TV News LIES

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a project that President Donald Trump’s administration touted as the flagship endeavor in its “war on waste,” has generated $21.7 billion in waste since its launch, Democrats claimed in a new report Thursday.

The staggering figure comes from Democrats on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, spearheaded by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who released their findings in a 55-page report on losses accrued by DOGE, the brainchild of Trump and his billionaire friend-turned-enemy Elon Musk.

The results, the Democrats say, are the unsurprising outcome of a tech CEO with zero government experience taking charge of a massive federal spending overhaul, promising it was “going to be a revolution.”

“By prioritizing disruption over governance and failing to identify solutions for any of the problems it purported to solve, DOGE has created its own forms of waste,” the report stated.

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President Donald Trump is sending two top White House officials to Gaza on Aug. 1 to inspect food distribution centers and meet with Gazans amid intensifying global scrutiny over the hunger crisis in the territory.

Steven Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will “secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation" during the rare trip, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 31.TVNL Comment:  This is almost funny, if so many Palestinians were not dying every day.  Trumps sends two men who are openly pro Israel to fairly evaluate the situation in Gaza.

Following their visit, Witkoff and Huckabee are expected to meet with Trump to approve the administration's final plan for food and aid distribution in the region amid Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

"It's terrible what's occurring there. It's a terrible thing. People are very hungry," Trump told reporters. "You know, the United States gave $60 million for food and it's a shame, because I don't see the results of it. And we gave it to people that in theory are watching over it fairly closely. We wanted Israel to watch over it."

TVNL Comment:  This is almost funny, if so many Palestinians were not dying every day.  Trumps sends two men who are openly and vehemently pro Israel to fairly evaluate the situation in Gaza.

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Brown University on Wednesday announced a deal with the Trump administration to regain access to federal research funding and end investigations into alleged discrimination.

The Ivy League school agreed to pay $50 million to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island over 10 years as part of the agreement, along with other concessions in line with President Donald Trump’s political agenda. Brown will adopt the government’s definition of “male” and “female,” for example, and must remove any consideration of race from the admissions process.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson said the deal preserves Brown’s academic independence. The terms include a clause saying the government cannot dictate curriculum or the content of academic speech at Brown.

“The University’s foremost priority throughout discussions with the government was remaining true to our academic mission, our core values and who we are as a community at Brown,” Paxson wrote.

The three-year deal has numerous similarities with one signed last week by Columbia University that the government called a roadmap for other universities. Unlike that agreement, however, Brown’s does not include an outside monitor.

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Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.

Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”

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Venezuelans that the Trump administration expelled to El Salvador’s most notorious megaprison endured “state-sanctioned torture”, lawyers for some of the men have said, as more stories emerge about the horrors they faced during capacity.

When José Manuel Ramos Bastidas – one of 252 Venezuelan men that the US sent to El Salvador’s most notorious mega-prison – finally made it back home to El Tocuyo on Tuesday, the first thing he did was stretch his arms around his family.

His wife, son and mother were wearing the bright blue shirts they had printed with a photo of him, posed in a yellow and black moto jacket and camo-print jeans. It was the first time they had hugged him since he left Venezuela last year. And it was the first time they could be sure – truly sure – that he was alive and well since he disappeared into the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Cecot) in March.

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Over two dozen Senate Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration lead an independent investigation into the killing of Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet by Israeli settlers earlier this month, calling out the U.S. government’s historic failure to act on other Israeli killings of Americans like Shireen Abu Akleh and Ayșenur Ezgi Eygi.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, the lawmakers note that Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has reached new heights amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Trump administration has not only refused to condemn such violence, but has fueled it, empowering settler groups previously sanctioned by the Biden administration.

Since 2022, at least seven American citizens have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank, but the U.S. government has refused to investigate those deaths, instead deferring to Israel’s own shoddy probes into the killings.

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The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy will hold an emergency call on Friday to talk about the deteriorating conditions in Gaza as more than 100 aid groups warn mass starvation is fast approaching, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday.

"The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said.

"We will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace. We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay," Starmer said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, "It is essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East."

"There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza," Macron continued.

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Nick Schifrin: In Ukraine's capital today, damage, destruction and more death. It's days like this where nowhere feels safe, not the Kyiv apartment building hit by a Russian drone, the schoolkid's bedroom inside burnt black.

Not the nearby kindergarten engulfed in flames. Not the bomb shelter otherwise known as the metro, where a drone hit at the entrance and filled the tunnel built to withstand nuclear blasts with smoke, the metro usually where Ukrainians spend the night to protect their children.

But, these days, there is precious little protection; 46-year-old Vadym Volkov survived, where his apartment did not.

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