Former Nancy Mace chief of staff files to run against ex-boss for South Carolina House seat
Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace’s former chief of staff has launched a primary challenge against the lawmaker following his departure from her office last month. In a bid to replace Mace as the representative for the Palmetto State’s First Congressional District, Dan Hanlon filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. Hanlon joined Mace’s office in 2021 after serving in the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget. He departed last month under reportedly contentious circumstances. The address used in the FEC filing by Hanlon, who has faced criticism from Mace and her campaign for allegedly living outside the district, appears to belong to a Mellow Mushroom located in Hilton Head, South Carolina. FORMER NANCY MACE STAFFERS WORKING WITH EX-CHIEF OF STAFF TO UNSEAT HER, SOURCES SAY Mace and Hanlon reportedly had a falling-out last fall when she voted with seven Republicans and all Democrats to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from his post. Hanlon’s decision to challenge Mace in the state’s primary election, which is slated to take place on June 11, comes after a source told Fox News Digital earlier this month that a handful of former Mace staffers were informally aiding Hanlon’s bid to replace his ex-boss in some capacity. “I along with several other former staff are backing Hanlon in some sort of way,” the source said. Hanlon’s team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment for this story. SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN NANCY MACE ENDORSES TRUMP OVER HALEY AHEAD OF NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY Mace’s campaign told Fox News Digital earlier this month, amid reports that he planned to enter the race, that Mace “couldn’t get this lucky.” When reached for comment last week about the matter, Doug Stafford, a spokesman for Mace’s re-election campaign, said, “This can’t be true. Mace couldn’t get this lucky? Well, would he move there, ’cause he sure as s— doesn’t live there now!” Mace offered similar comments at the time when she was asked about reports that Hanlon might run for her seat, telling Fox News, “I believe we put a statement out. He’s going to have to move to the district if he has to run.” A source familiar with Hanlon’s plans responded to her accusation at the time about his living outside the district, saying earlier this month, “Dan owns a home in the district. Rep. Mace had her ex-fiancé buy her one.” Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Trump team made ‘early on’ attempts to recruit RFK Jr. as former president’s running mate: report
Individuals working closely alongside former President Donald Trump reportedly made attempts to recruit a former Democratic presidential candidate to serve as his running mate. Citing a source in Trump’s orbit who is familiar with the matter, the New York Post reported that people close to the former president made “preliminary overtures” to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy about the possibility of him serving as Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election. “Trump operatives expressed an interest in Kennedy early on, but it was all premature,” one person familiar with the matter told the outlet, adding that it was “right out of the box when Bobby announced” in April 2023 that he was making a run for the White House. TRUMP, RFK JR SIDE WITH TEXAS IN BORDER FIGHT WITH BIDEN ADMIN AS 25 STATES SHOW SUPPORT “Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t write it off by any means,” the source added. Kennedy, 70, initially launched a bid for president last year as a Democrat. However, amid conflicts with the Democratic National Committee tossing its total support behind President Biden in the 2024 race, he announced in October that he would instead be making an independent run for the White House. One large donor to both the Trump and Kennedy campaigns told the outlet that the effort to recruit Kennedy to serve as Trump’s running mate is still very much alive amid Trump insiders. “It’s very much behind the scenes at this stage. As we progress you might see it bubble up a little bit more,” the donor said. “Bobby can bring new people to the polls.” Fox News Digital reached out to Trump’s and Kennedy’s campaigns but did not immediately receive a response. Earlier this week, both Trump and RFK came down on the same side of the ongoing southern border crisis in Texas. Kennedy said Texas was “right” to defend its borders amid what he regarded as the failed policies of the Biden administration. VOTERS SHARE TOP RUNNING MATE CHOICES FOR TRUMP IF ELECTED: ‘IT HAS TO BE SOMEONE YOUNGER’ “A country without borders is not a country at all,” he wrote in a post to X. Trump said that all Americans ought to support Texas’ “commonsense measures” and vowed to work with Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott and other border states to “stop the invasion, seal the border, and rapidly begin the largest domestic deportation operation in history.” “Those Biden has let in should not get comfortable because they will be going home,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. With GOP primary victories in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump is poised to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. There has been speculation in recent weeks about whom the former president would select as his running mate. Earlier this month, Trump remarked that he knew who his running mate is “going to be” during an Iowa Town Hall event put on by Fox News. “I can’t tell you that really, I mean, I know who it’s going to be,” Trump said when he was asked who his running mate will be in 2024. It’s unclear who that selection would be, and few in his political orbit appear to have a good feel for whom Trump is leaning toward as his running mate. “We’ll do another show sometime,” Trump said when pushed by host Martha MacCallum to “give us a hint.” Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed reporting.
