Breaking
Supperious.com
Author

admin

Browsing
World News

This Nigerian company wants to be the Airbnb of car rentals

Money is often tight for university students, but for Chinazom Arinze, a limited income was an opportunity that sparked a business venture.

While studying law at Babcock University, in Nigeria, and working part-time at a car dealership, she set up a side hustle, informally launching AutoGirl in 2019. Initially also a car dealership, it evolved into a platform that connects people looking to rent out their vehicles with people who want to hire them.

“I think I was about 19 or 20 at the time,” Arinze recalls. “I was just doing it because it was fun, and it did bring some money, but then it grew a lot larger than I expected. I started getting consistent customers.

“I started my business with zero money; the only thing that I had leverage upon was connections. I used my network from the car dealership I worked in, and social media.”

How African startups are embracing innovation

Arinze says she knew car owners who wanted to monetize their vehicles and knew she could match them with people looking for short-term hires, especially tourists. While there are established car rental companies in Nigeria, such as Hertz and Budget, Autogirl’s vehicles come with drivers, and Arinze says her company offers a greater range of cars and “competitive prices.”

One of the cheapest rentals on Autogirl’s website at the time of writing was a Hyundai, priced at 45,000 naira ($27) per day, and one of the most luxurious was a 2018 Lexus, costing approximately 2.85 million Naira ($1,722) per day. The company lists the average income for its vehicle owners as 7 million naira ($4,230) per car.

As her side hustle grew into a thriving business, Arinze realized she couldn’t do things alone.

“For a good few years, it was just me. I was the secretary, I was the social media manager, I was everything … I was working around the clock,” says Arinze, now aged 26. “The only time I wasn’t working was when I was sleeping and even then, if a customer had an issue at night, I was the only person, so I’d be the one they would call and I’d have to resolve it.

“I had to start bringing people on. I brought (on) a social media manager, an admin manager, finance people and an operations team that works 24/7.”

Now, with more than 3,000 customers, and more than 12,000 rides under its belt, Autogirl also offers boat and even private jet rentals through its website. This June, the company expanded into Ghana and plans to launch in Benin later this year.

Empowering women

Arinze concedes that it hasn’t always been easy for her to work in a male-dominated industry. She says she took classes in auto mechanics and produced social media reviews of cars to demonstrate that she knew what she was doing: “I showed them I had knowledge and then people would say, ‘Oh, she’s not a clueless young girl.’”

To encourage other women to follow her path, Arinze recently launched the Autogirl Women Empowerment Programme, which offers free classes in driving, mechanics and affiliate marketing, and hopes to also provide internship opportunities. Arinze says they plan to train 60 women before the end of November.

Ultimately, she sees Autogirl expanding elsewhere in Africa, and eventually beyond. ‘‘We want to be the Airbnb of vehicle rentals in Africa and ultimately the world,” Arinze says.

“The way people thought that Airbnb did not have a chance because there are hotels all over the world is how people think about us and traditional car rentals — but people pay for more flexibility and variety and that’s what we offer.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Keep Reading
By
World News

Hezbollah is not Hamas. Can Israel afford another all-out war?

After nearly a year of fighting in Gaza, Israel is ramping up hostilities with Hezbollah in Lebanon, with covert operations targeting communications devices and a ferocious bombing campaign that has left hundreds dead.

The fight against Hamas has strained the Israeli military, with soldiers receiving little respite, officials citing army shortages, the economy facing its steepest decline in years, and growing public pressure for a ceasefire and a hostage deal.

It is unclear whether Israel intends – or will feel compelled – to launch a ground invasion into Lebanon. But the question looms: Can the country take on a second front?

Since October 8, the day after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel, there has been regular cross-border fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military. Hezbollah first fired at Israel to protest the war in Gaza, demanding a ceasefire there as a condition to end its attacks.

The stakes were raised last week when Israel injured thousands of people across Lebanon, detonating pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. Escalating exchanges of fire have followed.

Should Israel enter full-scale war with Hezbollah, experts say it will face a much stronger threat than Hamas – and commensurate costs.

Over the weekend, the group launched one of its deepest strikes into Israel, with the Israeli military reporting impacts in Kiryat Bialik, Tsur Shalom and Moreshet near the port city of Haifa, around 40 km (25 miles) south of the border.

