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South Africa files case at ICJ accusing Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza

South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza after nearly three months of relentless Israeli bombardment has killed more than 21,500 people and caused widespread destruction in the besieged enclave. In an application to the court on Friday, South Africa described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”. “The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the application said. The ICJ, also called the World Court, is a UN civil court that adjudicates disputes between countries. It is distinct from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes individuals for war crimes. As members of the UN, both South Africa and Israel are bound by the court. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank with his country’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation imposed by the white-minority rule that ended in 1994. Several human rights organisations have said that Israeli policies towards Palestinians amount to apartheid. PRESS RELEASE: #SouthAfrica institutes proceedings against #Israel and asks the #ICJ to indicate provisional measures https://t.co/WedDXvtBD4 pic.twitter.com/VCCDyORrLy — CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) December 29, 2023 Global condemnation South Africa said Israel’s conduct, particularly since the war began on October 7, violates the UN’s Genocide Convention, and called for an expedited hearing. The application also requests the court to indicate provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people” under the Convention. “South Africa is gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants,” a statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said, adding that the country has “repeatedly stated that it condemns all violence and attacks against all civilians, including Israelis.” “South Africa has continuously called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the resumption of talks that will end the violence arising from the continued belligerent occupation of Palestine,” the statement added. Israel has rejected global calls for a ceasefire saying the war would not stop until the Hamas group, whose October 7 attack triggered the current phase of the conflict, was destroyed. Some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack in Israel. The Palestinian group has said its attack was against Israel’s 16-year-old blockade of Gaza and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Settlement expansions pose the biggest hurdle in the realisation of a future Palestinian state comprising Gaza, occupied West Banka and East Jerusalem. In the latest development in Israel’s war on Gaza, tens of thousands of newly displaced Palestinians in the centre of the Palestinian enclave on Friday were forced to flee further south as Israel expanded its ground and air offensive in the centre of the enclave. Israel has faced global condemnation for the mounting toll and destruction and is accused of meting out collective punishment on the Palestinian people. ‘A very important step’ The court application is the latest move by South Africa, a vociferous critic of Israel’s war, to ratchet up pressure after its lawmakers last month voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the United Nations headquarters in New York, said the move was “clearly a very important step to try to hold some accountability to Israel.” “Now that South Africa is pushing this to the ICJ, it will be on [the UN’s] agenda to try to make a ruling on this very important question,” he added. On November 16, a group of 36 UN experts called on the international community to “prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”, calling Israel’s actions since October 7 a “genocide in the making”. “We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel’s strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide,” the experts said in a statement. Israel rejects South Africa’s accusations Israel has rejected South Africa’s move as “baseless”, calling it “blood libel.” “South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court,” Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Lior Haiat, said in a statement posted on X. “Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy, and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” the statement added. “It does rally public opinion to the reality of what’s going on in Palestine, not just in Gaza but also in the West Bank,” said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. According to Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, genocide involves acts committed with the “intent to destroy, either in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” “Where the disagreement lies is whether there is intent or no intent,” Bishara said. “The three leading Israeli officials have declared the intent, starting with Israeli President Herzog when he said there are ‘no innocents’ in Gaza, the defence minister who said Israel will impose collective punishment on the people of Gaza because they are ‘human animals’,” Bishara said, adding that prime minister Netanyahu also used a biblical analogy in a statement widely interpreted as a genocidal call. Adblock test (Why?)

