West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee to lead roadshow against CAA implementation in Siliguri today
Mamata Banerjee, who has been vocal against its implementation, on Tuesday claimed that the rules notified were “unconstitutional and discriminatory”.
New Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini to take crucial floor test in Assembly today
Five other ministers also took oath as members of the new council of ministers in Nayab Singh Saini’s Cabinet.
US citizen found dead in five-star hotel room in Mumbai, police launch probe
A 62-year-old US national was found dead in a five-star hotel room in the Andheri area of Maharashtra’s Mumbai on Tuesday morning, police said.
New York Dems set for clashes with Hochul as lawmakers unveil budget plans
New York Democrats who control the state Senate and Assembly have released their budget proposals for the year, setting up potential battles with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office over education funding and income taxes. The spending plans mark the start of the state’s budget negotiations, a process that will play out behind closed doors between the governor, Senate leader and Assembly speaker ahead of the budget’s April 1 due date. Hochul said she thought the budget could be wrapped up on time this year, appearing keen to avoid the kind of intraparty squabble that delayed it last year, when she sparred with lawmakers over a housing plan and a change to bail laws. HOCHUL, ADAMS ANNOUNCE CRACKDOWN ON TOLL-DODGING ‘GHOST CARS’: ‘THE GHOSTBUSTERS HAVE ARRIVED’ “Everything that we need to have is on the table now,” Hochul, a Democrat, said. Hochul unveiled her own budget proposal in January, pushing lawmakers to spend $2.4 billion to address the city’s migrant influx as well as new programs to combat retail theft — both sensitive political issues for Democrats ahead of a contentious congressional election year in New York. The Assembly and the Senate are on board with the governor’s plans on migrant spending, which would include short-term shelter services, legal assistance and health care. But both chambers have rejected a proposal from the governor to increase criminal penalties for assaulting retail workers. At a news conference, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Democrat, said increasing penalties for assaulting retail workers is “not particularly a fiscal issue” and should be discussed outside of the budget. Another potential sticking point between Hochul and top lawmakers is a plan from the governor to adjust how the state doles out education funding to local districts. Hochul’s proposal has been criticized because it would pull state funding from some districts, but the governor has argued it would better direct money to schools that need additional funding. In response, both the Assembly and Senate Democrats are pushing to instead study how the state’s funding formula could be improved. Democratic lawmakers also want to raise personal income taxes for people making more than $5 million. Hochul, who said she didn’t want to conduct negotiations in public, told reporters that “raising income tax is a nonstarter for me” when asked about the plan on Tuesday. The budget bills will now begin to move through the legislative process and will eventually be hammered out through private talks, where many details could change before an agreement is finalized in the coming weeks. Or — as Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins put it to reporters on Tuesday — “We are close to the end of the beginning.”
Performers, speakers pull out of SXSW over U.S. Army sponsorship
More than 80 musicians and panelists say they will no longer appear at the nine-day festival, citing the U.S. Army’s support for Israel amid war with Hamas.
Locking it up: Biden clinches 2024 Democrat presidential nomination during Tuesday’s primaries
It was never in doubt, but President Biden is officially the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Biden formally clinched his party’s 2024 nomination Tuesday, as Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state held primaries. With no major challengers remaining, Biden and former President Trump were on course to collect all or nearly all the delegates up for grabs in Tuesday’s contests, putting each of them over the top and making them the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. WHERE THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACES STAND The president and his predecessor in the White House will formally become the two major party nominees this summer, as the Republicans and the Democrats host their national nominating conventions in July and August, respectively. Biden had 1,872 