Nikki Haley swatted at her South Carolina home in December: report
The South Carolina home of Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “swatted” last month after someone filed a false police report, Reuters reported. Authorities responded after a man claimed to have shot a woman and threatened to harm himself at Haley’s home in Kiawah Island on Dec. 30, according to town records obtained by the news agency. Haley’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The previously unreported “swatting” incident came to light after Reuters issued a records request for threats against Haley’s home. ‘SWATTING’ GETS A TERRIFYING NEW UPDATE AS CRIMINALS NOW WREAKING ‘EMOTIONAL HAVOC’ AS A PAID SERVICE Craig Harris, Kiawah Island director of public safety, reportedly told town officials in an email that an unknown person called 911 and “claimed to have shot his girlfriend and threatened to harm himself while at the residence of Nikki Haley.” “It was determined to be a hoax … Nikki Haley is not on the island and her son is with her,” the email read, per Reuters. “Swatting” is a crime that has become prominent in recent years, gaining more steam in the social media age when people’s addresses are easily accessible. The crime targets an individual by calling in a false police report for a violent crime — such as a murder, a hostage situation or other crimes that would require a greater law enforcement response — to the home of the target. The goal of the false police report is to elicit a SWAT team response by the police to the target’s home. WHAT IS ‘SWATTING,’ THE ‘CRIMINAL HARASSMENT’ HOAX THAT’S HIT 3 GOP LAWMAKERS SINCE CHRISTMAS? In the email, Harris said he was in contact with South Carolina’s state police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the head of Haley’s security team. “This incident is being investigated by all involved,” he wrote. The email did not mention a suspect or potential motive, Reuters reported. In a separate email, an FBI official in South Carolina told Harris and other law enforcement officials that federal agents were tracking the hoax call and intended to open a “threat assessment” into the matter, the report said. Law enforcement has not publicly identified a suspect in the Haley case. MAINE SECRETARY OF STATE’S HOUSE ‘SWATTED’ DAY AFTER TRUMP BALLOT DISQUALIFICATION DECISION The incident targeting Haley — who is challenging former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — is the latest in a series of violent threats, bomb scares and other acts of intimidation directed at public officials in recent years. Law enforcement officials have expressed concerns that more such incidents will occur ahead of this year’s presidential election. Since Christmas, three Republican lawmakers — Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Reps. Brandon Williams of New York and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — have been victims of swatting at their homes. Democratic officials have also been targeted, including Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who barred Trump from her state’s ballot. Others targeted include judges and at least one prosecutor handling cases against Trump. This is a developing story and will be updated. Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion and Reuters contributed to this report.
23rd World Sustainable Development Summit to take place in New Delhi from Feb 7-9
The summit will emphasise the crucial role of visionary leadership in steering the world toward sustainability.
Kharge asks Home Minister Amit Shah to take urgent action to ensure rule of law prevails in Manipur
In his letter, Kharge urged Shah to take urgent action to ensure that democracy and the rule of law prevails once more in Manipur.
Weather update: IMD issues severe cold wave, dense fog in these states till Jan 29; check forecast here
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) expects dense fog and severe cold in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar until January 30, with an orange alert issued for the states.
