House clears path for vote honoring Charlie Kirk, denouncing ‘political extremism’
The House voted Wednesday to advance a resolution honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, clearing the way for floor debate later this week. Lawmakers voted in favor of advancing the measure and a bill to avert a government shutdown in a joint mechanism known as a “rule vote.” The rule was adopted in a 216-210 vote along party lines. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is known to be opposing the federal funding bill, was the lone lawmaker from either side to vote “present.” Massie explained to Fox News Digital that he vehemently supports the Kirk resolution but opposed an unrelated provision in the rule that blocks Congress’ ability from weighing in on tariff policy. ABC REPORTER CALLS CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN’S TEXT MESSAGES WITH TRANSGENDER PARTNER ‘VERY TOUCHING’ “I’m a cosponsor of the Kirk resolution, and obviously I will vote for it, but shamefully they turned off Congress’ ability to vote on tariffs with this rule,” Massie said. Rule votes are procedural hurdles that commonly tie together unrelated pieces of legislation that, if adopted, allow House lawmakers to debate each measure individually before respective votes. The current rule’s adoption means House lawmakers could vote on the resolution to honor Kirk on either Thursday or Friday. A vote on the measure to avert a government shutdown, a short-term extension of current federal funding levels called a continuing resolution or CR, is expected Friday morning. It is not surprising that no Democrats supported the rule’s adoption on Wednesday; rule votes traditionally fall along party lines and have rarely seen bipartisan crossover, even if the legislation they include has wide support from both Republicans and Democrats. And while Democrats are largely expected to buck the GOP-led government funding patch, the resolution to honor Kirk’s legacy is expected to get healthy bipartisan support. The Turning Point USA founder was assassinated last week during a college campus speaking event in Utah. The resolution to honor him, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., lauded Kirk as “one of the most prominent voices in America, engaging in respectful, civil discourse across college campuses, media platforms and national forums, always seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding and strengthen the Republic.” SCRUTINY INTENSIFIES OVER SECURITY LAPSES SURROUNDING THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING It also said Kirk’s “commitment to civil discussion and debate stood as a model for young Americans across the political spectrum, and he worked tirelessly to promote unity without compromising on conviction.” It called his killing “a sobering reminder of the growing threat posed by political extremism and hatred in our society.” Both Democrats and Republicans have released statements condemning political violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The latter measure that advanced on Wednesday evening, the CR, will keep government agencies funded at current levels through Nov. 21 if it’s passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump. That bill includes a combined $88 million in added security funds for Congress, the judicial branch and the executive branch. Conversations about boosting lawmaker security, in particular, had been ongoing but took on new urgency after Kirk’s death.
Schiff: Patel’s FBI leadership replaced expertise with ‘rabid partisanship’
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sharply criticized Kash Patel’s tenure as FBI director Wednesday, telling reporters that he viewed Patel’s leadership as deeply partisan and a “terrible tragedy” for the nation’s sprawling law enforcement agency. Speaking at a news conference alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democrats, Schiff took umbrage at Patel’s testimony one day earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Schiff said further crystallized his concerns about politicization within the bureau. The FBI “has been the premier law enforcement agency in the country, and the world, because they’ve been constantly professional and non-partisan,” Schiff said Wednesday, noting the close working relationship he had with FBI agents during the years he spent as a federal prosecutor. FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION “It is a terrible tragedy, I think, for the men and women of the bureau to have such poor leadership that is replacing expertise with incompetence, that is replacing non-partisanship with the most rabid partisanship,” Schiff told Fox News Digital. “And this is not unrelated to why we’re here today.” His remarks come as Patel appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a second day of testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary committees. FBI AGENTS DETAIL J6 ROLE IN EXHAUSTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE EMPLOYEES ‘WERE INSTRUCTED TO FILL OUT’ Both hearings were marked by sharp lines of questioning from Democrats, who grilled Patel on issues ranging from a flurry of FBI firings, the bureau’s handling of the Epstein files and concerns of politicization, among many other topics. Schiff, in particular, pressed Patel on his tenure at the FBI, saying the bureau’s agents — mostly assigned to its 52 field offices across the country and loath to see their work politicized — wanted to know what, if any, marching orders Patel had received from President Donald Trump. The heated back-and-forth devolved into a shouting match between the two as Schiff pressed Patel repeatedly on the firings of FBI agents and whether those individuals were removed for political reasons. Patel, for his part, described Schiff as a “political buffoon.” Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Schiff said Patel’s appearance did little to assuage his broader fears of weaponization within the bureau. “You can’t have a vibrant democracy without the rule of law,” he told Fox News Digital. “You can’t have the rule of law if you have a weaponized FBI and a weaponized Justice Department, and, sadly, that’s what we have here today,” Schiff said. He also weighed in on Patel’s remarks yesterday on the Epstein files, another issue that sparked intense criticism from lawmakers, after Patel claimed Tuesday that there was “no credible evidence” that Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking women other than for himself. Schiff said it was a “startling claim,” particularly from someone who had previously promoted the belief that Epstein maintained a vast client list of powerful people. “So, it was completely contradictory to everything he said in the past,” he said. He also noted Patel’s “refusal” to answer his questions on why Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to press Ghislaine Maxwell further on the Cabinet members she identified as being “close” to Epstein or having a relationship with him during a two-day interview in July. “Blanche refused to ask who they were and just ignored her comment,” Schiff added. “And this is, again, the kind of incompetence we’re seeing,” he said. “Incompetence is probably the most polite thing I can describe, but it certainly looks like a cover-up.” The Justice Department and FBI have struggled to quell the mounting public pressure on them to release more information related to the Epstein investigation, underscoring the story’s sticking power in a fast-moving news cycle and among Trump supporters, who have been some of the leading voices in demanding the information be released.
Gun seller tells Ryan Routh: ‘I heard of you threatening people’ in tense courtroom exchange
Jurors in the federal trial of Ryan Routh — accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club in 2024 — heard pivotal testimony Wednesday from the man prosecutors say sold Routh the semiautomatic rifle tied to the case. Ronnie Jay Oxendine, a North Carolina roofing contractor recently convicted on a firearm charge, told jurors, “I have to come to this court and tell the truth” as part of his plea deal. Shown the weapon, Oxendine said, “That used to be my rifle.” Oxendine testified that in August 2024, intermediary Tina Cooper arranged a sale in the fenced parking lot of his office. FBI PHONE EXTRACTIONS, DNA TESTIMONY HEADLINE DAY 7 OF RYAN ROUTH TRIAL “Ryan gave me $350 for the rifle and gave Tina $100,” he said. He added Routh worked the bolt, asked for ammunition and said he wanted the gun because his son “was being intimidated by his roommates.” Oxendine said Routh told him he “would remove the serial number… so it wouldn’t come back.” He also told prosecutors he had roughly 300 firearms, denied ever removing a serial number himself, and admitted the FBI later charged him with possession of a sawed-off shotgun. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. During cross-examination, Routh began by telling Oxendine, “Great to see you again… I know you’re extremely mad at me,” before asking if the year he has already spent in custody could be applied to Oxendine’s sentence. Judge Aileen Cannon struck the comment from the record and warned Routh against further outbursts. RYAN ROUTH TRIAL CONTINUES AFTER AGENT TESTIFIES SUSPECT AIMED RIFLE AT HIM ON TRUMP’S GOLF COURSE Routh asked Oxendine about whether he knew him to be violent. “Have you ever known me to hurt anyone?” Routh asked. Oxendine replied, “I know you were loud.” When asked if he knew Routh to be gentle, Oxendine said, “I don’t know you that well. I heard of you threatening people.” The courtroom also heard from FBI Task Force Officer Patrick Lantry about surveillance at a South Bay, Florida truck stop, where investigators found orange earplugs and empty Vienna sausage cans. Routh’s questioning took a turn when he addressed the empty Vienna sausage cans on the ground around the truck stop. He said there were bugs and ants crawling around and then asked if it was possible food was left out to feed them. Lantry replied that it was possible, and then Routh said it was a nice gesture but that whoever left the food did not clean up, and that he should have. RYAN ROUTH TRIAL: JURY SELECTION BEGINS IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT CASE AT&T employee Aaron Thompson testified that Routh bought a prepaid line under the name “John White.” When Routh told him, “I don’t know how trustworthy you are,” Cannon struck it from the record. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case on Thursday. The defense has been told to have its witnesses ready on Friday. Routh has indicated he’ll call a firearms expert and character witnesses, but it’s still unclear if he’ll testify on his own behalf. Fox News’ Samantha Daigle contributed to this report.
