Author:

Joe Biden’s Michigan visit highlights rift with Arab American community

US president seeking re-election likely to have a hard time winning key state because of his support for Israel. A visit by United States President Joe Biden to Michigan has exposed a growing divide with the considerable Arab-American community in the key swing state ahead of November’s general election. Biden sat down with members of the United Auto Workers union on Thursday after they endorsed his re-election bid, but the president’s motorcade had to take side streets in Warren to avoid some two hundred protesters before arriving at its destination. Crowds of Arab Americans had gathered to display their anger at Biden’s unwavering support for Israel even as its war on Gaza has killed more than 27,000 people, mostly women and children, amid international calls for a ceasefire. The protesters in the election battleground state chanted “Genocide Joe has got to go” and waved Palestinian flags, a week after the World Court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. “Michigan has a large Arab American and Muslim population who voted overwhelmingly for Biden in the last election,” Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Warren, said. “If he loses even half of their vote, it’s unlikely he can win Michigan – and without Michigan, he has a very narrow path to winning a second term,” she added. At the protest, anger and disappointment were palpable with several demonstrators saying the US president was “lost to us forever”. “There is nothing that will ever make me vote for a genocidal president, ever,” a protester who identified as Hawraa told Al Jazeera. “Not only me, but everybody else. My whole Arab community will never vote for this man.” Salma Hamamy, an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine, said Biden had “entirely abandoned” the Palestinian and Arab communities, as well as “the concept of humanity”. “Just as he abandoned us, we will be abandoning him on election day,” the protester said, citing Biden’s continued support for Israel. Arab Americans will no longer choose between the “lesser of two evils”, between the Democrat and Republican candidates, in the next election, she continued. “We will be voting for people who are deserving of our vote”. ‘No looking back’ Along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Michigan was among the so-called blue wall of states that Biden managed to return to the Democrats when he was elected in 2020. Michigan has turned increasingly Democratic in recent years, with the party now controlling all levels of state government for the first time in four decades. Biden is looking to secure the critical 15 electoral votes that the battleground state can bring. But Israel’s war on Gaza has impacted his chances. “There is real anger in the [Arab American] community,” James Zogby, president of the Washington, DC-based Arab American Institute, told Al Jazeera. “Imagine a situation where a sitting president comes to town and people are trying to set up a meeting with him before he comes, and the community says, ‘We don’t want to meet with him,’ and they reject it, and finally the White House has to abandon plans to do it,” Zogby said, predicting that a loss in Michigan would mean a Biden defeat in November. Democratic strategists are hoping the potential of another Donald Trump presidency will be enough to change the community’s minds – but Khalid Turaani, who helped launch the Abandon Biden movement, said that would not work. “Because Joe Biden is president, we don’t believe that the Israelis are bombing a little bit less. So when we have Trump, I don’t believe they’re just going to bomb a little bit more just because Trump is president,” he told Al Jazeera. “We need a ceasefire.” Adblock test (Why?)

Allahabad HC declines stay on Varanasi court order allowing Hindu prayers in Gyanvapi mosque

The bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal said that the mosque side should first challenge the order of January 17, 2024.