Iranian national with terror ties caught crossing US northern border illegally

An Iranian national with links to terrorism attempted to cross illegally into the U.S. via the northern border, officials announced this week — coming amid ongoing concerns about the potential for those with terror ties to enter via the border. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a release this week that it has removed the Iranian, who is also a permanent resident of Canada, a national security priority and wanted for assault, back to Canada. The unnamed man had tried to enter legally in October at the port of entry in Niagara Falls, but was refused entry by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and turned back to Canadian border officials. BORDER PATROL ENCOUNTERED 17 PEOPLE ON TERROR WATCH LIST AT SOUTHERN BORDER IN NOVEMBER  He was then arrested two days later trying to enter illegally between the ports of entry near the Whirlpool Bridge port of entry. He was served with an expedited order of removal in November and was removed to Canada earlier this month based on a Safe Third Country agreement between the two countries. “The strong law enforcement partnership between ERO Buffalo and Canadian law enforcement authorities is imperative to increasing national security and preventing dangerous individuals from fleeing justice,” Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Buffalo Field Office Director Thomas Brophy said in a statement.  “The Canadian resident’s return to Canada to face charges is due to the dedicated officers on both sides of the border, working in tandem, to provide public safety for our communities,” he said. The arrest comes amid continued concerns that terrorists may try to enter the U.S. through the land borders, particularly at the southern border where officials are overwhelmed with the migrant numbers coming over. But the northern border has also seen a sharp increase in encounters too. In FY 23, there were 484 encounters of people on the FBI’s terror watch list at the ports of entry, and three between ports of entry. BORDER NUMBERS FOR DECEMBER BREAK MONTHLY RECORD, AS BIDEN ADMIN TALKS AMNESTY WITH MEXICO  The Department of Homeland Security’s threat assessment, published in October, noted that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that “terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.” “Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the assessment also said. At the same time, FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that those who evade Border Patrol and get into the U.S. as gotaways are a source of “great concern” for the agency. Officials have also stressed that encounters of those on the watchlist are uncommon, and have highlighted the multi-layered screening processes designed to weed out those with terror ties coming into the U.S. — as they did with the Iranian encountered this year. “Encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP Agents and Officers carry out every day on the front lines,” the agency states on its website. “DHS works tirelessly to secure our borders through a combination of highly trained personnel, ground and aerial monitoring systems, and robust intelligence and information sharing networks.”

Maine GOP state lawmaker moves to impeach state secretary over Trump ballot removal

A Maine Republican state lawmaker wants to impeach the Maine secretary of state who removed former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot. GOP state Rep. John Andrews said he wants to pursue impeachment against Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows after she disqualified Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot on Thursday. In her ruling, Bellows cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” Andrews said in a statement that he filed a request with the Maine Revisor’s Office saying he wanted “to file a Joint Order, or whichever is the proper parliamentary mechanism under Mason’s Rules, to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.” HOUSE DEMOCRAT FROM MAINE RIPS STATE’S DECISION TO TAKE TRUMP OFF BALLOT “In Maine, the people do not elect the Secretary of State, Attorney General or Treasurer,” Andrews told Fox News Digital. “They are chosen by elected Democrat Party insiders after deals are made in the back room of State House.” “Shenna Bellows knows that the process that put her there is extremely partisan,” he continued. “She should know better and be going out of her way to be as neutral as possible to serve every citizen in Maine and not just registered Democrats.” “That’s why she swore an oath to the Constitution and not the Democrat Party,” he added. “We are still a republic, but moves like this fracture that foundation, which ultimately is the point of all this.” Andrews said in his statement that he wants to impeach Bellows “on the grounds that she is barring an American citizen and [the] 45th President of the United States, who is convicted of no crime or impeachment, their right to appear on a Maine Republican Party ballot in March.” “Donald J. Trump has met all qualifications for the March 2024 Republican Presidential Primary. He should be allowed on the ballot. This is raw partisanship and has no place in the offices of our state’s Constitutional Officers,” he continued. Andrews’ press release noted a social media post he made, saying Bellows’ decision “is hyper-partisanship on full display.” “A Secretary of State APPOINTED by legislative Democrats bans President Trump from the 2024 ballot so that she can jockey for position in the 2026 Democrat Primary for Governor,” Andrews said. “Banana Republic isn’t just a store at the mall.” Andrews said Friday in a “FOX & Friends” interview that Bellows “has unilaterally disenfranchised 300,060 Maine voters with this partisan move.” He also applauded U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, for speaking out against Bellows’ move, even with his dislike of Trump. Golden slammed Bellows over the move, saying that he “voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th Insurrection.” “I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the United States,” Golden said Thursday night. “However, we are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot.” The Maine secretary of state defended her move while responding to Golden’s criticism during a CNN interview on Friday. “I reviewed Section Three of the 14th Amendment very carefully and determined that Section Three of the 14th Amendment does not say ‘conviction,’ it says ‘engage,’” Bellows said. “And, let’s go back and keep in mind that the events of January 6, 2021, were unprecedented and tragic,” Bellows continued. “This was an attack, not only on the Capitol and the government officials, the former vice president, members of Congress, but an attack on the rule of law.” “And the weight of evidence that I reviewed indicated that it was, in fact, an insurrection,” she added. “And Mr. Trump engaged in that insurrection under Section Three of the 14th Amendment.” In a shock decision issued Thursday evening, Bellows said Trump was ineligible for the state’s 2024 primary ballot, citing a clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars people who have “engaged in insurrection” from running for elected office without two-thirds congressional approval. The clause was originally meant to bar former Confederate soldiers and officers from holding positions in the U.S. government or military. It was also referenced by Colorado’s highest court in a 4-3 ruling last week similarly barring Trump from that state’s primary ballot. The decision was challenged by the Colorado GOP, setting up a battle before the U.S. Supreme Court. Bellows’ office declined to comment. Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

