Powerlook Unveils Double Delight: Two New Brand Stores Open Doors In A Month
The new store in vibrant Capital Mall in Vasai promises a premium shopping experience in a thriving community.
Tuli Unraveled: Showcasing India’s art treasures in Inaugural Exhibition
Do not miss the Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India from 15th to 30th March 2024 at the India International Centre Gallery, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi
ED arrests BRS MLC K Kavitha, to bring her to Delhi for further questioning
Earlier, ED held searches at her upscale Banjara Hills residence in Hyderabad.
Massachusetts Senate unanimously approves bill to make child care more affordable
The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that supporters say would help make early education and child care more accessible and affordable at a time when the cost of care has posed a financial hurdle for families statewide. The bill would expand state subsidies to help families afford child care. It would also make permanent grants that currently provide monthly payments directly to early education and child care providers. Those grants — which help support more than 90% of early education and child care programs in the state — were credited with helping many programs keep their doors open during the pandemic, reducing tuition costs, increasing compensation for early educators, and expanding the number of child care slots statewide, supporters of the bill said. MASSACHUSETTS BEACH TOWN LEFT SCRAMBLING AFTER STORM WASHES AWAY $600K IN PROTECTIVE SAND “Child care in Massachusetts is among the most expensive. It equals sending a child to college,” Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka said at a rally outside the Statehouse ahead of the Senate session. “We need to make child care and early education more affordable and accessible.” The bill would help increase salaries and create career ladders so early educators can make their jobs a long-term career, while also stabilizing early education programs, Spilka said. Alejandra De La Cruz, 34, a toddler teacher at Ellis Early Learning in Boston’s South End neighborhood, said she loves her job. But she said the center struggles to keep classrooms open because it’s hard to fill teacher vacancies. “I cannot blame them for leaving. They deserve to earn a proper living,” said De La Cruz, who has worked at the center for three years. “I look forward to a time when my salary meets the basic needs of my family including living much closer to where I work, buying healthier groceries and maybe even treating my family to a dinner at a restaurant once in a while,” she added. The proposal would also expand eligibility for child care subsidies to families making up to 85% of the state median income — $124,000 for a family of four. It would eliminate cost-sharing fees for families below the federal poverty line and cap fees for all other families receiving subsidies at 7% of their income. Under the plan, the subsidy program for families making up to 125% of the state median income — $182,000 for a family of four — would be expanded when future funds become available. MASSACHUSETTS CLOSES COMMUNITY CENTER TO PUBLIC TO SHELTER MIGRANTS, PROMPTING BACKLASH Spilka said the bill is another step in making good on the chamber’s pledge to provide high-quality educational opportunities to the state’s children from birth through adulthood. The bill would create a matching grant pilot program designed to provide incentives for employers to invest in new early education slots with priority given to projects targeted at families with lower incomes and those who are located in so-called child care deserts. The bill would also require the cost-sharing fee scale for families participating in the child care subsidy program to be updated every five years, establish a pilot program to support smaller early education and care programs, and increase the maximum number of children that can be served by large family child care programs, similar to programs in New York, California, Illinois, and Maryland. The bill now heads to the Massachusetts House.
