‘Virus continues to…’: Top Epidemiologist reacts to rising Covid-19 cases in India
According to the Union Health Ministry, India recorded 594 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, raising the total number of active cases to 2,669 from 2,311 the previous day.
‘Congress using Karnatak government as ATM’ BJP’s Shehzad Poonawalla criticises Siddaramaiah for using luxury jet
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla questioned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleging double standards from the Congress.
‘Whatever is happening is wrong for…’: INDIA bloc’s stage protest against MP suspension
NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar said the opposition was ready to pay any price to save the democracy.
GOP lawmaker introduces bill requiring age verification technology for porn sites
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, reintroduced a bill that would require all pornography websites to adopt age verification technology to ensure children aren’t being exposed to explicit content online. “Every day, we’re learning more about the negative psychological effects pornography has on minors. Given the alarming rate of teenage exposure to pornography, I believe the government must act quickly to enact protections that have a real chance of surviving First Amendment scrutiny,” Lee said in a statement. “We require age verification at brick-and-mortar shops. Why shouldn’t we require it online?” The bill, called the Shielding Children’s Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act, directs the FCC to create a rule ensuring these websites adopt such technology, establishing a “more likely than not” standard for verification. It allows sites to choose their verification method, provided it meets FCC standards and prevents minors from accessing such content. Additionally, the bill instructs that the FCC must oversee compliance, allowing third-party verification providers and ensuring no identifiable user data is shared with the government. ELEMENTARY STUDENTS AT MINNESOTA SCHOOL EXPOSED TO PORN DURING SCHOOL ZOOM CALL Should the bill be approved, it would grant the FCC authority to enforce the rule by imposing penalties and providing injunctive relief. Prior to such enforcement, warnings would be issued, offering a chance to rectify violations. However, specific enforcement measures would be withheld until a website persists in non-compliance for a period of 30 days. According to the bill’s analysis, Congress has passed several bills over the past three decades aimed at restricting children’s access to online pornography. However, all the bills, except for one, were invalidated by the Supreme Court due to their failure to meet First Amendment standards. WHERE NO CONGRESS HAS GONE BEFORE: FACING GALACTIC-SCALE FISCAL CLIFF AND BORDER SECURITY THREATS In these cases, while the court acknowledged Congress’s valid interest in protecting children from explicit content, it found Congress hadn’t employed the least intrusive methods to fulfill this objective. The court even indicated personal “blocking and filtering software” might serve as a more lenient alternative. According to the lawmaker’s analysis, pornography has “unique psychological effects” on minors, “including anxiety, addiction, low self-esteem, body-image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire among minors to engage in risky sexual behavior.” “Technology has vastly improved in the last 20 years and Sen. Lee believes that age verification technology is now the least restrictive means for Congress to fully achieve its compelling government interest of shielding children from online pornographic content,” the text states. However, getting the bill passed is likely to face a wave of opposition. PROSECUTORS IN ALL 50 STATES URGE CONGRESS TO GUARD AGAINST AI-GENERATED CHILD PORNOGRAPHY In September, a federal judge struck down a Texas law requiring age verification and health warnings to view pornographic websites and blocked the state attorney general’s office from enforcing it. U.S. District Judge David Ezra agreed that House Bill 1181, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June, violates free speech rights and is overbroad and vague. The Texas law is one of several similar age verification laws passed in other states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Louisiana. The Texas law carried fines of up to $10,000 per violation that could be raised to up to $250,000 per violation by a minor. The Utah law was upheld by a federal judge who rejected a lawsuit challenging it in August. Arkansas’ law, which would have required parental consent for children to create new social media accounts, was struck down by a federal judge in September, and a lawsuit challenging the Louisiana law is pending. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Calls grow for Biden to denounce Colorado’s removal of Trump from 2024 ballot: ‘Smartest move’
A growing number of political commentators and experts are calling for the Biden administration to denounce the Colorado Supreme Court’s removal of former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, arguing it could be a strong political move for him. “If Biden were smart, he’d denounce the CO Supreme Court ruling,” former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer posted on X. “He’d call it wrong and show confidence he can win without throwing Trump off the ballot. “But he won’t do that because he is too afraid of the progressive left and too weak to stand up to them.” “The smartest move for Biden would be to direct the DOJ to oppose Colorado’s efforts to kick Trump off the ballot,” Fox News Host Laura Ingraham posted on X. DEM-APPOINTED COLORADO JUSTICE SAYS TRUMP BALLOT BAN UNDERMINES ‘BEDROCK’ OF AMERICA IN FIERY DISSENT “Democrats in Colorado are removing President Trump from the ballot because the ‘Democrat’ Party opposes democracy, which is a system where voters get to select their elected leaders,” Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller posted on X. “If Biden and the ‘media’ actually believed in democracy, they would denounce this immediately.” COLORADO KICKING TRUMP OFF BALLOT SHOWS DEMOCRATS WAKE UP EVERY MORNING ACTING LIKE IT’S JANUARY 6: CONWAY “This is a good time for Biden to convey the image that he cultivated in the election,” Jonathan Turley, a Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and Fox News contributor told Fox News Digital. “James Freeman Clarke once said ‘a politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation.’ It is time for Biden to show that he can think of the next generation and oppose this insidious ruling.” Alex Conant, founding partner at Firehouse Strategies, told Fox News Digital Biden “should do everything he can to distance himself from these efforts. “The more partisan it looks, the more it will help Trump.” CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP David Avella, chairman of GOPAC, told Fox News Digital the issue goes “beyond” President Biden. “Americans need a 9-0 ruling from our U.S. Supreme Court justices to send a definitive signal that the Colorado court’s action is unconstitutional,” Avella said. So far, President Biden has declined to take advice from commentators to denounce the Colorado court ruling and declined to comment on it when asked by a reporter Wednesday. “Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, let the court make that decision,” Biden said. “But he certainly supported an insurrection. No question about it. None. Zero. And he seems to be doubling down on about everything.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response. The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from appearing on the state’s ballots in 2024, citing the 14tth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021. Tuesday’s 4-3 ruling is stayed until Jan. 4 because of likely appeals, and it is widely expected Trump will take the case to the Supreme Court.
