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First time world exceeds 1.5C warming limit over 12-month period

EU monitors report comes as NASA launches climate satellite to survey oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail. For the first time on record, global warming has exceeded temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over a 12-month period, European climate monitors have said, in what scientists called a “warning to humanity”. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported the run of exceptional heat on Thursday, measuring temperatures between February 2023 to January 2024 to record the highest 12-month global temperature average on record. Storms, drought and fires lashed the planet as climate change, as well as the El Nino weather phenomenon that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, made 2023 the planet’s hottest year in global records going back to 1850. The extremes have continued into 2024, C3S said, confirming the year-long warming of 1.52C above the 19th century benchmark. Scientists said, however, that the world has not yet permanently breached the crucial 1.5C warming threshold target outlined in the Paris climate agreement, which is measured over decades. In 2015, almost 200 governments signed the unprecedented Paris climate agreement to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy in the second half of the century. Last year, the United Nations said the world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of that deal, including capping global warming at 1.5C. Some scientists have said the Paris Agreement’s goal can no longer realistically be met, but are still urging governments to act faster to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to limit overshooting the target. ‘Hottest January’ The world also experienced its hottest January on record, continuing a run of exceptional heat fuelled by climate change, C3S said. Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S’s records going back to 1950. “Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing,” C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said. NASA’s climate satellite On Thursday, US space agency NASA launched its newest satellite to survey the world’s oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail. SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948m mission, which will spend at least three years scanning the globe daily from 676km (420 miles) up. PACE – short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem – is the most advanced mission ever launched to study ocean biology. “It’s going to be an unprecedented view of our home planet,” said Project Scientist Jeremy Werdell. Current Earth-observing satellites can see in seven or eight colours, according to Werdell. Pace will see in 200 colours that will allow scientists to identify the types of algae in the sea and types of particles in the air. Scientists expect to start getting data in a month or two. The project is aimed at helping scientists improve hurricane and other severe weather forecasts, detail Earth’s changes as temperatures rise and better predict the spurt of harmful algae. Adblock test (Why?)

Kataib Hezbollah commanders killed by US drone strike in Baghdad

NewsFeed The US says it was behind a drone strike in Iraq’s capital Baghdad that killed two commanders of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group linked to the killing of three US troops last month. Published On 8 Feb 20248 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

‘Kaala Teeka’: PM Modi gives witty response to Congress’ Black Paper highlighting ‘failures’ of BJP government

Earlier in the day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge released the ‘Black Paper’ highlighting the alleged ‘failures’ during the 10-year rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

State AGs warn Biden’s natural gas moratorium violates federal law, demand reversal

