TV News LIES

Jack Smith, the former DOJ special counsel, claimed in closed-door congressional testimony on Wednesday that investigators had proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump “criminally” conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Smith made the remarks in his opening statement to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said in his opening statement, which was obtained in advance by the Associated Press. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.

Rob and Michele Reiner's children are breaking their silence following the couple's killing.

The acclaimed "Princess Bride" director and his producer wife were found dead in their Southern California home on Sunday, Dec. 14. On Tuesday, prosecutors filed criminal charges against their son, Nick Reiner, who is accused of "fatally stabbing" his parents.

"Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day," Jake and Romy Reiner said in a statement to TMZ and People released Wednesday. "The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren't just our parents; they were our best friends."

USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Rob, Michele, Romy and Jake Reiner for comment.

Nick Reiner has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced during a Tuesday press conference. The 32-year-old screenwriter also faces a special allegation that he used a dangerous and deadly weapon, namely a knife, in the killing of his parents.

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Authorities said on Dec. 16 that they launched a homicide investigation after a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was fatally shot at his home.

Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old theoretical physicist and fusion scientist from Portugal, was found with "apparent gunshot wounds" at his house in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the night of Dec. 15, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. He was transported to an area hospital and was pronounced dead on Dec. 16.

Massachusetts State Police and the Brookline Police Department responded to the scene after receiving a report of a man shot at his home on Gibbs Street, the district attorney's office said in a statement. Brookline is a wealthy suburb of Boston.

Brookline Police Chief Jennifer Paster stated that the investigation is active and ongoing, adding that patrol vehicles, officers, and unmarked units remained at the scene. No suspects had been taken into custody as of Dec. 16.

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The job market continues to show signs of cooling.

U.S. employers added just 64,000 jobs in November, according to a delayed report from the Labor Department Tuesday, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% from 4.4% in September. That's the highest unemployment rate in more than four years.

The jobs report was initially set to come out earlier this month, but the government's ability to monitor the job market was hampered by the six-week federal shutdown.

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/16/nx-s1-5645023/jobs-employment-labor-marketThat delayed job tallies for October and November, both of which were released on Tuesday. The report showed the U.S. saw a net loss of 105,000 jobs in October. That was led by a large drop in the federal workforce, as 162,000 government workers who'd taken buyouts earlier in the year were officially dropped from the payrolls.

Furloughed federal workers were unable to conduct their usual survey of households in October, so the unemployment rate for that month remains unknown.

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A top official at the U.S. Department of Education has been keeping a controversial flag linked to Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6 insurrection hung outside his office, according to the agency's union and a department employee who has observed it.

It's the latest in a series of instances in which the flag – which depicts a pine tree and the words "An Appeal to Heaven" – has been associated with agencies and figures at the highest levels of the federal government.

Though long tied to the American Revolution, the banner in more recent years "has been adopted primarily by evangelical Christian nationalist groups," as well as the Proud Boys and certain neo-Nazi groups, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, an independent nonprofit organization. It was flown in 2021 by rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they tried to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

The symbol's emergence at the agency responsible for overseeing billions of dollars in federal funding for the nation's schools is already raising concerns about the separation of church and state.

Rachel Gittleman, the president of the union for Education Department workers nationwide, said in a statement that the agency "has no place for symbols that were carried by insurrectionists."

“Since January, hardworking public servants at the U.S. Department of Education have been subjected to threats, harassment, and sustained demoralization," she said. "Now, they are being asked to work in an environment where a senior leader is prominently displaying an offensive flag – one that, regardless of its origins in the American Revolution, has come to represent intolerance, hatred, and extremism."

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At dawn on Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces escalated their invasions across multiple areas of the occupied West Bank, deploying reinforcements toward Nablus in the northern West Bank while continuing widespread military operations in refugee camps, towns, and villages.

Troops broke into and ransacked dozens of homes, abducted many Palestinians, and set up military roadblocks, further tightening restrictions on Palestinian movement and daily life.

The soldiers invaded several neighborhoods including al-Makhfiyya and Rafidia, breaking into homes and abducting young men, including Mohyeldin Abdul-Haq, Ali Shami, and Bassem al-Qutub, in addition to three siblings.

In Balata refugee camp east of Nablus, soldiers stormed homes and abducted Semih Thiab as a means of pressuring his brother to surrender.

Troops also invaded residential buildings in Rafidia and advanced into the city from the military roadblocks of Beit Furik and Deir Sharaf.

In Asira al-Shamaliya northwest of Nablus, the soldiers broke into homes and abducted a young woman, Du’a’ Jarar’a.

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Hamas says Israel’s violations risk jeopardising a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the move towards the second and more complicated phase of the fragile agreement.

In a video statement released on Sunday, the group’s Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, confirmed the killing of senior commander Raed Saad in an Israeli attack in Gaza the previous day.

“The continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement … and latest assassinations that targeted Saad and others threaten the viability of the agreement,” al-Hayya said.

He called on mediators – US President Donald Trump in particular – “to work on obliging Israel to respect the ceasefire and commit to it”.

Phase one of the October truce called for a cessation of hostilities, the return of living captives and prisoners and the remains of the dead, and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the enclave.

Once all of those conditions were fulfilled, phase two, which is to include an Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian disarmament and a formal end to the war, could begin.

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President Trump on Monday signed an executive order designating the street drug fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.

"The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders," the order declared.

During an event in the Oval Office, Trump said the carnage fentanyl has caused in American families is worse than U.S. deaths in many wars.

"Two to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know of, so we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction," Trump said.

In fact, Trump's numbers are wildly inflated. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl killed roughly 48 thousand people in the U-S last year - a 27 percent drop from the year before.

Experts also say fentanyl would be difficult to use as a weapon of mass destruction. There is only one documented incident worldwide, in 2002, where the Russian government weaponized fentanyl in gas form. There have been no cases reported in the U.S.

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