The cross-border exchange over the past year has already led to more than 62,000 residents being evacuated from their homes in Israel’s north, and the deaths of 26 Israeli civilians and 22 soldiers and reservists, according to Israeli media. Ahead of the weekend’s escalation, over 94,000 had been displaced and more than 740 killed on the Lebanese side, including some 500 Hezbollah fighters, according to Reuters. Israeli strikes since Monday alone have killed at least another 558 people and led to the displacement of 16,500, according to Lebanese authorities.

Here are some of Israel’s main challenges in a potential wider conflict with Hezbollah:

A stronger enemy

Iran’s closest regional partner, the Shiite Islamist group has not only showcased more sophisticated weaponry over the past year, but it also boasts strategic depth through its allies and partners across the Middle East – including in Iraq and Yemen.

While Israel’s military capabilities have improved since its last war in Lebanon in 2006 – when the Jewish state did not yet have its Iron Dome defense system – so has Hezbollah’s arsenal.

Military analysts estimate Hezbollah to have between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, but earlier this year its leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed it has more than 100,000 fighters and reservists. The group is also believed to possess between 120,000 and 200,000 rockets and missiles.

Its biggest military asset is the long-range ballistic missile, of which it is estimated to have thousands, including 1,500 precision missiles with ranges of 250–300 kilometers (155–186 miles).

During the weekend attack, Hezbollah said it targeted Israel’s Ramat David airbase with Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles, longer-range weapons that are believed to have been used for the first time. The base is some 30 miles from the Lebanese border.

The Israeli military did not respond to queries about whether the base was impacted. Israeli emergency services reported that three people were wounded in the attacks.

⁠Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank in Washington DC who focuses on Iran and its proxies, said that the “warhead weight of these projectiles is reminiscent of the heavy Burkan IRAM (improved rocket assisted munition) first introduced last winter against Israel by Hezbollah, but at considerably longer range.”

Orna Mizrahi, a Hezbollah expert at INSS said that much of Israel’s ability to fight a two-front war rests on US support.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) can fight both fronts for a long time, and we have the capabilities to do it if we have the ammunition from the Americans,” Mizrahi said, adding that if there is a full-scale war, the US will likely intervene to support Israel.

Israel also has a huge intelligence advantage, most notably seen in last week’s audacious attacks on Hezbollah’s communications.

Stretched military

Israel is a small state and its military manpower is not limitless. As it gears up for a possible second war, the IDF is diverting some of its key divisions from Gaza to its northern border.

“When you are fighting more than one front, you cannot invest too much in every front,” Mizrahi said. “So it will be a different way of fighting.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week said that “the center of gravity is moving north,” and that “forces, resources, energy” are now being moved.

Among those units is Israel’s elite 98th Division. Also known as Utzbat HaEsh, this paratrooper division is believed to consist of 10,000 to 20,000 troops, according to Israeli media.

Guzansky said that diverting resources toward Lebanon does not mean the Gaza war is over, but that Netanyahu feels compelled to deal with the northern front amid mounting domestic pressure to facilitate the return of evacuees from the area.

Analysts and army officials cited in Israeli media have also repeatedly said the IDF is suffering from shortages.

At the outset of the war with Hamas, the military recruited about 295,000 reservists in an effort to boost its manpower. But that number is proving insufficient.

The fighting in Gaza and elsewhere has also taken its toll on soldiers, of whom 715 have so far been killed since October 7, including in the north.

“This is the longest (war) of its kind in Israel’s history, longer than the War of Independence in 1948,” Guzansky said, adding that this is Hezbollah and Iran’s goal, “to weaken Israel gradually.”

“To fire rockets every day, on a low scale, and to occupy the IDF, to overstretch the IDF,” he said.

An economy in decline

Israel’s economy has been one of the biggest casualties of the war in Gaza, taking a sharp blow from the early days of the October 7 attack. Thousands of businesses suffered as reservists abandoned their civilian lives to take up arms, and the country’s economy is shrinking at an alarming rate.

“It’s devastating on the Israeli economy, on Israeli society,” Guzansky said, adding that the impacts will live on for years to come.

Of all 38 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Israel showed the sharpest economic slowdown between April and June of this year, the organization said in its quarterly report.

According to OECD data, Israel’s economy shrank by 4.1% in the early months of the war, and continued to contract, albeit at a slower rate, throughout the first and second quarters of 2024.