FIRST ON FOX: A coalition of 22 Republican state attorneys general are warning President Biden that his recent moratorium on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects is unlawful. The top state officials, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, penned a letter to Biden and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, listing a series of federal statutes the administration’s recent actions allegedly violate and urging the pair to immediately reverse course. The AGs further argued that the policy pausing LNG exports would harm national security and have negative economic impacts. “Instead of addressing America’s real energy challenges, your administration has decided to double down on a reckless environmental agenda through this TikTok-inspired ‘pause,’” they wrote in the letter. “But this surprise freeze is (1) unlawful, (2) harmful to our economy, and (3) detrimental to our national security.  It emboldens and empowers Iran and Russia, while further hampering our ability to protect ourselves.” “Although your administration has put this country in a difficult situation through this LNG ‘pause,’ you still have time to change course. Your administration does not have to recklessly continue down an unlawful path that harms our economic and national security interests,” Kobach and the other attorney general continued. “You can and must reverse course by immediately ending this ‘pause.’” TIKTOK ACTIVIST SAYS HE ADVISED WHITE HOUSE ON BIDEN’S NEW NATURAL GAS MORATORIUM Late last month, Biden ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to pause pending permits for LNG export facilities while federal officials conduct a rigorous environmental review assessing the projects’ carbon emissions, which could take more than a year to complete. The action represents a major victory for activists who have loudly called for such a move, even threatening to hold large protests over the issue. The president said the pause on LNG permitting was a part of his sweeping climate agenda, adding the action “sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.” He also took aim at “MAGA Republicans” for willfully denying the “urgency of the climate crisis.” MORE THAN 150 REPUBLICANS TAKE AIM AT BIDEN’S MORATORIUM ON NATURAL GAS EXPORTS However, in their letter, the attorneys general argue DOE fails to identify under which authority it is pausing LNG exports. The agency, they write, “literally has no power to act — including under its regulations — unless and until Congress authorizes it to do so by statute,” adding that DOE instead justified its actions by pointing to a climate-focused executive order Biden issued. The attorneys general further argue that DOE cannot rely on the 1938 Natural Gas Act, which requires the agency to approve applications to export LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries unless such exportation is not “consistent with the public interest.” “Here, you have signaled every intention to deny a sweeping category of exports based on allusions to environmental harms,” they added in the letter. “Your administration and its allies appear to be “seizing on regulatory loopholes and prejudging the outcomes of complicated policy analysis.” “Agency predetermination is bad enough, but it’s doubly wrong when it conflicts with Congress’s express purpose in enacting the statute.” In addition, they say DOE’s moratorium may give rise to liability under the Administrative Procedure Act “for unreasonable delay.” That 1946 law mandates federal agencies provide sufficient reasoning for rules and regulations they implement. REPUBLICANS PROBE CCP-TIED NONPROFIT FUNNELING MONEY TO US ECO GROUPS Under the Administrative Procedure Act, federal agencies are prohibited from creating an “unreasonable delay” when fulfilling a congressional requirement. Since DOE is indefinitely pausing LNG export permits, which it is required to issue under the Natural Gas Act, the attorneys general said the agency’s actions amount to such an unreasonable delay. They also said LNG export terminals must already go through an environmental review when they are approved by the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). LNG export projects must first survive FERC’s lengthy approval process before they are even ripe for DOE approval. The attorneys general also argued that, beyond “unreasonable delay,” DOE’s moratorium fails to stay “within the bounds of reasoned decision-making” as required by federal statute. And the agency never opened the decision up for a public comment period before implementing it, another potential statutory violation. “The Biden Admin’s hatred of American energy has reached a new extreme,” Kobach told Fox News Digital in a statement. “This moratorium on liquefied natural gas exports is both illegal and irrational. This natural gas policy is going to blow up in the Administration’s face.” “The people of Louisiana are proud to power this nation. Joe Biden’s latest assault on LNG exports threatens thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in infrastructure investment in our state,” added Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. “It also creates international instability and hurts developing democracies worldwide. I won’t allow this president to hold our people and our economy hostage.” FORMER CIA DIRECTOR LEON PANETTA WARNS CHINA MAY USE MICHIGAN EV PLANT FOR ESPIONAGE In their letter, the attorneys general echoed energy industry associations and Republican lawmakers, saying that the DOE’s moratorium weakens national security and emboldens Russia and other adversaries who are large producers of natural gas.  In December 2023, more than 87% of U.S. LNG exports went to Europe, U.K. or Asian markets. In the aftermath of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, energy experts argued LNG exports would be critical for helping American allies to wean off Russian gas. And the industry has cited research indicating that LNG exports could add as much as $73 billion to the U.S. economy by 2040, create 453,000 American jobs and increase U.S. purchasing power by $30 billion. “We hoped that your administration would have considered this and the economic and national security implications before announcing the pause, but this does not appear to be the case,” the letter concluded. “This decision harms our national security and will cost lives. We urge your administration to stop making decisions based on the whims of social media influencers and treat this matter seriously by reversing this reckless decision.”

