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First lady Jill Biden blasted over ‘bizarre’ White House Christmas video: ‘United States of Bananas’

First lady Jill Biden blasted over ‘bizarre’ White House Christmas video: ‘United States of Bananas’

First lady Jill Biden was blasted Wednesday night after posting a video to X showing dancers tapping around the holiday-decorated White House, whose theme this year is “Magic, Wonder and Joy.” In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the first lady shared the video from the official @FLOTUS account, along with the caption.  “A bit of magic, wonder, and joy brought to you by the talented tappers of Dorrance Dance, performing their playful interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite. Enjoy!” the first lady’s post read. But social media observers didn’t seem to be enjoying the musical content. SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY GROWS WITH A NOTABLE LEVEL OF DEMOCRAT BACKING: POLL “The United States of Bananas,” one viewer posted. “Imagine thinking this gives America the Christmas spirit,” another wrote.  “You are so strange. Bizarre. Freaky,” one said. One comment even shared Melania’s video when Donald Trump was in office, saying how it was tasteful, seasonal, appealed to everyone and was absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous, unlike Biden’s, which they said was “utterly tacky, tasteless, and ANTI Christmas.”  “Looks like the WH switched from cocaine to acid,” one viewer posted, an apparent reference to the discovery of cocaine at the executive mansion earlier this year.  The video was filled with smiling dancers in brightly colored costumes, prancing and tapping all over the White House, but many viewers described the video as nothing remotely close to a Christmas theme. POLL SHOWS BIDEN HITTING RECORD LOW APPROVALS, FALLING BEHIND AGAINST TRUMP IN 2024 MATCHUP “I wonder what that cost taxpayers,” another wrote.  “ABSOLUTE GARBAGE,” another viewer said. Some asked if the video was a joke, adding it was embarrassing and inappropriate for children.  Other viewers asked what the cost of the video was and how much it was costing taxpayers.  ‘DEEP, DEEP TROUBLE’: DEMS REPORTEDLY BRINGING IN HILLARY CLINTON TO HELP WITH BIDEN’S RE-ELECTION The White House was not immediately available for comment on the video. 

House approves resolution demanding MIT, Harvard presidents resign after antisemitism testimony

House approves resolution demanding MIT, Harvard presidents resign after antisemitism testimony

The House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution calling on the presidents of Harvard and MIT to resign following last week’s hearing on antisemitism. In a vote on Wednesday evening, representatives passed the resolution by a vote of 303-126. It required two-thirds to pass, or 290 votes. The bill was introduced by House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. “President Magill has resigned, and the other Presidents should follow suit,” the resolution states. HOUSE TO VOTE ON BIPARTISAN RESOLUTION DEMANDING HARVARD, MIT PRESIDENTS RESIGN OVER ANTISEMITISM TESTIMONY Stefanik commented on the resolution’s passage, calling it a “historic bipartisan effort to stand for moral truth.” “The world is watching as Members from both sides of the aisle stand resolutely with the Jewish people to condemn antisemitism on university campuses and the morally bankrupt testimony of the Harvard, MIT, and Penn university presidents during last week’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing,” Stefanik wrote on X. “It is disappointing and revealing that 128 Democrats chose to vote against condemning antisemitism on college campuses and the pathetic and abhorrent testimony of the university presidents.” During the hearing on antisemitism, then-University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay, and MIT President Sally Kornbluth all gave “evasive” answers when asked by Stefanik if calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their institution’s policies on bullying and harassment. STEFANIK SHREDS HARVARD OVER ‘COMPLETE MORAL FAILURE’ AFTER ALLOWING CLAUDINE GAY TO REMAIN PRESIDENT “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill responded, later adding, “It is a context-dependent decision.” “It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded. Kornbluth responded to the question, saying it would be considered harassment only if it’s “targeted at individuals, not making public statements” and if it was “pervasive and severe.” In an earlier statement to Fox News Digital, an MIT spokesperson said that “MIT and our president, Sally Kornbluth, reject antisemitism in all its forms,” and pointed to a statement from the school’s governing board. “The MIT Corporation chose Sally to be our president for her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values. She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support,” the MIT Corporation wrote. The Harvard Corporation reaffirmed their support for Gay on Tuesday, hours after the resolution was introduced, stating she is the “right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.” Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

