India’s Got Latent row: As SC prepares to hear Ranveer Allahbadia’s plea, police says YouTuber has ‘not yet been in contact with them’
The Cyber Cell is investigating the case registered against Ranveer Allahbadia and others after he triggered an uproar with his offensive remarks on the show India’s Got Latent. Comedian Samay Raina has also been asked to appear before the cyber cell on February 18.
India’s Got Latent row: SC grants interim relief from arrest to Ranveer Allahbadia
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh took up the matter after Ranveer Allahbadia’s lawyer Abhinav Chandrachud, on Friday, had mentioned it for urgent listing.
European leaders warn against Ukraine ceasefire without Russian peace deal
European leaders have said they are ready to give Ukraine security guarantees and warned that it would be dangerous for Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire without a negotiated peace agreement in place with Moscow, officials said. The offer of a European security commitment to Ukraine was made at a meeting in Paris on Monday, called by French President Emmanuel Macron after United States President Donald Trump excluded European allies and Kyiv’s leadership from negotiations, due to take place in Saudi Arabia, with Russia on a deal to end the war in Ukraine. “Ready and willing. That’s my take from today’s meeting in Paris. Europe is ready and willing to step up. To lead in providing security guarantees for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in a post on social media after the emergency meeting. “The details will need to be decided but the commitment is clear,” Rutte said. A European Union official said after the meeting that the leaders were “ready to provide security guarantees, with modalities to be examined with each party, depending on the level of American support”. Advertisement “We agree with President Trump on a ‘peace through strength’ approach,” the official said, summarising the result of the meeting. “We believe it is dangerous to conclude a ceasefire without a peace agreement at the same time,” the official also said. The three hours of emergency talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris followed US statements on Ukraine last week that threw a once-solid transatlantic alliance into turmoil. They also followed a call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin amid fears that Washington is ready to abandon Ukraine and embrace the Kremlin, while also giving the cold shoulder to the US’s traditional European allies. I just had a long conversation with President of France @EmmanuelMacron following his meeting today with other European leaders to discuss the global situation, the state of affairs in Europe, and security guarantees for Ukraine. We share a common vision: security guarantees… — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 17, 2025 Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Monday that he had spoken with Macron about security guarantees for his country, adding that a weak ceasefire with Russia would only serve as a ”prelude” to more Russian aggression against his or other countries in Europe. “We share a common vision: security guarantees must be robust and reliable,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Any other decision without such guarantees – such as a fragile ceasefire – would only serve as another deception by Russia and a prelude to a new Russian war against Ukraine or other European nations,” he said. Advertisement Melinda Haring, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told Al Jazeera that Europe was “caught off guard” by Washington’s overtures towards Russia. “It is very strange that the aggressor is meeting with the United States without Ukraine. The longstanding policy of the United States has been, ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’,” Haring said. “So it’s definitely a change in policy. But it could also be – the most charitable interpretation is – that the United States is trying to see if Russia is finally serious [about peace],” she said. ‘We came to negotiate with American colleagues’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Saudi Arabia with the US National Security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for talks on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, according to reports. Ushakov said on Monday, upon arrival in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, that talks on Ukraine would be strictly bilateral, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported. “We came to negotiate with American colleagues,” RIA cited Ushakov as saying. “These are bilateral talks, purely bilateral. There can be no trilateral talks in Riyadh.” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro, reporting from Washington, DC said the Trump administration’s communication with Moscow and talks on a peace agreement mark a reversal of the previous US President Joe Biden’s administration’s approach to Ukraine. “With Biden, we heard so much affirmation about Ukraine’s standpoint in the war, and it’s only been the opposite since Trump took office,” Zhou-Castro said. Advertisement “Coming from [Trump’s] administration, from his secretary of defence, we’ve heard the US side really on Russia’s negotiating positions, saying that the US finds it now to be unrealistic for Ukraine to reclaim all of its lost territory to Russia, and no longer endorsing a NATO membership for Ukraine,” she said. “Both very bitter pills to swallow for Ukraine, which is saying that it won’t swallow them at all,” she added. “The US side has not telegraphed any expectations for tomorrow but the Russian Foreign Ministry has said that this would pave the way towards a meeting in person between Trump and Putin somewhere down the road.” United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the meeting alongside Macron in Paris. Also at the meeting were Dutch Premier Dick Schoof, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, NATO’s Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Serious concerns’ as new video emerges of Australian captured by Russia