Republicans who won states Trump lost navigate supporting their party and pleasing their constituents
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will back his fellow Republicans’ presidential ticket in November. That does not mean he will cheerlead for former President Donald Trump or even endorse him by name. “I’m going to support the nominee,” Kemp told reporters this week after Trump won his state’s primary on his way to clinching the GOP nomination. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, once a favorite potential presidential candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, officially endorsed the former president last week. But he did so only after Trump won the Virginia primary on Super Tuesday. And Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, one of the nation’s highest-ranking Black Republicans, still won’t endorse him. MORNING GLORY: TRUMP’S BIG CHANCE TO PUT THIS ELECTION AWAY NOW “Everybody has to make their own decision,” she told reporters after Trump’s victory. She then cited an Old Testament verse, Hosea 8:4, that reads in part, “They have set up kings, but not by me.” While Trump coasted to his third consecutive Republican nomination, his domination of the party isn’t seamless. Some high-profile members of his party, particularly in swing states full of voters skeptical of Trump, are trying to keep their distance while preserving their own futures. For figures like Kemp and Youngkin who could make their own presidential bids in four years, that means careful positioning intended to satisfy enough Trump backers without alienating voters repelled by the former president. For Trump, it means a rockier road to winning coalitions in battleground states he lost to Biden in 2020 and Kemp and Youngkin won since, proceeding to enact policies popular with the right. “He’s the King Kong of Republican politics,” Whit Ayres, who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign in 2016, said in an interview leading up to Trump officially securing the nomination. But, Ayres said, that’s not the same thing as unifying the party and expanding the coalition in a general election. A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to an Associated Press inquiry about how the former president plans to build party unity or seek more endorsements ahead of November. Trump heads into a rematch with President Joe Biden facing a contingent of Republican dissenters, many of whom backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley before she dropped out after Super Tuesday. Haley ran above her statewide margins throughout the primary in areas with lots of suburban voters and college graduates, highlighting Trump’s enduring weaknesses with those groups. Haley won 35% of Virginia’s primary vote. And nearly 78,000 people in Georgia — about 13% of the total vote — chose her in Tuesday’s primary, though early voting was open before she dropped out. Haley declined to endorse Trump as she suspended her campaign and instead urged him to try “bringing people into your cause, not turning them away.” Trump “has to earn the votes of people who have moved away from the party,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a national GOP fundraiser who backed Haley over Trump. Tanenblatt said he sees “no evidence” so far that Trump or his team are reaching out aggressively to court skeptical Republicans, and he argued that successful Republican elected officials are well-positioned to let 2024 play out on their own terms. In 2021, a year after Biden won Virginia by double digits, Youngkin maintained Trump’s advantage across rural areas and small towns but flipped enough Biden voters in more urban and suburban areas. In Georgia, Trump underperformed in the Atlanta suburbs, helping Biden win statewide by less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. Two years later, Kemp romped to a 7.5-point reelection victory, outperforming Trump’s marks across the state. Kemp, for his part, seems to have settled on how to navigate his party’s divided politics: hammer Biden, focus on Georgia and talk about the future. “It doesn’t really matter who our nominee is or would have been — my goal is to make sure we’re keeping our legislative majorities,” Kemp said this week, making clear that his top electoral priority is his own state. Like Trump, Kemp has been especially animated about immigration, especially since Laken Riley, a nursing student, was killed in Athens, Georgia, prompting authorities to charge a man they say came into the U.S. illegally from Venezuela. “The president had control of the House and the Senate from 2020 to 2022 and did nothing about the border, and we were complaining just as much then as we are now,” Kemp said this week, chiding Biden for using his State of the Union to remind voters that Senate Republicans stymied a border security deal. But Kemp remains dismissive of Trump’s continued lies that his loss was somehow rigged, saying often that Republicans “don’t need to be looking in the rearview mirror” or “complaining about the 2020 election.” He typically skips naming Trump when offering that advice, too. The governor and the former president have had an uneasy relationship since Kemp rejected Trump’s pressure to help overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia — a campaign for which the former president now faces a racketeering indictment in Fulton County. “We got to give people a reason to vote for us, not just be against the other candidate,” Kemp said. Of course, when asked explicitly why he would support Trump after how aggressively the former president skewered him after 2020, Kemp pivoted to the opposition. “Well, I think he’d be better than Joe Biden,” Kemp said. “It’s as simple as that.” Youngkin was a bit more complimentary. In his endorsement, Youngkin praised Trump’s record on taxes, immigration and the economy and said “it’s time to unite around strong leadership and policies that grow our great nation, not four more years of President Biden.” Still, that argument came in a written statement issued by Youngkin’s political action committee and circulated on social media, not in a live event with voters or where the governor could take questions. Whether or not Trump wins in November, Republicans who distance themselves from him now may have to placate Trump’s most ardent fans in a future presidential