No evidence but US Republicans approve Biden impeachment inquiry

No evidence but US Republicans approve Biden impeachment inquiry

Vote means investigation is likely to extend well into 2024 when Biden will be running for reelection, probably against Donald Trump. The United States House of Representatives has voted to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, despite an ongoing investigation finding no evidence of wrongdoing by the Democrat. The Republican-controlled House voted 221-212 on Wednesday to approve the investigation, which is examining whether Biden improperly benefitted from his 53-year-old son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The vote came hours after the younger Biden refused a call to testify behind closed doors and three months after Republicans informally began the probe. “We do not take this responsibility lightly and will not prejudge the investigation’s outcome,” Speaker Mike Johnson and his team said in a statement after the vote. “But the evidentiary record is impossible to ignore.” Authorising the inquiry ensures that the impeachment investigation extends well into 2024 when Biden will be running for reelection and seems likely to be squaring off against former President Donald Trump who was twice impeached during his time in the White House, including for inciting the January 2021 assault on the Capitol. Trump, who also faces four criminal trials, has pushed his allies in Congress to move swiftly on impeaching Biden, part of his broader calls for retribution against his political enemies. The White House has dismissed the initiative as unsubstantiated by facts and politically motivated. Biden swiftly condemned the vote. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they [Republicans] are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts,” Biden said in a statement following the vote. Hunter Biden offered to testify publicly to the Republican-led House Oversight Committee rather than in a closed-door session [Jack Gruber/USA Today Network via Reuters] The decision to hold a vote came as Johnson and his team faced growing pressure to show progress in their investigation, which has raised ethical questions but uncovered no evidence that Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes either in his current role or when he was vice president between 2009 and 2017. Congressional investigators have obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several high-ranking Justice Department officials currently investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden, on firearms and tax charges. The effort will almost certainly fail to remove Biden from office. Even if the House backs impeachment, the Senate would then have to vote to convict him on the charges by a two-thirds vote – a near-impossibility in a chamber where Biden’s fellow Democrats hold a 51-49 majority. “By endorsing this impeachment inquiry, the Republican Conference is signing up for another year of a ‘Do Nothing’ Congress: No substantive legislation or policy progress, all political fantasy and conspiracy theory,” Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said in a statement after the vote. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Fighting is all around’: Myanmar faces deepening humanitarian crisis