The contracting economy comes as Israel’s military spending skyrockets. Earlier this year, Amir Yaron, the governor of Israel’s central bank, warned that the war is expected to cost Israel up to 253 billion Israeli shekels ($67 billion) between 2023 and 2025, Israeli media reported. That’s almost 13% of Israel’s GDP, in addition to regular military expenditure, which has stood at an annual 4.5% to 6.5% of GDP, according to World Bank data.

An expansion of the conflict has also impacted Israel’s credit rating, making it more expensive to take on debt, with multiple rating agencies downgrading the country since the war began.

In a statement last month, credit ratings agency Moody’s warned that an all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran could have significant “credit consequences for Israeli debt issuers.”

A legitimacy crisis

A second front, especially one that could be far more damaging to Lebanon than to Israel, could be the final straw for many countries already critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, experts said.

The global sympathy that Israel received in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack has turned into sharp criticism due to Israel’s devastating reaction, as it now faces accusations of war crimes and genocide in international courts, which it strongly denies.

Domestically, while Israelis showed a greater appetite for fighting at the outset of the Gaza war, polls show that domestic support has waned over the last months.

On support for a war with Hezbollah, Israelis appear split on the matter.

A survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute think tank in July found that 42% of Israelis think their country should pursue a diplomatic agreement with Hezbollah, despite the chances of an additional conflict in the future, while 38% think Israel should pursue a military victory against the group, even at the cost of significant damage to civilian areas.

Despite the split in opinion, there is now less support for war with Hezbollah compared to responses in late 2023, the poll said.

Guzansky said that pressure for war is likely more palpable in northern Israel, where “people that don’t have businesses anymore, families (are) broken apart… people (are) being killed.”

Many of these residents, who have lived close to the frontline for nearly a year, believe that “only a full-scale war can change the reality in the north,” he added.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Keep Reading
By
Science

Bird flu may be ‘evolving under the radar’, scientists say

Bird flu could be “evolving under the radar” because of failures to monitor and control the spread of the virus, a leading pandemic scientist has warned.

Dr Thomas Peacock, a specialist in animal-to-human spread of viruses at The Pirbright Institute, said H5N1 could be transmitting undetected in the US because of “months of missing data” that leaves researchers, vets and authorities in the dark.

The strain is currently spreading between US dairy cows after crossing over from wild birds earlier in the year.

Four workers on cattle farms have also become infected and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently reported the first human case with no known contact with animals.

Symptoms have been mild in all the people infected so far.

Dr Peacock said: “What keeps scientists up at night is the possibility of unseen chains of transmission silently spreading through farm worker barracks, swine barns, or developing countries, evolving under the radar because testing criteria are narrow, government authorities are feared, or resources are thin.”

In the US there is only mandatory reporting of the disease in poultry, not mammals. The Department of Agriculture only requires testing on lactating cattle before they are moved across state borders.

H5N1 has also spread in fur farms in Europe and globally in wild marine mammals.

Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Peacock and colleagues at The Pirbright Institute say the prospect of the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu becoming permanently established in Europe and the Americas is a “turning point”.

New control measures are needed, including vaccination, he said. Some vaccines for poultry already exist, but they don’t prevent infection.

And new mRNA jabs may be needed “at scale” if the virus starts spreading in humans.

“The severity of a future H5N1 pandemic remains unclear,” he said.

“Recent human infections with H5N1 (in the United States) have a substantially lower case fatality rate compared to prior H5N1 outbreak in Asia, where half of people with reported infections died.

“The lack of severity in US cases may be due to infection through the eye, rather than through viral pneumonia in the lung.”

The CDC said the current public health risk is low, but it is closely monitoring people exposed to infected animals.

This post appeared first on sky.com

Keep Reading
By
Science

Women dying ‘unnecessarily’ because cardiovascular disease going ‘under-treated’, experts say

Heart conditions are the “number one killer for women”, experts have said, but cases are being “ignored” and more must be done to stop “preventable” deaths.

A group of leading heart specialists have warned the “misconception” that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a “man’s disease”, has contributed to cases among women going “under-recognised and undertreated”.

Writing in the journal Heart, the academics said most heart disease is “preventable” so more should be done to “ensure parity of care for women with CVD”.

Lead author, Professor Vijay Kunadian, said: “Heart disease, in particular coronary artery disease, is the number one killer for women in the UK and worldwide.

“And yet, even to this day, we see that their symptoms are being ignored or (women are) told there is nothing wrong with them, or treated for something else, when all along they might be suffering from a heart problem.”