Trump’s Nevada jackpot: former president set to sweep GOP caucus after Haley loses primary

LAS VEGAS – He wasn’t on the ballot, but Donald Trump came up a winner in Nevada’s state-run Republican presidential primary. On Thursday, the former president’s name will be listed in the Nevada GOP’s caucus, where he’s expected to land an outright victory. Trump’s absence from the primary ballot wasn’t enough to provide a path to victory for Nikki Haley  – the former president’s last remaining major rival for the 2024 Republican nomination. The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration lost on Tuesday to a “none of these candidates” option by a more than two-to-one margin in a primary where no GOP convention delegates were at stake. HALEY CHARGES NEVADA GOP CAUCUS ‘RIGGED’ FOR TRUMP Voters casting ballots in the primary couldn’t write in Trump’s name, but they could vote for “none of these candidates.” And Trump supporters Fox News interviewed outside of polling stations said that is how they voted. While Trump, the commanding front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, wasn’t on the primary ballot, he’ll be the only major candidate listed in Thursday’s caucus, where 26 delegates are up for grabs. The confusion over having two competing contests dates to 2021, when Democrats, who at the time controlled both Nevada’s governor’s office and the legislature, passed a law changing the presidential nominating contest from long-held caucuses to a state-run primary.  WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING The Nevada GOP objected, but last year their legal bid to stop the primary from going forward was rejected. In a twist, the judge in the case allowed the state Republicans to hold their own caucuses. No delegates will be at stake in the Republican primary, while all 26 will be up for grabs in the GOP caucus. The state GOP ruled that candidates who put their name on the state-run primary ballot could not take part in the caucuses.  Haley and some of the other now-departed Republican presidential candidates viewed the Nevada GOP as too loyal to Trump and decided to skip a caucus they believed was tipped in favor of the former president. Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and both of the state’s members of the Republican National Committee are supporting Trump. HALEY, TRUMP, TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO’S STRONGER AGAINST BIDEN Haley on Wednesday charged that “Nevada – it’s such a scam. They were supposed to have a primary. Trump rigged it so the GOP chairman – who’s been indicted – would go and create a caucus.” “We knew that it was rigged from the start,” Haley argued in an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles while campaigning in southern California. McDonald, responding, claimed that Haley “is not a real serious candidate.” “The fact of the matter is she didn’t show up. She did not campaign in Nevada and neither did ‘none of the above’ and ‘none of the above’ won,” the Nevada GOP chair told Fox News Digital. While the GOP presidential candidates had to choose either the caucus or primary ballot, registered Republicans in Nevada can vote in both contests. Trump’s campaign has been working to get the message out to supporters in Nevada that if they want to vote for the former president, they need to show up at the caucuses. HALEY APPLIES FOR SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL “Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas late last month. “So in your state, you have both the primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.” Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is supporting Trump, told the Nevada Independent last month that he would vote for “none of these candidates” in the primary, and would caucus for Trump in the state GOP’s contest on Thursday. While her name was on the ballot, Haley ignored the Nevada primary. Haley didn’t campaign in Nevada ahead of the primary and hasn’t been in the state since speaking in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference. “We knew months ago that we weren’t going to spend a day or a dollar in Nevada, because it wasn’t worth it. And so we didn’t even count Nevada. That wasn’t anything we were looking at,” Haley emphasized on Wednesday. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP As the vote count continued on Tuesday night, the former president took to his Truth Social network to take aim at Haley. “A bad night for Nikki Haley. Losing by almost 30 points in Nevada to “None of These Candidates.” Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!” he argued. Haley, looking ahead, reiterated that “our focus is on South Carolina, Michigan, Super Tuesday.” South Carolina’s next up in the GOP presidential nominating calendar, with a primary on Feb. 24. Michigan holds its primary three days after the South Carolina. Fifteen states, including the behemoths of California and Texas, hold contests a week later, on Super Tuesday. Haley’s two campaign stops on Wednesday in California were her first to date in any of the Super Tuesday states. And the swing to the Golden State appears in part to be a marker for Haley as she pushes back against calls by some Republicans to drop out of the race and give up her uphill climb for the nomination.  The trip also included a series of fundraisers. And as Fox News Digital first reported on Wednesday, Haley hauled in $1.7 million in fundraising during her two days in California. Trump, meanwhile, is scheduled back in Las Vegas on Thursday, for a caucus celebration. This week’s contests are just an appetizer for Nevada, which as a key general election battleground state will see plenty of campaign traffic this summer and autumn. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Republican rage against McConnell rises after border deal debacle, Ukraine funding push