House leftists include antisemitism in resolution condemning Islamophobia, ‘anti-Palestinian discrimination’
A group of House Democrats introduced a resolution this week that condemns antisemitism in addition to Islamophobia and “anti-Palestinian discrimination.” It comes as the war between Israel and Hamas continues to fracture the Democratic Party, with hardline leftists labeling Israel the aggressor and calling on it to stop its retaliation on Gaza, while more establishment liberals maintain Israel is a critical ally that must be supported. The bill, led by progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., introduced the resolution to memorialize 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, a Palestinian boy who was stabbed to death by his parents’ landlord in an alleged hate crime. LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL AT WAR WITH HAMAS In addition to honoring him, the resolution text also included a provision saying the U.S. “has zero tolerance for hate crimes, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab discrimination.” And in what appears to be a veiled jab at leftists’ pro-Israel colleagues, the resolution also stated that “it is the duty of elected officials and media to tell the truth without dehumanizing rhetoric when informing the public of factual information.” LATIN PATRIARCH SAYS PHOTOS SHOW BOMBED GAZA CONVENT AS WHITE HOUSE RAISES ‘CONCERNS’ WITH IDF Israel has waged a ground invasion and air assault on Gaza after Hamas militants invaded the country on Oct. 7 and slaughtered over 1,200 people – mostly civilians in their homes – and took hundreds hostage. Ramirez blamed the child’s death on “rhetoric” espoused against Palestinians in the wake of the attack. “Hateful anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian rhetoric has real consequences. Just 30 minutes away from my district, Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child full of dreams, became victim to the rising Islamophobia and hateful rhetoric spewed about carelessly and recklessly since October 7,” she said in a statement. ISRAEL’S MILITARY ELIMINATES ‘PROMINENT HAMAS FINANCIER’ INVOLVED IN FUNNELING TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS “The rise of hate crimes, anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism puts all of us in grave danger,” she added. The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. All four Democrats voted against a bipartisan resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses and calling for university presidents to be fired earlier this month. That vote divided the left, with 84 Democrats voting in favor and 125 voting against.