The previously unseen footage of POW Oscar Jenkins shows him appearing emaciated, weak and complaining of a broken arm. The Australian government has said it has “serious concerns” about an Australian citizen captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine after new footage emerged of him looking emaciated and complaining of a broken arm. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday that he had seen the video posted on YouTube of Oscar Jenkins. Albanese said that while the footage “appears to confirm” Jenkins is alive, the government holds “serious concerns for Mr Jenkins’s welfare”. “We’ve made it clear to Russia that Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war and that there are obligations that kick in accordance with international humanitarian law, and they must be observed,” he said. “We have called for Russia to release Mr Jenkins, so that he can come home to his family,” Albanese added. Jenkins, a 32-year-old schoolteacher from Melbourne, was captured by Russian forces when fighting with the Ukrainian military. It is unclear when he left Australia for Ukraine. In the footage, uploaded on February 8, Jenkins is dressed in cold weather camouflage clothing with a green wool hat. He looks uncomfortable, as a man behind the camera, speaking in English, says the date is January 17, 2025. Advertisement The unidentified man explains that earlier reports about Jenkins’s death were “not right”, before Jenkins tells the camera he “would like more freedom” and that he feels “a bit weak”. “I have lost a lot of weight. I have a broken arm still, I think, and my hand is not good,” he said. The date and authenticity of the footage could not be independently verified. In December, video footage first emerged of Jenkins on pro-Kremlin social media accounts being questioned and slapped in the face by a man speaking Russian. The man, claiming to be Jenkins, responded in both English and Ukrainian, saying he was a biology teacher who lived in Australia and Ukraine. Australian media, citing unnamed sources, then reported in January that Russian forces had killed Jenkins. Responding to those reports last month, Albanese said it would be “absolutely reprehensible” if it was confirmed that Russian forces had done so, and pledged to take the “strongest possible action”. Moscow then confirmed that Jenkins was still alive and being held as a prisoner of war, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong announced in late January. The Russian government has provided no details on where Jenkins is being held or the conditions of his imprisonment. Relations between Canberra and Moscow have been tense ever since a Russian missile downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, resulting in the deaths of 298 people on board, including 38 Australians. Australia has also condemned Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “illegal and immoral”. Advertisement In the years since, Canberra has contributed more than 1.5 billion Australian dollars (about $950m) towards “important defence, economic, energy and humanitarian assistance” in Ukraine to support the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. Adblock test (Why?)
US man who shot Israeli visitors thought they were Palestinians, police say
Mordechai Brafman, 27, charged with two counts of attempted murder over shooting at Miami Beach in Florida. A man charged with attempted murder over the shooting of two Israeli visitors in Florida, the United States, believed the victims were Palestinians, police have said. Mordechai Brafman, 27, was on Sunday charged with two counts of attempted murder and booked after the shooting at Miami Beach the previous night, according to the website of Miami-Dade County Corrections. In an arrest report, police alleged that Brafman had “spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both”. Both victims, identified in local media as a Jewish father and son visiting Miami from Israel, survived. One of the men suffered an injury to his shoulder, and the other was wounded in his forearm, according to local news reports. In an interview with WPLG Local 10, one of the victims, identified as Ari Revay, said the shooter had opened fire at him and his father from a passing truck. “‘Boom, boom, boom’ and he randomly started shooting,” Revay was quoted as saying in an interview that was reportedly translated from Hebrew by his cousin. Advertisement “He put the window down, driver’s seat and just blasted,” Revay was quoted as saying. The shooting comes amid warnings by advocacy groups that incidents of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate have surged since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. “This is just the latest example of the hate targeting the Palestinian-American community in this country and Palestinians in their homeland,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement on Monday. “Policymakers in our nation should stop fomenting the anti-Palestinian hate that led to the genocide in Gaza and to hate crimes in America.” Adblock test (Why?)