What’s behind recent coups in Africa?

Overthrow of leaders in Niger and Gabon has been met by international condemnation but celebrations at home. Two more coups in Africa during the past year. That brings to nine, the number of governments deposed on the continent since 2020. Are there common factors, or are these takeovers isolated? And what could we see in the coming year? Presenter: Laura Kyle Guests: Alexis Akwagyiram – Managing editor at the news website, Semafor Africa In Abuja is Kabir Adamu – Managing director at Beacon Consulting, a security risk management and intelligence provider in Nigeria and the Sahel region And in Bamako, Mali is Moussa Kondo – Executive director of the Sahel Institute and formerly special adviser to the current interim president of Mali, Assimi Goita Adblock test (Why?)

Argentina announces that it will not join BRICS bloc

The move is the latest shift in economic and foreign policy by newly elected hard-right President Javier Milei. Argentina has announced that it will not join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, fulfilling a campaign promise by newly elected far-right President Javier Milei who has pledged to pursue closer ties with the West. In a letter dated December 22 but released on Friday, Milei told the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that the timing for Argentina’s membership in the bloc was not opportune. Milei said in his letter that his approach to foreign affairs “differs in many aspects from that of the previous government. In this sense, some decisions made by the previous administration will be reviewed.” Argentina’s new president, a self-described anarcho-libertarian who has pushed forward a series of radical economic reforms since taking office in December, has said that he will pursue a foreign policy that aligns with Western countries, moving away from the previous administration’s efforts to build ties with other developing countries. Former centre-left President Alberto Fernandez had promoted Argentina’s inclusion in BRICS as a way to foster economic relations with the bloc, whose members account for about 25 percent of world GDP. Argentina had been set to join on January 1, 2024. Reporting from the capital city of Buenos Aires, Al Jazeera correspondent Monica Yanakiew said that Milei has already issued sweeping changes during his three weeks in office. “He has already made dramatic changes in all walks of life, from expediting divorce procedures to deregulating prices to eliminating subsidies, everything is changing here now,” she said. During his campaign, Milei railed against countries ruled “by communism” such as China and neighbouring economic power Brazil and said he would pursue greater alignment with “free nations of the West” such as Israel and the US in his economic and foreign policy. However, in his letter to the BRICS leaders, Milei said that Argentina would seek to “intensify bilateral ties” in order to increase “trade and investment flows” without joining the group. Domestically, Milei is also facing substantial pushback from the country’s powerful organised labour groups as he embarks on a programme of economic “shock therapy” and deregulation as Argentina reels from sky-high inflation. Adblock test (Why?)

