SpaceX to build $24 billion data center in South Texas, sidestepping moratorium
The city of Starbase has scheduled a public hearing on a possible tax abatement agreement for the data center and power plant project.
Texas’ oil and gas commission to reinstate public comment after suspending it a few months ago
The public participation policy will be restored at the December meeting, railroad commissioners confirmed.
Bill filed to give every Texas household $1,500, a Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa campaign promise
The money would come from the state’s rainy day fund and be distributed by the end of next year.
BJP asks Akhilesh Yadav to ‘repent’ before Ayodhya visit, SP chief hits back with fresh attack
Akhilesh Yadav’s Ayodhya visit has triggered a fresh political exchange with the BJP targeting the Samajwadi Party chief and the former UP Chief Minister hitting back at the ruling party.
Assam: Seven coaches of Kolkata-Sairang Express derail near Digaru, several injured
7 coaches and locomotive of Kolkata-Sairang Express derail near Digaru on outskirts of Guwahati. Several passengers injured, rescue underway. Cause yet to be ascertained.
Mullin vows ‘zero change’ on immigration after Republicans suffer crushing midterm losses
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin delivered a blunt message on immigration policy Tuesday, promising “zero change” following midterm elections that dealt a crushing blow to the Republican Party. Mullin made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” where host Laura Ingraham brought up President Donald Trump suggesting Republicans work with Democrats. “Amnesty will never be on the table,” Mullin said. WHITE HOUSE DOUBLES DOWN AFTER TRUMP ANGERS BASE BY FLOATING ILLEGAL ALIEN DEAL WITH DEMS He noted that the agency has been deporting roughly 3,600 individuals a day and has no plans to slow down. “We haven’t slowed down at all. We’ve re-prioritize what we’re doing by going after the worst of the worst, by getting the murderers and the rapists and child predators and drug bankers and cartel members,” he added. While Democrats secured majorities in both the House and Senate during the midterm elections, Mullin said Republicans cannot trust the opposing party to work with them. “You can’t trust the Democrat Party we’ve been working with at all. You can’t, because nothing’s enough for them,” he said. He also criticized the Democratic Party’s leadership, pointing to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and accusing the group of wanting to “defund the country.” “You got DSA that’s running the Democrat Party right now. They want to defund my agency, the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. BORDER DEM POISED TO WIELD ICE PURSE STRINGS REJECTS SOCIALIST ‘DEFUND’ PUSH “You want to defund the country that is the agency that’s tasked with keeping our homeland safe? Doesn’t make any sense,” he added. Mullin also recalled Trump’s comments about using his veto power if Democrats pass measures he opposes. “The president has made it very clear he controls the veto. So if they were to send something over that the president and the Republicans don’t agree with, he can veto it, and he will veto it,” he said. “The president will not sign anything that isn’t in the right movement for this country and the Republican Party.” Mullin also argued that maintaining a strong immigration policy is imperative to national security. “You can’t have a secured nation and you can’t have a secured city if you don’t know who’s in your country,” he said.
Anti-Israel agitators swarm Biden in Ireland and hurl object at motorcade
Former President Joe Biden was heckled Tuesday by anti-Israel agitators who threw at least one object at his motorcade and screamed obscenities during his visit to Ireland alongside former first lady Jill Biden. Biden, 83, made a surprise appearance at Trinity College in Dublin, where his son, Hunter Biden, accepted the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse, The Independent reported. A mob of agitators gathered outside the venue while the event took place. INSIDE THE PROTEST PLAYBOOK TO VILIFY ISRAEL ON ‘GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION’ As Biden exited the building, someone threw an object that was blocked by an umbrella near Biden. Local police arrested two people at the scene. Video posted online shows law enforcement officers detaining people as the crowd chanted, “Blood, blood, blood on your hands!” ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS LABEL MAMDANI A ‘TRAITOR,’ ACCUSE HIM OF ‘GENOCIDE’ OUTSIDE OCT 7 VIGIL Biden was escorted into a waiting vehicle as the chaos unfolded, and the motorcade quickly drove away. The agitators then heckled the police officers at the scene. “Shame on you!” they were heard chanting. Throughout his presidency, Biden faced intense criticism from progressive Democrats, human rights advocates, and anti-Israel activists over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and his administration’s unwavering support for the Jewish state. AOC TRASHES DEMOCRATS FOR CLOSING RANKS AROUND BIDEN, REJECTING PRIMARY CHALLENGERS Critics repeatedly dubbed him “Genocide Joe” over continued U.S. military assistance to Israel, arguing that defense funding enabled Israeli forces to kill and displace civilians in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, military experts have noted that Israel took unprecedented measures to minimize civilian casualties while targeting Hamas terrorists embedded in urban areas. Fox News Digital reached out to the former president’s office for comment.