ICE ramps up staffing at southern border to aid CBP with new migrant surge
FIRST ON FOX: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is sending additional personnel to help Customs and Border Protection (CBP) deal with a massive migrant surge at the southern border that has left authorities overwhelmed. ICE, responsible for enforcing federal immigration law in the interior and investigating and dismantling transnational criminal networks, is sending dozens of personnel to the border to aid CBP, an ICE official told Fox News Digital. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), tasked with the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants, will provide 141 personnel to assist CBP with border operations. Those duties will include responding to questions regarding medical and transport issues, enrolling illegal immigrants into alternatives to detention (ATD) electronic monitoring and coordinating removals and the necessary travel documents. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT BORDER SOAR PAST THE 200K MARK IN DECEMBER Meanwhile, the agency currently has 132 ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents at the border, and that number will increase to 197. As part of a memo of understanding, the special agents will be assigned to duties that include hospital watch, transportation, law enforcement searches, security and welfare checks. ICE is a smaller agency than CBP, so moving significant numbers of staff to the border has the potential to impact ongoing operations. HSI agents have previously complained that deployments have impacted ongoing investigations. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SENDING SURGE OF ICE SPECIAL AGENTS TO BORDER AMID INCREASE IN MIGRANT NUMBERS “We’re already understaffed as an agency, and pulling us down to the border — it makes us almost a critical level of understaffed,” one agent told Fox News Digital in August. But the deployment is also coming amid a historic migrant crisis at the border, where other agencies have seen staff sent to the border to pitch in. Fox reported Thursday that there were 200,000 migrant encounters at the border in December, and agents are seeing more than 10,000 a day, meaning the month is on track to shatter records. Fox reported this week that transportation resources from the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been sent to the border to assist. Republicans have blamed the administration’s policies for the crisis. The administration has said it is pursuing a strategy of expanding those pathways while increasing consequences for illegal entry, but that it is also dealing with a hemisphere-wide crisis and needs additional funding and immigration reform legislation from Congress. In October, it requested $14 billion in additional funding as part of its supplemental funding request, including money for Border Patrol agents, processing coordinators and other support staff. That request is being held up in Washington as lawmakers seek to work out a deal after Republicans have demanded greater limits on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole to release migrants into the interior. Lawmakers have indicated that a deal is unlikely until January at the earliest. Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
Democrat Dean Phillips attacks Biden for trying to upend traditional primary election process
President Biden’s 2024 Democrat primary challenger is going after him for his opposition to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., released a new campaign ad that targets Biden for supporting a bid to hold the Democrats’ first primary election in South Carolina. “For over a century, New Hampshire has held the first-in-the-nation primary, and Granite Staters have faithfully carried out that grave responsibility, propelling the candidacies of some and ending the candidacies of others,” a voiceover says in the one-minute video. “Now, Joe Biden has ordered New Hampshire to step aside.” DEAN PHILLIPS CALLS BIDEN POSSIBLY ‘UNELECTABLE’ IN 2024 AFTER GOP IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY “Congressman Dean Phillips is meeting with New Hampshire voters in diners, on street corners and at taverns, the way it’s always been done.” New Hampshire officials announced last month that they would not heed the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) request to cede its first-state privilege to South Carolina. PHILLIPS TARGETS BIDEN, FELLOW DEMOCRATS OVER BORDER POLICIES AS HE LAUNCHES PRIMARY CHALLENGE AGAINST PRESIDENT The president’s reelection campaign also has not filed to be on the New Hampshire ballot, which could further complicate things for him there. “In today’s society, it seems that we’re quick to eliminate traditions and ignore them,” New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said at press conference in November. South Carolina had set its primary for Feb. 3 after the DNC approved a proposal for it to hold the first 2024 Democrat race. But New Hampshire set its primary for Jan. 23, with officials citing state law mandating that the Granite State be first. WHY DEAN PHILLIPS IS SCOLDING FELLOW DEMOCRATS Biden wrote to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee last year to support the calendar overhaul. “For decades, Black votes in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process,” he wrote, referencing the state’s sizable Black population. Notably, Biden’s commanding victory in the 2020 South Carolina primary was widely credited for turning his then-flailing presidential campaign around. Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s 2024 campaign about the advertisement but did not immediately hear back. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Feted abroad, ignored at home: The story of Mami Wata’s voyage to Oscars
Lagos, Nigeria – On October 15, when C J Obasi heard that his film Mami Wata had been officially selected as Nigeria’s entry for the 2024 Oscars, he was elated. “It felt great. I think we definitely deserve it, and everyone worked so hard on this film and bled so much for it,” Obasi told Al Jazeera. “It’s always a big deal when you get what you deserve here. I never take it for granted just because I deserve it. I’m super grateful to the Nigerian Oscar selection committee.” Mami Wata, Obasi’s third feature-length film, is a black-and-white fantasy thriller inspired by the rich folklore of coastal West Africa. Shot in 2021 and released in January, it has a running time of 107 minutes. The title is a Nigerian pidgin reference to the mermaid or all-powerful water goddess believed to provide healing, wealth and protection to her worshippers. The film is also in Nigerian pidgin. Set in the fictional village of Iyi and shot in the Republic of Benin, Mami Wata is a truly West African affair. It is the story of two sisters, Prisca (played by Ivorian actress Evelyne Ily) and Zinwe (played by Nigerian actress Uzoamaka Aniunoh) who try to bring harmony back to their seaside village which is split between two groups: one that believes in their current leader, a messenger for the water goddess, and another that wants to establish a new system