AI. For example, there’s a lot of buzz right now with AI and these large datasets that are going to be collected – massive amounts of data, and there’s no limitation right now on a company’s ability to collect all kinds of data sensitive data on Americans,” she said. “Establishing a national privacy standard is going to be foundational to AI, but also, it’s really important to protecting our kids online…parents and all Americans know that we need this.”
Nine questions about the Trump trial, answered
Former President Donald Trump’s hush money court case will kick off on Monday, marking the first time a former president will stand trial over criminal charges. The historic trial will require Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the 2024 election, to defend himself from the Manhattan courtroom while simultaneously campaigning as the election season heats up. Fox News Digital compiled the top questions regarding the case ahead of it kicking off Monday at 10 a.m in Lower Manhattan. Dubbed the “hush money case,” the trial’s origins reach back to October of 2016, when Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen paid former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels. The case is also expected to feature two other payments, including a $30,000 payment to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock, and arranged a $150,000 payment through a tabloid publisher to a former Playboy model named Karen McDougal, who also claimed she had an affair with Trump and sold her story to the tabloid. Trump has also vehemently denied these allegations. FIVE KEY QUESTIONS ON HOW START OF TRUMP’S FIRST CRIMINAL TRIAL WILL IMPACT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen, and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. “During the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.” “Catch-and-kill” schemes are understood as tactics used by media and publishing companies to buy the rights of a person’s story with the intention of burying the information. COURT DENIES TRUMP BIDS TO DELAY START OF HUSH MONEY TRIAL Bragg announced Trump’s indictment in April of 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from checks reimbursing Cohen over a roughly 12-month period for paying Daniels in 2016. Cohen was separately arrested in 2018 and pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress. He was sentenced to three years in prison and has since been released. Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which would be a felony. The charges against Trump carry more than a decade in prison, if he is convicted on the counts. THE TRUMP TRIALS: HERE’S WHERE EACH CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST THE FORMER PRESIDENT STANDS Legal experts across the nation have weighed in that it is unlikely Trump would face a long prison sentence, if convicted, speculating that the 45th president would instead be given probation or up to four years in prison if found guilty by the jury, Fox News previously reported. Charges of falsifying business records are misdemeanors in New York, with prosecutors teeing up a case arguing that Trump falsified the business records to cover another crime, which makes falsifying the records a felony. Legal experts have weighed in that prosecutors will argue that Trump’s alleged actions were to conceal campaign finance crimes. Legal experts who spoke to Fox News Digital expressed skepticism over the DA’s office linking the case to campaign finance crimes, with the Heritage Foundation’s senior legal fellow Zack Smith saying that prosecutors are trying to “bootstrap essentially what would ordinarily be misdemeanor charges into felony offenses.” ‘I TELL THE TRUTH’: TRUMP SAYS HE’LL TESTIFY AT HUSH MONEY TRIAL AS JUDGE REJECTS LAST MINUTE PLEA “Some of the charges he’s trying to bring are false records charges against Donald Trump. Which are ordinarily misdemeanors, unless they were done in furtherance of another felony – simply to cover up another felony. And in this case, as I understand it, Alvin Bragg is saying that the other felony was a federal campaign finance violation. So, you simply have a state prosecutor pursuing a state case against Donald Trump, based on a federal felony offense that the federal government, the Justice Department itself, declined to pursue,” Smith told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this month. The Justice Department in 2019 “effectively concluded” its investigation into Trump’s payments. In 2021, the Federal Elections Commission, the agency dedicated to enforcing campaign finance laws, announced that it had dropped a case looking into whether Trump had violated election laws for the payment to Daniels. Former FEC member Hans Von Spakovsky underscored to Fox News Digital in another interview that both the FEC and DOJ had declined to pursue the case, yet a local DA is working to prove that Trump violated federal law. “The [FEC] looked at this and said that this settlement was not a violation of federal law. The Justice Department also has criminal enforcement authority over federal campaign finance laws, and the Justice Department has also not considered this a crime. And so you have this local DA claiming there’s a violation of federal law, when the two federal agencies with enforcement authority over that law say, ‘Well, no, there there was no violation of federal law.’ And look, I say that as a former commissioner on the FEC. My job as a commissioner was to enforce federal campaign finance law, and this is simply not a violation of federal law,” he said. In the hush money case, Trump could not pardon himself if convicted, and if he wins re-election come November 5. The Constitution dictates that a president’s pardoning powers “grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States,” meaning the powers only apply to federal cases. The hush money case is a state case. Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, 61, is presiding over the case. Merchan, originally from Colombia, has served
Trump hush-money trial begins in New York City with jury selection
