The White House News

San Francisco has undertaken a significant effort to glam up streets ahead of a vital U.S.-China summit next week, including the removal of homeless camps around the city. 

“I know folks are saying, ‘Oh they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town.’ That’s true, because it’s true — but it’s also true for months and months and months before APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit], we’ve been having conversations,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday at the unveiling of a new program to plant trees in urban neighborhoods.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the conference could help the city with an anticipated $53 million injected into the economy, according to FOX affiliate KTVU, adding that “tourism is our business here in San Francisco.” 

KTVU noted that the efforts to clean the city have created “noticeable” cleanliness to the streets but also far fewer homeless encampments on major thoroughfares. 

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Marc Savino, who works in the city, told KTVU that “you just naturally start to wonder about houseless folks being displaced.” 

Emails obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle show that the city’s superintendent of Street Environmental Services Christopher McDaniels was “concerned about historical encampments that are close to priority areas.” 

Those areas include seven intersections in two neighborhoods that have long been the “epicenter” of the homeless crisis, according to the Chronicle. Another official, Deputy Director of Operations DiJaida Durden, said that the city needed to “stay on top of the growing encampments,” then asked, “Do we have a plan?” 

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The Chronicle noted that the areas that Durden flagged have ended up “tent-free” just days ahead of the APEC summit. 

President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jingping will meet next week during APEC in San Francisco for a much-anticipated face-to-face — the first since the two leaders met in Indonesia in November 2022.

The U.S. will hope to use the meeting to address growing tensions around Taiwan as well as dueling interests in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East, San Francisco will hope that the conference helps it shake loose of a sluggish post-pandemic recovery. 

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The combination of factors, including the rise of work-from-home and the upcoming implementation of a state-wide rise in minimum wage for fast food workers, has made it difficult for the city to reach its previous levels of activity. The loss of tech commuters in particular has hampered recovery efforts, according to the New York Times. 

Aaron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, noted that the conference presents a “huge opportunity” and that the city has been “planning this down to the gnat’s eyebrow.” 

Peskin pointed to the influx of people and personnel during previous conferences at times of trouble for the city that helped kickstart economic activity, but to make that impression, the city has undertaken an incredible beautification project, which has included shifting the significant homeless population that has flooded into the city. 

“They’ve cleared out the tents that were near the Moscone Center on Howard Street, which tells me the city had the capability to do this all along — instead they just do the bare minimum, community activist Ricci Lee Wynne told The New York Post. 

“Once APEC is gone, police presence will start to simmer down again, the tents will return, and it will slowly flare up again,” Lee said. “What we need is a permanent solution.”

President Biden is returning to his Delaware home on Saturday — only a short distance from hundreds of protestors accusing him of genocide.

Biden is returning to his residence in Wilmington after delivering a Veterans’ Day address as the “Delaware Palestine March” commences in the same area.

“President Biden, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” the crowd chanted as protestors began gathering earlier this afternoon.

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Protesters are pushing for Biden to push for a ceasefire in Gaza as Israel continues its ground invasion of Hamas-controlled territory.

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The U.S. says Israel has agreed to daily pauses in fighting to allow aid into Gaza, but both the U.S. and Israel oppose a cease-fire.

There remain roughly 240 Hamas hostages in Gaza, and 10 of them are believed to be Americans. 

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claims more than 10,300 Gazans have been killed in the fighting, though they do not distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas terrorists.

The suspected human smuggler who caused a deadly car crash that killed him along with seven others, including two Americans, has been identified as a 17-year-old boy from Honduras, authorities say.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said the accident on Wednesday occurred when the smuggler, who was carrying five illegal immigrants in his vehicle, was fleeing from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office in Batesville, Texas, when he tried to pass an 18-wheeler in a no-passing zone. 

He reportedly went into oncoming traffic and collided with the SUV occupied by two Americans from Georgia. The collision killed the Americans from Georgia, identified as Jose Lerma and Isbael Lerma, who were driving to Mexico. It also killed the boy and the illegal immigrants in the vehicle.

2 AMERICANS, 5 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS KILLED AFTER HUMAN SMUGGLING CAR HITS SUV 

Authorities say the smuggler was from Honduras with a Honduran passport, and his family have been notified. He had been living in Houston, but his immigration status is still unclear. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations is working with the Honduran consulate to investigate.

The incident came amid an ongoing crisis at the southern border, which saw more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY 2023, a new record. September also broke the monthly record for encounters, with over 269,000.

