UP news: Section 144 imposed in Lucknow ahead of Christmas, New Year; check details
The management or organizers of these hotels, malls, bars, restaurants, or other public spaces are responsible for controlling the volume of loudspeakers to avoid causing any inconvenience to the general public.
Year Ender 2023: 10 World records broken by Indians this year
From longest hair on a man to a girl dancing for 127 hours, many new world record titles were bagged by Indians.
Feds reopen railroad crossings along Texas Mexico border
The federal government on Friday reopened railroad crossings in two Texas border towns, five days after the shuttering of rail operations there disrupted trade and caused outrage. Customs and Border Protection closed railroad operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, on Monday to reallocate their customs officers to help Border Patrol take migrants into custody. Both regions have seen the number of illegal border crossings soar this month. Operations resumed at both cities as of Friday afternoon. NEBRASKA SEN. FISCHER SLAMS ‘HIGHLY TROUBLING’ BORDER RAILWAY OPERATIONS SUSPENSION: ‘ECONOMIC CRISIS’ Troy Miller, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner, said the closures at Eagle Pass and El Paso were a response to more migrants traveling on freight trains recently. Miller said authorities are seeing “unprecedented” arrivals at the border, topping 10,000 crossings on some days this month. The closures affected two of the six available rail border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico. Union Pacific and BNSF, the affected carriers, said automotive, agricultural, chemicals, and other consumer goods were halted. Union Pacific estimated that the closures cost $200 million in daily losses across affected industries. News of the reopening was received with relief, but both BNSF and Union Pacific said they would be working diligently to make up for lost time. “We will restore normal operations as quickly as possible as we work through the five-day backlog of shipments holding to cross the border,” a Union Pacific spokesperson said in a statement. CBP said they made the changes after observing a shift in the trends of smuggling operations in Mexico that used freight trains. Although migrants board trains traveling through Mexico, the railroad carriers said they have safety measures in place to deter and detect migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. aboard their cars. Union Pacific said it has found only five migrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally on its trains in the last five weeks. “Through our efforts, we have experienced very few people attempting to cross the border on trains at both ports of entry,” BNSF said via a statement. Other similar decisions to close down ports of entry and redirect officers to help with an uptick in migrant crossings are still in place. CBP said vehicular traffic is still suspended at one of the two international bridges in Eagle Pass. A pedestrian entry in San Diego, a port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, and a border crossing in Nogales, Arizona, remained closed as of Friday. Even after the railroad operations resumed, stakeholders expressed disapproval over the federal government’s decision. “In the face of the unprecedented humanitarian crisis, CBP has been working under exceptionally difficult circumstances, but these ill-advised closures were a blunt force tool that did nothing to bolster law enforcement capacity,” said Ian Jefferies, the CEO and president of the Association of American Railroads. The stalled shipments of agricultural products affected farmers and ranchers. The Nebraska Farm Bureau, an organization representing 55,000 families who have farms or ranches, called for long-term solutions but stressed more immediate changes, too. “In the future, we call upon the Biden administration to allocate the resources necessary to secure our nation’s southern border before costing our nation’s agricultural and overall economy millions of dollars,” Mark McHargue, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said in a statement. Frustrated politicians made similar pleas with the president. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Republican representative from Nebraska, said the president needed to take the situation “seriously” but also called on Mexico to do more. TEXAS LT. GOV. REAMS ‘COLD-HEARTED’ BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS AS CHICAGO REBUFFS BUSES: ‘SEND THEM TO REHOBOTH’ “Mexico also needs to do its part by enforcing its immigration laws and preventing thousands of illegal immigrants from riding Ferromex trains to our border,” Ricketts said in a statement. The temporary closures added pressure to talks between the U.S. and Mexico addressing the recent acceleration of border crossings. President Joe Biden spoke with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday and agreed that additional border enforcement was needed so the crossings can be reopened, according to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby. Republican and Democratic lawmakers are debating border policy changes as part of a larger conversation over U.S. assistance for Ukraine and Israel, which are top foreign policy priorities for the White House. A delegation of top U.S. officials is expected to visit Mexico soon as negotiations over how to enforce immigration rules at the two countries’ shared border continue on Capitol Hill. López Obrador said Friday that he is willing to help reduce the number of migrants accessing the U.S. through Mexico and to continue establishing an agreement with Venezuela, which has one of the highest number of migrants entering the U.S. The Mexican president also wants the U.S. government to open talks with Cuba and send more development aid to migrants’ home countries.
