Rajasthan cabinet likely to be expanded today at Raj Bhavan in Jaipur: Sources
At present, Rajasthan has a Brahmin Chief Minister in Bhajan Lal Sharma, while Deputy Chief Ministers Diya Kumari and Prem Chand Bairwa are Rajput and Scheduled Caste respectively. The major castes influencing Rajasthan include the Jat community,
Vivek Ramaswamy reveals his ‘ideal’ VP pick: ‘That’s the mold you want’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy revealed during a campaign stop Friday that his “ideal” pick for vice president would be someone like Elon Musk. “I’m looking for people who are executives,” Ramaswamy said after a voter in Corydon, Iowa, asked if he would be able to find enough cabinet picks who agree “with you that won’t cut your legs off.” “Not in the pool of Washington, D.C.,” the 38-year-old presidential candidate answered. “If you’re looking outside the pool, there’s 300 million mostly good people in this country … So, a lot of them are going to be outsiders. I mean, an ideal vice president would be someone like an Elon Musk. Now, he wasn’t born in the country, so he can’t, you know, but that’s the mold.” Musk would be unable to run for the vice presidency or presidency because he isn’t a natural-born citizen of the U.S. Musk was born in South Africa. RAMASWAMY DEFENDS TRUMP, BLASTS CO COURT’S DECISION TO REMOVE HIM FROM BALLOT: ‘BLATANT ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ Ramaswamy has previously said he would consider Musk as an adviser in the White House. Earlier at Friday’s town hall, Ramaswamy said he had learned from former President Trump that it’s important to surround oneself with some outsiders in the White House. “It helps to have somebody who has complete and total disregard for the norms of Washington, D.C.,” he said. “Let’s take a jackhammer to it. It’s all fake. Most of it’s made up.” RAMASWAMY VOWS TO WITHDRAW FROM COLORADO PRIMARY BALLOT UNLESS TRUMP IS ON IT, CALLS ON GOP OPPONENTS TO JOIN At the end of October, Ramaswamy revealed that Musk, who is the CEO of Telsa, SpaceX and owns X, formerly Twitter, had attended one of his fundraisers in Northern California. “He showed up late at night and we had a conversation,” he confirmed to Reuters at the time.” Ramaswamy added, “He and I are increasingly alone in this world as being free speech absolutists and that I think is different from a lot of people in both parties. I think that’s something he and I see eye to eye on.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Ramaswamy’s stop in Corydon was one of several campaign stops in Iowa on Friday, including Chariton and Indianola.
California Democrat secretary of state to allow Trump on GOP presidential primary ballot: ‘I must be better’
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber will include former President Trump on her state’s primary ballot despite pressure to remove the Republican presidential frontrunner. Weber argued that while she finds the former president’s actions “abhorrent and disturbing and an attack on democracy,” she feels obligated to follow the rule of law and allow Trump on her state’s primary ballot. “But at the same time, if I believe in this democracy that is there, I have to basically continue to abide by the rule of law, and for me not to do that, then I am no better than Trump,” Weber told The Los Angeles Times on Friday. “And I must be better than Trump,” the Secretary of State said. MAINE GOP STATE LAWMAKER MOVES TO IMPEACH STATE SECRETARY OVER TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL Weber also admitted that her office worked for months with other state and local officials to figure out if there were legal grounds to remove Trump from the state’s primary ballot. Following the deliberation, Weber said that, in the interview with the Los Angeles Times, it was determined that the state constitution does not give her authority to remove Trump from the ballot. Her decision to “follow the rule of law” came after Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis sent her a letter on Dec. 20 imploring her to “explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.” In a follow-up letter to Kounalakis, Weber said she must place the “sanctity” of democratic elections above “partisan politics.” “As California’s chief elections officer, I am the steward of free and fair elections and the democratic process,” Weber wrote. “I must place the sanctity of these elections above partisan politics.” COLORADO TO INCLUDE TRUMP ON 2024 BALLOT AS STATE GOP APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT Weber hit back at Kounalakis, saying that her team had used “every means possible” to investigate the legality of removing Trump from the state’s primary ballot. “I’m not sure why the lieutenant governor says, ‘Use every means possible,’ because we have been doing that,” Weber said. “I haven’t shared that information with her, because she hasn’t asked me.” Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed with Weber’s sentiments, saying last week that, “we defeat candidates at the polls.” “There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. “But in California, we defeat candidates at the polls.” “Everything else is a political distraction,” Newsom said. On Tuesday, Trump is expected to appeal the ballot decisions issued in recent days in Colorado and Maine, Fox News has confirmed. The move follows Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to remove Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot, citing the insurrection clause of the Constitution. A divided Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Trump is ineligible to run for the presidency under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, arguing that his actions fueled the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by right-wing protesters aiming to disrupt congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. Colorado’s Republican Party appealed the ruling Tuesday, thus pausing the court’s decision and putting Trump back on the ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to make the final decision.