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., found himself in the spotlight this week as Republicans buzzed against his handling of the much-anticipated border bill appended to the national security supplemental package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The bill was defeated in a 50-49 vote and needed 60 votes to pass. McConnell, once an optimistic proponent of the border deal negotiated between senators James Lankford, R-Okla, Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Biden officials, reversed course and announced the bill had no path forward after most of the GOP caucus argued the legislation was “hardly” a border security bill at all.  The leader took the brunt of the blame this week for the doomed bill, which was endorsed by the Border Patrol union, but appeared unfazed by critics like senators Rick Scott, R-Fla., JD Vance, R-Ohio, Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas and others who railed against McConnell’s handling of the controversial aid package Tuesday afternoon.  SENATE TANKS IMMIGRATION, FOREIGN AID SPENDING PACKAGE AFTER GOP BACKLASH AGAINST BORDER PROVISIONS “Mitch McConnell is good at taking the heat,” one Senate aide told Fox News Digital in response to the criticism.  Cruz, one of 10 GOP senators who voted against McConnell’s re-election as Senate minority leader in 2022, went as far as calling for McConnell to step down.  After tanking the combined border and foreign aid bill, the Senate voted Wednesday night to begin work on a “clean” supplemental package with standalone aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, priced at $95 billion. Senators will reconvene Thursday at noon for another procedural vote on the national security package without the border security provisions. Republicans are vowing to add what they call “real” border provisions to the package before they agree to aide for Ukraine, one senator told Fox News Digital Wednesday.  SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES Meanwhile, McConnell, one of the Senate’s most supportive lawmakers of continued aid to the Eastern European nation, has been urging Congress to pass the supplemental since funding for Ukraine ran out last year. Hawkish GOP senators critical of funding Ukraine’s military have been divided on that issue, too.  Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday evening his frustrations with GOP leadership “started quite some time ago,” but the border negotiations were the nail in the coffin. His frustrations intensified “specifically on this border bill, when we started entering secret negotiations,” Johnson said. Despite his discontent with McConnell’s handling of it, he mostly blamed President Biden for not using his authority to shut down the border, a point Senate Republicans have repeatedly argued this week.  Biden has said he needs Congress to act first.   “So, we can’t give up this fight,” Johnson added. “We can’t just say ‘Oh, sorry, Mitch’s strategy utterly failed. Let’s move on.’ No, that’s not acceptable. “The discussion at lunch was to get enough Republicans to deny cloture on this, so that we can offer pretty simple measures that would actually force the president to secure the border to at least expose the fact that he has the power to do so — so that we don’t get blamed if he decides not to do so.” IMMIGRATION HAWKS WARN CONGRESS THAT SENATE DEAL WILL HANDCUFF FUTURE ADMINISTRATIONS ON SECURING BORDER Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who called for McConnell to step down in September, also threw jabs at the leader on X Wednesday following the standalone supplemental package.  “So let’s see, now McConnell & Co. want us to give Ukraine $8 BILLION to pay the salaries of government bureaucrats — in Ukraine! — with no real oversight or accountability,” Hawley wrote of the clean supplemental package released Wednesday.    Lee also wrote on X, “The Law Firm Schumer & McConnell … has had a long, successful run at the game it plays—writing bills in secret, then ramming them through quickly, under artificial time constraints contrived by The Firm™️.” “This time it didn’t work,” he wrote. “I hope it never works again.” Republicans argued for the reinstatement of Trump-era policies, asserting that President Biden’s administration could address the border crisis with existing measures rather than requiring additional authority or legislation. Meanwhile, Democrats rejected the bill because they said it would have made it harder for migrants to receive asylum. Even if the bill did pass in the Senate, the GOP-led House considered it dead on arrival.  McConnell has also worked closely with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to maintain bipartisan lawmaking the last two years, and both have been calling for Republicans to act on Ukraine. GOP senators have quipped they want McConnell to “listen to his members.” “Republicans have to realize when they vote as a minority to drag us into this, the majority of the caucus doesn’t want it,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital in an interview this week. “It really adds to discord and strife and really makes many of us wonder about our leadership just dragging us into Democrat deals that are all the Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Just doesn’t seem like a very unifying way to run our caucus.” In response, McConnell said he “followed the instructions of my conference who were insisting that we tackle this in October.”  “I mean, it’s actually our side that wanted to tackle the border issue,” McConnell said this week. McConnell said last year amid health complications he plans to complete his two-year term as leader and his full six-year term in office. 