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That crisis has been accompanied by a number of deadly incidents at the border, as well as car chases between authorities and those trying to smuggle illegal immigrants into the U.S.

In June, authorities chased a Houston driver who was smuggling illegal migrants on a high-speed chase in which the driver hit speeds of more than 100 mph before crashing into a fence.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which was not involved in the car chase on Wednesday, updated its policies with regard to chases this year, laying out factors that should be considered when agents decide whether a car should be pursued and when a pursuit should be ended.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed to lawmakers that there were more than 600,000 gotaways — illegal migrants who evaded apprehension but were noted via other forms of detection — in fiscal year 2023. 

A top Republican wants to prohibit Harvard and other universities allowing ‘antisemitism’ to go unchecked on their campuses from collecting large sums of taxpayer money.

Harvard and other elite schools have faced scrutiny over rising antisemitic events unfolding on their campuses and their lackluster response to the incidents in the wake of Hamas’ bloody onslaught on Israelis and their subsequent counter-response.

House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, a Harvard graduate herself, is now calling for tightening the taxpayer valve on her alma mater and other higher educational institutions and said House Republicans intend to hold them accountable. 

ELITE AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES RECEIVING BILLIONS IN FEDERAL FUNDS SEE RISE IN ANTISEMITISM: ‘GAMED THE TAX CODE’

“It is abhorrent that Harvard and universities across America are enabling horrific antisemitism to run rampant on their campuses,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital. “U.S. taxpayer dollars should be prohibited from funding any institution that promotes antisemitism or anti-Israel bigotry, and House Republicans will hold these extremist institutions accountable for failing their students.”

Fox News Digital reported last week that Harvard, which has been under a microscope following the antisemitic events on its campus, has received billions of dollars in federal funds in recent years.

Between 2018 and 2022, Harvard amassed $3.13 billion in total federal payments, including federal grants and contracts, according to an analysis conducted by OpenTheBooks and provided to Fox News Digital. 

Harvard also acquired generous tax breaks on its endowment. During those same years, the school’s endowment totaled $50.9 billion, and it received $2.17 billion in special federal tax treatment. 

“Are these wealthy universities operating in the public interest or their own special interest? Since these schools are educational charities under IRS code 501(c)3, Congress should hold hearings,” OpenTheBooks founder Adam Andrzejewski said of the taxpayer money.

“Who knew that you were subsidizing the wealthy Ivy League? They don’t need taxpayer help,” Andrzejewski said.

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Stefanik has been outspoken against her alma mater since more than two dozen student groups at the university castigated Israel and supported Palestinians in Gaza shortly after Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians. 

The Harvard student organizations‘ statement, released on the day of the Hamas attacks, said the events did not occur “in a vacuum.” The groups who signed the letter included the Harvard Islamic Society, the Harvard Jews for Liberation, the Society of Arab Students and the Harvard Divinity School Muslim Association.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the message said.

“For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison,” the statement said. “Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced. Palestinians in Gaza have no shelters for refuge and nowhere to escape. In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence.”

The statement also attacked Israel’s “apartheid regime” that they say forced Palestinians into “colonial retaliation.”

Shortly after the letter made rounds on social media, Stefanik took to X and called it “heinous” that Harvard student groups blamed Israel for “Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attacks.”

“Any voice that excuses the slaughter of innocent women and children has chosen the side of evil and terrorism,” Stefanik said.

UPENN DONOR YANKS FINANCIAL SUPPORT OVER SCHOOL’S ‘UNWILLINGNESS TO CALL OUT EVIL’ AFTER HAMAS ATTACK

Jewish students at the university have also reportedly faced “anti-Israel and antisemitic bias” from Harvard professor Marshall Ganz, the Boston Herald reported. 

These events and others prompted some of the university’s influential donors to end their relationships with the school. Due to the increasing incidents, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan withdrew his offer to participate in Harvard’s fellowship programs.

Meanwhile, students are planning to sue Harvard, among other universities, for not doing enough to address the “explosion” of antisemitic incidents on campus, Business Insider reported. 

“We’re going to show that the universities had notice of acts of hatred and bigotry towards Jewish students, that there was pervasive anti-Jewish bigotry on campus and that administrators and university bureaucrats acted with deliberate indifference, which is the legal term, with respect to campus antisemitism,” lawyer Mark Ressler told the publication.

“Things are out of control on campus,” he said. 

Harvard did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.