Judge rules Fani Willis must step aside from Trump case or fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade
A Georgia judge has ruled that embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must either step aside from the case against former President Donald Trump or fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued the ruling after hearing evidence presented by lawyers for the co-defendants in the sweeping 2020 election interference case. Four co-defendants accused Willis of having an “improper” affair with Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the case. McAfee said that the defendants “failed to meet their burden of proving that the District Attorney acquired an actual conflict of interest in this case through her personal relationship and recurring travels with her lead prosecutor.” “However, the established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team – an appearance that must be removed through the State’s selection of one of two options,” he wrote. KEY WITNESS IN FANI WILLIS CASE TESTIFIES HE MAY HAVE LIED IN TEXTS ABOUT FRIENDS’ AFFAIR The co-defendants had alleged that Willis benefited financially by hiring Wade because they were in a pre-existing relationship when he was hired in 2021 and would vacation together. Both Wade and Willis denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring and that the couple would split the costs of their shared travels; Willis said she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash. Last month, Judge McAfee held a two-day evidentiary hearing where the defense, led by attorney Ashley Merchant, set out to expose a money trail that would mean Willis has a conflict of interest in the case against Trump and should be disqualified. Both Willis and Wade insisted that their relationship started in 2022, after Wade was hired. But they contradict testimony from Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office. READ THE JUDGE’S ORDER – APP USERS, CLICK HERE: Yeartie said she had “no doubt” that Willis and Wade’s relationship started in 2019, after the two met at a conference. SPECIAL ATTORNEY HIRED BY FANI WILLIS TO HELP PROSECUTE TRUMP DONATED BIG BUCKS TO HER CAMPAIGN Yeartie testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021, and that she had no doubt that the two were in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019, to when she and Willis last spoke in 2022. Willis dismissed Yeartie’s testimony and said she no longer considers Yeartie to be a friend. The highlight of the two-day proceeding was Willis’ own – an unexpected – testimony on Thursday, described by one expert as “belligerent.” FANI WILLIS WHO ‘RELISHED IN’ DONALD TRUMP PROSECUTION SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM CASE FOR ILLICIT AFFAIR: EXPERTS She verbally sparred with lawyers for hours, at one point, prompting the judge to threaten to strike her testimony. She also raised eyebrows for appearing to be wearing her dress backwards. Former law firm partner and divorce attorney for Nathan Wade, Terrence Bradley, testified last month about what he knew about Willis’ and Wade’s relationship after McAfee determined he couldn’t claim attorney-client privilege. Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he couldn’t recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis. Merchant at one point referenced text messages between her and Bradley in which she had asked Bradley if he thought the relationship started before Willis hired Wade in 2021. Bradley responded “absolutely” in the text exchange. On Wednesday Judge McAfee issued a ruling that quashed six counts in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants. Saying that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for “solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.”
Colombian drug lord arrested in Texas
The second-in-command of a violent Colombian gang was arrested in Texas this week. Aderbis Pirela, 29 — one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Los Satanás gang — was arrested in New Braunfels, Texas, on Tuesday. Pirela is wanted in Bogota, Colombia, for ties to at least four murders, extortion and drug trafficking, according to local outlet NEWS4SA. US GOVERNMENT MANDATES FACIAL RECOGNITION FOR MIGRANTS LACKING PASSPORTS TO BOARD DOMESTIC FLIGHTS “[Pirela’s] role within these organizations was to distribute pamphlets, collect extortion and when they did not pay it, he obviously threatened or made an attack against the victims or their relatives,” said Bogotá Prosecutor’s Office Leonor Merchán Lopera, according to local outlet KENS5. Pirela fled Colombia and traveled through Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border to continue his extortion efforts, General José Daniel Gualdrón, commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, told the outlet. Pirela was apprehended by Homeland Security San Antonio in cooperation with state and local authorities, who turned him into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS 30,000 MIGRANTS FROM 4 COUNTRIES INTO THE US EACH MONTH UPHELD BY JUDGE Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán is calling on national authorities in Colombia to ensure Pirela faces justice in order to keep him off the streets. Galán also warned that actions must be taken to prevent Pirela from continuing criminal operations in prison. “It is necessary to guarantee that they do not continue to commit crimes from prison because that eventually generates what we are seeing here,” Galán said, according to KENS5. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He continued, “It is a call that I take this opportunity to ratify to the national government, because it is very important that those criminals who with the effort extraordinary measures that are being made of the authorities in charge of capturing and prosecuting them, do not continue to commit crimes from prison.” It is unknown exactly how long Pirela has been operating in the U.S. or when he entered the country.