Former President Trump’s trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush-money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election is set to begin Monday with jury selection. The trial in New York City is the first of the election year for the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts. TRUMP FILES MOTION REQUESTING JUDGE IN HUSH-MONEY TRIAL BE RECUSED AMID DAUGHTER’S DEMOCRAT-AFFILIATED WORK Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over the trial. Trump’s legal team had filed a motion requesting that Merchan be recused from the trial due to his daughter’s Democrat-affiliated political work and the judge’s alleged “hostility” against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Bragg, last April, charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. The DA alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.” “During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged in the indictment last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.” TRUMP PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO 34 FELONY COUNTS OF FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS LINKED TO 2016 HUSH-MONEY PAYMENTS According to New York state law, a charge of falsifying business records in the first degree alleges that the defendant committed a crime of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to commit another crime. In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York investigated the matter and opted not to charge Trump related to the alleged payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021. Bragg alleged that Trump, from August 2015 to December 2017, “orchestrated a ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries.” TRUMP TRIALS: HERE’S WHERE EACH CASE AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT AND PRESUMPTIVE GOP NOMINEE STANDS Bragg further alleged that American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child whom Trump had out of wedlock. The DA also alleged that American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged a sexual relationship with Trump. Bragg appeared to refer to McDougal. Bragg also alleged that Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer,” an apparent reference to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to “reimburse” American Media Inc. in cash. He alleged that Cohen, “12 days before the presidential general election,” wired $130,000 to an attorney for an adult film actress — an apparent reference to Daniels. DONALD TRUMP AND STORMY DANIELS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Cohen, in 2019, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for violating campaign finance laws related to the payments, among other federal charges. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the payments but maintains that Trump directed them. Bragg alleged that after the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks “first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose.” “Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” Bragg charged. “Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.” JUDGE DELAYS TRUMP’S HUSH-MONEY TRIAL AMID LAST-MINUTE EVIDENCE DUMP BY FEDS “In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. … Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.” Bragg, who stepped in as district attorney in the middle of the investigation first led by then-DA Cyrus Vance, initially signaled that he would drop the case and not bring charges against Trump. Prosecutors in the office resigned from their posts due to his stance on the matter and launched a public pressure campaign. The trial was set to begin on March 25 but was delayed due to new materials turned over to the prosecution and Trump’s defense by the Department of Justice. Those materials were used during the federal investigation into the matter in 2018 and 2019. TRUMP TARGETED: A LOOK AT THE INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING THE FORMER PRESIDENT, FROM RUSSIA TO MAR-A-LAGO Trump’s legal team sought to further delay the case, and even toss it altogether, arguing that the trial should not take place until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the issue of presidential immunity. Merchan denied Trump’s request and deemed it “untimely.” Lawyers for the presumptive Republican nominee had asked to adjourn the New York trial indefinitely until Trump’s immunity claim in his Washington, D.C., election interference case is resolved. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments this month and issue a ruling in mid-June. TRUMP SAYS DA BRAGG’S ‘OBSESSION’ WITH TRYING TO ‘GET TRUMP’ WILL ‘BACKFIRE’ AFTER GRAND JURY INDICTMENT Trump contends that he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers argue that some of the evidence and alleged acts in the hush-money case overlap with his time in the White House and constitute official acts. An appeals court upheld Merchan’s denial. Meanwhile, Merchan, who the Trump legal team has argued should recuse himself from the case, granted Bragg’s request and imposed a gag order on the former president and 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump’s lawyers have said
Heartland voters feeling strain of mass migration: ‘Every state is a border state’