‘Love of my life’: Shot dead, waiting for her husband in the West Bank

Bahaa Masalmeh was planning to shower his young wife with gifts on her upcoming 21st birthday, which he had been planning for several weeks. But on January 15, Ahed, a mother of a six-month-old baby daughter, was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a raid into the town of Dura near Hebron in the southern West Bank. She was inside her brother-in-law’s house at the time, watching for her husband’s arrival at a window. The couple had only been married for 15 months, but Masalmeh said his wife had left him with his best memories and that she had given him the “best days” of his life. Ahed was a keen learner, loved by “everyone”, he said – her cheerful soul and thirst for life were contagious. “She was the love of my life,” he told Al Jazeera. “She was the epitome of everything good in life.” Now, he has been left to raise their daughter, Ayloul, without her. Masalmeh stands in front of a poster with a picture of his wife, Ahed, following her funeral [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] Masalmeh had dropped Ahed off at his brother Shadi’s house that morning to prepare for another family celebration. There, she met up with her husband’s other siblings and father to help get the house ready for Shadi’s marriage. Her last words to her husband were: “Don’t I look as pretty as a full moon.” ‘In a dream’ A few hours later, Masalmeh returned bearing food for everyone. He saw Ahed peek out of the second-storey window gesturing in her usual humorous way at him to hurry up because she was hungry. Just seconds later, however, Masalmeh heard some young men in the neighbourhood calling out to him, warning that Israeli soldiers had entered the area and were approaching Shadi’s house. “All I could hear then were the sounds of live fire and bombs,” Masalmeh said. “I ran upstairs and my sisters were screaming and wailing. I then saw Ahed on the floor in a pool of her own blood.” Masalmeh thought he was “in a dream”, and, for a moment, thought Ahed was pulling “one of her pranks”. But she had just been shot in the head with two bullets. “I approached Ahed, and the first thing I saw were her eyes looking at me. She was smiling,” he said. Meanwhile, his father attempted to call for an ambulance. Masalmeh wanted to run for help but he could not leave the house because of the Israeli soldiers stationed right outside. Eventually, Ahed bled to death. Palestinian officials in the West Bank and in Gaza have also accused Israeli forces of often preventing ambulances and medics from evacuating the sick and wounded in time. Tahani Masalmeh, 25, was with Ahed on January 15 when she was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers and bled to death [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] Tahani Masalmeh, Bahaa’s sister, was with Ahed the moment she was shot. “No words can describe what happened to us,” the 25-year-old told Al Jazeera. Before the incident, she said, her sister-in-law had suddenly – and strangely for her – brought up the topic of “death and parting”. “Ahed told me that I should protect her daughter, Ayloul, and always keep her in my sight as if she was my own child. This was even before there was an incursion,” Tahani said. “I was surprised by her words, and thought she was joking, just like she always does.” Tahani said she vividly recalls Ahed bleeding out for some “50 minutes” before she took her final breath. Sumoud, 30, walks at the front of her sister’s shrouded body during the funeral procession [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] ‘Big dreams’ Ahed’s sister, Sumoud, 30, who lives in Ramallah, said she was shocked to hear that her sister had been killed. “The journey from Ramallah to Hebron would usually take two hours. But after the war on Gaza, and with the crackdown on Palestinians at the checkpoints, it took me six hours to reach Ahed,” she told Al Jazeera. Sumoud described her younger sister as “her first baby”, and was adamant she would make it to her funeral procession. The Israeli army has been intensifying its raids on towns and villages in the occupied West Bank. Ahed is survived by her husband and six-month-old baby Ayloul [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] Hundreds of people have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. More than 6,330 people have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. Ahed had “big dreams”, her husband Masalmeh said. The university student was planning on studying primary education after she graduated, planning to juggle her role as a mother to a small child. The couple had just opened a small business online together, and he was going to help with the deliveries. “She told me we would be successful and grow our business. All I wanted to do was support her in any way she needed,” Masalmeh said. Masalmeh sees a lot of Ahed in his daughter, he said, especially in the way she laughs, smiles and plays. “I plan on fulfilling Ahed’s dreams for Ayloul,” he said. “She will grow up and become a doctor, the best doctor in the world.” Adblock test (Why?)

What has Northern Ireland’s DUP agreed with the UK over EU trade?