Professor Kunadian said statistics show women being undertreated, leading to higher death rates following heart attacks.

“We can’t ignore that any more, it is about time that we do something about it,” the professor said, adding that if women received appropriate treatment “their lives could be saved”.

The group of 33 specialists from across the UK wrote in the journal Heart how more than 3.6 million women in the country currently suffer from by ischaemic heart disease (also known as coronary heart disease), which kills one in 14 women.

“The misconception that it is a ‘man’s disease’ underlines that CVD in women has contributed to its under-recognition and undertreatment,” the group, who are affiliated with the British Cardiovascular Society, said.

They pointed to a “discrepancy” between men and women when it comes to diagnosis and treatment – women are less likely to receive certain treatments or diagnostic tests.

And women are “frequently under-referred for treatment which leads to poorer outcomes,” they added.

The group also highlighted that women are “under-represented” in clinical research about cardiovascular disease.

It set out recommendations aimed at “saving many women from losing their lives unnecessarily from preventable conditions in the UK and also worldwide”.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “In the broken NHS we inherited it is clear women’s health has been neglected.

“This government will prioritise women’s health as we reform the NHS and ensure their voices are heard.

“Cardiovascular disease is one of this country’s biggest killers of women and men, which is why this government will deliver up to 130,000 extra health checks at workplaces across the country to catch this and other diseases earlier.”

This post appeared first on sky.com

Keep Reading
By
Politics

Harris calls for eliminating filibuster to pass ‘Roe’ abortion bill into federal law

Vice President Kamala Harris said she backs eliminating the 60-vote filibuster requirement in order to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which would federalize abortion access nationwide, during a Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) interview Tuesday. 

The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights.

‘I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,’ Harris said on the ‘Wisconsin Today’ show. ‘And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.’

The vice president’s remarks were made during her fourth campaign visit to the battleground state and drew attention from West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a strong supporter of the filibuster. Although the former Democrat had indicated earlier this month that he would endorse Harris, he reversed his position due to her comments on Tuesday.

‘Shame on her,’ Manchin said at the Capitol, CNN reported. ‘She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.’

‘That ain’t going to happen,’ Manchin said, regarding backing the VP for president in November.

Harris also said in the WPR interview that, ‘It is well within our reach’ to keep a Democratic Senate majority and ‘take back the House.’

‘I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,’ Harris said.

While Harris first said she would support ending the filibuster to reinstate Roe v. Wade era abortion protection in 2022, she has since made abortion a major issue in her Democratic bid for presidency this election cycle. She also supported ending the filibuster to pass the progressive Green New Deal climate legislation in 2019. 

‘With just two more seats in the Senate, we can codify Roe v. Wade, we can put the protections of Roe in law,’ Harris said in September 2022. ‘With two more seats in the United States Senate, we can pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Two more seats.’

‘You know, our President, Joe Biden, he’s been clear. He’s kinda done with those archaic Senate rules that are standing in the way of those two issues,’ Harris said of the Senate filibuster in 2022. ‘He’s made that clear and has said that he will not allow that to obstruct those two issues. And, you know, for me, as vice president, I’m also president of the Senate.… I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights. I cannot wait! Fifty-nine days.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By
Politics

Johnson to sidestep GOP rebels on government funding, seek Dem support to avoid shutdown

House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

‘We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible.’

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a ‘rule vote,’ before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

However, rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely do not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it is an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

However, a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

Johnson also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year ‘omnibus’ spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

‘Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing,’ Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad.’

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

‘I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that,’ Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

‘Speaker Johnson’s on the spot,’ Burchett told reporters. ‘He has to do what he has to do.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By
Politics

White House Cabinet officials rally around Biden despite backlash over his wife taking control of meeting

Biden Cabinet members praised the president for his ‘exceptionally effective’ leadership and believe he is still fit for office after he handed over the reins of a Cabinet meeting to his wife, Jill Biden, just days ago.

Among the 10 Cabinet officials who sent Fox News Digital statements, there was a general agreement of confidence in Biden’s leadership and his ability to continue serving out his term as president.

‘President Biden continues to be an exceptionally effective president, and his focus on delivering results—like record job creation, major infrastructure development, and increased domestic manufacturing—is something he demonstrates every time we interact,’ Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg told Fox News Digital. 

Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, went a step further and called Biden ‘one of the most accomplished presidents in American history and continues to effectively lead our country with a steady hand.’