without the deity. Obasi says he began writing Mami Wata in March 2016 and over the next five years, wrote the story across 10 drafts. On the international scene, Mami Wata has already been a hit, screening in at least 15 festivals globally. In 2021, it made the final cut in the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021. In January 2023, Mami Wata had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for Cinematography. The release has also come with critical acclaim internationally. Variety Magazine called the film “a stark black-and-white Oscar entry that weaves a bewitching fable with haunting images”. “This visually beautiful and charismatically acted film is a fierce expressionist reverie or parable of power, shot in a lustrous, high-contrast black and white,” wrote The Guardian in its review. Eventually, Mami Wata was submitted by Nigeria for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film – the country’s third-ever entry. The road to the Oscars Lagos-based film critic Oris Aigbokhaevbolo says Mami Wata was the only choice for the 2024 Oscars. “It already has international exposure,” he said. “So part of the hard work has been done. Again, no other film in non-English from Nigeria fits the dimensions demanded by the Oscars. Mami Wata is just more thoughtfully done than its peers.” But the road to its selection as Nigeria’s entry for the Oscars was blighted by a lukewarm reception at home. On September 8, Mami Wata made its debut in Nigeria. According to What Kept Me Up, a Nigerian film blog, the premiere came at a time when there were no major competing films. However, during the opening weekend, it was difficult to watch the film due to inconsistency in showtimes at cinemas. Esther Nwajiaku, a Lagos-based content creator, said it took two trips to the cinema before she could watch the film. “The film showed for only two weeks, and with mostly ridiculous time slots,” she told Al Jazeera. “The best chance I got to see it was by 12pm on a Sunday at the FilmHouse cinema in Surulere. The first time I went with friends to see the film at the same cinema in Surulere, it didn’t show.” The average length of time that films spend in Nigerian cinemas is between four to six weeks, though some films stay up to eight weeks. But Mami Wata was reportedly pulled from cinemas after less than three weeks. Industry insiders say even before and during the short run, its local distributor, FilmOne, reportedly did very little marketing to promote the film. The typical rollout of press screenings, premiere, and other digital marketing push were visibly absent. “Right now, you find that the UK is doing a much better job in pushing the film than what played out back home,” said Jerry Chiemeke, a London-based lawyer and film critic who described the promotion as abysmally poor. “How do you put such a highly anticipated film in tight morning slots where viewership will be low, and even with those slots, people tried seeing the film and they were told that it’s “simply not showing”? he asked. FilmOne did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Obasi declined to speak on screening issues the film encountered in Nigeria, saying he would do so at a later date when he is ready. “For now, I’m just enjoying the theatrical run across several territories around the world,” he says. A poster for Mami Wata [Courtesy of: Fiery Film Company] Nollywood’s genre dynamics Some critics say the case of Mami Wata’s botched showings in Nigeria reaffirms the popular notion that commercial films in Nollywood tend to overshadow the diversity offered by niche or arthouse filmmakers because the volume of promotion and distribution for the former vastly outstrips that for the latter. For Aigbokhaevbolo, arthouse films don’t stand a chance in Nigeria. “The care and thoughtful promotion they get in other climes are absent in Nigeria. The audience isn’t as developed,” he said. The data seems to support this: the highest-grossing films at the Nigerian box office are comedies. They are also often widely publicised and have an extended time in cinemas. Based on data from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), five of the top earning Nigerian films of all time include Battle on Buka Street (2022), a comedy-drama that earned N655 million ($524,000), Omo Ghetto: The Saga (2020) earned N636 million ($508,800), The Wedding Party (2016) earned N452 million ($361,600), The Wedding Party 2 (2017) earned N433 million ($346,400), and Chief Daddy earned N387 million
Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 77
EXPLAINER Houthi attacks are discouraging shipping through the Red Sea, as Gaza’s health system collapses – here are major update. Here’s how things stand on Friday, December 22, 2023: The latest developments Over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza have been destroyed since the war began, making the enclave look like a different colour and texture from space, reported the Associated Press news agency on Thursday, citing mapping experts based in the United States. Northern Gaza no longer has any functional hospitals, reported the World Health Organization on Thursday. Amid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Hong Kong’s OOCL have become the latest shipping companies to avoid the waters, according to their announcements on Thursday. On Thursday, Canada announced a temporary immigration visa for relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents affected by the Gaza war, but warned that leaving would be difficult and dependent on Israel’s approval. Israel’s army said on Thursday that it intercepted a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Human impact and fighting A total of 20,057 Palestinians have been killed and 53,320 injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel targeted several areas across Gaza overnight, including Nuseirat and Deir el-Balah in the centre, as well as Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, according to Al Jazeera Arabic and the Wafa news agency. The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally, says an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published on Thursday. Additionally, Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population is at risk of famine. Israel’s war on Gaza has been the deadliest for modern day journalists, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday. CPJ has recorded 68 media worker killings in the region over the past 10 weeks. Diplomacy The United Nations Security Council has once again postponed voting on a resolution for the Israel-Gaza war. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minster of the United Arab Emirates, one of the few Arab countries to have official diplomatic ties with Israel, met with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh on Thursday. The two discussed humanitarian aid for the enclave and Al Nahyan urged negotiations for a two-state solution, reported Reuters. Israel’s Eilat port has seen an 85 percent drop in activity since the Iran-backed Houthi group ramped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, the port’s chief executive said on Thursday. Adblock test (Why?)