delegates as of Tuesday morning. The president, who swept 14 of 15 contests last week on Super Tuesday, needed 1,968 to clinch renomination. BIDEN, TRUMP, SWEEP SUPER TUESDAY CONTESTS AS THEY MOVE CLOSER TO CLINCHING NOMINATIONS Georgia, where polls closed at 7 p.m., has 108 delegates up for grabs. Thirty-five Democratic delegates are at stake in Mississippi, with another 92 in Washington state. Trump, who is expected to clinch the GOP nomination later Tuesday evening, had 1,078 delegates at the start of the day. He needs 1,215 to lock up the nomination. Fifty-nine GOP delegates are up for grabs in Georgia, with 40 at stake in Mississippi and 43 in Washington state. Nineteen more delegates are up for grabs in Hawaii, which holds a Republican presidential caucus later in the evening. Trump swept 14 of the 15 GOP Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, which moved him much closer to officially locking up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. And Trump’s last rival for the nomination, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race the day after Super Tuesday. Biden, who served nearly four decades as a senator from Delaware before stepping down to assume the vice presidency for eight years under President Obama, defeated Trump four years ago to win the White House. The November rematch between Biden and Trump is the first in the race for the White House since 1956, when Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated former Democratic Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois when they faced off for a second time. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub
PETA pressures First Lady Jill Biden to swap eggs for potatoes at annual Easter egg roll: ‘Spudtacular’
Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told the White House that it’s time for a fresh starch, urging First Lady Jill Biden to swap chicken eggs for potatoes at the annual Easter Egg Roll. In a pun-heavy letter to the first lady, PETA said they wanted to “respectfully suggest an appeeling way to modernize the White House Easter Egg Roll,” which is set for April 1. In the letter, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk argued that a potato roll “would be truly inclusive and welcomed by every tot who doesn’t eat eggs for religious, cultural, or environmental reasons or because they object to the way animals are raised and killed these days.” “Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries, will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?,” the letter inquired. PETA TAKES JAB AT TAYLOR SWIFT, TRAVIS KELCE FOR VISITNG AUSTRALIAN ZOO DURING ‘ERAS TOUR’ STOP Newkirk said that the potato roll would not “exploit any sentient beings and would encourage empathy and kindness to animals while supporting potato farmers in the U.S.” “Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the country and can be safely dyed, allowing for spudtacular traditional activities, such as rolling them, seeking for them, and decorating them,” the letter said. “You could even hold potato sack races and games of hot potato!” PETA argued that in the spirit of the joy-filled season that Easter brings, chickens’ eggs should be spared the “pain and fear” brought about by the annual White House Egg Roll. “Easter should be a time of renewal and joy for everyone, including chickens. But chickens suffer in the cruel, environmentally destructive meat and egg industries, which raise and kill millions of sensitive birds each year. Farms that use “free-range” or “cage-free” labels confine chickens to cramped, filthy sheds, where they can’t even stretch their wings, root in the soil, or breathe fresh air. Farmers often cut off the tips of chicks’ sensitive beaks with a hot blade to prevent anguished, frustrated birds from pecking at each other,” PETA said in the letter. PETA TARGETS KANSAS MERRY-GO-ROUND MAKER OVER ANIMAL-THEMED CAROUSELS “In starch contrast, a potato roll would support U.S. potato farmers and teach tots that our fellow animals are sensitive, feeling beings who deserve respect,” the organization said. “Chickens form complex social hierarchies and can recognize more than 100 individuals of their own species. They feel pain and fear, just as humans do.” PETA also cited the rising cost of eggs and the ongoing avian flu outbreak to consider economical alternatives. “Amid the worst avian flu outbreak in history, in which almost 82 million birds — most of them egg-laying chickens — have been slaughtered, and during a period of rising egg prices, we’re rooting for you to leave a legacy of kindness by starting this new Easter tradition,” PETA said. Fox News Digital has reached out to PETA and the White House for comment.
