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With White House race likely headed for Biden-Trump rematch, No Labels prepares for potential 3rd-party ticket

MANCHESTER, N.H. — As the 2024 White House race appears to be moving toward a rematch between President Biden and former President Trump, the centrist group No Labels is taking steps to prepare for a possible third-party unity ticket. And the group says it has support, pointing to a slew of public polling that indicates Americans are anything but jazzed about a Biden-Trump presidential election. “We’re responding to a clear demand from American voters. The vast majority of them aren’t happy with the likely major party nominees,” said the group’s chief strategist, Ryan Clancy. “They want another choice, and all No Labels is doing is offering them that choice.” Clancy, in an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, said No Labels is “doing a lot of dialogue with our members across the country to get a better sense of the kind of candidates, the specific candidates, that people would want to see on the ticket.” NO LABELS ALLEGES ‘CONSPIRACY’ BY OPPONENTS TO BLOCK CENTRIST GROUP’S BALLOT ACCESS He reiterated that the group hadn’t made a final determination about whether they would be better served with having a Republican rather than a Democrat at the top of their potential ticket. “The basis for that is some polling we did over the summer,” Clancy told Fox News. “We just found that a unity ticket on the top just did better, had a better chance to win. And so that was the basis of that thinking. But we haven’t made any final determination as to whether it would be a D or an R or an I on the top.” Clancy added that “we’re going to be doing some more polling here in the next couple of weeks before we make any final decisions.” NO LABELS REACHES OUT TO CHRIS CHRISTIE REGARDING 2024 UNITY TICKET Job No. 1 right now for No Labels is getting on the ballot. The group says it’s on the ballot in 14 states and is currently working in 13 others. It says it intends to have ballot access in 32 states by later this year. “Our focus had to be on getting on the ballots in all 50 states. Because if we didn’t do that, there’s no option to run candidates. So, that’s what we’re doing now,” former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said during a news conference Thursday. Liberman, the 2000 Democrat vice presidential nominee who won his last election to the Senate in 2006 as an independent, is the founding chairman and co-chair of No Labels. No Labels Co-Executive Director Margaret White said that “we will decide in the coming months whether to offer our ballot line to a unity presidential ticket. If we do so, that ticket’s presidential campaign will be responsible for securing access in the final 18 states, plus the District of Columbia.” As it works to gain ballot access, No Labels is also reaching out to potential candidates on a national bipartisan ticket. “The reality is we’re beginning to talk to potential candidates,” Lieberman said. Discussing the timetable, he said “when it becomes clear — as it certainly looks it will — that Republicans will nominate Donald Trump and Democrats Joe Biden, then as we’ve said, around Super Tuesday of March, or perhaps earlier, we will make a decision about whether the data tell us that there’s a constructive role for us to play by offering our third lines in all the states to a bipartisan unity ticket.” “The candidates will emerge, I would say, no later than April,” Lieberman said. “There will be a lot of time between April and the November election for them to offer that third choice to the American people and for the American people to get to know the unity candidates.”  POLLS POINTING TOWARDS ‘POLITICAL UPHEAVAL’ HELP MAKE CASE FOR NO LABELS A new name that came up this week is former United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who’s currently battling commanding front-runner Trump for the Republican nomination. “If Gov. Haley does not succeed in obtaining the Republican nomination for president, and she declares any interest in being part of our bipartisan unity ticket, I’m sure the people of No Labels would give that the most serious consideration,” Lieberman said. The idea was quickly shot down by the Haley campaign. “Nikki has no interest in No Labels. She’s happy with the Republican label,” Haley campaign communications director Olivia Perez-Cubas responded in a statement to Fox News. While Haley doesn’t have an interest, Lieberman said, “[W]e’re talking to a lot of people in both parties about potentially running.” “Really, none of them said no. But none of them have said yes,” he added. Opponents of No Labels, which includes outside Democrat groups and operatives, have repeatedly argued that if a unity ticket is launched, it would only boost Trump’s chances of retaking the White House. And No Labels opponents have publicly stated that they would put pressure on the organization and its staff as well as with donors and potential candidates. But No Labels has consistently argued that if they field a ticket, they won’t be spoilers. Lieberman said that “based on our polling, we think there is” a plausible chance for a bipartisan unity ticket to win in November. Trump scored a massive victory in this week’s Iowa caucuses, and if he wins big again in next week’s New Hampshire primary, there’s a possibility the GOP presidential nomination race could come to an early end. But Clancy said an early end to the Republican White House battle won’t speed up the group’s timetable. “The reason is because we still have work to do on the ballot, and that’s going to continue,” he said. “We’ve got to just run through the finish line,” he added. “Sometime mid-March is what we’re thinking.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Hunter Biden’s Hollywood lawyer ‘sugar bro’ allegedly violated professional conduct rules: Bar complaint