‘Frustrated’ Republicans leave Capitol Hill after back-to-back defeats on Mayorkas impeachment, Israel aid

House Republican leaders failed to pass two of their major policy bills Tuesday night, a blowup so massive it left GOP lawmakers irritated upon leaving Washington for a long weekend Wednesday morning. “Some people are frustrated. Very few people are surprised,” Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., said. The House GOP conference, dealing with highly divided factions and a razor-thin majority, is again at odds after narrowly failing to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It was followed by the defeat of a standalone Israel aid bill that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had announced over the weekend. “An unmitigated disaster” was how Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., described the situation to Fox News Digital. “I don’t think either of those votes moved our party or our country forward.” JOHNSON CAUGHT BETWEEN WARRING HOUSE GOP FACTIONS: ‘DRIFTING TOWARD MOB RULE’ He argued that ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., would not have brought the bills to the floor if he was uncertain of their passage. “I don’t think we would have had that vote on Israel. I mean, what did it accomplish? And then I think it was embarrassing to lose the vote on Mayorkas. And I think [under McCarthy] we would have either had the votes for it or we wouldn’t have voted on it,” Massie said. Some have blamed Johnson for bringing the bills to the floor, while others attacked the three House Republicans who voted against impeaching Mayorkas. SPEAKER JOHNSON ENDORSES BIPARTISAN TAX BILL AS ‘CONSERVATIVE,’ ‘PRO-GROWTH’ REFORM “Are we in the majority? I’m not sure. Because it doesn’t seem like it. We’re not acting like it,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “You’ve gotta know how to count votes, I guess. But, hey, listen, I know that [Johnson] wanted the job. He can have the job.” Republicans were poised to impeach Mayorkas Tuesday night until Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who was recovering from surgery, made a surprise appearance still wearing hospital clothing to tie the vote. It seemed to catch GOP leaders and even some Democrats by surprise. Meanwhile, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, warned Johnson he was following a similar path as the ex-leader by putting an Israel aid bill up for a vote without offsetting its cost with spending cuts elsewhere. The House previously passed a $14 billion Israel aid bill that would’ve been offset by cuts to IRS spending, but the measure was never taken up by the Senate. “The best thing I thought the speaker did was the Israel funding with a pay-for, because that had a chance to break what I call a suboptimal path that we’ve been locked into for decades here,” Biggs said. “I thought, what a shame it is that you had this big victory, you know, which actually made you different than McCarthy, and then you reverted back to this last night.” MAYORKAS LASHES OUT AT ‘BASELESS’ GOP ALLEGATIONS AHEAD OF KEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who also voted to oust McCarthy, said her frustration was with the Republicans who were not on board with impeachment. “This is a defining moment for our nation, and we have the policies to fix this dire situation, and you’re going against those policies? I don’t know how you go home with that,” Mace said. “I made the right vote. … I’m voting the will of the people. The people who voted against that, Democrats and Republicans alike, they have to take that home.” Freshman Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., fumed over the Mayorkas impeachment’s failure. “We should’ve taken that sorry rascal out,” he said.  But Collins said he did not see a difference between House Republicans’ status under McCarthy versus Johnson. “It’s basically the same. And, to Johnson’s credit, man, you know, he was voted in, and he was already behind the eight ball,” Collins said. “So, he’s gonna have to take a few shots to get back into position.” Fox News Digital has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