Palestinians perform Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa amid tight Israeli curbs

Israeli authorities barred Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem for the 12th consecutive Friday. According to Anadolu Agency, the Israeli police set up barriers at the entrances to the Old City and allowed only the elderly to reach Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli police also set up checkpoints at the outer gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – Islam’s third holiest site. Hundreds of people performed Friday prayers in the streets near the Old City, after they were prevented from reaching the mosque. A large number of Israeli forces were also deployed in the Wadi al-Joz neighbourhood near the Old City, and prevented worshipers from reaching the mosque, witnesses added. Israeli forces sprayed “skunk water” and used tear gas canisters against worshippers, the Wafa news agency reported. Adblock test (Why?)

Abortion debate creates ‘new era’ for state supreme court races in 2024, with big spending expected

CHICAGO (AP) — The 2024 elections will be dominated by the presidential contest and the battle for control of Congress, but another series of races is shaping up to be just as consequential. Crucial battles over abortion, gerrymandering, voting rights and other issues will take center stage in next year’s elections for state supreme court seats — 80 of them in 33 states. NATIONAL ARCHIVES SETTLES WITH MARCH FOR LIFE VISITORS TOLD TO REMOVE PRO-LIFE CLOTHING The races have emerged as some of the most hotly contested and costliest contests on the ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the consitutional right to an abortion. The decision shifted the abortion debate to states, creating a “new era” in state supreme court elections, said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the judiciary program at the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks spending in judicial races. “We have seen attention on state supreme court elections like never before and money in these races like never before,” Keith said. Heated court races in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2023 handed victories to Democrats and saw tens of millions of dollars in TV ads, offering a preview of 2024. They’re also prompting groups to consider investing in states they would not previously have considered. ABORTION AND GERRYMANDERING TOP ISSUES At least 38 lawsuits have been filed challenging abortion bans in 23 states, according to the Brennan Center. Many of those are expected to end up before state supreme courts. The ACLU is watching cases challenging abortion restrictions in Wyoming, Kentucky, Ohio, Utah, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Nebraska, Georgia and Montana. “After Roe v. Wade was overturned, we had to turn to state courts and state constitutions as the critical backstop to protecting access to abortion,” said Brigitte Amiri, deputy director at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. “And the stakes are unbelievably high in each of these cases in each of these states.” The ACLU was among major spenders on behalf of Democrats in this year’s state supreme court contests in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Another big player in recent court races has been the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has said its focus is mainly on redistricting, or the drawing of political district boundaries. The group called state supreme courts the “last line of defense against far-left national groups,” but didn’t say how much it intends to spend on next year’s races or which states it’s focusing on. In Ohio, Democrats are expected to cast state supreme court races as an extension of the November election in which voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution. The state has more than 30 abortion restrictions in place that could be challenged now that the amendment has passed. “The state supreme court is going to be the ultimate arbiter of the meaning of the new constitutional amendment that the people voted for and organized around,” said Jessie Hill, law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a consultant for Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights. “That is a huge amount of power.” With three seats up for a vote and a current Republican majority of 4-3, Democrats have an opportunity to flip the majority of the court while Republicans will try to expand their control. Hill said the “very high-stakes election” will serve as another test of the salience of the abortion issue in turning out voters. “We saw an incredible number of voters come out to vote on that amendment and an incredible amount of investment in those campaigns,” Hill added. “I think we’ll see a similar attention and investment in Ohio come next year.” Redistricting also is likely to be a main focus in the state’s supreme court races, given the court will have realigned politically since it issued a series of rulings finding Ohio’s congressional and legislative maps unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans, said David Niven, political science professor at the University of Cincinnati. He expects millions of dollars to be spent on those campaigns. “There’s often little conversation about these races, but they are just so utterly consequential in very tangible, practical ways that touch voters’ everyday lives,” he said. MAP BROADENS FOR CONSEQUENTIAL RACES Pending legislative and congressional redistricting cases also could play a role in North Carolina. Republicans in North Carolina are looking to expand their majority two years after the court flipped from Democratic control in the 2022 election. That flip to a 5-2 GOP majority led to dramatic reversals in 2023 on rulings made by the previous court, which had struck down a 2018 photo voter identification law as well as district maps for the General Assembly and the state’s congressional delegation. Groups on both sides also are expected to focus on Michigan, where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court. Candidates run without political affiliations listed on the ballot, though they’re nominated by political parties. Two incumbents — one Democrat, one Republican — will be up for election in 2024. The court recently kept former President Donald Trump on the state’s ballot, denying a liberal group’s request to kick him off. It is currently weighing a high-profile case over a Republican legislative maneuver that gutted a minimum wage hike backed by voters. 2023 RACES A PREVIEW In Wisconsin, abortion played a dominant role in the 2023 court race, with Democrats flipping the court to a 4-3 majority in a campaign that shattered previous national records for spending in state supreme court elections. Liberal-leaning Justice Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly, who previously worked for Republicans and had support from the state’s leading anti-abortion groups. Protasiewicz was targeted with impeachment threats this year over comments she made on the campaign trail about redistricting as Republicans argued she had prejudged what then was an expected case on the state’s heavily gerrymandered state legislative districts. Experts say the controversy is an example of how more money and attention have changed the dynamics of many state supreme court races to be increasingly partisan. Democrats in