Hollywood attorney and Hunter Biden confidant Patrick Kevin Morris may have violated California’s bar rules with his lavish spending on the president’s son, says a complaint by America First Legal.  The AFL, a conservative legal group founded by former Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, filed the complaint Tuesday with the State Bar of California alleging Morris violated California’s rule that prohibits a lawyer from funding the lifestyle of a client or potential client. The complaint came ahead of Morris’ closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee Thursday. Morris reportedly spent $4.9 million financially supporting the president’s son. Included in the sum was a $2 million loan for Hunter to pay off his back taxes, and $875,000 was a purchase Hunter Biden’s art.  A Los Angeles Times story characterized Morris’s relationship with Hunter Biden as, “foremost as his lawyer, but also his friend, confidant and bankroller.” And, when Hunter Biden made a surprise visit to Capitol Hill, last week, he was flanked by Morris and his attorney Abbe Lowell.  ART DEALER REVEALS HUNTER BIDEN KNEW ‘SUGAR BROTHER; WAS TOP BUYER, MAKING WH ETHICS PLEDGE A ’SHAM’: COMER “However, if Mr. Morris has provided personal funds to an individual who has now been confirmed to be a client – or who would reasonably believe himself to be Mr. Morris’s client – Mr. Morris would have violated both the text of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the well-established norms of the legal profession,” the America First Legal complaint says.  Morris was reportedly scheduled to do a transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Judiciary Committee this week, as part of the formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden for potential actions or benefitting from alleged influence peddling by family members, including his son.  HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER WHO INTRODUCED. HUNTER BIDEN TO ART DEALER RAISED AT LEAST $25K FOR JOE BIDEN’S CAMPAIGN Specifically, State Bar of California Rule 1.8.5(a), states that “[a] lawyer shall not directly or indirectly pay or agree to pay, guarantee, or represent that the lawyer or lawyer’s law firm will pay the personal or business expenses of a prospective or existing client.” “If Hunter Biden or a similarly situated person would reasonably anticipate that Mr. Morris was obligated to provide legal services, the alleged funding of the lifestyle of a client or potential client justifies the immediate opening of a misconduct investigation under Rule 1.8.5,” the complaint says.  On Capitol Hill, and on other occasions, Lowell has been the lawyer who spoke as Hunter Biden’s representative. However, the same Times story said, “Morris strode shoulder to shoulder with the president’s son as they made a surprise appearance at a congressional contempt hearing on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, he is expected to be seated behind him in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom as Hunter Biden is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on criminal tax charges, much as he did in a Delaware courtroom.” Morris did not respond Wednesday to Fox News Digital for this story after phone calls were made to his firm, PKM Law. The State Bar of California would not confirm or deny if an investigation was underway.  “By law, disciplinary investigations are confidential, unless confidentiality is waived pursuant to the provisions of Business and Professions Code section 6086.1(b) or (c),” a state bar spokesman said in an email to Fox News Digital. 

Expelled TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s office says bungalow vacated before 10 am, no eviction took place

Delhi High Court refused to grant relief to the TMC leader and denied her stay on the operation of eviction of the government bungalow.