Wisconsin Supreme Court tosses GOP-drawn legislative maps, orders new voting boundaries
The Wisconsin Supreme Court tossed out legislative maps drawn by Republicans, ordering new ones to be made. Friday’s 4-3 ruling came from a liberal-controlled bench, with the majority stating that the legislative maps aren’t contiguous, or physically touching one another, thus violating the state’s constitution. “Because the current state legislative districts contain separate, detached territory and therefore violate the constitution’s contiguity requirements, we enjoin the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the current legislative maps in future elections,” Justice Jill Karofksy wrote. Commenting on the ruling, Democrat Gov. Tony Evers said, “I remain as optimistic as ever that, at long last, the gerrymandered maps Wisconsinites have endured for years might soon be history.” WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS PASS REDISTRICTING REFORM PLAN, GOV. EVERS CALLS IT ‘BOGUS’ “It’s clear to me that a Republican-controlled Legislature that has consistently gerrymandered itself into comfortable, partisan majorities for more than a decade is incapable of preparing fair, nonpartisan maps deserving of the people of this state. I agree with the Court’s determination that these maps are unconstitutional because the districts lack contiguity. Wisconsin is a purple state, and I look forward to submitting maps to the Court to consider and review that reflect and represent the makeup of our state,” Evers wrote. Revised maps from both parties involved in the lawsuit are due by Jan. 12. Dan Lenz, who’s an attorney for Law Forward, the organization that brought the lawsuit, called Friday’s ruling “a victory for a representative democracy in the state of Wisconsin.” “For too long, rightwing interests have rigged the rules without any consequences,” Lenz said in a statement. “Gerrymandered maps have distorted the political landscape, stifling the voice of the voters. It challenges the very essence of fair representation and erodes confidence in our political system.” Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams applauded the court for striking down the map. “Wisconsin is one of the worst gerrymandered states in the country, and Republicans have robbed voters of true representation for far too long. We applaud the Wisconsin Supreme Court for finding these maps unconstitutional and urge that the next set of maps fairly reflect communities across the state. Make no mistake: this decision is a game-changer,” Williams said. WI GOP-DOMINATED LEGISLATURE ASKS NEW DEMOCRATIC-BACKED JUSTICE TO RECUSE HERSELF FROM REDISTRICTING CASE Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler dissented from the ruling, writing that “This deal was sealed on election night.” “Four justices remap Wisconsin even though this constitutional responsibility is to occur every ten years, after a census, by the other two branches of government. The public understands this. Nonetheless, four justices impose their will on the entire Assembly and half of the Senate, all of whom are up for election in 2024. Almost every legislator in the state will need to respond, with lightning speed, to the newly minted maps, deciding if they can or want to run, and scrambling to find new candidates for new districts,” Ziegler wrote. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Who might be the next US president?
Biden and Trump are frontrunners in an uncertain contest. Next year’s US presidential election is predicted to be a contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. But not even that is certain in the most uncertain of election campaigns. So who else might be in the mix? And what are the important issues? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Tim Constantine – Senior vice president of diplomacy and external affairs at Washington Times and host of The Capitol Hill Show Thomas Gift – Director of the Centre on US Politics at University College London Arshad Hasan – Democratic political strategist Adblock test (Why?)