Noem sends message to those considering entering US illegally: ‘Don’t even think about it’
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem sent a stern warning on behalf of President Donald Trump, to those planning on entering the U.S. illegally, saying, “Don’t even think about it.” Noem announced Monday that she is launching a major multi-million-dollar ad campaign targeting illegal immigrants. “Tonight, I’m announcing a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US,” the DHS secretary said in a post on X. “This serves as a strong warning to criminal illegal aliens to not come to America. If they do, they will be hunted down and deported.” Noem also shared a video of her delivering a message to illegal aliens thinking about coming to the U.S. illegally. “Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world. If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” she said. “Let me be clear. If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States. For too long, weak leadership has left our borders wide open, flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals. Well, those days are over. DHS SECRETARY NOEM APPEARS TO ACCUSE ‘CORRUPT’ FBI OF LEAKINGLA ICE RAIDS “Under President Trump, we are defending American families and restoring their safety. If you try to enter illegally, you will be caught, you will be removed and you will never return,” Noem added. “Follow the law and you’ll find opportunity. If you break it, you’ll find consequences. Strong borders mean a stronger America. President Trump is making America safe again.” Noem was the fourth member of the Trump administration to gain approval from the Senate, and she has taken the role to lead the department at a time when securing the border and tackling illegal immigration are top priorities for the new administration. The administration has taken a number of actions to secure the border, including deploying the military, restarting wall construction and ending Biden-era parole programs. LARGEST LAPD UNION SLAMS ANTI-TRUMP PROTEST DIRECTIVES, SAYS ARRESTS ‘SHOULD BE A NO-BRAINER’ IN ALTERCATIONS Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been launching deportation operations throughout the country to fulfill Trump’s promise of a “historic” operation. At her confirmation hearing, Noem pointed to other parts of the DHS mission, including cybersecurity, disaster relief and counterterrorism. However, she emphasized that border security is a “top priority.” BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SENDS MESSAGE TO FAR-LEFT OFFICIALS PUSHING BACK AGAINST MASS DEPORTATIONS: ‘GAME ON’ As governor, she pledged in 2021 not to take any more migrants from the Biden administration and also deployed the National Guard to the border in Texas. She also had experience with disaster response, working with federal officials to tackle floods that hit the state in June. At her hearing, Noem was also asked about how she would work with border czar Tom Homan, who has been tapped to lead the deportation effort and secure the border. Noem responded by saying that she and Homan “work very well together and talk and communicate all the time. And we’ll be working together on a daily basis when we’re in our positions under the new administration. And I would say there’s no authority being planned to be taken away from the department or myself if I’m in the role.” Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Department of Education cancels another $350M in ‘woke’ spending for contracts, grants
The Department of Education last week said it canceled nearly $350 million in “woke” spending, purportedly addressing the most pressing problems of education policy and practice. The agency canceled 10 contracts with Regional Educational Laboratories (REL), totaling $336 million, after a review of the contracts uncovered “wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers,” a news release states. It’s not clear if the cuts were related to the Department of Government Efficiency slashing the Education Department’s activities related to DEI. DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’ RELs have been around for nearly 60 years, according to the Institute of Education Sciences, which administers the 10 RELs across the country, which are divided by region. The programs “contribute to the growing body of research on how experiences within the nation’s education system differ by context and student group, thereby impacting outcomes and identifying potential solutions,” the IES website states. However, a review found instances where DEI initiatives were being funded, the Department of Education said. “For example, the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest has been advising schools in Ohio to undertake ‘equity audits’ and ‘equity conversations,’” the agency said. “The Department plans to enter into new contracts that will satisfy the statutory requirements, improve student learning, and better serve school districts, State Departments of Education, and other education stakeholders.” DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WARNS THAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST REMOVE DEI POLICIES OR LOSE FEDERAL FUNDING Also terminated were $33 million in grant funds to four Equity Assistance Centers, which supported training in DEI, critical race theory and gender identity for state and local education agencies as well as school boards, the Education Department said. On Monday, the department announced the termination of more than $600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on allegedly divisive ideologies. “Training materials included inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); social justice activism; ‘anti-racism,’ and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy,” a news release states. “Additionally, many of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.” President Donald Trump has said he wants to abolish the Department of Education, calling it a “con job” that has failed to properly educate American students. “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job,” he said last week. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil.” “So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40,” he added.