‘Used to be a festival’: Why Pakistan is seeing a subdued election campaign

Rawalpindi, Pakistan – Muhammed Iqrar stands outside his small shop in Muslim Town, a commercial area in Rawalpindi. Something is amiss, he says. “We have general elections in less than a month, but I don’t recall our area being so dead before,” the 46-year-old says. “We used to have buntings, banners, flags, music blaring from the speakers put up by different candidates. … It used to be a festival. Now, it’s just so quiet.” Pakistan, a country of 241 million people, is scheduled to hold its delayed national elections on February 8. But the vote has been tainted by allegations of rigging made by the main opposition party, headed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan, by many accounts the country’s most popular politician, has been behind bars since August under various charges. He is also barred from standing in the elections due to his conviction in cases he says are part of a military-backed crackdown on him and his party. Last week, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was stripped of its election symbol, a cricket bat, through a Supreme Court order, leaving its leaders with no choice but to fight as independents with their own individual symbols. In a country with a literacy rate of 60 percent, election symbols are necessary to help voters identify the parties they support on the ballots. Two days after the top court’s decision, Maryam Nawaz, daughter of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, kickstarted her party’s campaign on Monday with a rally in the city of Okara in Punjab province, the deciding region in the polls. ‘People are not interested’ But the absence of any real opposition has turned the run-up to the election into a lukewarm affair – something Iqrar says he never experienced in the past. A supporter of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party, he recalls participating in campaigning, going door to door to distribute flags and inviting people to street meetings. “We used to get into the swing of things some two or three months before the elections. We put flags of our leaders and tried to engage people. But now it appears as if people are not interested at all,” he says. Muhammed Iqrar says he used to be active in past election campaigns [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera] Maqbool Sharif Toor, a retired government employee, agrees. A resident of Babu Mohalla, a densely populated neighbourhood in central Rawalpindi, Toor says he is uncertain if the elections would be held as scheduled. Earlier this week, Iran fired missiles at Pakistan, allegedly targeting ‘terrorist’ bases, and prompting retaliatory strikes from Pakistan. Those tensions have further injected uncertainty over whether the elections will indeed proceed as planned on February 8. “One party has been completely sidelined, ruining the competition. We loved the ‘halla gulla’ [cacophony] during the campaigning, but now there is hardly anything here,” he says. The 12th general election in Pakistan is being held under a cloud of political and economic instability and a deteriorating security situation. The vote was originally scheduled in November, but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said it needed more time to redraw constituencies based on the population census conducted last year. Political instability in Pakistan began in April 2022 when Khan was removed from power through a no confidence vote in parliament. The former cricketing icon accused the “establishment” – a euphemism for the country’s powerful military – for orchestrating his removal. Since his ouster, Khan has been in the crosshairs of the military, once considered his patron and architect of his rise to power in 2018. Chaudhry Mussadiq Ghumman, a PTI candidate in Rawalpindi, says the state’s cases against his party has disenchanted a large number of voters. “The court cases against us meant we never knew if we will be allowed to contest or not, and now our leader is in jail and our symbol has been taken away. In such an environment, it’s difficult to prepare for an election campaign,” he says. Ghumman also claims the rallies and public meetings being held by PTI opponents have met with a muted response from the people. Workers preparing party flags as Pakistan prepares to vote on February 8 [Shahzaib Akber/EPA] Analysts say that despite clear directions by the Supreme Court and repeated assurances by the ECP, the prevalent sentiment among voters is of “uncertainty” over whether the vote will take place or will be further delayed. “There is so much scepticism among people. It appears that a deliberate tactic has been deployed to keep the electoral temperature down,” says political commentator Zaigham Khan. While the PTI had been dealing with legal hurdles and cancellations of candidate nominations, candidates for the two other major parties, the PMLN and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), were finalised only last week. Ahsan Iqbal, a PMLN candidate from Narowal city in Punjab, says the delay was due to an “exhausting process of scrutinising the names to be nominated”. “We wanted to ensure transparency in our selection process,” he says. “In the coming days, our campaign will pick up more speed.” Rawalpindi is unusually quiet three weeks before the polls [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera] Waleed Ashfaq, who runs a printing business in Lahore’s Anarkali Market, says his constituency used to have so many banners and posters hanging on the streets that the municipal authorities would have to remove them every week, only for new banners to appear the next day. “People used to book us out two, three months in advance. This time, we even placed advertisements on the road, but nobody has come,” he says. “Political parties, their candidates and workers would print flags, shirts, keychains and other memorabilia, but there is hardly any order in the market this year. It appears that the people are just bored and uninterested.” ‘Imagine if Imran Khan was not in jail’ Muhammad Meeran Mohmand, a furniture shop owner in Tarnol, a suburb of Islamabad, says his neighbourhood always saw a spirited contest during the elections but no political activity has started