Georgia’s Judge McAfee says he will soon rule whether DA Fani Willis is disqualified in Trump case
A decision on the future of former President Trump’s Georgia election interference case is imminent. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is tasked with deciding whether to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case against Trump and 18 other defendants charged with attempting to interfere in the 2020 election. McAfee told local reporters on Thursday that his decision is forthcoming. AS RULING ON DA FANI WILLIS LOOMS IN GA TRUMP CASE, DEFENSE SOURCES SAY ‘THE COURT IS BEING PLAYED’ “I made a promise to everybody. These kind of orders take time to write. I need to say exactly what I want to, and I plan to stick to the timeline I gave everyone,” McAfee told reporter Mark Winne with local outlet WSB-TV 2 Atlanta. “So this week?” the reporter asked McAfee. “Should be out tomorrow,” McAfee replied, according to WSB-TV 2 Atlanta. McAfee is presiding over allegations brought by a handful of co-defendants that Willis hired special counsel Nathan Wade when they were secretly romantic lovers and financially benefited from his hiring. FULTON COUNTY ETHICS BOARD WON’T HEAR COMPLAINTS AGAINST FANI WILLIS The bombshell allegations led to a blockbuster evidentiary hearing last month, when Willis and Wade denied the allegations they were in a relationship when he was hired and that Willis never benefited from Wade’s position because she would reimburse him with cash for all the vacations they took together. “The message I want to convey is no ruling of mine is ever going to be based on politics. I’m going to be following the law the best I understand it,” McAfee told the outlet about his forthcoming decision. Following the Willis decision, McAfee will return his focus to the Georgia election interference accusations against the former president. McAfee already stated in an order Wednesday that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for six counts of “solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.” “The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned opinion, fatal,” McAfee wrote. “As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” the judge continued. Fox News Digital’s Claudia Kelly-Bazan contributed to this report.
‘Russian Time’: How Burkina Faso fell for the charms of Moscow
In the heart of Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, a poster advertising free Russian language courses has been attached to the large, iconic model of a globe on a road intersection which locals refer to as the “United Nations roundabout”. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union (USSR) had a strong presence in Africa through diplomatic representation and cultural centres, including in Burkina Faso. Three decades since Russia left large parts of Africa amid the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, signs of its return are visible in Burkina Faso, where the capital’s walls are adorned with pro-Russian graffiti, and Russian flags fly in the streets. “Something has changed, and it is eye-catching. You can feel it immediately, walking the streets and the roundabouts,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions from the government, which has been controlled by the military since a coup in January 2022. In the aftermath of that coup, which overthrew the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Russian flags began to appear during anti-French protests. At a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is seeking re-election for a fifth term as leader of the country this weekend, is no longer welcome in many parts of the world following the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is seen as a friend in Ouagadougou. A view of the United Nations roundabout in Ouagadougou on November 5, 2020 [Olympia de Maismont/AFP] A football tournament, a graffiti festival, a photo exhibition, film screenings, a public conference, and a daily radio show called “Russian Time”, during which hosts speak in a mixture of French and Russian, are some of the events that take place in Ouagadougou every day, as local frustration for former coloniser France has been exploited by Russia to secure influence in the country. Organisations such as the African Initiative – which describes itself as “an association of Burkinabè and Russians whose aim is to strengthen friendship and mutual understanding, peace and harmony between the peoples of Burkina Faso and Russia” – and Russia’s cultural centre, The Russian House, are working to promote Russia’s image in the country. This charm offensive began in early 2022 and has gained ground significantly since a grand Russia-Africa summit was held in Saint Petersburg at the end of July 2023. During that summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to send aid to Burkina Faso and duly followed up on January 26 this year with an official donation of 25,000 tonnes of wheat as part of that promise. In spite of France Dissatisfaction with French influence has grown on two fronts. One of these is cultural. One researcher who did not wish to be named explained that many people in Burkina Faso do not identify with what they see as the West European country’s progressive policies, such as same-sex marriage, and see less permissive Russian attitudes as more in line with their own. “Russia is popular in Burkina Faso today because people are fed up with French politics,” explained a Burkinabe university professor and researcher who also requested anonymity. “The Russians sensed that France poorly negotiated its turn with Africa. It has arrived in a country in the throes of a divorce with France,” the researcher added. “In the case of Burkina Faso, Russia is making significant diplomatic gains by repositioning itself in areas that have traditionally been Western strongholds. And the best part is, it can achieve this at a lower cost,” said Newton Ahmed Barry, a Burkinabe journalist currently in exile in France. Bags of Russian wheat donated to Burkina Faso are displayed at an official donation ceremony in Ouagadougou on January 26, 2024 [Fanny Naoro-Kabre/AFP] Like Mali and Niger – two neighbouring countries led by military