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WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - An agreement reached by U.S. congressional leaders and the White House on a massive bill funding military, State Department and a range of other government programs will continue a ban on U.S. funding for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, until March 2025, two sources said on Tuesday. President Joe Biden's administration said in January it was temporarily pausing new funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7...

Congressional leaders struck a deal on Wednesday that would hope to avert a partial government shutdown. Top lawmakers closed negotiations on the Agriculture, Energy, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Interior; and Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bills, setting a deadline for March 8 to pass the spending bills. Leadership hopes to release the text of the bills by this weekend and pass the bills next week. The spending bills would fund related government agencies through September, right before the 2024 elections. The remaining appropriations bills that would fund the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Departments...

President Biden on Friday made an extended case for passing a bipartisan border security deal brokered in the Senate as he hosted roughly 30 governors at the White House. Immigration was a key component of the reception for governors, with fact sheets laying out details of the Senate deal placed on tables where the governors were seated. After opening with comments on the war in Ukraine, Biden pivoted to the topic of border security. “Folks, Congress has had a long, proud bipartisan history on immigration reform and abiding by our international treaty obligations, which we’ve signed, related to immigration. These...

A United Auto Workers (UAW) local union, UAW Local 62, and Ford have reached a deal to avert a strike at a Louisville, Ky., truck plant. The deal comes as the UAW union said nearly 9,000 autoworkers threatened to strike Friday at Ford’s most profitable plant that produces SUVs and pickups. Ford was “pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract,” according to a statement provided Wednesday to The Hill. The UAW said “local issues” related to “skilled trades, ergonomics and health & safety” were addressed with the deal. The union added that contracts with three...

The Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization responded Tuesday to proposals to release at least some of the 136 Israeli hostages still in captivity in exchange for a pause in fighting, demanding an end to the war and the release of more Palestinian terrorists. Hamas is negotiating with Israel through Egypt and Qatar as intermediaries, with the U.S. playing a role in guiding proposals. The U.S. is known to favor a temporary ceasefire that can be made permanent — a position oddly close to that of Hamas.

EXCLUSIVE: Left-wing advocacy nonprofits, aided by trial law firms and Democrats, are increasingly turning to the legal system to push Green New Deal policies, according to a new consumer report shared with Fox News Digital. The report, published Thursday by the Alliance for Consumers, details how advocacy groups have looked to wage public nuisance lawsuits to remove products and services, such as fossil fuels and firearms, from the market that "do not align with the progressive agenda." Public nuisance laws prohibit activities that harm people or property nearby and are generally enforced by government entities. "Public nuisance cases aren't about...

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that his Republican colleagues criticizing the bipartisan border deal are doing so because “it’s a presidential election year.” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “This bill normalizes 5,000 people coming in a day.” Lankford said, “Right now these internet rumors is all the people are running on. It would be absolutely absurd for me to agree to 5,000 people a day. This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There’s no amnesty. It increases the number of border patrol agents, increases asylum officers. It...

A Senate immigration deal from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and James Lankford (R-OK) would allow up to 35,000 illegal aliens to arrive at the United States-Mexico border every week before triggering border controls. According to details reported by Adam Shaw at Fox News the deal would allow up to 5,000 illegal aliens to be encountered every day over a 7-day period — or about 150,000 a month — before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would have to use border controls to quickly remove illegal aliens.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) once again rejected a deal to fund Biden’s continued border operations coupled with tens of billions in foreign aid on Wednesday. Johnson had shot down a deal on Saturday, tweeting “absolutely not” after details emerged of a draft deal crafted by Senate negotiators. “We’re not playing politics at this,” Johnson said at a Wednesday press conference. “We’re demanding real, transformative policy change, because that’s what the American people need and deserve, and that they’re demanding as well.” Absolutely not. pic.twitter.com/tkXma24r8M — Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) January 13, 2024

I held back on writing this for a day because I am very aware that, living in America — whatever the reason (and my readers know that reason) — who am I, what business have I, to chime in on the hostage deal? But I can hold back only for a day. If Joe Biden can give his opinion from America, so can I. But I am not on the scene, and I recognize and even ask that my readers take this all with a grain of salt, a “butt-in-sky” from California. Still, as I have quoted Yeshayahu (Isaiah) before:...

