TV News LIES

At least 42 people have died in Germany and dozens were missing on Thursday as swollen rivers caused by record rainfall across western Europe swept through towns and villages, leaving cars upended, houses destroyed and people stranded on rooftops.

As the water started to recede, stunned residents in the worst affected towns inspected what was left of their homes and neighbourhoods.

In the town of Schuld, houses were reduced to piles of debris and broken beams. Roads were blocked by wreckage and fallen trees and fish flapped and gasped on puddles of water in the middle of the street.

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More than 150 companies including Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) and PepsiCo (PEP.O) urged U.S. lawmakers to introduce and pass a voting reform act in a letter signed on Wednesday, as other efforts have stalled in Congress.

The companies called on lawmakers to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 named after late U.S. Representative John Lewis, who died nearly a year ago. The act would help prevent voting discrimination and set up an improved system for states to report changes in election law.

"We have a duty to work until every American can participate in our democracy, but that won't happen until every eligible voter in this country has fair, equitable and safe access to voting," said Chip Bergh, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N), a signatory to the letter, in a prepared statement.

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Democratic lawmakers in Texas’ legislature are fleeing the state in two chartered flights to Washington DC to prevent the passage of Republican-led bills aimed at restricting mail-in ballots and some early voting procedures.

A coalition of members of the Texas state House announced the move in a statement on Monday. Their flight from the state will prevent the legislature from reaching a quorum needed to pass the bills; while in Washington, members of the group will attempt to lobby their counterparts in the nation’s capital to take greater actions to protect voting rights.

Vice President Kamala Harris praised the lawmakers’ courage during remarks to journalists in Detroit, while adding that fighting for voting rights was “as American as apple pie.”

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Former President Donald Trump reportedly praised Adolf Hitler to his then-chief of staff John Kelly, according to a report in The Guardian.

“Well, Hitler did a lot of good things," Trump allegedly saidduring a 2018 trip to Europe to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender writes in his book "Frankly, We Did Win This Election" and reported in The Guardian.

Bender interviewed Trump after he left office and writes that Trump denied the comments.

A divided Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a controversial Arizona law that limits how voters may return absentee ballots, weighing into a raging debate over voting rights with a ruling that appeared to make it more difficult to challenge a growing number of state laws restricting access to the ballot box.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority, joined by the court's conservatives. Associate Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissent, joined by the court's liberals, that described the majority opinion as "tragic."

The case, the most significant to deal with voting rights to come before the court since 2013, dealt with two provisions of Arizona's voting law approved long before the 2020 election. State officials passed a law in 2016 barring unions and advocacy organizations from collecting voters' mail-in ballots, a practice that critics call "ballot harvesting."

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Eight students at Indiana University have filed a lawsuit against the school over a mandatory coronavirus vaccine policy that they say is unconstitutional and a violation of a state law barring so-called vaccine passports.

Eight students at Indiana University have filed a lawsuit against the school over a mandatory coronavirus vaccine policy that they say is unconstitutional and a violation of a state law barring so-called vaccine passports.

One person is dead and a dozen people injured after an apparent drive-by shooting spree near Phoenix, authorities said.

Police are investigating at least eight different shooting incidents that occurred over the course of a 90-minute period Thursday morning throughout the West Valley, according to Sgt. Brandon Sheffert, a spokesperson for the Peoria Police Department, which is leading the investigation.