TV News LIES

The U.S. military on Wednesday acknowledged it was unsure about how to address white nationalism and other extremism in its ranks, and announced plans for military-wide stand-downs pausing regular activity at some point in the next 60 days to tackle the issue.

The decision to a hold a stand-down was made by Lloyd Austin, who made history by becoming the military’s first Black defense secretary after a long career rising in the ranks of the Army. In his confirmation hearing, Austin underscored the need to rid the military of “racists and extremists”.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Austin ordered the stand-down after a meeting with the U.S. military branch leaders, who are under pressure to show progress in combating extremism after current and former military servicemembers were found to have participated in the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

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The planet is hotter now than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to research.

Analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data on that far back is less certain.

The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving a longstanding puzzle known as the “Holocene temperature conundrum”. Climate models have indicated continuous warming since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago and the Holocene period began. But temperature estimates derived from fossil shells showed a peak of warming 6,000 years ago and then a cooling, until the industrial revolution sent carbon emissions soaring.

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Saying it's time to act "because that's what faith and morality require us to do," President Biden on Tuesday signed four executive actions aimed at advancing racial equity for Americans the White House says have been underserved and left behind.

Biden said Tuesday that the measures follow one of his core campaign promises: to restore "the soul of the nation," as he often said during the presidential race.

"Our soul will be troubled," he said, "as long as systemic racism is allowed to exist."

In announcing the actions, Biden cited the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer last May, which touched off demonstrations in cities across the United States. Biden called the killing "the knee on the neck of justice," and said that because of it, "the ground has shifted. It changed minds and mindsets."

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A Pennsylvania woman facing charges that she helped steal a laptop from the office of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, during the attack on the US Capitol will be released from jail, a federal judge decided on Thursday.

US magistrate judge Martin Carlson directed that Riley June Williams be released into the custody of her mother, with travel restrictions, and instructed her to appear on Monday in federal court in Washington to continue her case.

“The gravity of these offenses is great,” Carlson told Williams. “It cannot be overstated.”

Williams, 22, of Harrisburg, is accused of theft, obstruction and trespassing, as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Carlson noted Williams has no prior criminal record.

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Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to swear in three new, barrier-breaking Democratic senators on Wednesday afternoon following her own inauguration, officially giving Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since they lost the chamber in the 2014 elections.

lex Azar, the Health and Human Services Secretary, resigned earlier this week, citing the violent Capitol riot inflamed by President Donald Trump in his resignation letter obtained by NBC News.

Azar said his resignation would become effective on Jan. 20th — the same date he would have been leaving office once President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. The letter was dated Jan. 12, almost a week after the riot.

He said that the attack — which left five people dead and many injured — and the president's slow response to condemn it, threaten to "tarnish" the achievements the administration has made over the past four years. In particular, Operation Warp Speed, which led to the creation of two vaccines to combat the raging coronavirus pandemic.

“The president needs to be investigated and does have real potential criminal liability for incitement for essentially spurring people on, motivating people to go in there and commit these crimes,” said CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor Elie Honig.

“It's not an easy case to make,” he added. “But if you look at his words, if you look at the language he used, the way he not only urged people to do it, but applauded them after they did it, while they were doing it, that suggests to me he knew exactly what it was leading them into.”

An early test for the Biden administration will be whether DOJ chooses to pursue any of the various investigative threads leading to Trump, or if it will opt to turn the page on the Trump era and sidestep the political baggage that might come with prosecuting a former president.

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Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh deactivated his Twitter account on Friday, soon after the social media giant permanently banned President Trump from posting.

Twitter confirmed to Fox News that the radio host and Trump backer had taken down his account, which had 88.6 million followers.

On Friday, Twitter suspended the accounts of former Gen. Mike Flynn and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.

Some prominent Trump supporters have been fleeing to Parler as an alternative, but that conservative social media platform was also sanctioned by app stores Friday.

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