Following two years of political paralysis, Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly is set to return to full working order after a new agreement on trade between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the UK government was ratified by the House of Commons on Thursday. The Protestant DUP – Northern Ireland’s largest pro-UK party – collapsed the nationalist-unionist power-sharing government in February 2022 in protest at trading arrangements made in the wake of the United Kingdom’s official withdrawal from the European Union. This week, the leader of the ultra-conservative DUP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, welcomed the new agreement, which, he said, would safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s internal market. Ever since the assembly first sat in 1998, when three decades of conflict between Protestant loyalists and Catholic republican paramilitaries in Northern Ireland largely came to an end under the Good Friday Agreement, unionists (those who wished to remain in the UK) have dominated the Belfast-based legislature. However, when the devolved government is restored, Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein will become the first Irish nationalist to assume the role of Northern Ireland’s first minister following her party’s success in the May 2022 assembly elections. Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy and Michelle O’Neill address the media outside the Grand Central Hotel on January 31, 2024, in Belfast, United Kingdom following a meeting at which the DUP agreed to return to Stormont after the UK government signed up to a further deal on post-Brexit trade arrangements [Charles McQuillan/Getty Images] Why did the DUP dissolve the assembly in 2022? Prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in January 2020 – a process also known as Brexit – trade between the UK and its neighbouring EU member state, the Republic of Ireland, which shares a land border with Northern Ireland, was seamless. But when the UK ceased to be part of the Brussels-based European bloc, a new arrangement had to be reached. The first post-Brexit trade deal agreed between the UK and the EU in January 2021, the Northern Ireland Protocol, aimed to permit trade to continue between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It introduced checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) at Northern Irish ports rather than at the border with the Irish Republic. This also included checks on goods which were destined to remain in Northern Ireland. The ardently pro-British DUP, which itself supported the UK’s decision to leave the EU, contended that such an agreement effectively placed a border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, prompting the party to suspend its involvement with the assembly. A later UK-EU deal, known as the Windsor Framework, which built on the Northern Ireland Protocol, was agreed in 2023, but this did not satisfy the DUP either. What’s in the latest trade deal? The DUP’s new deal with the British government includes an end to routine checks on goods arriving from Great Britain that are destined to remain in Northern Ireland. This, together with other amendments, has paved the way for the DUP’s return – and a potential recommencement of the devolved government within days. The British government has also pledged a 3.3-billion-pound ($4.2bn) financial package for Northern Ireland on the resumption of the assembly. But while Donaldson claimed that the new agreement removed the Irish Sea border, not everyone in his party has been convinced by the new deal. Sammy Wilson, a House of Commons DUP parliamentarian, complained that, unlike England, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland had still not completely severed itself from the EU. “Despite the gains that my party leader and deputy party leader have made in these negotiations, the fact remains that in Northern Ireland there are still EU-manned border posts being built which will create a border within our own country,” he claimed. What impact has the lack of a functioning government had on Northern Ireland? Without a working government, the job of running Northern Ireland’s day-to-day affairs has fallen to civil servants. John Garry, a professor of political behaviour at Queen’s University Belfast, told Al Jazeera, “Decision-making has been difficult because civil servants do not have a political mandate to make important economic decisions that affect service provision.” Indeed, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has painted a bleak picture of the state of Northern Ireland’s healthcare system. “Northern Ireland’s health crisis has worsened considerably over the past two years,” reported the BMJ on January 31. “Waiting lists are at an all time high – the worst anywhere in the UK or Ireland – while many GP surgeries are teetering on the brink.” Could Irish unification happen under a republican first minister? Twenty-six years after the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland – known as the Troubles – the UK’s smallest constituent nation remains divided between those agitating for unification with the Irish Republic and those wishing to remain part of the UK. In May 2022, elections for the Northern Irish assembly saw Irish republican party Sinn Fein secure the most seats for the first time, pushing the DUP into second place and reviving talk of a poll on Irish unity. Under the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which brought the assembly into being, Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists are required to share power, with the roles of first and deputy first minister decided on the basis of electoral mandates. Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s president, said earlier this week that Irish unification — essentially Northern Ireland merging with the Republic of Ireland — was now within “touching distance”. But despite the elevation of Sinn Fein’s vice president, Michelle O’Neill, to first minister, nationalists in Northern Ireland are still some way off from being able to win over a majority of Northern Ireland’s voting public in favour of a united Ireland. “The latest research, as published in recent weeks in The Irish Times, indicates that there is not a majority in Northern Ireland in favour of Irish unification,” said Garry. In that research, it was found