‘As someone who is actually in the room when the President meets with the cabinet and foreign leaders, I can tell you he is an incisive and extraordinary leader,’ Raimondo said.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra – one of Biden’s staunch defenders – said Biden ‘has done more as president for this country than any other president whom I have worked with since 1992.’

‘So yes, not only can he do the job, but he has been doing it,’ he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘And we are fortunate to have someone who continues to use all of his experience to take us further. If you recall where we were four years ago, the depth of a pandemic, Americans losing their jobs, Americans losing their health care. Today, more Americans are employed than ever before. Today, more Americans have health coverage than ever before. No President in the history of this country has ever placed 700 million vaccines in the arms of Americans to keep them alive and keep them healthy. The result? Our economy is healthy.’

‘Is he fit? He’s proving it,’ Becerra added. 

Biden’s apparent declining mental acuity first made headlines during the summer before his poor debate performance against former President Trump. Less than a month after the June debate, Biden faced pressure from his Democratic base to drop out of the race and allow VP Kamala Harris to run as the party’s candidate. 

‘Throughout President Biden’s term, Americans have benefited from his leadership and experience. He led a productive Cabinet meeting on Friday and clearly laid out his expectations for the months ahead,’ Acting secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Adrianne Todman told Fox News Digital.

‘President Biden charged us with not only continuing to get the historic levels of funding he secured out the door, but ensuring that those funds are being put to work to help the American people. I look forward to continuing to work with the President, and the entire Administration, to expand affordable housing for all,’ she said. 

Biden convened his Cabinet on Friday for the first time since Oct. 2, 2023 – this time with the first lady joining him to speak about the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. 

The president explained Jill Biden’s presence there, saying, ‘Here and across previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. This is the first time Jill has joined us, and it goes to show how important the issue is, which she is about to speak to.’ 

The New York Post reported that Jill Biden, seated at the head of the Cabinet Room’s board table, ‘read from a binder about maternal health initiatives for four-and-a-half minutes after her husband spoke for just two minutes off the top of the meeting.’ 

The president traditionally sits at the center of the table with Cabinet members seated in order of the founding of their departments. The last sitting first lady to attend her husband’s Cabinet meeting appears to be Hillary Clinton.

The amount of influence the first lady has over Joe Biden, and therefore his administration, has been a frequent source of controversy, and numerous commentators took to social media to criticize her presence at the meeting.

The New York Post said that Jill Biden is ‘considered by insiders to be the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who tightly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Alexander Hall and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By
Politics

Blinken may be held in contempt after House GOP advances measure

Secretary of State Antony Blinken could be held in contempt of Congress after a key House committee advanced the penal measure on Tuesday.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced a contempt resolution against the top Biden administration Cabinet secretary, setting it up for a House-wide vote after Congress returns from a six-week recess. A secretary of state has never in history been held in contempt.

‘We have a duty of oversight, and no one’s above the law,’ McCaul told Fox News Digital Tuesday morning.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital, ‘I’m sure we will,’ when asked if there would be a House-wide vote on holding Blinken in contempt when Congress returns in November.

If the House votes to hold Blinken in contempt, he would be automatically referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.

 

The House GOP majority has already held another Biden official in contempt – Attorney General Merrick Garland. The DOJ declined to prosecute, however. 

House Republicans also voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though it was quickly dismissed by the Senate.

McCaul has accused Blinken of stonewalling his committee’s probe into President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Blinken was absent from the hearing portion due to a full schedule at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, however.

In a letter sent to McCaul over the weekend, Blinken urged McCaul to withdraw his subpoena and efforts to hold him in contempt, saying he was ‘disappointed’ with the Texas Republican.

‘As I have made clear, I am willing to testify and have offered several reasonable alternatives to the dates unilaterally demanded by the Committee during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives,’ Blinken wrote.

But McCaul dismissed the Biden official’s arguments.

‘I gave him any day,’ McCaul challenged. ‘Any day in September, and he refuses.’

‘He doesn’t have one day in the whole month of September to show up before Congress? I mean, I’ve been very flexible with him since May to try to get cooperation.’

It comes after McCaul’s committee released an explosive report detailing Biden administration shortfalls that led to the hasty military withdrawal from Kabul following a lightening-fast takeover of the country by the Taliban.

The Republican-led paper opens by hearkening back to President Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a ‘pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners,’ according to the report.