Lyft partners with trans woman to promote new feature connecting female, nonbinary drivers with riders
Popular rideshare app Lyft is using a transgender woman to promote its new Women+ Connect feature, an option that lets women and nonbinary drivers connect with women and nonbinary passengers. The app’s new feature will allow any driver who identifies as a woman to be connected with nonbinary or female passengers. Conversely, it will also allow passengers to choose whether they want a nonbinary or female driver to pick them up. The company entered into a paid partnership with an Oregon-based transgender woman, David, or “Davie” Felton, 55, on TikTok to promote the new feature in late February. Felton, a TikTok influencer with nearly a million followers, identifies as “genderqueer,” according to a GoFundMe page intended to raise money to provide free clothing for people in the Central Oregon transgender community. “This feature offers more control over the driving experience for women and non-binary people, allowing them to feel more confident in the car,” Felton said in a post on TikTok. ELDERLY FLORIDA LYFT DRIVER, PREVIOUSLY REPORTED MISSING, CONFIRMED DEAD Some of Felton’s other TikTok content includes teaching other transgender women how to “tuck,” a term used to hide male genitals beneath clothing or swimwear. Another video shows Felton going to the DMV. Last month, Lyft expanded its Women+ Connect feature nationwide after it was made available at only five locations in September 2023. According to the company’s press release: “Women+ Connect offers more control over the rideshare experience for women and nonbinary riders and drivers.” “If no women or nonbinary riders are nearby, drivers with the preference on will still be matched with men as Women+ Connect is a preference feature, not a guarantee,” a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. The company also said it operates with an “always-on safety focus” and that both riders and drivers who violate its safety policies will be removed from the platform. Over the last few years, both Lyft and Uber — which have nearly replaced the taxicab industry — have faced hefty lawsuits where passengers have alleged sexual assault, kidnapping and harassment. The company did not say in its announcement whether Women+ Connect was created to address safety, but rather to “build an equitable platform where women and nonbinary people can thrive.” “We’re always working on new ways to empower drivers and riders,” the company stated. LYFT DRIVER SAYS PASSENGER CHOKED HIM WITH HIS OWN SEATBELT IN TEXAS: ‘HE WAS TRYING TO KILL ME’ Over the weekend, the company posted an ad on TikTok with the caption, “did this one for the gillies,” showcasing the gender options on the Women+ Connect feature. “When rideshare is better for women and nonbinary people, rideshare is better for everyone. We’re proud to bring the comfort and camaraderie of Women+ Connect to millions across the country”, Lyft CEO David Risher said in a statement. Sarah Perry, a senior legal fellow at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday that “to say Lyft is woke is an understatement,” and that the Women+ Connect feature is “pouring kerosene on an already smoldering fire.” “The nefariousness, the mendacity, runs both ways,” Perry said. “You have a passenger who could identify as a woman and you have a driver that could identify as a woman — the mind reels at the possibilities for misconduct and criminal activity.” TEXAS SUSPECT CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER ALLEGEDLY USING UBER TO DELIVER FATAL FENTANYL PILLS: POLICE Perry said if Lyft wanted to make a concerted effort to address safety on the app, “they would have provided a singularly nonbinary option.” “For example, a passenger who identifies as nonbinary requesting a driver that also identifies as nonbinary, and then keep a biologically separate category for female passengers and drivers,” she said. “This has gone so incredibly far beyond the realm of common sense and will be such an insufficient, if not aggravating circumstance,” Perry went on. Lyft released data showing more than 4,000 sexual assaults were reported on its app between 2017 and 2019. Fox News Digital requested an updated report from the company on Tuesday. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In February, a Connecticut judge rejected Lyft’s request to throw out a lawsuit filed by an unidentified 14-year old girl’s family that alleges she was driven out of state by one of the app’s drivers and sexually assaulted in New York. And earlier this year, a Florida woman sued the company after she claimed a male driver raped her and got her pregnant. Her lawsuit alleged that “Lyft failed to take reasonable precautions to protect its vulnerable female passengers … from the foreseeable and known risk of assault.” Fox News Digital reached out to Felton for comment but did not hear back by press time.
14 Democrats vote with Republicans to condemn Biden immigration policies
Fourteen Democrats voted with Republicans on Tuesday to pass a GOP-led resolution condemning President Biden’s immigration policies. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, a Republican who represents a border district and who was chosen to give the Spanish-language rebuttal to Biden’s State of the Union last week. WHITE HOUSE SAYS BIDEN ‘ABSOLUTELY DID NOT APOLOGIZE’ FOR CALLING LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER AN ‘ILLEGAL’ Her legislative text targeted both Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing them of having “created the worst border security crisis in the Nation’s history.” The resolution also accused the Biden administration of pushing asylum policies that critics argue helped fuel the border crisis, and that the administration “has purposely violated United States immigration law by refusing to detain inadmissible aliens arriving at the border.” The vote comes hours after House Democrats’ newly-created task force on border security held their first press conference calling for bipartisan solutions to the crisis. BIDEN ADMIN SIGNS FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT TO HOUSE MIGRANT KIDS AT FORMER NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL In particular, they are pushing for consideration of the Senate’s bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid package, which Republicans in both the House and Senate have criticized. “To solve this problem, you need to have action by the United States Congress. And this group has come together to say, listen, we see this bipartisan bill in the Senate. It doesn’t do everything we want, but it will solve this problem. So let’s do it. Let’s move forward,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said. MIGRANTS CAUGHT ON NEW VIDEO STREAMING DOWN REMOTE CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINSIDE TO ILLEGALLY CROSS THE BORDER Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has made the border crisis and immigration a central focus of his since taking the helm of the House GOP Conference in October. Earlier this year he led a delegation of more than 60 Republicans to the U.S.-Mexico border to call attention to the issue. He also led the House through a historic vote to impeach Mayorkas in February. Prior to that a Cabinet secretary had not been impeached by the U.S. Congress since 1876. Almost 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border since BIden took office, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states, a Fox News analysis found.