North Korea touts ‘underwater nuclear weapon system’, blasts US drills

Pyongyang promises to deter ‘hostile military manoeuvres’ after naval exercises between US, South Korea and Japan. North Korea has tested a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone in response to joint naval exercises involving South Korea, the United States and Japan, state media has said. Pyongyang tested the “Haeil-5-23″ in waters off the east coast as the US and its allies were “seriously threatening the security” of the country “destabilising the regional situation”, North Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday. “Our army’s underwater nuke-based countering posture is being further rounded off and its various maritime and underwater responsive actions will continue to deter the hostile military manoeuvres of the navies of the US and its allies,” the statement said, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the US and its “followers.” North Korea last year claimed to have tested the drone twice, touting its ability to carry out sneak attacks and destroy enemies with a “radioactive tsunami” generated by an underwater explosion. The weapon’s operation has not been independently verified and South Korean officials have said its capabilities are exaggerated. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo earlier this week conducted joint naval drills involving nine warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, off South Korea’s south coast. The allies announced the drills after Pyongyang said on Sunday it had tested a new solid-fuel missile fitted with a hypersonic warhead. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been elevated in recent months amid Pyongyang’s repeated weapons tests and moves by authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un to roll back efforts towards reconciliation with South Korea. On Tuesday, state media reported that Kim had ordered the closure of several government bodies dedicated to inter-Korean rapprochement after determining that reunification was no longer possible. On Thursday, the nuclear envoys of the US, South Korea and Japan gathered in Seoul to condemn Pyongyang’s weapons tests and its trade in armaments with Russia. Adblock test (Why?)

Netanyahu rejects Palestinian statehood

NewsFeed During a press conference Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he objects to Palestinian statehood that does not guarantee Israel’s security after the Gaza war. Published On 19 Jan 202419 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

US says ‘not at war’ with Houthis; Biden admits strikes not halting attacks

Remarks after US conducted its fifth round of strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. United States President Joe Biden has pledged to continue strikes against Yemen’s Houthis even as he admitted that military action against the rebel group has failed to halt attacks on commercial shipping. Biden made his remarks on Thursday after the US conducted its fifth round of strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that it had destroyed two anti-ship missiles after determining they were an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region”. Asked by reporters if strikes against the rebel group were working, Biden acknowledged they had not stopped attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. “Well, when you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No,” Biden said. “Are they gonna continue? Yes.” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a later briefing that the Houthis would have to make the decision to stop the attacks. “We never said that the Houthis would immediately stop,” Singh said, adding that it was in the group’s “best interests” to halt the attacks. “You’ve seen that we’ve been able to degrade and severely disrupt and destroy a significant number of their capabilities since Thursday. But it’s really on them when they decide that they want to stop interrupting commercial shipping, innocent mariners that are transiting the Red Sea.” Singh also said that the US did not consider itself to be at war with the Houthis and that its actions are in self-defence. “We don’t think that we are at war. We don’t want to see a regional war,” Singh said. “The Houthis are the ones that continue to launch cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles at innocent mariners, at commercial vessels that are just transiting an area that sees, you know, 10 to 15 percent of world’s commerce.” The Houthis in a statement later on Thursday said it had carried out a missile attack on the US ship Chem Ranger in the Gulf of Aden, resulting in “direct hits”. CENTCOM said the rebel group had launched two missiles at the US-owned tanker, but they missed their target. The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out repeated attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, a major conduit for global trade, in a show of support for Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza. More than two dozen vessels have been attacked by the group since they seized the Israeli-linked Galaxy Leader vessel in November. The attacks have forced some of the world’s largest shipping operators to redirect their vessels around the southern tip of Africa, severely disrupting global trade. The US and its partners last month launched a multinational force, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to protect commercial vessels from drone and missile attacks in the waterway. Adblock test (Why?)

Ram Mandir News Live Updates: Ayodhya all decked for ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony

In preparation for the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 22, the governments of Rajasthan and Odisha have announced a half-day holiday in their states.