From the border to impeachment to the courts, gridlock reigns in Washington

The government of the most powerful country on earth is no longer functioning. Every attempt to do just about anything goes down in flames. This happens periodically in a capital built on a divided government established by the founders. But when you meld that with the hyper-partisan atmosphere that is now embedded in our culture – set against a momentous presidential election – things seem more dysfunctional than ever. BIDEN KNEW THE BORDER BILL WAS ON LIFE SUPPORT AND WANTED TO BLAME TRUMP: HOWARD KURTZ Neither side trusts the other. The paramount concern is the blame game, making sure the opposition party takes a hit when things fall apart. At the same time, two major lawsuits, including one being heard by the Supreme Court today, will shape the 2024 election in ways we’ve never had to contemplate before. The Trump team will try to convince the high court that Maine and Colorado acted illegally when they kicked the former president off the ballot. The appellate court ruling, which must be appealed to SCOTUS by Monday, says Donald Trump can’t be shielded from prosecution by unlimited immunity, especially after leaving office. Who would ever have imagined that such battles would be fought for the first time in American history? Then again, we’ve never had an ex-president accused of criminal wrongdoing in four separate indictments–with the added twist that analysts agree the charges have boosted Trump’s campaign among the majority of Republicans who view him as being unfairly persecuted. The long-running battle over the southern border is equally divisive. Now there’s no question that this is a major liability for President Biden, who has failed for more than three years to prevent record-setting waves of illegal migrants from flooding into the country.  Why he hasn’t done more, on a problem that even big-city Democratic mayors say is damaging, is hard to fathom. It is, after all, the signature issue that helped Trump get elected in 2016. WHAT BULLY PULPIT? WHY BIDEN STAYS OFF TELEVISION DURING BIG BREAKING NEWS So both parties, at least in the Senate, made an all-out attempt to hammer out a resolution. After four long months, they finally settled on compromise language involving asylum, parole and other thorny issues. Biden made more concessions than most thought he would–including the power to shut down the border if illegal crossings exceeded 5,000 a day (which still seems way high). The Border Patrol union backed the measure, as did the Wall Street Journal editorial page. And more than just immigration was at stake. Foreign policy had to be baked into the cake. The president saw the measure as a tradeoff, with border security greasing the skids for long-stalled military aid to Israel and Ukraine. But Trump, the unquestioned leader of the party, said the bill would be a death knell for Republicans and urged them to oppose it, to hold off until he took office. Trump invited them to “blame me.” Biden said his likely opponent wanted the campaign issue more than a solution. Once the bill’s text was released, Republicans started abandoning it in droves. There was little question that Trump was the motivating force. He is the party’s undisputed leader and on the verge of the nomination. JEFFERIES DEFEND SURPRISE APPEARANCE BY TEXAS DEMOCRAT IN FAILED MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT VOTE When Mitch McConnell, who strongly supports U.S. assistance to Ukraine, conceded the bill couldn’t pass, it was over. Ted Cruz called for McConnell to be ousted as minority leader. Speaker Mike Johnson, just a few months into the job, does not want aid to Ukraine, but brought to the floor a stand-alone measure to provide billions to Israel. That failed by a sizable margin. Now there’s chatter that Johnson could suffer the same fate as Kevin McCarthy. What’s more, Johnson revived an effort to impeach Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas – the first such attempt to oust a Cabinet officer in 150 years. The media and those on the Hill thought it would be a slam dunk. But the maneuver failed by two votes, with three dissenting Republicans saying it wasn’t fair to impeach Mayorkas for carrying out Biden’s policies. So even that exercise in scapegoating was botched. Not that he would have been convicted by the Democratic-controlled Senate. There’s a long way to go between now and November, both in Congress and the courts. But right now Washington is in a state of paralysis.