Argentina police battle protesters opposed to ‘omnibus’ reform bill

Police in Argentina have fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters gathered outside Congress in Buenos Aires as lawmakers debated newly elected President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic, social and political reform package. Opposition legislators stormed out of the building at one point to observe and denounce the police action, but later went back inside to take their seats and the debate resumed until past midnight. Local media reported three people injured and several arrests. The Buenos Aires press union reported at least a dozen journalists were hit by rubber bullets, including one in the face. It all unfolded on the second day of what is expected to be a marathon debate on Milei’s so-called omnibus reform bill. The 53-year-old political outsider – a libertarian and self-described anarcho-capitalist – won a resounding election victory last October on a wave of fury over decades of economic crises marked by debt, rampant money printing, inflation and fiscal deficit. Milei began his term by devaluing the peso by more than 50 percent, cutting state subsidies for fuel and transport, reducing the number of ministries by half, and scrapping hundreds of rules so as to deregulate the economy. His substantial reform package touches on all areas of public and private life, from privatisations to cultural issues, the penal code, divorce and the status of football clubs. But many Argentinians are already up in arms and staged a strike less than two months into his term. “Milei promises his austerity measures and reforms will bring down soaring inflation in Argentina and jumpstart the economy,” Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Thursday’s protest, sad. She noted, however, that the unrest showed “how difficult the months ahead will be and how the president is willing to confront those who dare oppose him”. Adblock test (Why?)

‘I-T, CBI & ED are functioning as BJP affiliates’, alleges Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleged on Friday the Income Tax (I-T) department, CBI and ED are functioning as BJP’s “affiliates” and no longer autonomous agencies

Haley says ‘closing the gap’ with Trump in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary is her goal

Nikki Haley says she doesn’t need to win in her home state of South Carolina later this month to keep her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination alive. “Success means being competitive. Closing the gap. Making sure we can continue to go forward as we go into Super Tuesday,” Haley emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview.  The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration faces a steep uphill climb for the GOP nomination against Trump, who’s the commanding front-runner in the Republican race as he makes his third straight run for the White House. WHERE TRUMP AND HALEY STAND IN THE LATEST POLL IN A KEY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE Trump won last month’s Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary – the first two contests in the GOP presidential nominating calendar – by double digits. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign two days before the New Hampshire primary, leaving Trump and Haley as the last two major candidates in a field that stood at nearly 15 contenders last August. 2024 SHOWDOWN: HALEY TARGETS BIDEN AND TRUMP AS ‘GRUMPY OLD MEN’ The next major contest in the Republican schedule is Haley’s home state, which holds its GOP primary on Feb. 24. The latest public opinion survey indicates the former president with a formidable 26-point lead over Haley. But Haley, speaking with Fox News Digital on Thursday after a campaign event at a popular eatery in the Palmetto State’s capital city, reiterated her goalposts. “It’s just about keeping that momentum going. We got 20% in Iowa. We got 43% in New Hampshire. Let’s bring it a little bit closer so that we can get closer in to him [Trump] and make it more competitive going into Super Tuesday,” she emphasized. Fifteen states will hold GOP presidential nominating contests on Super Tuesday, which this year will take place on March 5. Thirty-six percent of all Republican presidential delegates will be up for grabs in those primaries and caucuses. Since her 11-point loss to Trump on Jan. 23 in New Hampshire, Haley has faced calls to drop out, so Trump can start focusing on defeating President Biden in November’s general election. But at her campaign event in Columbia and a later stop Thursday in Hilton Head, South Carolina, as well as in a scrum with political reporters, Haley emphasized that “we’re not going anywhere.” “This is about just closing that gap,” she added “We have a country to save, and I am determined to keep on going the entire way as long as we can keep closing that gap.” Trump enjoys the backing of many of South Carolina’s top Republican elected officials, including Gov. Henry McMaster and Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, who in November ended his own White House bid. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP But Haley discounted the former president’s political endorsements in South Carolina and around the nation, telling the crowd in Hilton Head that Trump “has surrounded himself with the political elite. You see all those congressional members around him, the same ones that haven’t done anything for us.” Haley also took aim at Trump after federal election filings showed that Trump’s political committees spent roughly $29 million in legal consulting and legal fees in the second half of 2023. Trump made history last year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments, including charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, have only fueled his support among Republican voters. “His court cases have just started,” Haley emphasized at her event in Columbia, South Carolina. “Do you really think he’s going to win against Joe Biden when he’s spending all of that money on legal fees? He’s not.” Fox News’ James Levinson contributed to this report Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Will Congress ever have term limits? 4 Republicans sided with Democrats to kill latest proposal