Haley says pardoning Trump would be ‘healing’ as she faces tough questions days before NH primary

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that pardoning former President Trump would be “healing for the country” as she took tough questions from voters days ahead of the New Hampshire primary election. Haley fielded a series of tough questions at the town hall Thursday night, which came just five days before Granite State voters head to the polls for the GOP primary. During Haley’s town hall on CNN, the former United Nations ambassador said she would pardon Trump if elected, but only if the GOP frontrunner were convicted of a crime. Haley said that “the last thing we need is an 80-year-old president sitting in jail” because “that’s just going to further divide our country.” “This is no longer about whether he’s innocent or guilty,” Haley said. “This is about the fact, how do we bring the country back together?” Haley said she is “determined” to make the “division” and “chaos” go away and that she believes pardoning Trump “would make all of that go away.” “And I think it would be healing for the country,” Haley said. Haley got pushback from CNN when she answered a question about whether America was a fundamentally racist country. She said if one tells a black or brown children they live in a racist country, “you’re immediately telling them they don’t have a chance.” Townhall moderator Jake Tapper pushed back, saying “You’re talking about the ideals of America, but America founded institutionally on many racist precepts, including slavery.” Haley said America’s ideals were present from the founding, but the country needed to correct certain places where the nation fell short of the intent of the Constitution. “When you look at said all men are created equal, I think the intent the intent was to do the right thing. Now, did they have to go fix it along the way? Yes, but I don’t think the intent was ever that we were going to be a racist country. The intent was everybody going to be created equally,” Haley said. Even though it took decades to fix certain aspects of the nation, Haley said she refuses to believe that the country was based on racism.  Another top moment for Haley came when she was asked about marijuana legalization. Haley said was a state-by-state issue, but wouldn’t commit to descheduling the substance. Haley said she would “go with the scientists” on marijuana legalization, and added that she thinks “it’s obviously not in the same class as heroin.” “But I also think when you’re looking at the legalization of this, I want states to be able to decide that,” Haley said. “That’s something that should be as close to the people as possible,” she added. Haley also said that she is “for child care tax credits for everyone” and said that the tax credits need to be done “across the board” to remain “fair.” If you’re going to do it, do it across the board and make sure that it’s fair,” Haley said. “Look, when you look at the welfare system and you look at all of those other things, when you look at those programs, the goal that I want to look at is what are we doing to lift them up?” “What are we doing to make life better for them?” Haley continued, citing her work as South Carolina governor to move people off of welfare and into jobs. Haley was also asked about the idea she floated of social media companies identifying online users by their real name, as a national security concern. The former U.N. ambassador said she “will always fight for freedom of speech.” She faced widespread criticism for her comments, but on Thursday defended her statement. She said she speaking about “when it comes to our tech companies, is there is a responsibility that our social media companies have.” “What I think they should do is they should show us their algorithms,” Haley said. “They should be completely transparent so that you know why they push what they push, why you see what you see, all of that, that’s a business transparency situation.” “I’m not saying that Americans have to disclose their name. What I’m saying is you have millions of foreign bots where there are no people behind them. When I was at the United Nations, Russia, China and Iran knew, and said it was the cheapest form of warfare. There are millions of bots that are spreading disinformation, that are sowing division in our country, and they’re doing this to spread harmful things to our younger teenagers.” “And what I’m saying is those social media companies have to do something with the foreign bots,” Haley continued. “I will always fight for Americans’ freedom of speech, but I am not going to fight for Russians’ and Iranians’ and Chinese freedom of speech. And that’s what’s happening.” Haley was also asked about the support she has been garnering from Democrats in New Hampshire — where around 4,000 voters switched their registration from the Democratic Party, which some speculate could potentially help Haley in the primary. The former governor said she has seen some independents align with her, and said “some Democrats say they want to support us because they’re not happy with Joe Biden.” “What I want everybody here to remember is Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president,” Haley said. “That is nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans.” “The problem is, if you’re going to win the majority of Americans, you have to make sure as a leader, you don’t decide who’s good and who’s bad, who’s right and who’s wrong,” Haley said. “You bring out the best of people and get them to move forward,” she added.

Ram Mandir: Know why new Ayodhya temple wouldn’t need repairs before 1,000 years

The foundation of the temple is among the most important examples of scientific innovation in building design.