governments – Burkina Faso’s primary complaint against the former coloniser, however, is its inability to curb threats from armed groups in the Sahel region since 2013. France had been providing military support to Sahel countries in this fight, with troops deployed in Mali since 2013, in Niger since 2014, and special forces that have been based in Ouagadougou since 2009. Despite this, armed groups have remained powerful, and protests filled with Russian flags and images of Vladimir Putin took place in Ouagadougou in January 2023 to demand the departure of the French military and its ambassador. Russia has tried to step into the void. Under the leadership of Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power in a second coup in September 2022, Burkina Faso has strengthened its military cooperation with Russia, seeking support from Moscow in its fight against armed groups. “It is an official and assumed option to make Russia the partner, replacing all other partners, namely, Westerners and mainly France,” Barry said. He added that the move is not a “diversification of partnerships”, but rather a clear choice to rely on Russia to equip the army and protect the regime – similar to Russia’s involvement in Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali. In November 2023, the first group of Russian soldiers landed in the capital city of Burkina Faso, followed months later by another group of about 100 Russian military advisers. A ‘laboratory’ for Russian expansion Since then, the signs of a shift from French to Russian influence have become increasingly apparent. In Ouagadougou, large French-owned companies like the telecom giant Orange or the brewer Brakina are still present. But, apart from these businesses, significant changes are happening politically, diplomatically and, lately, increasingly culturally. These “influence initiatives” recall the ones in the Central African Republic (CAR), where Russia, through the Wagner mercenary groupexp, anded its influence in the country in 2018 and, from there, onto other countries in the region, such as Mali. Observers refer to the CAR as a “laboratory” for expanding Russian influence in sub-Saharan Africa through Wagner. While Wagner has no current official presence in Burkina Faso, they say this process is being repeated there, too. “Burkina is becoming the laboratory of the post-Prigozhin Russian presence, where the dominant actor is the Russian state,” Maxime Audinet,
Al-Shabab fighters killed as overnight siege of Mogadishu hotel ends
Storming of hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace highlights resilience of the al-Qaeda affiliate. A 13-hour siege of a popular hotel near government buildings in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has ended after the al-Shabab fighters who had taken control of the building were killed by security forces. “All the terrorist gunmen were killed, and the situation has returned to normal now,” police officer Abdirahim Yusuf told the Agence France-Presse news agency on Friday. “The security forces are carrying out a thorough clearance and investigations.” He didn’t mention how many fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked group were killed. Fighters had stormed the SYL Hotel in a hail of bullets late on Thursday, and al-Shabab claimed responsibility in a brief statement. The attack on the hotel, popular with government officials, demonstrated the group’s continued ability to strike the capital despite a major military offensive by the internationally backed federal government and local clan militias, supported by an African Union (AU) mission and United States air strikes. As part of the attack, a suicide bomber drove a car loaded with explosives in front of the hotel, killing at least five people, the German Press Agency dpa reported. “As far as we know, one terrorist, three hotel security officers and two members of the security services were killed in the attack,” police spokesman Qasim Ahmed Roble said on Friday. Omar Mahmood, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said it was a “highly significant attack that shatters a sense of calm in Mogadishu”. “It also serves as a signal from al-Shabab that despite much heralded efforts by this government to weaken them, the group remains active and resilient and even able to hit the government close to home,” Mahmood added. The SYL Hotel has been the target of several al-Shabab attacks despite being in a high-security area of the city due to its location opposite the presidential palace. Somali security officers take positions on the rooftop at a section of the SYL Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, on March 15, 2024 [Feisal Omar/Reuters] Strong presence Al-Shabab has been waging war against the Somali government for more than 16 years. The armed group was born out of Somalia’s many years of anarchy after a 1991 civil war. Over time, an AU-led force with the backing of the US and other countries pushed the group out of Mogadishu. Since then, al-Shabab has been battling the government and the AU-mandated peacekeeping mission as it seeks to establish a new administration based on its interpretation of Islamic law. It retains a strong presence in rural Somalia and has carried out numerous attacks against political, security and civilian targets, including in Mogadishu. In August 2022, 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a 30-hour siege on the Hayat Hotel in the capital. Two months later, 100 people were killed and 300 were wounded in twin car bombings in Mogadishu. In February this year, at least 10 people were killed in multiple attacks in a crowded market in Mogadishu. That same month, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on the General Gordon military base in Mogadishu, which killed several people, including four Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini military officer. Al-Shabab sees the United Arab Emirates as an “enemy” of Islamic law for backing the Somali government in battling the armed group. It has also carried out attacks in neighbouring Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi’s provision of troops and material to the AU force in Somalia. Adblock test (Why?)