After backpedaling on threatening rhetoric, Newsom says his political strategy is unchanged
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters Charlie Kirk’s assassination has not changed the way he plans to approach campaigning, even after dropping a threatening name for an upcoming anti-Trump campaign. The rally was originally called the “FAFO50” campaign, a reference to the phrase “F— around and find out,” which is a slang warning meaning “if you keep doing something, you’ll regret it.” “DONALD TRUMP IS F—— AROUND. NOW HE’LL FIND OUT,” the campaign’s marketing materials read before they were changed, according to archived images of the campaign’s website, as well as screenshots from the campaign’s official X account. The website for the campaign, which is aimed at passing an anti-gerrymandering ballot measure called Proposition 50, was ultimately changed from “FAFO50.com” to “YesOn50Live.com.” “FAFO” messaging on the campaign’s website and social media account was also removed, and a related event was subsequently referred to as a “Voter Registration Day Rally” on the campaign’s social media. LAWMAKERS SHARE VIEWS ON POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN US FOLLOWING CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION During an event promoting a new initiative to improve the well-being of young men and boys on Tuesday, Newsom was asked whether the rebrand was part of a changing calculus for the governor on how he intends to approach campaigning going forward. “No,” Newsom insisted. “Because I’m the same guy that walked on the tarmac with Donald Trump. I’m the same guy that would pick up his phone call. I’m the same person that sat down not just with Charlie Kirk, but with Steve Bannon, with the guy who created this space, you know, ‘Language, Borders and Culture,’ Michael Savage, back in the ’90s, you know, was the dominant voice on talk radio. The person that sat down with Newt Gingrich, who was one of the leaders of my recall. I’m that same person.” Newsom’s response followed a different question about the California governor’s new initiative supporting young men and boys. The governor was asked whether Kirk’s death played any role, or inspired the governor, in shaping the newly announced initiative, which builds on efforts Newsom initiated through a statewide executive order he signed earlier this summer. “I appreciate the question. I mean, I believe in civility. I believe in an open hand, not a closed fist,” Newsom responded. “I just think, at the end of the day — I said it inside a moment ago — divorce is not an option, period. Full stop. We’ve got to live together, across our differences, and there are a lot of differences in this state, this nation, for that matter, the world we’re trying to build.” The nature of political discourse in the United States has become a major point of debate following Kirk’s assassination that occurred last week. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called on others to “turn down the heat” in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. NEWSOM WARNS AMERICANS ‘YOU WILL LOSE YOUR COUNTRY’ UNDER TRUMP AT CALIFORNIA SUMMIT The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put out a call for “the media, leftist groups, and sanctuary politicians” on Wednesday to tone down the “hateful rhetoric” targeting immigration enforcement officers, arguing it has contributed to “political violence in our country and a more than 1000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE law enforcement.” “This demonization is inspiring violence across the country,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin warned. “We have to turn down the temperature before someone else is killed.” One example cited by DHS were comments by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a member of the cohort of progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill known as “the squad.” During an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, Crockett likened ICE officers to slave catchers. “As someone who understands history, when I see ICE, I see slave patrols,” Crockett said. Meanwhile, rhetoric from Newsom’s “Voter Registration Day Rally” similarly likened Republican-led redistricting efforts to “pre-Jim Crow” era policies. “It’s about knowing that you can walk outside your home and not be detained and deported, not be lynched, because of the color of your skin,” California state legislator, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, said during the Tuesday night virtual rally promoting her state’s Proposition 50. “[Republicans] are doing every single thing that they can to take us back to pre-Jim Crow. And I am not being hyperbolic.” Fox News Digital did not receive a response after reaching out to Newsom’s office and campaign team to see if the governor, or any of his representatives, wanted to comment further about the decision to rebrand Tuesday night’s event promoting Proposition 50 and the broader issue of inflammatory political rhetoric following Kirk’s assassination.