Dem launches campaign TikTok account, after suggesting the platform ‘may be’ a national security threat
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., launched a TikTok account for his 2024 Senate campaign, despite having a history of expressing national security concerns over the platform. Gallego, who is running for the Senate seat held by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, previously said that TikTok “may be” a national security threat. “It may be. There are a lot of ways that we can actually stop TikTok from taking personal information and using it,” Gallego told CNN in 2020. “The Chinese, what they like to do, is gather as much information for use in the future.” In 2023, Gallego voiced that he was interested in joining the House committee on China, and specifically named TikTok as an entity they would look into. VULNERABLE DEM SENATOR PROMOTES TIKTOK ACCOUNT AFTER SAYING HE HAD ‘SERIOUS CONCERNS’ ABOUT CCP TIES “I think I could bring a lot of experience that I’ve gained — the experience I’ve taken from my subcommittee — as well as other experiences on the committee dealing in the [Indo-Pacific] area, as well as the Huaweis of the world and even things like TikTok,” Gallego told Defense News in January 2023. Despite past concerns, the Arizona congressman began to use the Chinese-linked app as he eyes the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in 2024. REPUBLICANS DEMAND FBI, DHS UPDATE CONGRESS ON ONGOING TIKTOK INVESTIGATION Just days ago, Gallego uploaded the first video to his verified TikTok account that showed a compilation of individuals holding up “Ruben Gallego for Arizona” signs. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Gallego’s campaign said the candidate would keep fighting to protect privacy rights and hold China accountable. “Ruben has a long record in Congress of holding the CCP accountable and will continue to fight to protect Arizonans’ security,” the spokesperson said. Many Republicans and some Democrats have expressed concerns over the CCP-tied platform. Vulnerable Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, similarly expressed concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but then months later created an account to promote his re-election campaign. “We must protect Ohioans’ personal information from the Chinese Communist Party,” Brown told WTOL 11 when asked about his stance on the platform, suggesting the platform could potentially jeopardize the privacy of Ohioans. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I have serious concerns with this company’s ties to the Chinese government and will continue to work with members of both parties to look at how we can best protect Ohioans’ privacy and our national security,” the Senator said, just months before launching an account himself.
Why Lula has failed to address the Yanomami genocide
In December 2022, Brazilian media published photos of malnourished Yanomami children which shocked the nation. The Indigenous peoples of the Amazon had long lived off of hunting, farming, and gathering food and resources from the bountiful rainforest. But the encroachment on their lands by the Brazilian state, corporations, illegal loggers, and illegal miners has now doomed them to starvation and disease. Soon after taking office in January 2023, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rushed to address the crisis. He visited the Yanomami community in the northern Roraima state and declared that a “genocide” was happening against the Indigenous people, blaming it on his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. He vowed to take action and put an end to the suffering of the indigenous people. Today, a year after Lula made his promise, the Yanomami are yet to see a radical change in their lives. Despite the measures the Lula government undertook, expelling thousands of illegal miners, the crisis in Roraima state has persisted. Many illegal miners have returned and the Indigenous people continue to suffer from diseases and malnutrition. In an audio message to the press, Indigenous leader Dario Kopenawa from the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY) said, “We have seen many operations to root out the miners from Yanomami land and also on the humanitarian and sanitarian crisis. However, precariousness still lies in the Yanomami territory.” Indeed, the Lula government’s efforts have not improved the situation much because the roots of the crisis go much deeper than the disastrous policies of Bolsonaro’s presidency. Addressing it would necessitate radical action. A history of victimisation Like other countries in the Americas, Brazil was founded against the backdrop of a genocidal campaign led by the European settlers against the Indigenous population. Successive Brazilian rulers and governments have oppressed and dispossessed the Indigenous communities throughout the past two centuries. One of the worst episodes of violence in recent history took place during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964 – 1985). Indigenous peoples were subjected to forced labour, torture and acts of extermination at the hands of the state which sought to take over their lands to build federal highways and exploit its resources. The dictatorship forces and big landowners introduced the smallpox virus into communities and distributed sugar laced with poison, killing many. Army aeroplanes dropped napalm on villages, devastating whole communities. Although these atrocities stopped after the end of the dictatorship, the marginalisation and dispossession of the Indigenous peoples of Brazil continued into the democratic era. During his first two terms in office in the 2000s, Lula, too, was known to pursue policies which harmed the rights of the Indigenous people of Brazil. Case in point: the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon. Lula played a key role in pushing through the project, which was completed under his successor, Dilma Rousseff, also a member of the Workers’ Party (PT). The dam flooded some 500 square kilometres (193sq miles), displacing more than 20,000 people, destroying the livelihoods of fisherfolk, devastating Indigenous communities and creating a deforestation hotspot in the Amazon rainforest. Lula’s environmental wreckage did not stop at Belo Monte. In 2009, he decided to grant land rights to squatters on Amazon land, basically legalising land grabs and giving an amnesty to people responsible for deforestation and encroachment on Indigenous territories. He also had friendly relations with the big agribusiness sector, another enemy of Indigenous rights. He gave the meat industry – known as a major driving force of deforestation – access to cheap loans, allowing it to expand meat production and export exponentially, growing its appetite for cleared land. Bolsonaro’s policies – although widely condemned by the PT – were merely an extension of the decades-old Brazilian state policy of complete disregard for Indigenous people’s rights and wellbeing. A crisis decades in the making Bolsonaro’s open disdain for the Indigenous communities encouraged further encroachment on their land. Illegal loggers and miners tied to organised crime flooded the Amazon, terrorising Indigenous communities, including the Yanomami. They killed Indigenous activists and rangers trying to protect the forest, prevented people from hunting and growing food, poisoned the water resources with mercury and other harmful substances, spread diseases such as COVID-19 and malaria and even prevented healthcare workers from reaching the communities. This devastated the Yanomami people, who hold one of the largest Indigenous territories in the country, with almost 10 million hectares. It is estimated that 28,000 Indigenous people reside there, so the following numbers paint a disturbing picture. Undernourishment, famine, pneumonia and mercury poisoning killed 570 Yanomami children between 2018 and early 2023. Just in 2022, at least 99 Yanomami children aged five and below died. In January 2023, the Health Ministry reported that almost 10 percent of registered malaria cases in the country were found in Yanomami communities, although they represent just 0.013 percent of the Brazilian population. While Bolsonaro’s actions undoubtedly made the situation much worse for the Yanomami and other Indigenous groups, he was by no means solely to blame for this disastrous state of affairs. The systematic disregard of Indigenous rights had long had deadly consequences for Indigenous communities. For example, within a year of the construction work on the Belo Monte Dam commencing, the number of seriously underweight Indigenous children jumped by 53 percent; within the first two years, the cases of intestinal parasites increased by 244 percent. Indeed, the present crisis with the Yanomami people also did not happen overnight. Lula has tried to manage it by cracking down on illegal mining, launching a special task force to tackle the issue. Many people suspected of criminal activities were arrested and their mining equipment and aeroplanes were destroyed or confiscated as seen. Emergency healthcare units were also dispatched to the Yanomami territories, as well as supplies of medicine and food. In May 2023, the Health Ministry announced that in the first four months of the public health emergency for Yanomami territories Lula had announced, 67 of the 122 registered deaths of Yanomami people were children and teenagers; most of them had succumbed to curable diseases, such as
Venezuela court disqualifies leading opposition presidential candidate