Who is Canada-based Lakhbir Singh Landa, BKI member declared terrorist by Home Ministry?
Lakhbir Singh Landa hails from Tarn Taran district of Punjab. He supervises the smuggling of weapons and IEDs from Pakistan to India.
PM Modi to visit Ayodhya today, lay foundation stone of multiple projects worth over Rs 15,000 crore
He will also dedicate several other railway projects to the nation. At around 12:15 PM, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the newly built Ayodhya Airport.
Judge blocks most of an Iowa law banning some school library books and discussion of LGBTQ+ issues
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked key parts of an Iowa law that bans some books from school libraries and forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues. Judge Stephen Locher’s preliminary injunction halts enforcement of the law, which was set to take effect Jan. 1 but already had resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from Iowa schools. IOWA GOV. KIM REYNOLDS SLAMS MEDIA ‘BOOK BAN’ NARRATIVE: JUST A ‘D-MN DISTRACTION’ The law, which the Republican-led Legislature and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds approved early in 2023, bans books depicting sex acts from school libraries and classrooms and forbids teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through the sixth grade. Locher blocked enforcement of those two provisions. The judge said the ban on books is “incredibly broad” and has resulted in the removal of history volumes, classics, award-winning novels and “even books designed to help students avoid being victimized by sexual assault.” He said that part of the law is unlikely to satisfy the constitution’s requirements for free speech. In barring the provision barring any discussion of “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” in elementary school, Locher said the way it was written it was “wildly overbroad.” Iowa educators lauded the decision. “When education professionals return to work next week, they can do what they do best: take great care of all their students without fear of reprisal,” Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, said in a statement. Reynolds’ office did not immediately comment on the ruling. The judge let stand a requirement that school administrators notify parents if their child asks to change their pronouns or names, saying the plaintiffs did not have standing. Iowa’s measure is part of a wave of similar legislation across the country. Typically backed by Republican lawmakers, the laws seek to prohibit discussion of gender and sexual orientation issues, ban treatments such as puberty blockers for transgender children, and restrict the use of restrooms in schools. Many have prompted court challenges. Opponents of the Iowa law filed two lawsuits. One is on behalf of the organization Iowa Safe Schools and seven students, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Lambda Legal. The other is by the Iowa State Education Association, publisher Penguin Random House and four authors. The first lawsuit argues the measure is unconstitutional because it violates students’ and teachers’ free speech and equal protection rights. The second suit, which focused more narrowly on the book bans, argues the law violates the first and 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Lawyers for both lawsuits said the law is broad and confusing. At a Dec. 22 hearing, Daniel Johnston of the Iowa attorney general’s office argued that school officials were applying the book ban too broadly. When deciding whether to remove books, educators shouldn’t focus on the idea of a sex act but instead look for text or images that meet Iowa’s definition of a sex act, Johnston said.