Term limits have been discussed for decades among voters and elected officials, leading many to question whether the possibility of such a change to the American political landscape could ever reach fruition. A September 2023 poll found that a majority of adults, 87%, favor limits on the number of terms each member of Congress is allowed to serve. The Pew Research Center study also found that term limits are almost equally popular among both Republicans and Democrats. Among those who were surveyed, 90% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they supported them. Democrats and Democrat-leaning voters largely agreed, with 86% giving the nod to limits on how long a lawmaker can serve in either body of Congress. Despite the polling data, a measure introduced last year by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., was “killed” by the House committee it was referred to, preventing it from making it to the full House for a vote. HOW EXODUS FROM CONGRESS COULD SHAPE 2024 ELECTION That bill, H.J.Res.11, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, would have limited those serving in the House to three terms, for a total of six years, and those serving in the Senate to two terms, for a total of 12 years. Shortly after the measure was introduced in January 2023, it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. It wasn’t until eight months later, in September 2023, that the bill was considered by the committee and shot down by four Republicans and all Democrats who served on the committee. In total, the measure received 17 “ayes” and 19 “nays”. Fox News Digital reached out to the four House Republicans who voted against the measure – Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Tom McClintock of California, Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming – in an attempt to better understand the rationale behind their decision, which differed greatly from that of their GOP colleagues on the committee. Hageman, who has represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district since 2023 after defeating former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney in the red state’s 2022 Republican primary election, said she voted against the measure because she disagrees with the notion of “forcibly” removing lawmakers from their posts. She insists that was up to voters at the ballot box. “Haven’t we learned from Democrat stunts against President Trump that it’s a terrible idea to undemocratically remove candidates from the ballot for arbitrary reasons? Term limits would deny voters a choice they may want to make,” Hageman said. “Also, in a time when unelected career federal bureaucrats are wielding more power than ever before, using regulations to carry out the agenda of radical, leftist, environmental extremists, why would we make them even more powerful by forcibly removing members of Congress who know how to fight against them?” “We already have term limits, although we call them elections, and in the House we have them every two years,” she added. “You only have to look at the seat that I currently hold for the people of Wyoming to see that if voters are dissatisfied, they can always change horses. I’ve held more than 50 town halls across Wyoming since 2022, and when this topic comes up, I always very clearly explain why I’m opposed to term limits. Voters know where I stand.” Similar to that of Hageman, Fitzgerald argued that he has held “the same position on term limits” since he was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1994. Elected officials, Fitzgerald said, are “held to account every time their name appears on a ballot.” “In the House, Members of Congress are elected for two-year terms and that ensures representation is always aligned with the constituency,” he added. Both Issa and McClintock did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about their September 2023 vote on the measure. McClintock, however, described his opposition to term limits during a Judiciary Committee gathering following his vote against Norman’s amendment. McClintock said he disagreed with limiting the number of terms members of Congress can serve after seeing how the California State Assembly functioned after its enactment of term limits in the 1990s. “I left the assembly in 1992 when the term limits had no practical effect yet on the membership and I returned four years later when they had had complete and total effect. And the differences I observed were absolutely jarring. They achieved the opposite of their intended effect,” McClintock said at the time. HOUSE REPUBLICAN PUSHES AGE LIMITS FOR PRESIDENT, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS The “four members that sided with Democrats,” Norman said, had “different answers” for why they chose to vote against the measure. “Some said they didn’t like the three and two, in other words, three terms in the House for six years and the [two terms for] 12 years in the Senate, and others just said they were against it,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have got to do something about people, you know, coming up to Congress and just living and not going back home and living under some of these disastrous legislations that they’re passing,” he added. Despite there being some GOP opposition to term limits, which Norman found to be “disappointing,” the South Carolina Republican told Fox he plans to bring forth similar legislation when a new president is elected. Acknowledging that his future proposal would be a “tall order” for members of Congress, Norman said, “I’m going to bring it back up and talk to the four on the judiciary that were against it and then see if we can’t get the two-thirds vote [in the House].” Reaffirming his commitment to the issue, Norman added, “We’re going to try it again. It’s going to take the executive branch being behind it, meaning the president, hopefully, will push this and make this a key vote.  “What I’m tired of is we have candidates on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, that are campaigning on term limits,” Norman said. “Their stand is that they’ll come serve