Michael Cohen admits to inadvertently citing fake cases generated by AI in legal motion

Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime fixer and lawyer, admitted in a filing unsealed Friday that he inadvertently gave his lawyer fake legal case citations generated by artificial intelligence in connection with a motion to end his supervised release early.  U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman previously called the citations into question, writing earlier this month, “In the letter brief, Mr. Cohen asserts that, “[a]s recently as 2022, there have been District Court decisions, affirmed by the Second Circuit Court, granting early termination of supervised release.”  Furman added, “As far as the Court can tell, none of these cases exist.” Cohen said in his sworn declaration released Friday that he had found the phony citations through Google Bard, an AI service that he said he thought was a “supercharged” search engine.  RITE AID BANNED FROM USING AI FACIAL RECOGNITION OVER LACK OF CONSUMER PROTECTIONS  “As a non-lawyer, I have not kept up with emerging trends (and related risks) in legal technology and did not realize that Google Bard was a generative text service that, like Chat-GPT, could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not,” Cohen said. “Instead, I understood it to be a super-charged search engine and had repeatedly used it in other contexts to (successfully) find accurate information online.” ELON MUSK REPORTEDLY WARNED THAT AI COULD DESTROY HUMAN COLONY ON MARS: REPORT In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, spending more than a year in prison before he was put on supervised release. He was also disbarred as a lawyer.  “It did not occur to me then and remains surprising to me now—that Mr. Schwartz would drop the cases into his submission wholesale without even confirming that they existed,” he added, citing his lawyer David Schwartz. “I deeply regret any problems Mr. Schwartz’s filing may have caused.”  He said Schwartz’s alleged mistake was “a product of inadvertence, not any intent to deceive.” E. Danya Perry, who represents Cohen and discovered the citations were fake, told the judge, “Mr. Cohen engaged in no misconduct and should not suffer any collateral damage from Mr. Schwartz’s misstep.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In an unrelated case earlier this month, two lawyers were fined $5,000 for citing fake cases generated by AI.  Perry didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The Speaker’s Lobby: Legislation on college sports relegated to the JV