RSF files second war crimes complaint with ICC over Gaza journalists killed
Latest complaint by Paris-based press freedom group asks the court in the Hague to probe the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed its second complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian journalists in Gaza. The latest complaint by the Paris-based press freedom group filed on Friday asks the court in the Hague to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists killed in the besieged enclave from October 22 to December 15. The list of journalists includes last week’s killing of Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman, Samer Abudaqa. “RSF has reasonable grounds to believe that the journalists named in this complaint were the victims of attacks amounting to war crimes,” a statement issued by the group said. “According to the information collected by RSF, these journalists may have been deliberately targeted as journalists. It is for this reason that RSF is describing these deaths as intentional homicides of civilians.” The RSF filed its first ICC complaint since the war began on October 31 over the death of seven other journalists. The group says it has confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists since October 7 when the Israeli assault began. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since. The other journalists named in the RSF complaint are Asem Al-Barsh, a radio journalist for Al Najah who was killed by sniper fire, and his colleague Bilal Jadallah of the Palestinian Press House, who fell victim to a direct missile attack on his car. Montaser Al-Sawaf, a cameraman for the Turkish Anadolu Agency, and photojournalist Rushdi Al Siraj were also killed in Israeli air raids on their homes. Hassouna Salim of the Quds News agency was killed by a missile after receiving death threats, and photojournalist Sari Mansour died in the same attack, according to RSF. Al Jazeera’s Abudaqa “appears to have been killed by a precision shot fired from a drone”, the RSF said. The incident, which the Al Jazeera Media Network has also decided to refer to the ICC, took place on December 15, when Abudaqa and Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh were reporting on the bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Dahdouh – who lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in a previous Israeli bombing – was wounded in the attack but managed to reach a hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries. Rescue teams were unable to immediately reach Abudaqa and others at the site as they needed approval from Israeli forces to bulldoze through the debris to get to the location. By the time first responders arrived five hours later, the journalist had bled to death. The RSF said it also supported the complaint filed by Al Jazeera Media Network about the fatal shooting of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in the north of the Occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022. Targeting journalists is a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute. “In view of the massacre of journalists in Gaza and the targeting to which they seem to be subjected, we call on ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to clearly state that he is making it a priority to elucidate the crimes committed against journalists in Gaza and to prosecute those responsible,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in the statement. Adblock test (Why?)
US Supreme Court declines to speed up ruling on Trump immunity claim
Decision by the nation’s top court turns down a request by prosecutor Jack Smith to expedite review of immunity plea. The top court in the United States has declined to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can claim immunity for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, rejecting efforts by prosecutors to expedite review of the question. The Supreme Court rebuffed the request from US Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday, kicking it back to a lower court for continued review. The decision came as Trump faces a slew of legal troubles, some of them related to his efforts to seize office after the 2020 election despite his loss to current President Joe Biden. Earlier this week, a top court in the state of Colorado ruled that Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters, in an effort to halt the certification of his election loss, disqualified him from appearing on the state’s ballot in the 2024 election. Trump has said that he should be immune from charges relating to efforts to overturn the 2020 election on the grounds that former presidents cannot face charges for actions related to their official responsibilities. Prosecutor Jack Smith has alleged that Trump worked to obstruct Congress and defraud the US government through a wide-ranging effort to reject the will of the voters. A Congressional panel investigating the January 6 riot concluded that Trump knew that his persistent claims that the election had been stolen through massive fraud were devoid of evidence, but pushed to nullify the election results anyway. Those findings have done little to change Trump’s popularity within the Republican Party, and he remains the conservative party’s clear frontrunner to challenge Biden in the 2024 presidential election. On December 1, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Trump was not immune from prosecution relating to his efforts to overturn the election. Trump quickly appealed that decision, and his trial is paused until the appeal is sorted out. Special Counselor Smith then petitioned the Supreme Court on December 11 to review the case, asking the highest court to leapfrog the lower court in order to speed up the trial, currently scheduled to begin in March. The court declined that request on Friday, sending it back to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signalled that it will move quickly to resolve the matter. Adblock test (Why?)