Top Republicans blast Biden for replacing John Kerry with John Podesta, who called CCP official ‘friend’

EXCLUSIVE: Republican leaders told Fox News Digital that they are concerned about President Biden’s appointment of White House adviser John Podesta to replace John Kerry as America’s top climate diplomat. In an announcement late Wednesday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced the personnel move, saying Podesta would serve a “critical” role in overseeing international climate negotiations, especially as nations develop their next round of emissions targets. But the appointment of Podesta — who has had a close relationship with Chinese officials — sparked concern among Republicans. “For over two years, the Biden Administration resisted and obstructed the Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s efforts to bring transparency to Climate Envoy John Kerry’s office,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Kerry repeatedly skirted Congressional authority as he ignored questions about his deals with foreign governments, unchecked collusion with leftist environmental groups, and negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party.” “John Kerry’s recently announced successor John Podesta has made public comments that give us reason to remain concerned about the nature of the Biden Administration’s Climate Envoy’s negotiations with the CCP,” he added. “We will continue to call on the Biden Administration to be transparent about their activities with both the Committee and the American people and expect they cooperate as we do so.” JOHN KERRY’S SECRET CCP NEGOTIATIONS PROBED BY GOP OVERSIGHT CHAIRMAN Shortly after Biden picked Podesta to lead the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation in 2022, Fox News Digital reported that Podesta previously referred to top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official Tung Chee-hwa as his “friend” and took several phone calls from him between 2015 and 2016. The report was based on emails reviewed and verified by Fox News Digital. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, added, “The Biden administration is laboring under the fantasy that somehow we can get a big climate change agreement with China and all sing ‘Kumbaya,’ sunshine and rainbows.”  “They’re interested in undermining American leadership. And we’re giving them a massive assist by unilaterally disarming as the Biden administration is doing with their misguided energy strategy,” Gallagher told Fox News Digital. “It’s a waste of carbon to negotiate with these people. China is not interested in climate change.” FORD PLANS TO HIRE CHINESE MILITARY SOFTWARE SUPPLIER FOR EV FACTORY IN US: GOP INVESTIGATORS In February 2015, days after Podesta left the Obama administration, his assistant, Eryn Sepp, informed him that he would be receiving a call on his “house line” from Tung Chee-hwa, the longtime vice chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). According to the U.S. government, the CPPCC is a “critical coordinating body” that brings together Chinese interest groups and is led by the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee. Weeks later, Sepp and Tung’s office exchanged emails to arrange another call between Podesta and Tung. Then in June 2015, Podesta told Melanie Hart, who is currently a China policy adviser at the State Department, that he would soon speak with Tung again and that Tung could arrange future meetings. In separate communications months later, Podesta referred to Tung as his “friend from Hong Kong.” Podesta also held multiple calls with Tung in late 2015 and early 2016, including calls in July, August, September, January and March, according to further emails reviewed by Fox News Digital. Podesta served as the chair of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. FORMER CIA DIRECTOR LEON PANETTA WARNS CHINA MAY USE MICHIGAN EV PLANT FOR ESPIONAGE In addition, Podesta and Tung collaborated on research projects years earlier, including co-writing a 2013 paper about U.S.-China relations for the Center for American Progress, which Podesta founded in 2003. In May 2013, Tung and Podesta spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which included China’s ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai. “For the last four years [the] Center for American Progress and China-U.S. Exchange Foundation have co-hosted a US.-China track II dialogue, and we continue to host these dialogues on an annual basis,” Podesta said during the event. “I have the highest regard for C.H. Tung’s tireless efforts to bring our two nations closer together,” he said. “He is always looking ahead to anticipate emerging challenges in the U.S.-China relations and to figure out what he can do to make those challenges more manageable.” 120 REPUBLICANS JOIN EFFORT OPPOSING BIDEN’S ‘DE FACTO EV MANDATE’ Later during the event, Podesta introduced Tung and said he wanted those in attendance to thank Tung for his leadership. Tung later thanked Podesta for his “inspirational talk.” Meanwhile, during his time as U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, Kerry has traveled around the world, attending global climate summits and diplomatic engagements in an effort to push an aggressive transition from fossil fuel power to green energy alternatives. As part of those efforts, Kerry has repeatedly negotiated with Chinese diplomats on climate policy. However, while China has established a stranglehold on green energy supply chains, it has also expanded coal power to sustain its massive economy. In 2022, the nation permitted a whopping 106 gigawatts of new coal power capacity, roughly quadrupling the amount permitted in 2021, according to an analysis published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitor. According to the American Geosciences Institute, burning coal produces more carbon emissions compared to burning any other fossil fuel. Coal power can have as much as twice the carbon footprint as natural gas. China already accounts for about 27% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Rhodium Group. The nation’s emissions output is equivalent to triple the total of the U.S., which is the world’s second-largest emitter.