There are college football teams that are going somewhere in their quest for a national title. Think Michigan, Alabama, Washington and Texas. And then there are those who aren’t. Kent State, Vanderbilt, Akron and the University of Louisiana-Monroe. They were among the worst Division I college football teams in 2023. Legislation is kind of like football teams. Some bills are headed to the Sugar Bowl. Other bills struggle like Kent State, bound for political oblivion. RILEY GAINES HITS BACK AT ‘SQUAD; DEM CALLING HER TESTIMONY ’TRANSPHOBIC’: YOU’RE A ‘MISOGYNIST’ So where does legislation fall to regulate how intercollegiate athletes use their name, image and likeness (NIL)? Bills to govern NILs are kind of the “mid-majors” of legislation. They aren’t the Big Ten or the SEC. It’s a little bit like the Mid-American Conference or Atlantic Ten. The bill may become law. It may not. And this is what worries some when it comes to Congress legislating NILs. The rules are clear on the field for NCAA sports. But things are vague when it comes to regulating NILs as student-athletes monetize themselves. The NCAA — being the NCAA — found itself unable to establish a nationwide criterion to address NILs. So it asked Congress to get involved. “There’s got to be rules so that you don’t have just the wild west,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “It’s going to take bipartisan agreement, and we’re not there yet. But we’re making real progress.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., was the head football coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. He also backs legislation to craft a uniform NIL system. “I really don’t want to get involved in it being a former coach,” said Tuberville. “But I see now where you got 50 states are all doing something different.”  Tuberville is pushing for equity among athletes who play different sports. There are issues surrounding programs of different sizes. There’s little equality among schools that play in different states. Some state legislatures have passed laws inducing athletes to come play in their states because of NIL incentives.  NCAA President and former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, endorses Tuberville’s bill.  Tuberville’s plan would dock athletes for entering the transfer portal to switch schools. Student-athletes previously had to sit out a year when changing programs.  “You just can’t up and leave. You got to pay a price for that if you do that,” Tuberville argued when discussing his legislation. Power conference schools can now lure top athletes to secure even bigger paydays. It’s reminiscent of free agency in the pros. But not everyone is pushing for congressional intervention. “I’m reluctant to say Congress should be involved in it,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “It’s not like we improve a hell of a lot of things that we do around here.”  Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said some of his colleagues consider themselves “to be an expert on everything,” adding they often have “more zeal than wisdom.”  Kennedy is leery of Congress infusing itself into college sports.  “I have warned the athletic directors in the NCAA, be very, very careful before you ask Congress to get involved. Because Congress has a tendency to micromanage,” said Kennedy.  CONGRESS’ FIGHT OVER IMMIGRATION REFORM COULD LAST A WHILE Individual universities have tried to help students manage how they market themselves. But schools can only do so much.  Maribeth Kuzmeski is a marketing professor at Oklahoma State University. She never worked with the athletic department until NILs came on the scene. Kuzmeski says the school launched a class on financial literacy and contract law for student-athletes. She also serves on what Oklahoma State calls the “brand squad” to promote student-athletes and the university.  “We serve them with helping with their brand, finding deals and opportunities for them and being able to help NILs in particular at Oklahoma State become more successful,” said Kuzmeski.  Kuzmeski said at first “we really thought the deals were going to come to us.” But instead, Oklahoma State began marketing its athletes and wrapping up NILs. The school got students and entire teams to do events with local pizza parlors and sign autographs.  Still, universities are limited when it comes to managing NILs. “The NCAA has not been able to do this. And I believe that Congress is the only ones that will be able to level this playing field,” said Kuzmeski. Others share Kuzmeski’s hope that Congress will take action. Kaley Mudge is a softball outfielder at Florida State. “It feels like there are members of Congress that are really passionate about this,” said Mudge. But she added that lawmakers appear to have placed legislation for NILs “on the back burner” amid the crush of other priorities. BIDEN WILL TALK BORDER IF REPUBLICANS TALK SOMETHING ELSE FIRST Consider that Congress only approved 30-plus bills in 2023 that President Biden signed into law. The number was only 22 in the middle of last week. Congress could barely pass two bills to avoid government shutdowns and a plan to lift the debt ceiling. The same will be true in 2024. We haven’t even gotten into the internecine political battles over funding for Israel, Ukraine and border security. So legislating on NILs? A “mid-major” bill? This thing may qualify as “Division III.” That disappoints someone like Mudge who reaped substantial benefits through her NIL — making money on the side to pay for a degree in nursing. Mudge knows there’s no long-term staying power in softball. But she can establish a career as a nurse. “NIL is becoming more of a ‘How can I save this money in the future?’ than just ‘How can I get as much money as I want right now?’” observed Mudge. Still, some lawmakers say all the money in college sports just disgusts them. North Dakota’s Kevin Cramer isn’t involved in writing any of the legislation to set NIL criteria. However, he says the concentration on bankrolls and marketing turns him off to college sports. “The idea of it becoming a profession,

DNA TV Show: PM Modi to launch projects worth 15,700 crores in Ayodhya

The preparations for the PM’s visit are extensive, with Ayodhya beautifully decorated with flowers along the roadshow route.