November saw nearly quarter of a million migrant encounters amid new border surge
November saw nearly a quarter of a million migrant encounters at the southern border, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Friday, making it the third-busiest month of a migrant crisis that has smashed records and overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. There were 242,418 migrant encounters at the southern border in November, including migrant encounters at ports of entry and illegal immigrant encounters by Border Patrol between ports of entry. It’s higher than the 235,173 encountered during Nov. 22, and is only behind September (269,735) and December 2022 (252,315) in terms of the number of migrants encountered. It is the highest November number on record. Meanwhile, there were 17 apprehensions of people on the terror watch list in November. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT BORDER SOAR PAST THE 200K MARK IN DECEMBER, WITH OVER A WEEK STILL TO GO It comes as Border Patrol has been dealing with increased numbers after a FY 23 that broke the record for encounters in a single fiscal year. Agents have been overwhelmed by a surge of migrants from across the globe in places like Lukeville, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas. Monday saw a record 12,600 encounters, the highest recorded in a single day. CBP sources told Fox this week that December has already exceeded 200,000 encounters and could easily eclipse November’s numbers given that agents are encountering 10,000+ a day. Meanwhile, sources told Fox News on Friday that Border Patrol has released more than 386,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. with Notices to Appear. That does not include those released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and does not include migrants paroled into the U.S. via the CBP One app at ports of entry. Republicans have blamed the crisis on Biden-era policies, including the rolling back of policies put in place by the Trump administration, and have passed legislation in the House to limit releases and increase border security. The Biden administration has said it needs more funding and its own sweeping legislation to fix a “broken” system and deal with a hemisphere-wide crisis. Meanwhile, it has said it is increasing consequences for illegal entry while expanding “lawful pathways.” In a statement, CBP said it had surged resources to respond to increases and is screening every individual encountered. It said that since May, over 400,000 individuals have been removed from the country. “CBP continues to execute its important mission to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity by implementing operational plans, surging personnel and decompressing areas along the southwest border while processing and vetting migrants who are encountered humanely, safely, and efficiently, consistent with our laws. We are facing a serious challenge along the southwest border and CBP and our federal partners need more resources from Congress — as outlined in the supplemental budget request — to enhance border security and America’s national security.” acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. “Despite ongoing challenges, in November, the men and women of CBP continued their tireless work and recorded increased seizures of illegal narcotics while facilitating lawful trade and increased holiday travel.” The White House this week had appeared to downplay the crisis, saying that such increases in numbers are “not unusual.” 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS “What we’re seeing here at the border, the increased migration flow, certainly, it ebbs and flows. And we’re at a time of the year where we’re seeing more at the border. And it’s not unusual. This is an immigration system that has been broken for decades. And the president has taken this very seriously to try to do more. That’s why we have the comprehensive immigration policy legislation that the president put forth on day one,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. Negotiations are ongoing in Congress for the White House’s supplemental funding request, which includes $14 billion for border operations. Republicans have demanded limits on asylum and restrictions on the use of parole. President Biden has said he is open to “significant compromises” but so far a deal has not been reached, despite optimism from lawmakers. Meanwhile, the administration continues to face pressure from state and local officials at the border and elsewhere in the U.S. Mayors of sanctuary cities like Chicago and New York City have demanded more funding to help them deal with the massive numbers of migrants they have seen come to their cities and that have strained their social services. Last week, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced that she was mobilizing the National Guard to help federal officials and attempt to reopen the Lukeville port of entry, while accusing the federal government of inaction. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, has expanded his transports of migrants to “sanctuary” cities by flying migrants into Chicago. He also signed an immigration bill this week to allow law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants in an attempt to stop what he called a “tidal wave” of illegal immigration. Meanwhile, the Border Patrol union made clear agents’ displeasure with the way the crisis is being handled. “While our agents are more than willing to sacrifice the holidays to protect fellow Americans, that’s not what they will be doing,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said on Friday. “They will be processing the illegal border crossers for release into the U.S. while large parts of the border will be left wide open to exploitation by organized crime. These will not be happy holidays for the hard working men and women of the Border Patrol.”
