TV News LIES

The trickle of information about the cheating scandal wracking elite chess turned into a deluge Tuesday night, when Chess.com said it believes Hans Niemann, a 19-year-old grandmaster, cheated in more than 100 games.

The report — which runs to 72 pages with supporting documents such as email conversations — is sending a fresh jolt through the chess world. It's intensifying interest in the U.S. Chess Championships that begin in St. Louis on Wednesday, where Niemann and 13 other players are vying for the title.

The tournament, streaming games on YouTube and Twitch, has $250,000 in prize money at stake. Play begins each day at 2 p.m. ET and will run for the next two weeks. In his first match, Niemann is slated to face 15-year-old Christopher Woojin Yoo.

When contacted by NPR, neither Niemann nor tournament organizers offered a comment on Wednesday.

More...

Iranian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of a teenage girl during the early days of protests in Tehran, who has become an icon for the anti-government movement.

The popular uprising against Iran’s theocratic rulers was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd detained for allegedly violating the country’s laws on clothing, and has largely been led by women.

Universities have been a battleground for days, and on Wednesday riot police were deployed around campuses in several cities including Tehran, Reuters reported, citing witnesses.

More...

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is wading into tense territory with a new rule essentially making the agency an abortion provider, facing the wrath of GOP lawmakers and likely legal challenges.

The VA has already started providing abortions to pregnant veterans and VA beneficiaries in limited circumstances set out in the rule, which took effect when it was published on Sept. 9.

The landmark rule quickly raised questions about the infrastructure to handle demand, and the legal consequences of performing the services in red states where abortion is banned or severely restricted.

But the VA has shown no signs of backing down from its rule — which it says will cover about 1,000 abortion procedures per year — and advocates are hailing it as a major step forward in health care for veterans.

More...

New York City police are investigating a possible bias incident after red paint was sprayed on the Russian Consulate.

Police received a 911 call around 1:30 a.m. Friday at the Upper East Side building and found that the facade of the consulate had been vandalized with red paint, according to police. There were no obvious words or symbols painted on the building.

As of Saturday, no arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing, an NYPD spokesperson said.

The State Department said it was facilitating contact between the consulate and NYPD. When asked about claims on social media that the Russians say State has ignored their security requests, a senior State Department official said: ”We follow our diplomatic obligations.”

More...

In the latest salvo from the ongoing feud between Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the former president posted what appeared to be a death threat against the Kentucky senator on Friday.

After criticizing McConnell for approving "Trillions of Dollars worth of Democrat sponsored Bills," Trump wrote on Truth Social that he believes the Senate Minority Leader is doing so either to spite him "because he hates Donald J. Trump" or because he "believes in the Fake and Highly Destructive Green New Deal."

"In any event, either reason is unacceptable," Trump wrote. "He has a DEATH WISH."

The former president proceeded to insult McConnell's wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao: "Must immediately seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!"

More...

On September 22 of last year, Michel Goldman, a Belgian immunologist and one of Europe’s best-known champions of medical research, walked into a clinic near his house, rolled up his sleeve, and had a booster shot delivered to his arm. He knew he’d need it more than most.

Just a few weeks earlier, Michel, 67, had been to see his younger brother, Serge, the head of nuclear medicine at the hospital of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where both men are professors. Michel was having night sweats, and he could feel swollen lymph nodes in his neck, so his brother brought him in for a full-body CT scan. When the images came through to Serge’s computer they revealed a smattering of inky spots, bunched near Michel’s left armpit and running up along his neck. It was cancer of the immune system—lymphoma.

It's hard to pinpoint when exactly the questions started coming in. Angelyn Nichols, an administrator for Virginia Beach City Public Schools, thinks it was sometime in early 2021.

What she does know is that no one really expected them in the first place, and no one expected them to keep coming – week after week, and now, year after year.

That's because the questions involved a decades-old teaching concept many educators thought was settled, uncontroversial territory: the idea that, in order to learn, students need to know how to manage themselves and get along with others.