Ohio politicians react to Biden visiting East Palestine after 1 year: ‘Too little too late’

Reactions from prominent Ohio political figures are pouring in after President Biden announced this week he will visit East Palestine, Ohio a year after the major train derailment that devastated the community and sparked calls for him to visit the town. “Biden visiting East Palestine at this point is pure politics,” Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance posted on X. “What is he actually going to do for the people on the ground? That’s what matters, not political stunts.” “Joe Biden refused to stand with the patriots of East Palestine when it really mattered. He could have united our country by showing support to a right leaning community, but instead he ignored them,” GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno posted on X. “Now a year later, he’s showing up for a photo op to help his failing campaign.” EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT SAYS HE SEES ‘RIGHT THROUGH’ UPCOMING BIDEN VISIT: ‘IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR’ “Governor DeWine has always encouraged President Biden to visit East Palestine,” the Ohio governor’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Actions of course speak louder than words, and the fact that it has taken Joe Biden so long to visit East Palestine is a sad reflection of his priorities,” GOP Senate candidate and State Senator Matt Dolan, who has been endorsed by several East Palestine officials, told Fox News Digital. “It’s important that his absence does not obscure the hard work that has been done by local leaders, first responders and many others who have worked to demand accountability and results for the people of East Palestine.” TERRIFYING THINGS WE IN EAST PALESTINE STILL DON’T KNOW SINCE TRAIN DERAILMENT Ohio GOP Senate candidate and Secretary of State Frank LaRose told Fox News Digital “too little too late is President Biden’s legacy on East Palestine and every issue facing our Nation.” “We need leaders in Washington who will fight for the people of the Ohio Valley, and that’s what I’ll do on day one in the U.S. Senate.” “Too late, President Biden,” Ohio GOP Congressman Jim Jordan posted on X. “Ohioans deserve better.” Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown but did not receive a response. The White House announced on Wednesday that Biden will travel to East Palestine sometime in February “to meet with residents impacted by the Norfolk Southern train derailment, discuss Federal support to the community, and hold Norfolk Southern accountable.” Biden was heavily criticized at the time of the incident for never visiting the community in the weeks and months that followed. “The president has been very clear, any time there is a situation that happens in a community that is devastated by, whether it’s a derailment or a natural disaster, obviously, the president says this all the time, he is there for that community for as long as it takes, and he’s proven that,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Piere told reporters on Wednesday in response to a question regarding criticism over the timing of the visit.  “So he’s looking forward to going to East Palestine in February. We’re going to find a day that works best for the folks on the ground, he always said that when the time was right, when it was the most helpful for him to be there, he was going to be there.”