Manchin recalls close ties with ‘outsider’ Trump, cold shoulder from Obama in new book
Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., said he spoke more with President Donald Trump in the first two years of Trump’s term than with former President Barack Obama during Obama’s eight years in office. In his new book, “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,” released this week, Manchin outlined a cordial working relationship with Trump and a far chillier, less active back and forth with Obama. Manchin, who switched from the Democratic Party to become an Independent before retiring from the Senate last year, wrote that he considered Trump a fellow “outsider” when he arrived in Washington, D.C., for his first term and lauded him as the “most engaged president I ever worked with” since former President Bill Clinton. MANCHIN SAYS HE WANTED GOP TO WIN SENATE TO STOP DEMOCRATS’ QUEST FOR ‘RAW POLITICAL POWER’ “From the start, President Trump had an open line of communication with me,” he wrote. “I spoke to him more in the first two years of his presidency than I did to President Obama during all eight years of his time in office.” He noted, “If you want to have influence with Donald Trump, you have to be the last person he talks to about a topic,” and said he would jokingly ask that the president ensure he was the last person he called. “He’d laugh, and we’d talk it out,” he said. He recalled his 2018 election campaign in the wake of Trump’s dominant, 40-point win in the state. Trump told Manchin that he was being pressured to campaign against him and promised he wouldn’t. Ultimately, Trump visited the state five times, but Manchin still came out on top. JOE MANCHIN TELLS ‘THE VIEW’ WHY HE COULDN’T ENDORSE KAMALA HARRIS He was later invited to the Oval Office to meet with Trump, where, in front of then-Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump, the president “blurted to his other guests, ‘I told you we couldn’t beat him,’” Manchin wrote. Manchin’s relationship with the former president goes back to his time as governor of West Virginia, when Obama was still a senator. The two worked together on a coal deal in Illinois that had previously excluded West Virginia. During the 2008 election cycle, he said he invited both then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama to come to West Virginia to campaign, but said Obama shook off the invitation and told him, “Let’s be honest with each other — my demographics don’t work well in your state.” NEW BOOK REVEALS WHAT OBAMA AND ‘CONQUEROR’ TRUMP CHATTED ABOUT IN VIRAL MOMENT DURING CARTER’S FUNERAL “But he didn’t come, and that night belonged to Hillary,” he wrote. “She made the most of her visit and won the primary by 41 points.” He said their relationship became even chillier when Obama launched his “war on coal” with a push for green initiatives that targeted fossil fuels and states like West Virginia. Manchin argued that the Democratic Party had grown dismissive and lost touch with the working class as a means to reshape their agenda through a progressive lens. That led to a seismic shift in West Virginia’s political alignment, from Democratic to now largely Republican, he said. And in the process that began when Obama won in 2008, he said that rural states like his felt “overlooked and undervalued.” “But that’s exactly how Democrats handled West Virginia, and no one embodied that disconnect more than President Obama,” he wrote. Fox News Digital reached out to Obama’s office and the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Why Ben & Jerry’s co-founder quit over Gaza
NewsFeed Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, has resigned after nearly fifty years, accusing parent company Unilever of silencing its stance on Israel’s war on Gaza. The decision follows years of tension, including a 2021 move to halt sales in the occupied West Bank. Published On 17 Sep 202517 Sep 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
EU proposes suspending trade concessions with Israel over Gaza
NewsFeed The European Commission has presented a measure to suspend its trade concessions on Israeli exports worth nearly $6.87 billion because of Israel’s war on Gaza. The proposal does not have enough support among the EU’s 27 nations to pass. Published On 17 Sep 202517 Sep 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Lebanon’s terrible year: From exploding pagers to Israeli occupation
On September 17, 2024, a series of small explosions echoed along many of Lebanon’s streets. The incident, which sparked confusion and terror throughout the country, came to be known as the pager attack – and was a definitive day in Israel’s war on Lebanon. The attack wounded many operatives with connections to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria but also hurt and killed civilians, including two children. What followed in the days, weeks and months after was a whirlwind of intensifying violence, political assassinations and mass displacement in Lebanon as Israel expanded a relatively controlled war with the Iran-backed, armed political group Hezbollah into an all-out assault on southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley in the east and Beirut. One year on, the political reality on the ground has been flipped on its head. Hezbollah, which was first formed in 1982 to resist Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, is no longer the military and political force it had been in recent years. Now, a battle is under way to disarm the group altogether. In its bid to achieve this, Israel has unleashed its military might on southern Lebanon and continues to occupy at least five points in the area, bringing back the trauma of its occupation from 1982 to 2000. Tens of thousands of people are still unable to return to their villages as a result. On the first anniversary of