TV News LIES

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in a Thursday ruling permanently blocked two memos issued by the Trump administration that threatened schools with funding cuts for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.  

Earlier in the year, the Trump administration issued a “Dear Colleague” letter for universities threatening to take funding if they don’t end “illegal” DEI efforts. Soon after, K-12 districts got a memo to certify they have no DEI practices in their schools.

The American Federation of Teachers, Democracy Forward and others sued over both of the memos, arguing the administration did not go through the proper procedures and violated the rights of schools. 

“Plaintiffs have shown that neither challenged agency action was promulgated in accordance with the procedural requirements of the APA, and that both actions run afoul of important constitutional rights,” wrote Gallagher, who was appointed by President Trump.

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Just as California Gov. Gavin Newsom was announcing a special election for state redistricting at a cultural center in Downtown Los Angeles, numerous federal agents showed up nearby.

While Newsom was inside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14, stating his proposed changes to California’s congressional districts to counter Texas Republicans' plans to create more GOP-friendly districts in their state, a group of federal agents was conducting immigration enforcement patrols in L.A.'s Little Tokyo district.

Newsom and his press office both took to social media to announce the agents’ presence, with an homage to President Donald Trump's punctuation and rhetoric.

“BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!” the post said.

U.S. Border Patrol Sector Commander Gregory Bovino told KNBC-TV that the agency was conducting roving immigration enforcement patrols in the area. Bovino told the station that one person was taken into custody and detained for being in the U.S. illegally.

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At least 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources, with Al Jazeera’s team on the ground reporting the intensification of strikes on the northern parts of the besieged enclave, where 61 people were killed in Gaza City alone.

Israeli air strikes on groups trying to secure the distribution of aid north of Gaza City killed at least 12 people on Wednesday.

At least 37 people desperately seeking any food for their families were killed by Israeli fire, including 16 killed near an aid point north of Rafah, according to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza and another 14 killed and 113 wounded by Israelis forces waiting for aid in the north, according to the Gaza Emergency and Ambulance Service.

In the last 24-hour reporting period, at least eight people, including three children, died from Israeli-imposed starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths since the war began in October 2023 to 235, among them 106 children, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

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A federal appeals court handed President Trump a victory on Wednesday. The court ruled that the administration can continue to freeze or terminate billions of dollars that Congress had earmarked for foreign aid spending.

In a 2-to-1 vote, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the plaintiffs in the case, a group of international aid groups, did not have the legal standing to bring a lawsuit.

The foreign aid freeze was an action the President took on his very first day in office in January.

The money in question includes nearly $4 billion for global health programs through September and more than $6 billion for HIV and AIDS programs through 2028.

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President Donald Trump said he'd like Vladimir Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "almost immediately" after his upcoming Alaskan summit with the Russian leader.

Trump, speaking to reporters on Aug.13 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., also said there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to end the Ukraine war when they meet on Aug. 15. He has previously threatened to hit Russia with sanctions and tariffs if Putin does not end the fighting.

Trump said the summit with the Russian president would be "setting the table" for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting that he might attend as well.

The president joined a call earlier on Aug. 13 with Zelenskyy and European leaders, two days before Trump's one-on-one summit with Putin in Alaska. Trump is trying to push Moscow into a peace deal that Kyiv and its allies fear will include the loss of significant territory seized by Russia in its three-year war on Ukraine.

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A New Zealand woman who is being held at a US immigration centre with her six-year-old son after they were detained crossing the Canada-US border, is being wrongly “treated like a criminal”, according to her friend and advocate.

Sarah Shaw, 33, a New Zealander who haWhen Shaw attempted to re-enter the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained her and her youngest son, in what was a “terrifying” ordeal, said Victoria Besancon, Shaw’s friend who is helping to raise money for her legal fight.s lived in Washington state for just over three years, dropped her two eldest children to Vancouver airport on 24 July, so they could take a direct flight back to New Zealand for a holiday with their grandparents.

When Shaw attempted to re-enter the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained her and her youngest son, in what was a “terrifying” ordeal, said Victoria Besancon, Shaw’s friend who is helping to raise money for her legal fight.

Sarah thought she was being kidnapped,” she said. “They didn’t really explain anything to her at first, they just kind of quietly took her and her son and immediately put them in like an unmarked white van.”

Ice confiscated Shaw’s phone and transported the mother and son to the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas, many states away from her home, Besancon said. Foreign nationals caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have similarly been transported to centres far from their homes, support networks and legal representation.

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Newly installed river barriers held back record levels of flooding and prevented widespread damage in Alaska’s capital city on Wednesday, after an ice dam at the nearby Mendenhall Glacier released a huge surge of rainwater and snowmelt, officials said.

Water pooled on several streets and in some yards in Juneau after the Mendenhall River crested earlier in the day, and high water was expected to persist for hours. But many residents in the flood zone had evacuated before peak water levels, and there were no damage reports similar to the past two summers, when about 300 homes were flooded.

The temporary barriers “really have protected our community”, Juneau city manager Katie Koester told a news conference. “If it weren’t for them, we would have hundreds and hundreds of flooded homes.”

On Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed that water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into Wednesday. Some Juneau residents in the flood zone had already evacuated as officials intensified their warnings on Tuesday, saying: “Don’t wait, Evacuate TONIGHT.”

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The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is experiencing “severe” staff shortages at all its hospitals, with the number of shortages increasing by 50% this fiscal year, according to a new report from the agency’s independent watchdog.

The report, released on Tuesday, came a day after the Guardian revealed the department had lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed “core” to the system under Donald Trump, without which, the agency said, “mission-critical work cannot be completed”.

The inspector general found 94% of VA facilities faced a “severe” shortage of doctors, while 79% faced a severe shortage of nurses. Psychology was “the most frequently reported clinical occupational staffing shortage”. A majority of VA facilities also reported severe shortages of police officers, who keep veteran patients and staff safe.

The VA operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, serving 9 million veterans annually. The report is required under two laws, one signed by Trump in 2017, which require the agency’s inspector general annually to determine the extent of staffing shortages within each medical center.

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