TV News LIES

Julian Assange resumed his battle in a London court on Monday to avoid extradition to the United States to face criminal charges over the activities of his WikiLeaks website, after months of delay due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The U.S. authorities accuse Australian-born Assange, 49, of conspiring to hack government computers and of violating an espionage law in connection with the release of confidential cables by WikiLeaks in 2010-2011.

Assange, clean-shaven and wearing a suit at Monday’s hearing, formally declined to be extradited to face a superseding indictment issued by U.S. authorities in June.

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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been removed from a medically induced coma and is responding to speech, Berlin’s Charite hospital said on Monday.

The hospital, which has been treating Navalny since he was airlifted to Germany after falling ill on a Russian domestic flight last month, said his condition has improved and he is being weaned off mechanical ventilation.

“It remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” Charite said in a statement.

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A divided federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s order preventing federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Ore., from forcing journalists and legal observers from the scene of almost-nightly clashes between authorities and protesters.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Thursday night temporarily granting the Justice Department’s request to lift a preliminary injunction U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon imposed last week extending restrictions he placed on federal agents last month.

The panel split, 2-1. Two judges appointed by President Donald Trump, Eric Miller and Daniel Bress, provided the votes to stay the order issued by Simon, a Barack Obama appointee. The dissenting court of appeals judge was Margaret McKeown, a Bill Clinton appointee.

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Two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration have been ousted from their positions after fumbled communications about a blood plasma treatment for Covid-19. President Trump and the head of the F.D.A. had erroneously boasted on the eve of the Republican National Convention that the treatment sharply lowered mortality from the disease.

On Friday, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, removed Emily Miller, the agency’s chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed Ms. Miller, who had previously worked in communications for the re-election campaign of Senator Ted Cruz and as a journalist for One America News, the conservative cable network, in this post just 11 days ago.

Dr. Hahn notified senior leadership at the F.D.A. on Friday that Ms. Miller would no longer be the official spokeswoman for the agency, and that he would be appointing someone to replace her in an interim capacity. Ms. Miller could not be reached for comment.

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Amid ongoing protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the 17-year-old Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide on Wednesday after allegedly killing two protesters and injuring another. Rittenhouse, who has repeatedly posted online in support of “Blue Lives Matter” and President Donald Trump, traveled from Illinois with a long gun to assist other militia types in protecting local businesses from any violence.

On Thursday’s edition of Outnumbered, several co-hosts placed a large share of the blame for Rittenhouse’s allegedly murderous actions on the lack of local law-enforcement officials in the protests against police brutality.

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After the Food and Drug Administration offered shaky data to justify its approval of blood plasma to treat COVID-19, some scientists are worried the agency could bow to pressure to approve a coronavirus vaccine before it's fully tested.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that the FDA had issued an Emergency Use Authorization for blood plasma. The president, the Health and Human Services secretary and the head of the FDA all said the treatment reduced deaths in COVID-19 patients by 35%.

It did not, and scientists immediately questioned the FDA’s claims about the data.

“You saw FDA be bullied by the president of the United States into approving something that they didn’t want to approve earlier, because he wanted them to do that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, in an online interview Monday with the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Fernandez, 23, is a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist assigned to Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division, officials said. He was last seen Monday when his staff sergeant dropped him off at his Killeen home, police said. Fernandez’s family contacted police on Wednesday.