Biden administration urged to increase electric vehicle infrastructure
As President Biden’s goal to shift to electric vehicles moves closer, some energy experts say the administration needs to look at power infrastructure before pushing for an increase in sales. “They’re promoting policies that will drive the sale of electric vehicles but not necessarily the use of electric vehicles,” former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee said. The number of electric vehicle charging ports in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the past three years. Public charging ports account for around 88% of all EV charging ports. However, many owners also charge at home, where it’s cheaper and easier to plug in overnight. “The real challenge that I’m seeing is that we just don’t have the charging infrastructure in place around the country to really alleviate concerns that drivers have, particularly about range anxiety,” Chatterjee said. WHITE HOUSE TAKES ACTION TO FORCE GOVERNMENT WOKERS TO TRAVEL VIA ELECTRIC VEHICLE, RAIL According to the Department of Transportation, there are three different levels of public charging ports. Only about 200 are level one. Those can take more than 50 hours to charge a vehicle from empty to 80% full. Most public stations are level two. Those can charge a vehicle to 80% in four to 10 hours. Just 15% of public chargers are fast charging or level three. Those take the least amount of time but are still not as quick as a trip to the gas station. It takes between 20 minutes to an hour to get a vehicle to 80% charged. MAINE FORCED TO DELAY VOTE ON EV MANDATE AMID WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES “People want to charge their cars really fast, and so that’s a lot of electricity in a short amount of time. It’s not the way the grid is set up to operate today,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said. “Every one has its own set of complexities, and it’s hard to get these things built. These things don’t just happen overnight, and you’ve got to get the permitting. So, it’s not as easy as people make it out to be.” In 2021, when President Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law, around $7.5 billion of that was allocated for building electric vehicle charging stations. It took more than two years for the first fast charging stations to open. “You have these national programs as a one-size-fits-all approach. It doesn’t work. And, in this case, the uptake for this has been really slow,” Matheson said. “I represent a lot of the rural areas where there’s not as big of an uptake on electric vehicles because the range people have to drive in their vehicle every day.” The Energy Department is working to address range concerns. It’s tracking locations across the U.S. where an electric vehicle road trip could be possible using what the department calls fuel corridors. Most on the department’s website are still in the planning stages. Those in place are mostly along the East and West coasts. A 2,400-mile road trip along Route 66 is not yet possible in an electric vehicle. “More electricity sounds good in a lot of ways for the people I represent. But, on the other hand, we want to make sure it’s delivered in a reliable, affordable way,” Matheson said. “In this case, you’re looking at these infrastructure needs that are going to boost cost. And, also, when you have this increased electric demand, we’re concerned it affects reliability, and we want to keep the lights on.” Wireless charging roads could be the infrastructure of the future. Those are being installed by Swedish company Electreon. It completed the first project stateside in Detroit recently. Coils are laid beneath the asphalt and a receiver is connected to the vehicle. As the car travels, the battery unit is powered directly. The company is also working on several wireless charging projects across eight countries. Some of those include bus terminals in Israel, delivery truck loading docks in Sweden and ports in China. “If the market through innovation can have these technological breakthroughs that enable us to have this futuristic advancement in how our transportation sector functions, that’s amazing,” Chatterjee said. “I hope that that happens, but I want the market to drive that.”
GOP voters appear unbothered by Nikki Haley’s Civil War gaffe: ‘pile of bull—-’
GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley flubbed an answer about the Civil War and is looking to break the bad news cycle. But voters suggest the gaffe hasn’t swayed their vote. At a campaign stop in New Hampshire Wednesday, Haley was asked by an attendee, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” Haley said the Civil War was about government control, “freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.” Haley drew sharp criticism for leaving slavery out of her answer and sought to clean up her response Thursday, saying she believes slavery sparked the war, but the “bigger issue” was determining the role of government in people’s lives. NIKKI HALEY CLARIFIES CIVIL WAR ‘WAS ABOUT SLAVERY,’ AND INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM WAS ‘THE LESSON’ Media pundits, her fellow GOP contenders and Democratic foes all piled on Haley for the misstep, but reports reveal voters were less bothered. “Everybody knows [the Civil War] was about slavery, and what else can you say about it?,” Alison Bolt, a self-described moderate Republican from Littleton, New Hampshire, told Politico. “Frankly, I’m sick to death of hearing about these issues. I’m sick to death of hearing about, you know, racist kinds of things and transgender things. I want to get back to things that are going to help or destroy this country.” NIKKI HALEY HIT FROM ALL SIDES AFTER OMITTING ‘SLAVERY’ FROM CIVIL WAR RESPONSE Robin Smith, another Republican voter, told the outlet she believed the question was from an opposition plant. “That was a pile of bulls—. OK, there was somebody planted in that audience, in my opinion,” she said. “It had to be somebody that wanted to try to make her look bad.” The Wall Street Journal spoke to voters in Iowa, which will hold its primary caucus next month. Several undecided Iowans who attended a Gov. Ron DeSantis event Thursday evening said they “either hadn’t heard about Haley’s comments about the Civil War or weren’t bothered by them.” DON LEMON HITS HALEY WALKING BACK SLAVERY COMMENT AFTER PREVIOUS CLASH: ‘DIDN’T OFFER ME THAT SAME GRACE’ “If your living is to talk all day, every day, something goofy is bound to come out,” Iowa Republican Frank Wilson, a retired computer engineer and undecided voter from Cedar Rapids, told the outlet. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of the Granite State said Haley’s cleanup was “spot on.” “Spot on. That’s it. The Civil War is about slavery,” he told reporters. “She acknowledged it. Moving on.” Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
How recent ‘swatting’ calls targeting officials may prompt heavier penalties for hoax police calls
ATLANTA (AP) — A spate of false reports of shootings at the homes of public officials in recent days could be setting the stage for stricter penalties against so-called swatting in more states. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost have been among the victims. OHIO REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER LATEST VICTIM OF ‘SWATTING’ INCIDENT Several Georgia lawmakers targeted say they want increased penalties for swatting, like laws enacted this year in Ohio and Virginia. Similar bills are pending in other states and Congress. Here’s a look at the issue and what could be done about it: WHAT IS ‘SWATTING’? Swatting is the act of making a prank call to emergency services to prompt a response at a particular address. The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to show up. Calls in multiple states in recent days featured the voice of a man calling himself “Jamal,” claiming he had shot his wife because she was sleeping with another man and saying he was holding the boyfriend hostage, demanding $10,000. Two Ohio lawmakers said they thought they were targeted recently for helping pass a law making swatting a felony in the state. Georgia state Sen. Clint Dixon said the incident at his house in Buford on Christmas evening was “quite startling” for himself, his wife and three children. “I was watching a little football and my wife was upstairs packing for a trip, and all of a sudden, I heard her, you know, start yelling, ‘There’s police running at the door.’ She saw on our Ring doorbell,” he told WABE. WHO’S BEEN TARGETED RECENTLY? A man in New York called the Georgia suicide hotline just before 11 a.m. Monday, claiming that he had shot his girlfriend at Greene’s home in Rome, Georgia, and was going to kill himself next, said Kelly Madden, the Rome police spokesperson. The call was quickly transferred to police when suicide hotline responders recognized the congresswoman’s address. The department said it contacted Greene’s private security detail to confirm she was safe and that there was no emergency. The call was then determined to be a swatting attempt so the response was canceled while police were on the way. Greene has been the subject of multiple swatting attempts. Scott wrote on X that police were sent to his home in Naples, Florida, while he and his wife were out at dinner on Wednesday night. Police said they met Scott’s private security service at the home, but didn’t find anything out of place. “These criminals wasted the time & resources of our law enforcement in a sick attempt to terrorize my family,” Scott wrote. In Boston, a male caller claimed on Monday that he had shot his wife and had tied her and another man up at Wu’s home. The Democratic mayor said she was surprised to open the door and see flashing lights, but said her home has been targeted by multiple swatting calls since she took office in 2021. “For better or worse, my family are a bit used to it by now, and we have a good system with the department,” Wu told WBUR. Also targeted have been a Republican congressman from New York, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and a former state senator in Nebraska. Dixon was among four Georgia state senators who were recently swatted. In Ohio, a total of three current or former state lawmakers were affected. Jones said his home in a small town south of Atlanta was swatted on Wednesday, only to have a bomb threat called in on Thursday. “Thankfully everyone is safe, and I commend our local law enforcement officers for their professionalism,” Jones wrote on X. “Let me be clear — I will not be intimidated by those attempting to silence me,” Jones wrote on X We will put an end to this madness. HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE PROBLEM? Hundreds of cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number. And those targeted extend far beyond public officials. Police in Lincoln, Nebraska, told KETV-TV that they had handled three swatting calls in the same 48-hour period in which they went to the unoccupied home of former state Sen. Adam Morfeld. The FBI said earlier this year that it had created a national database in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies to track swatting incidents nationwide. Police had for months reported a huge surge in fake claims about active shooters at schools and colleges. There have also been reports of hundreds of swatting incidents and bomb threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions since the Israel-Hamas war began. The Anti-Defamation League estimates that by 2019 there were more than 1,000 incidents of swatting nationwide each year. That group says each incident can costs taxpayers thousands of dollars in emergency response costs. DO FALSE THREATS POSE OTHER RISKS? Such calls have proven dangerous and even outright deadly. In 2017, a police officer in Wichita, Kansas, shot and killed a man while