Acting head of Social Security quits after clash with DOGE over data: Report
The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) quit her job over the weekend after butting heads with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), over efforts to access certain sensitive government records, according to reports. The Washington Post reported that three people familiar with Michelle King’s departure said on Monday that she stepped down from her position after the disagreement. In response to King’s departure, President Donald Trump reportedly appointed Leland Dudek to lead the agency as the president’s nominee to serve as commissioner of the SSA, Frank Bisignano, is vetted by federal lawmakers. Principal Deputy Press Secretary at the White House, Harrison Fields, said they expect Bisignano to be “swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks.” ELON MUSK SAYS MILLIONS IN SOCIAL SECURITY DATABASE ARE BETWEEN AGES OF 100 AND 159 “In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner,” Fields said without naming the replacement. “President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.” The three individuals who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, reportedly told the publication that Dudek posted positive remarks about DOGE’s efforts to seek out fraud and cut costs across federal agencies. The SSA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter. DEMOCRATS LOVED IDEA OF DOGE BEFORE TRUMP, WHITE HOUSE QUIPS Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Trump. The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission. One of the department’s most recent targets is the SSA, which was created by the Social Security Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and tasked with establishing a federal benefits system for older Americans. As DOGE continues to find fraud and wasteful spending at SSA, Musk turned to X on Monday to say millions of people listed in a Social Security database are recorded as centenarians “with the death field set to FALSE!” TREASURY DEPARTMENT RECOUPS $31 MILLION IN IMPROPER GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS TO DEAD PEOPLE “According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk posted, adding a couple of rolling on the floor laughing emojis. His post features a chart indicating there are more than 20 million listed with ages 100 and higher, including more than 3.9 million in the 130-139 age range, more than 3.5 million in the 140-149 range and more than 1.3 million in the 150-159 range. While the U.S. population count in the 2020 census was more than 331 million, the count of people ages 100 and older was more than 80,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
NYC comptroller asks Mayor Eric Adams to prove he can govern or else he will seek to remove him from office
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (D) on Monday called on Mayor Eric Adams to prove he can still govern the city amid calls for his resignation after the Justice Department dropped bribery charges against him and four deputy mayors submitted their intent to resign. In a letter to Adams, Lander said the potential resignations of the deputy mayors could “create an unprecedented leadership vacuum at the highest levels of City government and wreak havoc on the City’s ability to deliver essential services to New Yorkers.” “Given the gravity of this situation and the chaos it has unleashed among New Yorkers, I formally request that your office promptly develop and present a detailed contingency plan outlining how you intend to manage the City of New York during this period of leadership transition,” he wrote. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AS DEMOCRAT “Specifically, please provide immediate confirmation of your plan for appointing interim Deputy Mayors and key managerial staff, along with an anticipated timeline for stabilizing the administration, no later than Friday, February 21, 2025,” Lander added. If Adams fails to provide a plan, Lander said he would seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee. Fox News Digital has reached out to Adams’ office. In a letter last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said Adams was being granted special treatment by the Trump administration after receiving a memo drafted by Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directing the case against the mayor to be dropped. Rather than carry out the directive, Sassoon and several others resigned instead. Adams was charged last year with bribery, soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS PROMISES TO REOPEN ICE OFFICE ON RIKERS ISLAND AFTER MEETING WITH TRUMP BORDER CZAR Critics say Adams has cozied up to the Trump administration, and offered to cooperate on Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown in an effort to get a pardon. “These resignations come in the wake of deeply concerning actions by the U.S. Justice Department, asking the U.S. District Court to drop the indictments against you, so long as you comply with the White House on matters of immigration and criminal justice policy, which call into question your ability to continue to comply with your duties to New Yorkers under the City Charter,” Lander wrote in his letter. On Sunday, Adams told churchgoers in Queens that he is refusing to resign. “I have a mission to finish, the mission that God put me on many years ago,” Adams said, adding that “God has fortified me.” Adams told “Fox & Friends” in an interview on Friday that he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat.
DOGE says it found nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7T in payments
The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments which was oftentimes left blank. “The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),” DOGE wrote in a post on X. “In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.” The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for their work in identifying the optional field. WHAT HAS DOGE CUT SO FAR? According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and is also referred to as the “account.” All financial transactions made by the federal government are classified by TAS when reporting to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The discovery was announced on the same day DOGE appeared to have populated the DOGE.gov Savings page, which, as of Monday evening, said the total estimated savings since the establishment of the department total about $55 billion. DOGE PUTS DEI ON CHOPPING BLOCK WITH TERMINATION OF OVER $370M IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRANTS The savings are a combination of “fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.” “We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,” DOGE wrote on the site, adding that the data will be updated twice per week until eventually becoming real-time. Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Donald Trump. DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’ The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission. The group has faced criticism over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies. Attorneys general from 14 states are suing to block DOGE from accessing federal data, arguing Musk and Trump’s administration have engaged in illegal executive overreach. The newly formed cost-cutting agency scored a win on Friday when a federal judge in Washington declined a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaugh and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.