US prosecutor Robert Hur stands by assessment of Biden’s ‘poor memory’
Special Counsel Robert Hur has defended his assessment of President Joe Biden’s “poor memory”, as he gave testimony before members of the United States Congress on Tuesday. Hur told the House Judiciary Committee that the evaluation was fundamental to his investigation into whether the president intentionally hoarded classified documents during his time out of office. “My task was to determine whether the president retained or disclosed national defence information willfully — meaning knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids,” Hur told the committee. “For that reason, I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state.” Questions about Biden’s memory arose after Hur released a special report in February that described the president fumbling to recall details, including dates surrounding his son Beau’s death. In the report, Hur wrote that Biden, 81, would present to a jury “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. He did not recommend pressing charges. Nevertheless, his conclusions elicited criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have accused the investigator of gratuitously referencing Biden’s age — which has become a charged election issue in 2024, as voters question whether he is fit for a second term. Republicans, meanwhile, seized on Hur’s report to suggest Biden was getting preferential treatment compared with former President Donald Trump, who has been indicted on charges related to retaining classified documents. Hur, a registered Republican, addressed the controversy in his testimony on Tuesday. “My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur told legislators. “I did not sanitise my explanation, nor did I disparage the president unfairly.” Pushback on Capitol Hill But top members of both parties in the House pushed back against Hur’s assessment on Tuesday. “You cannot tell me you’re so naive as to think your words would not have created a political firestorm,” Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said during the hearing, criticising Hur’s repeated invocation of Biden’s age. “You were not born yesterday. You understood exactly what you were doing,” Schiff continued. “It was a choice. You certainly didn’t have to include that language.” Also during the hearing, Representative Matt Gaetz and other members of the Republican Party accused Hur of using Biden’s memory as an excuse not to prosecute him. They also sought to portray Hur’s assessment of Biden as part of a long-running double standard that targeted Trump unfairly. In February’s report, Hur distinguished between Biden’s handling of classified documents and Trump’s, noting differences in the number of documents withheld and how they were returned. “After being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr Trump allegedly did the opposite,” Hur pointed out. But Gaetz revisited that point in Tuesday’s hearing. “Biden and Trump should have been treated equally,” Gaetz said. “They weren’t. And that is the double standard that I think a lot of Americans are concerned about.” Trump also weighed in on the hearing. “The DOJ [Department of Justice] gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass,” he posted on social media. “Me, I’m still fighting!!!” For his part, Hur told legislators that “partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work.” More balanced view Still, transcripts of the interviews Hur and his team had with Biden offer a more nuanced look at what happened, calling into question both Hur’s and Biden’s characterisations of how the events played out. The partially redacted transcripts were released on Tuesday, before Hur’s scheduled appearance before the House committee. They renewed scrutiny over one of the most high-profile descriptions in Hur’s original report: depicting Biden’s apparent confusion about the date of his son Beau’s death. Hur used the instance as an example of the president’s alleged memory lapses. But Biden quickly condemned Hur for mischaracterising him, holding an impromptu press conference in February to express his outrage. “How the hell dare he raise that?” Biden said at the time. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.” Tuesday’s transcripts show that Hur never directly asked Biden about his son. They also suggest Biden’s memory lapse was perhaps less significant than Hur detailed in the report. The investigator present at the time asked Biden about where he kept the things that he was “actively working on” while he was living in a rental home in Virginia immediately after leaving the vice presidency in January 2017. In that context, Biden brought up Beau’s illness and death as he talked about a book he had published later in 2017 about that period in his life. “What month did Beau die?” Biden said aloud, adding, “Oh God, May 30th.” A White House lawyer chimed in with the year, 2015. “Was it 2015 he died?” Biden asked again. He went on to recount in detail a story contained in the book — entitled Promise Me, Dad — about how his late son had encouraged him to remain engaged in public life after his vice presidency ended. Adblock test (Why?)