‘Fighting is all around’: Myanmar faces deepening humanitarian crisis

In late October, Sai Lam had an uneasy feeling. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic armed organisation operating in Myanmar’s northern Shan State, was massing forces near his village on the Chinese border and he sensed that fighting was imminent. So the 27-year-old, who had already secured a job in the construction sector in China’s Yunnan province in order to support his family, decided to expedite his plan. He travelled from his village near the town of Mong Ko up to the border gate of Muse, and then crossed into China province using a temporary border pass. His wife and mother, meanwhile, stayed behind to look after their farmland and newborn baby. Days later, the MNDAA, together with its allies the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, launched Operation 1027, a joint offensive on military outposts in northern Shan State. Sai Lam’s family were forced to flee at dawn on October 27. They returned 10 days later, after the MNDAA had declared control over Mong Ko and the surrounding villages. Although the situation around Mong Ko has calmed, the military has relentlessly attacked other areas where it has lost ground, including the nearby town of Namkham, which it bombed on December 1 and again a week later. Worrying that the military could also attack Mong Ko, Sai Lam wants to bring his family to China, but they are unable to flee, because the roads out are now inaccessible due to the fighting. “They are still very scared and alert at all times because the military often fires heavy artillery and bombs from jets,” he said. Despite the challenges his family has endured, Sai Lam continues to support the ongoing resistance to the military, which seized power from the elected government in February 2021. “We are being oppressed, so we don’t want the military to win,” he said. “We expect that if the military loses and local resistance forces gain control, we may have more freedom and opportunities.” The Loikaw Local People’s Defence Force (PDF) preparing to go to the front line in Myanmar’s east [File: AFP] He and others interviewed for this report have been given pseudonyms due to the risk of military retaliation. Since the start of Operation 1027, Myanmar has seen the most significant escalation in hostilities across the country since the coup, which sparked a widespread armed uprising. Resistance forces have in recent weeks managed to overtake hundreds of military outposts, including strategic border crossings with China and India. They are also closing in on Loikaw, the Karenni State capital, as well as Laukkai, an enclave notorious for transnational human trafficking and online scams. Analysts now say that the military is at its weakest since the coup, with some even suggesting its imminent collapse. But alongside resistance gains, there has been a serious humanitarian cost. From October 26 to December 8, more than 578,000 people were newly displaced on top of nearly 2 million who were already displaced before the surge in fighting according to the United Nations, which said 363 civilians had been killed and 461 injured since late October. And at a time when UN agencies and international nongovernmental organisations have struggled to reach affected populations, it is community-based organisations, charity groups and local volunteers who are taking life-threatening risks to help civilians. “We all know that doing this kind of work is very dangerous, but if we don’t do it, there’s no one,” said Nway Thitsar, who works with a Christian faith-based organisation operating in northern Shan State to deliver food aid. “I can hear the sounds of bombing and gunfire all the time,” she added. “[But] I’m still safe enough that I can help people facing danger.” No refuge Even before the start of Operation 1027, Myanmar was experiencing unprecedented levels of armed conflict and a humanitarian crisis. Within months of the coup, autonomy-seeking ethnic armed organisations had joined forces with newly-formed groups, commonly known as people’s defence forces, to drive the military from power and establish a federal democracy. In response, the military scaled up its use of “four cuts,” a strategy it has long employed against ethnic minorities in the country’s border areas and which seeks to starve resistance groups of food, funds, intelligence and recruits by going after their civilian support base. Since the coup, it has bombed schools, hospitals and displacement camps across the country, burned tens of thousands of homes, and committed widespread atrocities including torture and mass executions, according to the UN. In March this year, its human rights office found that the military’s use of four cuts was driving a “perpetual human rights crisis” across Myanmar. The crisis has only worsened in recent weeks. In Shan State, some of the most intense fighting has been near Laukkai, one of several criminal hubs along Myanmar’s eastern border run by Chinese gangs. Capitalising on China’s desire to crack down on the industry, which also involves the large-scale trafficking of Chinese nationals, resistance groups have declared combating cybercrime as one of their goals. As they close in on Laukkai, the city has seen a mass exodus, but those fleeing face a perilous journey. On November 11 and 22, shelling killed multiple civilians as they attempted to leave by car. There are also few places of refuge. About 40,000 people have taken shelter in an autonomous region run by the United Wa State Army, Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed organisation, but most displaced people are stranded. About 50,000 are camping under tarpaulin sheets at the border, where China built an electrified metal fence topped with razor wire during the pandemic. On November 25, Chinese authorities fired tear gas to disperse the displaced, but most have nowhere else to go. Some people also remain trapped in Laukkai, where many are squatting in unfinished construction sites, according to Nway Thitsar, whose organisation is working to send them food in spite of roadblocks, checkpoints, telecommunications outages and active conflict. Their funds are also being syphoned off on inflated fuel costs. “If

Trump jabs at Hunter Biden skipping congressional deposition: ‘Went to the wrong place’

Trump jabs at Hunter Biden skipping congressional deposition: ‘Went to the wrong place’

