TV News LIES

A Los Angeles judge ruled Tuesday that the Menendez brothers are eligible for parole in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their parents, a decision that moves the two men significantly closer to possible release from prison.

Erik and Lyle Menendez, held in custody since 1990 and originally sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, were each handed a new sentence of 50 years to life by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic.

"They (the brothers) had tears and they were smiling," Menendez attorney Cliff Gardner told Los Angeles television station KNBC-TV, relaying what he saw from the video link in court immediately after the ruling.

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The Trump administration has canceled another $450 million in grants to Harvard University, two weeks after the Ivy League school released a scathing internal review about antisemitism on its campus.

The move ramps up the considerable pressure on one of the nation's most revered colleges, which has been the target of a barrage of White House threats and investigations, including reviews of its tax-exempt status and compliance with regulations that determine its ability to enroll international students.

In April, a multiagency federal task force paused roughly $2.2 billion in funding for Harvard. The Trump administration still has not clarified exactly how that pause has been implemented and which research grants are affected. On May 5, Education Secretary Linda McMahon escalated the fight and told Harvard's Jewish president, Alan Garber, that the school would no longer be eligible to receive any new federally supported research grants.

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A lawsuit that could test the limits of the Trump administration's power to detain visa holders, including students and scholars, is poised to go before a federal judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Christina Reiss will hear arguments May 14 in the case of a Harvard scientist from Russia who alleges the Trump administration wrongfully detained her.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection canceled Kseniia Petrova's visa in February after she failed to declare scientific samples when she returned to Boston from France, and officers turned her over to ICE. Her attorney argues that CBP's actions were "arbitrary and capricious" and her detention illegal.

The Trump administration says it acted within its authority. Petrova "was lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country," Homeland Security said in a statement.

Here's what to know about Petrova's case.

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Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn’t mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told them Israel is drawing out a war the US wants to end, local media reported.

On the eve of the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American being held by Hamas, Witkoff spelt out the gulf between his boss and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war. Israel is prolonging it – despite the fact that we don’t see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached,” Witkoff told the meeting, according to Channel 12 Television, quoting sources who were present.

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Donald Trump’s social media post insisting Ukraine must immediately start peace talks with Russia has set back, and possibly jeopardised, Europe’s carefully laid plans to persuade the US to impose sanctions on Moscow for refusing the US president’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, European diplomats have said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy had no choice but to accept Vladimir Putin’s invitation to talks in Istanbul on Thursday for fear of offending Trump, diplomats said. Putin made the offer in a bid not to alienate the US president, and avoid the growing European pressure on Trump to impose harsher sanctions. Western diplomats say they have no reason to believe that Trump acted in collusion with the Russian leader.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland had for the first time gone together to Kyiv at the weekend to underline the call for a 30-day ceasefire that they said should start on Monday.

The aim of the visit by Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk was to put pressure on Trump to admit that Putin was stalling, and that the US had no political option but to put swingeing economic sanctions on Russia.

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Three climbers from suburban Seattle were killed in a fall on Sunday when their equipment failed while rappelling down a steep gully in North Cascades national park in Washington state, sheriff’s officials said.

A party of four climbers was descending the gully in the area of North Early Winters Spire when the fall happened. Sheriff’s officials presume the cause was an anchor failure but are still investigating. Three of the climbers – ages 36, 47 and 63 – were killed at the scene while the fourth person freed themselves and walked back to the trailhead then drove to a pay phone to call for help.

Sheriff’s personnel and county search and rescue volunteers responded to the accident late Sunday morning about 16 miles (26km) west of Mazama in an area of rock formations that are popular with climbers, the Okanogan county sheriff’s office said in a social media post on Monday.

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The Episcopal Church has halted a refugee resettlement program with the federal government over the prioritization of white South Africans while other populations see their immigration protections removed.

“Just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees,” Presiding Bishop Sean W. Rowe said in a Monday letter.

“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,” Rowe added.

The State Department announced that the first group of white South Africans entered the U.S. on Monday.

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