Biden claims he spoke with German chancellor who died in 2017 at first G7 meeting in latest gaffe

President Biden claimed he spoke with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, in 2021 while recalling past conversations during fundraising events on Wednesday. The gaffe marks his second of the week. Biden attended three campaign reception events in New York Wednesday afternoon, according to his schedule. At his second and third events, he told donors about conversations surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, at his first Group of Seven (G7) meeting as president, which took place in England in June of that year. The president said that the late German Chancellor Kohl asked him what he would say if he learned 1,000 people stormed the British Parliament in an attempt to deny the next prime minister from taking office. The annual meeting was not attended by Kohl, as he had been dead for four years, but by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. COLBERT JOKES BIDEN IS ‘SO OLD’ HE CAN ‘COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD’ AFTER DECEASED FRENCH PRESIDENT GAFFE The gaffe on Wednesday is similar to the one Biden made on Sunday after he claimed he spoke with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, at the same G7 meeting. “I sat down, and I said, ‘America’s back,’” Biden told a Las Vegas crowd. “And Mitterrand from Germany — I mean from France — looked at me and said …” Biden then assembled his thoughts to complete the sentence: “Well, how long are you back for?” The incidents this week are only the latest in a series of puzzling comments by Biden involving dead people. BIDEN’S FRENCH PRESIDENT GAFFE JUST THE LATEST INSTANCE OF HIS CONFUSION ABOUT LONG-DEAD PEOPLE For instance, Biden told supporters at a 2022 gathering in Hallandale Beach, Florida, that he spoke with the man who “invented” insulin. “How many of you know somebody with diabetes and needs insulin?” Biden asked the attendees. “Do you know how much it costs to make that insulin drug for diabetes? … It was invented by a man who did not patent it because he wanted it available for everyone. I spoke to him, OK?” By the time Biden was born in 1942, insulin co-discoverers Frederick Banting and John Macleod were already dead. Charles Best and James Collip, two more insulin co-discoverers, were alive for decades after Biden was born, but were named on the patent, which is contrary to his statement. Not long before the Florida event, Biden was speaking at a September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, and looked in the audience for the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski, who died in a car crash a month prior. “I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like … Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative … Jackie… Are you here? Where’s Jackie?” Biden said while searching for her. “I don’t think [inaudible] she was going to be here.” Biden also told a group of donors during his 2019 campaign for president that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died in 2013, was worried about America under Trump. When people pointed out the mistake, Biden described it as a “Freudian slip” and said he meant to say British Prime Minister Theresa May. Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.

Haley hauls in $1.7 million in fundraising during swing through Super Tuesday state

FIRST ON FOX: It was a lucrative two days for Nikki Haley in California. The Republican presidential candidate hauled in $1.7 million during in-person fundraising events on Tuesday and Wednesday in California, the Haley campaign shared first with Fox News. While in California, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador during former President Donald Trump’s administration also held a pair of campaign events, her first in one of the 15 states that hold nominating contests on Super Tuesday in early March. HALEY ARGUES ‘WE DIDN’T EVEN COUNT NEVADA’ AFTER BALLOT SETBACK Haley, the last remaining major rival to Trump in the 2024 GOP nomination race, in recent weeks has been showcasing her soaring fundraising as a means of spotlighting her momentum as she faces a steep uphill climb for the 2024 GOP nomination against her former boss. On Sunday, Haley’s team highlighted they hauled in $16.5 million in fundraising last month across all of their campaign committees, including $11.7 million from small-dollar grassroots supporters. WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING The January haul ws Haley’s best fundraising month to date since launching her presidential campaign a year ago.  Haley has seen her fundraising continue to increase since launching her presidential campaign a year ago. She raised $7.3 million during the April-June second quarter of 2023 fundraising, $11 million during the July-September third quarter, and over $24 million during the final three months of last year, as first reported by Fox News. “I’m in this for the long haul,” Haley emphasized at a campaign rally at the American Legion Hollywood Post 43 in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Minutes earlier, in a Fox News Digital interview, Haley noted that when it comes to campaign finances, “we have been smart.” And she touted that you don’t end up being “the last one standing against Donald Trump if you don’t manage your money well. So yes, we are focused on making sure we have the resources.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.