House GOP leaders block Massie’s Hegseth impeachment push
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is safe from an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives after GOP leaders successfully stopped a looming vote led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. A vote to refer Massie’s resolution to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration — which effectively killed it in its tracks — passed on Tuesday evening by a 211-204 margin, averting a potential impeachment vote on Wednesday. President Donald Trump celebrated the failed impeachment effort in a Truth Social post, calling Massie a “major LOSER” and praising Hegseth’s record on military operations in Venezuela and Iran and recruitment. HEGSETH IMPEACHMENT VOTE LOOMS AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS PRIVATELY WARN IT COULD PASS “The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!” Trump wrote, calling the outcome the “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot.” The GOP had been worried about having a significant number of absences on their side after their brutal midterm election performance last week, but it appears Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrangled one more victory on his way out the leadership door. Massie’s resolution is a wide-ranging piece of legislation accusing Hegseth of misusing his office via eight impeachment articles, spanning issues including the Iran war, U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and his retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., over a video calling on troops to disobey “unlawful orders.” Hegseth railed against the effort and criticized Massie personally during a news conference Tuesday morning. HEGSETH LABELS IMPEACHMENT PUSH A POLICY DISPUTE, BUT DO LAWMAKERS’ ALLEGATIONS RISE TO HIGH CRIMES? “What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment,” Hegseth said. The outgoing Kentucky Republican was able to force Tuesday night’s vote over the objections of House GOP leaders by filing a privileged resolution, a mechanism aimed at bypassing the will of the chamber’s majority. A privileged resolution must be considered within two legislative days of being filed. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOW MIDTERMS MAY CHANGE THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT EQUATION FOR HEGSETH All Democrats present backed moving forward with the impeachment on Tuesday evening, as expected. All Republicans but Massie voted to kill the resolution. But some were worried earlier in the day about weak attendance potentially clearing the path for an actual impeachment vote. “I’m going to vote no,” Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “I don’t know if any Republicans other than Massie will be in support of his articles of impeachment, but I don’t even know how many Republicans will be here by the time of the vote. The real question is how short are we. Numerically, if they’re all here and we’re not, what happens then?” Ellzey called the impeachment effort “a ridiculous waste of time.” Even House Republicans who are critical of Hegseth were hesitant to support Massie’s resolution. “I think it’s an effort to scapegoat Pete Hegseth for Congress shirking their own duty and, frankly, the president taking action that, in my view, is unconstitutional. but it’s also not unprecedented,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, who is opposed to the Trump administration’s involvement in Iran, said. “What would be unprecedented is to hold the secretary of defense accountable for a decision the president makes. Or, frankly, it would have been unprecedented for the secretary of defense to kind of break ranks on something that is clearly not unprecedented in terms of what has become the standard operating procedure for administrations going back to the Korean War.” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a vocal critic of Hegseth’s, told reporters Tuesday, “I’m personally not a fan of the secretary. I don’t think he was the right guy in the job. But, also, when you read Massie’s impeachment, I don’t agree with it.”