The oft-repeated claim by Republican politicians, “Every state is a border state,” appears to be resonating with voters across the country and notably in states that are thousands of miles away from the U.S. southern border. “Every state became a border state when President Biden took office and immediately reversed commonsense policies that protected our borders,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, told Fox News Digital in a statement. Immigration surpassed all other issues in a poll by Gallup in February, as more Americans agreed it was “the most important problem facing this country today.” The number of respondents to say so jumped eight points from January, to 28%. The previous issue cited as most important by Americans was “government,” followed by immigration, inflation and the economy in general. While immigration concerns managed to climb, government, inflation and economic worries remained relatively steady. READ MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS DIGITAL The issue ranked as the most important for the first time since 2019, prior to President Biden taking office and during former President Trump’s administration. This was the year Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border following congressional refusal to grant him requested funds for border wall construction. “The federal government’s inaction at our nation’s borders has led to a crisis with direct impacts upon all fifty states,” New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu told Fox News Digital in a statement. BIDEN HAD SIMILAR LEGAL AID ARRANGEMENT HE SLAMMED TRUMP OVER In the state, which is more than 2,000 miles from the U.S. southern border, 83% of residents said they consider illegal immigration a serious issue for the country. Among those residents, 58% said it is “very serious,” according to a March University of New Hampshire Survey Center (UNHSC) poll. Andrew Smith, director of the UNHSC, noted that the percentage of those who agree that illegal immigration is a “very serious” issue nationally has remained steady for more than a decade. Julie Kirchner, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Americans are not only seeing total chaos at the borders, where foreign nationals are literally tearing down barriers and assaulting border agents, they are witnessing first-hand how the crisis impacts every aspect of society.” At the same time, the March polling revealed that support for the construction of a border wall has surged since 2017, when opposition among New Hampshire residents was at more than half. Now, 52% in the state are in favor of the border wall, while 39% are against it. “Every state, including New Hampshire, has experienced firsthand the economic and emotional toll associated with the federal government’s failed response,” said Sununu. Reynolds claimed, “It’s clear to Iowans, and the American people, that the only way this chaos and crisis at the border can be fixed is at the ballot box,” crediting Biden with the widespread effects of illegal immigration. Democratic strategist Eric Koch pushed back on the idea the surging concern over immigration is Biden’s fault, however. He noted that Republicans and Democrats in the Senate had been negotiating a border package “that President Biden said he would have signed.” The deal was ultimately sunk after former President Trump came out against it and Republican lawmakers followed suit. “Trump and Republicans don’t actually want to solve problems and walking away from the bipartisan border deal only confirms that,” Koch added. A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The Administration spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades because we need Congress to make significant policy reforms and to provide additional funding to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system.” The statement accused Republicans of placing “partisan politics ahead of our national security” in rejecting the border deal. “Even without significant action from Congress, DHS is maximizing its enforcement operations,” the spokesperson said. SEN ERNST CITES JEWISH STUDENT DISCRIMINATION IN BID TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUSES In South Carolina’s recent Republican presidential primary, 37% of voters pointed to immigration as the issue that was of the most significance to them ahead of casting their vote, according to a Reuters exit poll. The economy came in second at 33% in the state, which is similarly more than 1,000 miles from the southern border. “Every state is a border state because the Biden administration policies are to allow hundreds of thousands of aliens to illegally enter the United States and then be transported by federally funded NGO’s to wherever they choose,” said James Massa, CEO of NumbersUSA. “A reason those non-border state voters are so focused on this is because of the right-wing media obsession with the issue,” claimed Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff, who chalked some of the concern up to a tactic to rally the Republican base. “The irony here is Biden and Democrats have put forth a bipartisan border deal that would address many of the cited concerns Republicans have been focused on, and the deal was killed because of Trump,” he added, echoing both the White House and fellow strategist Koch. As Massa pointed out, non-governmental organizations are involved in the transportation of illegal immigrants to various locations within the U.S., and many of these NGOs also receive federal reimbursement and advance payments from the Department of Homeland Security for providing shelter or other eligible services to migrants released by DHS. ‘EXPECT NPR TO SUFFER’ UNDER GOP ADMIN: REPUBLICANS RENEW CALL TO DEFUND OUTLET AMID BIAS SCANDAL “The border crisis is funded with taxpayer dollars, regardless of state,” he claimed. He further said that illegal immigrants are choosing to travel further into the U.S. once being paroled by DHS, opting to settle in states “that have sanctuary policies and/or benefit programs.” Illegal immigrants have also been transported by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration to locations that have touted “sanctuary” policies for illegal immigrants, which some have pointed to as a trigger for concerns about the border across
Vellore Lok Sabha constituency: Check polling date, candidates list, past election results
On April 19, the first phase of the election will take place, where Vellore, one of 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, will cast its vote.
North East Delhi Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Check key candidates, date of voting and other important details
As the electoral battle intensifies and gains momentum, the stage is set for a compelling contest between the key candidates.