responding to a hoax emergency call. Earlier this year, the city agreed to pay $5 million to settle a related lawsuit, with the money to go to the two children of 28-year-old Andrew Finch. In 2015, police in Maryland shot a 20-year-old man in the face with rubber bullets after a fake hostage situation was reported at his home. In addition to putting innocent people at risk, police and officials say they worry about diverting resources from real emergencies. WHAT KIND OF RESPONSE COULD THIS PROMPT? Police are investigating the recent threats. No arrests have yet been reported. Ohio earlier this year made it a felony offense to report a false emergency that prompts response by law enforcement. And Virginia increased the penalties for swatting to up to 12 months in jail. Dixon, the Georgia state senator, said in a statement he planned to introduce a bill during the upcoming legislative session to strengthen penalties for
Illegal immigrant population soars under Biden: government data
The number of non-detained illegal immigrants has soared under the Biden administration amid a historic crisis at the southern border, a new report released Friday shows, even as deportations have climbed but have failed to keep pace with the surge at the border. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report for fiscal 2023 shows that the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained docket has soared from 3.7 million in FY 2021 to nearly 4.8 million in FY 2022 to nearly 6.2 million in FY 2023. The non-detained docket includes illegal immigrants who have final orders of removal or are going through removal proceedings but are not detained in ICE custody. The number on the detained docket has increased from 22,000 to over 36,000 in the same period. BORDER NUMBERS FOR DECEMBER BREAK MONTHLY RECORD, AS BIDEN TALKS AMNESTY WITH MEXICO The number of illegal immigrants being deported has increased, according to the report, but it is still a fraction of the increase in the illegal immigrant population. There were 142,580 removals in FY 23, up considerably from 72,177 in FY 22 and 59,011 in FY 21, but still down from the highs of 267,258 under the Trump administration in FY 19. ICE noted that the 142,580 removals were in addition to over 60,000 Title 42 expulsions in FY 23 at the border, some of whom it said would have otherwise been subject to deportation. That’s at the same time as there were a record 2.4 million migrant apprehensions at the southern border. Those numbers have looked likely to continue, with Fox News reporting on Friday that December will shatter records for monthly encounters with over 276,000 encounters. Fox has previously reported that officials have said they are releasing around 5,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. each day. The agency also pointed to an increase in administrative ICE arrests, which increased by 19.5% to 170,590 in FY 23. It also arrested 73,822 illegal immigrants with a criminal history. “ICE continues to disrupt transnational criminal organizations, remove threats to national security and public safety, uphold the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and collaborate with colleagues across government and law enforcement in pursuit of our mission to keep U.S. communities safe,” acting ICE Director Patrick Leichleitner said in a statement. “I am proud of the efforts of our more than 20,000-strong workforce who work every day to achieve their mission while also assisting homeland security and law enforcement partners with integrity, courage and excellence.” US-MEXICO MIGRATION TALKS INCLUDED BENEFITS OF ‘REGULARIZING’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN US The Biden administration significantly narrowed ICE enforcement priorities in 2021, limiting agents to arresting and deporting those who are either recent border crossers, national security threats or public safety threats. It came after the administration initially tried to slap a moratorium on all ICE deportations, but was blocked by a federal judge. The administration says the narrowed priorities are necessary due to limited ICE resources, but Republican critics have claimed it is part of an open-borders agenda from the administration. Separately, ICE only removed 212 unaccompanied minors in FY 23, despite the more than 137,000 arriving in FY 23; it’s a new low and down considerably from over 6,000 removed in FY 19. Meanwhile, ICE deported 139 known or suspected terrorists in FY 23, a large jump in deportations of that population from 56 in FY 22 and higher than the numbers seen during the Trump administration as well, where 58 were removed in FY 19. LIBERAL MAYORS PUSH BIDEN FOR EMERGENCY DECLARATION, ADDITIONAL FUNDING TO DEAL WITH MIGRANT CRISIS The new report is unlikely to satisfy Republican criticisms of the Biden administration, who see the enormous number of migrants being released into the U.S. and what they regard as insufficient efforts to either stop them coming in or deport them. Some Republicans have pushed for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, while a number of Republican states unsuccessfully sued to block the administration’s narrowing of ICE priorities. The White House has called for an additional $14 billion in border funding, which includes additional ICE detention beds and immigration judges. But it has been held up as Republicans demand stricter limits on asylum and the administration’s use of humanitarian parole. Some Republicans have called for the inclusion of the House GOP border security bill, which would restart border wall construction and significantly limit releases of migrants into the interior. The administration has reportedly been open to a new Title 42-style removal authority and additional detention and removals as part of any agreement, but it is unclear if any such agreement can be reached and if it could pass both chambers of Congress. Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.