the pager attack, this is a timeline of events in Lebanon’s difficult year under Israeli aggression and occupation: In the months leading up to the attack, Israeli intelligence was able to place devices implanted with small explosives into Hezbollah’s pager supply chains. Advertisement When thousands of these pagers were detonated by Israeli operatives, more than 3,000 people were wounded – many lost body parts, eyes and hands mostly – and at least 12 people were killed. “Every five to 10 seconds, I heard another [explosion],” 40-year-old Ali who was in Beirut’s southern suburbs when the attack took place told Al Jazeera the following day as he sat outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center. People attend the funeral of Fatima Abdullah, a girl who died in a pager explosion, in Saraain El Faouqa, a village in the Baalbek district of Lebanon on September 18, 2024 [Suleiman Amhaz/Anadolu via Getty Images] September 18: Exploding walkie-talkies The day after the pager attack, walkie-talkies with explosives embedded in them were detonated, striking further fear into the Lebanese public. Twenty people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the attack that ostensibly targeted Hezbollah members but also counted civilians among the casualties. Legal experts told Al Jazeera that the Israeli attacks violated international law. “We seem to be living in a Netflix series or in a dystopia,” Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar said at the time. In the following days, Israeli jets began flying low over Beirut, causing frequent sonic booms. September 23: Deadliest day since Lebanese Civil War Hezbollah and Israeli forces had been exchanging near-daily fire across the Lebanese border since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023. Until the week of September 23, these exchanges had been relatively controlled and followed certain rules of engagement. Hezbollah mostly attacked military targets while Israel predominantly executed targeted strikes on Hezbollah operatives although civilians, including journalists, had been killed. Israel also targeted villages and towns in southern Lebanon with white phosphorus with the aim of creating a buffer zone between northern Israel and southern Lebanon that would be uninhabitable for local residents. But on this day, the rules of engagement appeared to be set aside as Israel killed upwards of 500 people in Lebanon, marking the country’s deadliest single day since its 1975-1990 civil war, in the first of a series of air strikes. Israel’s widespread bombing campaign continued on for more than two months, killing more than 3,000 people and displacing nearly a million, including thousands of foreign nationals and labourers. September 27: Nasrallah assassinated, orders to evacuate On the evening of September 27, residents of Beirut heard a ground-shaking explosion. Advertisement After initial confusion about where the explosion had occurred, the following day about noon, the news was announced: Israel had assassinated longtime Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah by dropping about 80 bunker-busting bombs in an attack on Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing at least 33 people. Hours after the Nasrallah assassination but before the news had been confirmed, Israel issued displacement notices to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Those with nowhere else to go fled to the city’s seafront as the first of two months of daily attacks and evacuation orders from Israel’s Arabic-language spokesperson began. As those displacements became more frequent, human rights groups noted that Israel’s demands that Lebanese civilians leave those areas were violations of international law and Israel’s military was not upholding its responsibility under international law to avoid harming civilians. September 30: First Israeli attack on Beirut Israel killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in central Beirut’s Kola district in an air strike that took out an entire floor of an apartment building but left the rest of the building standing. October 3: Safieddine assassination Less than a week after Nasrallah was killed, so too was the man set to be his successor: Hashem Safieddine. His death would not be confirmed for several days because any attempt to approach the scene of the air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut was blocked by Israeli forces. October 7: Firefighters killed by Israel When Israel killed 10 firefighters in a strike on the southern Lebanese town of Baraachit near Bint Jbeil, a pattern started to emerge: direct Israeli targeting of first responders in emergency situations. Late October: ‘Urbicide’ As Israel’s daily attacks on civilian infrastructure continued, observers began to describe its actions as “urbicide” – the destruction of a city, or “city killing”. “It’s this huge obliteration of the place and the people and its memories,” Mona Harb, professor of urban studies and politics at
Who is Gourangalal Das? India’s new envoy to South Korea who played key role in India-China negotiations
Senior diplomat Gourangalal Das has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Wednesday. “He is expected to take up his new assignment in Seoul shortly,” the MEA said in a statement. The Indian Embassy in South Korea also announced on X.”Gourangalal Das appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea”, said the Embassy. At present, Amit Kumar is serving as India’s Ambassador to South Korea.
Maharashtra strike: Medical services across state to be affected on THIS date, check details
The strike comes in the wake of the Maharashtra government’s decision to allow homeopaths with CCMP (Certificate Course in Modern Medicine and Surgery) qualification to register with the state medical council. Read on for more details on this.