Maria Corina Machado had declared victory in the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary last October. Venezuela’s Supreme Justice Tribunal has upheld a ban which prevents presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado from holding office, upending the opposition’s plans for elections planned for later this year. Machado, a former lawmaker, won the opposition’s independently run presidential primary last October with more than 90 percent of the votes, potentially putting her in a prime position to challenge longtime socialist leader Nicolas Maduro at the elections. Her victory came despite the government announcing a 15-year ban on her running for office just days after she formally entered the race in June. After the court issued its ruling on Friday, Machado posted on social media that her campaign’s “fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections” is not over. “Maduro and his criminal system chose the worst path for them: fraudulent elections. That’s not going to happen. Let no one doubt it, this is to the end,” the 56-year-old wrote on X. El régimen decidió acabar con el Acuerdo de Barbados. Lo que NO se acaba es nuestra lucha por la conquista de la democracia a través de elecciones libres y limpias. Maduro y su sistema criminal escogieron el peor camino para ellos: unas elecciones fraudulentas. Eso no va a… — María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) January 26, 2024 The court’s decision came hours after three of Machado’s allies were detained on accusations of conspiracy, amid growing tensions between Maduro’s government and the political opposition. Attorney General Tarek Saab accused Guillermo Lopez, Luis Camacaro and Juan Freites, who belong to Machado’s Vente Venezuela party, of forming part of a group of at least 11 people who he said tried to rob a military weapons arsenal last year before a planned assault on a pro-Maduro state governor. Saab said on state television that the three were “criminals”. In a post on X, the Vente Venezuela party said that Camacaro and Freites had also appeared in court in Caracas on Thursday without private legal representation or contact with their families permitted, calling it an “illegal and arbitrary” procedure. It did not mention Lopez. US-Venezuela relations The court said it also upheld findings that Machado supported US sanctions, had been involved in corruption, and had lost money for Venezuela’s foreign assets, including United States-based oil refiner Citgo and chemicals company Monomeros, which operates in Colombia. The US has conditioned a continuation of sanctions relief for Venezuela, granted in October on the back of an electoral deal signed in Barbados, on Maduro freeing political prisoners and “wrongfully detained” Americans. While the Maduro government released five prisoners, including prominent opposition members, it reiterated that those with disqualifications will not be able to run in the 2024 race. On Thursday, Maduro said the Barbados agreement was “mortally wounded” after government authorities claimed to have foiled numerous plots to assassinate him. Currently, the upheld ban on Machado could set relations back between the US and Venezuela. “The regime decided to finish off the agreement in Barbados. What it didn’t finish was our fight to see democracy win via free and fair elections,” Machado said in a message via X. Maduro, the protege of former President Hugo Chavez, has been in power since 2013. While he has not formally announced his re-election bid, he is widely expected to seek a third six-year term in 2024. A victory would put him on track to stay in office until 2030, far exceeding the 11 years that Chavez held power. Adblock test (Why?)
Cold, rainy weather making war-wracked Gaza ‘completely uninhabitable’
Relentless Israeli attacks against infrastructure in Gaza and cold weather are making the Palestinian enclave “completely uninhabitable”, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) has warned. “I fear that many more civilians will die,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the OHCHR for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said on Friday. “The continued attacks on specially protected facilities, such as hospitals, will kill civilians, and there will be a further, massive impact on access to health care, safety and security in general of Palestinians.” Sunghay said his office was also “very worried about the impact of the rainy, cold weather” which was “entirely predictable” at this time of the year. He said the weather “risks making an already unsanitary situation completely uninhabitable for the people. Most have no warm clothes or blankets”. Most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced by Israeli attacks, and many are crammed into overcrowded shelters where they are threatened by the worsening weather, diseases and an acute shortages of food, water and medicine. Sunghay said it would be “disastrous” if the bombardment or the street-to-street fight taking place in Khan Younis moved further south to Rafah, where some 1.3 million people are now massed in the town bordering Egypt in an attempt to evade the Israeli assault. Meanwhile, Georgios Petropoulos, the director of the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, told Al Jazeera the months-long war has left 2.2 million people at risk of starvation in the Strip. “Everyone in Gaza needs aid now and the war must stop,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)