Ilhan Omar huddles with her DC-based lawyers during her first day back on Capitol Hill amid federal probes
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., returned to Capitol Hill this week and brought two lawyers with her after a scandal-plagued fall recess. Fox News spotted the two attorneys exiting her Washington, D.C., office Tuesday after what appeared to be a roughly two-hour meeting with the congresswoman. Omar hired two high-profile attorneys, Amy Jeffress and Joshua Matz, both of whom are partners at Heckler Fink LLP, amid dueling investigations. After emerging from Omar’s office on Tuesday, Fox News asked about their confidence in Omar’s defense against the federal government. OBAMA ADMIN FIRST LAUNCHED THE INVESTIGATION INTO ILHAN OMAR’S ALLEGED BROTHER MARRIAGE The attorneys were also asked about the recent news that both the Obama and Biden administrations had been the first to investigate Omar after she claimed that the Trump administration was politically targeting her. They remained silent. This is the first sighting of Omar back on the Hill after two federal departments opened investigations into the Somali-born congresswoman looking into both her immigration status and previous financial filings. In October, agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raided her Washington, D.C., home as part of what Fox News Digital learned was an investigation into whether she or her father committed fraud when filling out her immigration paperwork. She spent the final weeks of her campaign asking for money to defend herself in the investigations and accusing Trump of targeting her for political reasons. About an hour after Omar’s lawyers exited her office Tuesday, the congresswoman departed with husband Tim Mynett. She was approached by Fox News about the ongoing investigation and asked whether she is concerned it could affect her ability to effectively represent her constituents in Congress. “I am not,” Omar said. She was then asked if there was any chance she would step down from Congress despite just winning re-election to let the investigation “play out.” The congresswoman smiled and waved at the camera but did not respond as the elevator doors closed with her inside. SCANDAL-PLAGUED ILHAN OMAR EASILY SECURES 5TH TERM IN DEEP BLUE MINNESOTA DESPITE IMMIGRATION FRAUD PROBE Omar also refused to respond to Fox’s question about whether she had spoken to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about the investigation. The attorneys seen exiting her office earlier, Jeffress and Matz, have both represented high-ranking Democratic elected officials and have taken on multiple cases against President Donald Trump, his allies and supporters. Jeffress served as former President Joe Biden’s attorney in his lawsuit against the Justice Department earlier this year. She also served as counsel for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill. She is also married to U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Washington, who ruled in May that Trump’s addition his name to the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center was illegal. ILHAN OMAR LASHES OUT AT ‘BIGOT’ TRUMP AFTER WINNING RE-ELECTION DESPITE INVESTIGATION Matz served as counsel to House Democrats during both failed impeachment attempts against Trump during his first term in office. Matz also represented E. Jean Carroll in two civil cases against Trump’s denial of her sexual assault claims against him. Matz also represented those opposed to the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned teachers from teaching students about gender identity and sexual orientation. Omar has not yet formally announced a meeting with any members of Congress about the two ongoing federal probes. Her only formal address to the public on the investigations was posting to social media, including a video in which she encouraged her supporters to keep sending money in light of the new investigations against her. Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
Hegseth labels impeachment push a policy dispute, but do lawmakers’ allegations rise to high crimes?
War Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back against an impeachment effort Tuesday, accusing lawmakers of trying to turn disagreements over President Donald Trump’s military policies into impeachable offenses. Congress is preparing to vote on eight articles alleging the Pentagon chief violated federal law and abused his authority. “One disgruntled congressman wants to shred it over policy disagreements. That’s what it is: policy disagreements, not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon press conference Tuesday morning. “The proper remedy for a policy disagreement, it’s legislation, it’s debate, it’s the next presidential election,” he added. But the impeachment resolution introduced Monday by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., goes beyond objections to the administration’s military strategy. It alleges that Hegseth violated congressional war powers, authorized unlawful military operations and retaliated against a sitting senator for exercising his constitutional rights. HEGSETH RIPS IMPEACHMENT PUSH FROM OUTGOING REPUBLICAN AS ‘FARCE,’ ‘STUNT’ The clash puts the limits of impeachment at the center of a growing fight over Trump’s national security agenda, testing whether lawmakers can make a constitutional case for removing Hegseth or are just using impeachment to challenge military and policy decisions they oppose. Massie’s eight articles center on several of the Trump administration’s most controversial national security decisions, with three accusing Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution during the war against Iran. The outgoing Kentucky Republican alleges that Hegseth initiated hostilities without congressional authorization, continued military operations after Congress directed their termination and disregarded statutory deadlines requiring the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Other articles accuse Hegseth of failing to comply with laws intended to minimize civilian casualties, including in connection with a strike on an Iranian school, and conducting unlawful maritime strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean. 7 REPUBLICANS REBEL AGAINST TRUMP, VOTE WITH DEMS TO REIN IN IRAN WAR POWERS The resolution also alleges that Hegseth retaliated against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., over a video urging service members to refuse unlawful orders, and unlawfully directed military operations in Yemen and the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Massie has rejected the suggestion that the impeachment effort is simply a referendum on Hegseth’s job performance or the administration’s military policies. “The question is whether he committed impeachable acts,” Massie wrote on X Monday. “And the answer is yes, eight times.” Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley largely agreed that the impeachment effort was on shaky ground, arguing that six of Massie’s eight articles should be dismissed outright. “In my view, six of the eight articles should be nonstarters, including the Iranian articles,” Turley wrote on X Tuesday. Turley acknowledged that Congress has a legitimate constitutional interest in asserting its war powers, but argued that Massie was attempting to use impeachment to settle a longstanding dispute over presidential authority. Presidents of both parties, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have claimed broad authority to launch military operations without congressional approval, he noted. “Massie is not going to ‘litigate’ the matter through impeachments,” Turley wrote, arguing that Trump was exercising authority long claimed by his predecessors. GOP REP THOMAS MASSIE INTRODUCES 8 ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST WAR SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH Vice President JD Vance, however, argued Tuesday that lawmakers were using impeachment as a substitute for exercising their legislative powers. “Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,” Vance wrote on X. “Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements. Rather than use them, they’re going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth,” he continued. Vance suggested the effort was driven less by the war with Iran than by opposition to Hegseth’s broader changes at the Pentagon, including shifting U.S. forces away from Europe and Ukraine and reorganizing the military’s senior leadership. TRUMP’S PENTAGON SHAKE-UP REVIVES A PRESIDENTIAL POWER PLAY WITH A LONG HISTORY “This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” Vance wrote. DRAMATIC FOOTAGE SHOWS ALLEGED NARCO BOAT ERUPT IN FIREBALL DURING US MILITARY STRIKE Turley dismissed the article of impeachment concerning Maduro’s capture, pointing to court precedent involving the U.S. seizure of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. But Turley drew a distinction between those disputes over executive authority and two allegations he considered more serious: the maritime strikes against suspected drug traffickers and Hegseth’s treatment of Sen. Mark Kelly. “The ‘double tap’ allegation would be a war crime, if true,” Turley wrote, noting that Trump and Hegseth have denied issuing such orders. The effort to punish Kelly over a video urging troops to refuse unlawful orders also raised serious questions about a sitting senator’s free speech rights and potential undue command influence, Turley argued. Still, he stopped short of concluding that either allegation met the constitutional threshold for impeachment, saying more evidence was needed. DEMOCRATS RALLY BEHIND GOP LAWMAKER’S HEGSETH IMPEACHMENT PUSH, SIGNAL MORE TO COME IN JANUARY “I will be looking for the underlying evidence on those two articles,” he wrote, describing both as potentially problematic but difficult to establish as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The Constitution authorizes impeachment for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, a standard that does not require proof of a criminal offense. Congress has historically treated serious abuses of official power as potential grounds for impeachment, though the precise boundaries remain contested. That distinction complicates the argument that the allegations can be dismissed simply because they involve military policy. Lawmakers can disagree with a defense secretary’s decisions without those disagreements constituting impeachable misconduct, but allegations that an official knowingly violated the law or abused the powers of his office present a different constitutional question. Hegseth, meanwhile, has maintained that the operations cited in the resolution were lawful and directed by the president. “I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow,” Hegseth said Tuesday. President Trump also rallied behind his