The report also disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them.

Two recent House contempt votes that resulted in criminal charges were those against former Trump administration advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. Both were held in contempt by the previous House Democratic majority for failing to comply with subpoenas from the now-defunct House select committee on Jan. 6.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By
Politics

British PM makes unfortunate ‘return of the sausages’ gaffe during serious speech

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer made an unfortunate gaffe during a speech at his party’s conference Tuesday when he mistakenly called for the return of ‘sausages,’ instead of hostages, held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Starmer was speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool when he called for a de-escalation between Lebanon and Israel, as well as a cease-fire in Gaza. 

He also called for the return of hostages being held by the terror group when he slipped up, before quickly recovering. 

‘I call again for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the return of the sausages — the hostages — and a recommitment to the two-state solution: a recognized Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel,’ he said.

The mistake quickly went viral.

During his remarks, Starmer was also heckled by a spectator in the audience who shouted about Gaza. 

‘This guy’s obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference. We’ve changed the party,’ Starmer joked in response, Reuters reported. ‘While he’s been protesting, we’ve been changing the party. That’s why we’ve got a Labour government.’

Multiple hostages are still being held in Gaza nearly a year after the group attacked Israeli communities Oct. 7, sparking the latest conflict between Hamas and the Jewish state. 

Israel has proposed ending the war if Hamas releases the remaining hostages, along with the demilitarization of Gaza and the establishment of an alternative governing body. Hamas has rejected several offers to end the conflict. 

Israel has bombarded Gaza and pledged to hunt down those responsible for the deadly attack. Meanwhile, it has also had to defend itself on a second front against shelling in its north from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Israeli forces said they have continued to carry out dozens of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets within Lebanon and that artillery and tanks continue to hit targets close to the border.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By
Politics

Johnny Cash monument unveiled on Capitol Hill: ‘Embodies the American spirit’

Johnny Cash will be saying ‘Hello Out There’ to myriad tourists visiting the U.S. Capitol from now on – after congressional leaders got together to unveil a statue of the legendary musician.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders joined members of Cash’s family for the ceremony, which attracted hundreds of other attendees on Tuesday.

The statue is the latest to be unveiled in the halls of Congress and the first of a professional musician – something House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted in his opening remarks.

‘Johnny Cash is the perfect person to be honored in that way. He was a man who embodies the American spirit in a way that few could. He was an everyday man. He loved to fish, and he suffered the pain of loss. He was the son of southern farmers and of the Great Depression,’ Johnson said. ‘Americans related to Johnny Cash.’

He acknowledged that some people may wonder why Cash was being honored in the way of historic trailblazers, past presidents and dignitaries.

‘The answer is pretty simple. It’s because America is about more than laws and politics,’ Johnson said. ‘Johnny Cash gave a voice to the struggles of the people who were downtrodden and marginalized and who were too often forgotten.’

‘When we forgot about the factory line worker, there was Johnny Cash singing about that fellow who built the car one piece at a time. When we had forgotten about our troops, there was Johnny Cash, the man in black, remembering the 100,000 who died for that [flag]. When we forgot about the Native American, there was Johnny Cash, reminding us of the petrified but justified Apache tears.’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., noted in his own remarks that music has long been a part of American culture.

‘From the very beginning, in the DNA of this great country, artistic creativity has been recognized as incredibly important to our growth, our culture and to the American experiment,’ Jeffries said. ‘Throughout his life, he created a catalog of profoundly powerful works that cannot be ascribed to a single genre. At different times, he was country, blues, rock and roll and gospel.’

‘At all times, Johnny Cash was uniquely American. He was a trailblazing, transformational and trend-setting figure.’

Cash’s relatives participated in the ceremony as well – Adm. Carey Cash, a chaplain and the musician’s great-nephew, delivered the opening prayer.

The statue shows Cash with a guitar on his back and a Bible in hand. His is one of three statues at the Capitol holding the Bible, another being Billy Graham’s.

Each state selects two statues to be represented in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

Arkansas’ state legislature voted in 2019 to replace statues of two lesser-known figures with Cash and civil rights activist Daisy Bates. The latter statue debuted earlier this year.

The Cash statue was created by Little Rock artist Kevin Kresse.

It’s a nod to Cash’s own roots, growing up in Dyess, Arkansas, on a cotton farm before going on to become one of the best-selling musical artists in history.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Keep Reading
By