Former President Trump jabbed at President Biden’s son Hunter Biden for skipping his closed-door congressional deposition on Wednesday. Trump took a shot at the younger Biden during his Iowa speech Wednesday night, joking that the presidential scion “went to the wrong place” on Capitol Hill. The former president joked that Hunter went to the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol when he should have gone to the House side.  JUDGE PAUSES JAN. 6 CASE AGAINST TRUMP AMID FORMER PRESIDENT’S APPEAL TO DISMISS “Did you see Hunter today, right?” Trump said. “He went to the wrong place. He went to the Senate instead of the House.” “Everyone’s saying, ‘Where’s Hunter?’ See, it always gets, ‘Where’s Hunter?’” the former president continued. “What a two-tier system of justice we have.” Trump’s comments came the same day that the younger Biden skipped his House deposition, instead giving a press conference on the Senate side of the Capitol.  While they occupy the same building, the House and Senate are separate parts of the Legislative Branch. On Capitol Hill, the House has no authority on the Senate side and vice-versa. The presidential scion is facing intense backlash after holding a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday in which he refused to sit for a deposition before Congress, and declared his father, President Biden, was never “financially involved” in his business dealings. Calls to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress began almost immediately following the end of the press conference, while other critics pointed to the claims concerning his father’s relationship to his business dealings as “goalpost shifting.” “They belittled my recovery, and they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass my father, who has devoted his entire life to public service,” Hunter said. “For six years I have been a target of the unrelenting Trump attack team. ‘Where’s Hunter?’ Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”  He added that “my father was not financially involved in my business,” saying the elder Biden was not involved in his dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, or his Chinese investments and others in the United States. Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Thousands of migrants wait a few hours south of Eagle Pass, Texas, to catch trains headed for southern border

Thousands of migrants wait a few hours south of Eagle Pass, Texas, to catch trains headed for southern border

Thousands of migrants lined railroad tracks as a freight train passed about three hours south of Eagle Pass, Texas, in Piedras Negras, Mexico, waiting for a chance to jump aboard to the southern border, where they are expected to arrive in the coming days. Border Patrol agents are already overwhelmed and dealing with unprecedented numbers of migrants, and according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, migrant encounters topped 10,000 in a single day on Tuesday. Last week, there were over 12,000 migrant encounters in a single day, breaking daily records and still at levels overwhelming agents on the ground. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS HIT DAILY RECORD AT SOUTHERN BORDER, AS WASHINGTON STRUGGLES TO AGREE ON SOLUTIONS  In the Tucson and Del Rio Sectors, agents saw 3,000 and 2,700 encounters respectively, with both sectors more than 200% over capacity. On Saturday, Fox reported that lawmakers were briefed by officials that over 5,000 illegal immigrants are currently being released into the U.S. each day, in addition to the 1,600 migrants who arrived at ports of entry and are being processed and released via the use of humanitarian parole each day under the CBP One app. Agents are seeing migrants from over 150 countries, lawmakers were told. On Tuesday, sources said there were more than 190 Chinese nationals encountered in the San Diego sector, while there were more than 120 encounters of nationals from Guinea in the Tucson Sector. 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS In FY23, agents saw record-breaking numbers, with 2.4 million encounters. Then, as FY24 kicked off, agents continued to see records broken in September and October. There is little sign that the numbers are slowing, though typically they drop over the winter months. The Tucson Sector, which has been at the center of the most recent migrant surge that has seen hundreds of mostly male adult migrants queued up against the border fence, agents are outmanned 200 to 1 in the field, officials said. JORDAN SUBPOENAS MAYORKAS FOR CASE FILES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH MURDER, TERROR CHARGES The Biden administration has been calling for additional border funding from Congress with a $14 billion request, which includes funding for migrant care, costs related to expedited removal and help for cities. But that has been blocked so far as Republicans seek limits on releases into the U.S. by increasing asylum screening standards and reducing parole use — proposals at which some Democrats have balked. The administration has said overall that it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide crisis and needs funding and immigration reform to fix what it says is a broken system. The administration has touted a significant expansion of “lawful migration pathways” while also claiming it has increased consequences for illegal entry in the wake of the end of Title 42 in May. Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.