JERUSALEM, Israel — The Israeli government approved a deal Tuesday night that will see the Palestinian Hamas terror group release at least 50 female, child, and elderly hostages over four days, in return for a pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip. In return, Israel will release a greater number of convicted Palestinians — though none who have been convicted of murder. Israel will resume the fight as soon as the hostages are delivered and the four-day period is over, as it works to destroy Hamas.

Iranians have little clue they are one stupid missile volley, or one reckless intervention away from a devastating Western response. Iran understandably believes it is riding quite high. It is flush with cash. It hints it almost has the bomb—and might use it soon. The Iranians are bragging about their new tyrannical allies like Russia and China. Iran boasts of now being the self-proclaimed leader of jihad on behalf of all Muslims. It gloats that it is feeding the Russian war-machine by exporting its own drones. Tehran proudly supplied and funded Hamas’s savage murdering of Jewish children in Israel. It...

Sidney Powell, the attorney who used that catchphrase for her work to overturn the 2020 presidential election, pleaded guilty today to six misdemeanors in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of a sweeping racketeering case against Donald Trump and 16 others. Under the terms of the deal, Powell admitted she conspired to breach the election systems in Coffee County, Georgia. She recorded a proffer video with prosecutors that described the crimes and she agreed to testify at future cases. She also wrote an apology letter to citizens of Georgia and agreed to pay almost $9,000 in fines. The plea deal appears...

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown was a win for Democrats and a “defeat” for MAGA. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “House Democrats are going to seek your advice regarding this news made moments ago on the show about this pending motion to vacate Kevin McCarthy’s speakership. How will you vote, and what advice would you give your fellow Democrats on whether they can trust Kevin McCarthy if he makes Democrats an offer so he can stay in power?”

President Biden cheered on a tentative deal reached between striking Hollywood writers and big studios that was first reported on Sunday night. “I applaud the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for reaching a tentative agreement that will allow writers to return to the important work of telling the stories of our nation, our world – and of all of us,” Biden said in a statement released Monday morning. Writers with the WGA had been striking over access to profits in the form of royalties and residuals for products distributed over online and...

According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, the four prosecutions bedeviling former President Donald Trump are deemed illegitimate by a plurality of the country. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is heading towards an impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden — which will likely be deemed equally suspect by a separate plurality of the nation. Trump’s and Biden’s legal challenges, symptoms of the country’s broader struggle with extreme partisanship, are mirror images in that each candidate’s supporters embrace the rule of law in one case while railing against its misuse in the other. It all has the feel of a...

The director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Jack Smith in a deal that will allow him to avoid criminal charges in the federal case over former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, a new court filing shows. The witness — described in a Justice Department court filing dated Tuesday as “Trump Employee 4” and identified by several media outlets as Yuscil Taveras — had previously recanted “false testimony” in the classified documents case, after switching lawyers and learning that he had left himself exposed to possible perjury charges. The special counsel’s...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger said that while Republicans didn’t like the plea deal U.S. Attorney David Weiss attempted to reach with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter earlier in the year, “I don’t really understand what it is they’re complaining about” with Weiss being named as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case by Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier in the day, “since they’re getting what they want.” And they “just want to complain.”

Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal blew up epically. That now leaves everything on the table in terms of charges, as well as looking into Joe Biden’s connections to the scandal. We saw that on Monday as the House Oversight Committee interviewed Hunter Biden’s former partner Devon Archer. Archer confirmed Joe Biden was talking on the speakerphone into meetings, and that was the “big guy.” He also revealed information about another Chinese connection and the bizarre comment Hunter made about the Biden name and “handsome Aryan godlike men.” We will likely find out more about what he said, particularly when the...

Delaware U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika issued an order Friday to prevent “apparent misrepresentations” related to the Hunter Biden case. Noreika’s order instructs that all issues with the Hunter Biden case be brought directly to her rather than the Clerk’s Office in order to prevent potential “misrepresentations” in the future. “I have already discussed my concerns about apparent misrepresentations made to a member of this Court’s Clerk’s Office,” the order reads. “In addition to that, in a submission addressing those apparent misrepresentations, counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee needlessly included on the public docket an email from a...