Former Mueller prosecutor claims Americans died in Civil War to keep candidates like Trump off ballot
Former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann claimed on MSNBC that Americans died in the Civil War to bar candidates “who engaged in insurrection” from running for office. Weissmann made the claim on Thursday while speaking in a panel discussion on the Colorado Supreme Court moving to keep Trump off the state’s primary ballot. “This is not new. It is true that this provision of the Constitution is new to lots of people, because we’ve never been in a situation where you would have somebody running for office who engaged in insurrection or a rebellion,” Weissmann said. DEM-APPOINTED COLORADO JUSTICE SAYS TRUMP BALLOT BAN UNDERMINES ‘BEDROCK’ OF AMERICA IN FIERY DISSENT Weissmann said it was “remarkable” to him that the ruling from the Democrat-appointed court justices “isn’t really the unanimous finding in the Colorado case because you had no one dissenting on the issue of did he do it.” “No one was saying, oh, no, this was insufficient proof,” Weissmann said. “There were lots of procedural issues, and I don’t mean to minimize them, that the dissent raised, but there was a district court finding and there was a majority opinion with no dissents on the fact that the leading contender for the Republican nomination had done what we had a civil war about.” “And the reason for this amendment was because, after the Civil War, people said, if you have engaged in this kind of conduct you cannot be any longer the president, the vice president, or any federal position,” Weissmann continued. “So this is historically really important in terms of what many people died for in this country,” he added. Weissmann served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation probed the 2016 Trump campaign over alleged collusion between the campaign and Russia, but there was insufficient evidence found by Mueller linking the two. The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to ban Trump from the state’s primary ballot undermines a “bedrock principle” of American democracy, one of the court’s Democrat-appointed justices wrote in a fiery dissent. Justices Carlos Samour, Maria Berkenkotter and Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright all dissented, but Samour was particularly critical of the 4-3 ruling. Samour and Boatright were each appointed by Democratic former Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Berkenkotter was appointed by current Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat. “The decision to bar former President Donald J. Trump — by all accounts the current leading Republican presidential candidate (and reportedly the current leading overall presidential candidate) — from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot flies in the face of the due process doctrine,” Samour wrote. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” he wrote. Samour went on to argue that allowing states to decide individually whether to allow Trump’s candidacy “risked chaos in the country.” The justice conjured visions of state governments divided on the legitimacy of a victorious presidential candidate. “This can’t possibly be the outcome the framers intended,” Samour argued. The disqualification, which was made under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, is related to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” While the 14th Amendment was one of the Reconstruction Amendments adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, the war was largely fought over the issue of slavery, not whether a presidential candidate could be kept off the ballot. Fox News Digital has reached out to Weissman for comment. Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed reporting.
Former Trump aide asks judge to dismiss ‘half-baked’ Hunter Biden laptop civil case
A former aide to President Donald Trump involved in a civil lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden is asking the judge to toss the case. Former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler filed a motion for a federal judge in the Central District of California to dismiss the case due to its basis in “half-baked legal challenges.” “Plaintiff alleges no facts which demonstrate Defendants ever accessed any computer, storage, or service which Plaintiff either owns or has exclusive control over,” the motion filed by Ziegler’s attorneys reads. Ziegler’s attorneys also claim that their client’s posts sharing the contents of the laptop “constitutes protected activity because it involves a public figure and is a matter of public importance.” HUNTER BIDEN SUES FORMER WH AIDE FOR ALTERING, PUBLISHING ‘PORNOGRAPHIC’ PHOTOS FROM LAPTOP HE DENIES IS HIS The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, accuses Ziegler and his company — Marco Polo USA — and 10 unidentified associates of spreading “tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings” from the laptop that were considered “pornographic.” Ziegler’s legal team alleges that Biden’s lawsuit is “aimed at chilling the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech.” FBI AGENT INVOLVED IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE DOES NOT BELIEVE POLITICS WERE INVOLVED In the 14-page civil complaint, Biden’s attorneys allege that Ziegler is a “zealot” who has unleashed a “sustained, unhinged and obsessed campaign” against the entire Biden family for over two years and “spent countless hours accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging computer data” with his associates. “While Defendant Ziegler is entitled to his extremist and counterfactual opinions, he has no right to engage in illegal activities to advance his right-wing agenda,” attorneys Abbe Lowell, Bryan Sullivan, Zachary Hansen and Paul Salvaty previously wrote. In the motion to dismiss, Ziegler’s legal representation also questions the existence of a connection between their client and the state of California. The attorneys claim this would invalidate the jurisdiction of the state where the lawsuit was filed. Hunter Biden is currently facing nine criminal counts in the same California court where he has filed three civil lawsuits. The president’s son is also currently suing Rudy Giuliani and lawyer Robert Costello for illegally accessing his laptop computer, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne for defamation. Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.