TV News LIES

The Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook faced more than $1.3m in legal and security fees after coming under attack from the Trump administration, according to ethics disclosures that were filed on Wednesday.

The White House targeted Cook last summer as Donald Trump ramped up his unprecedented campaign to push the Fed to cut interest rates.

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who is set to become acting US intelligence chief on Friday, accused Cook of mortgage fraud. On social media, Pulte accused Cook of misleading lenders by listing a second home as her primary residence, which would get her a better mortgage rate.

Cook was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Her term is set to end in 2038.

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For his work chairing the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, who has died aged 100, was regularly hailed by financiers, politicians and journalists for his handling of the economy. He was variously dubbed the Oracle, the Wizard and the Maestro.

As head of the central bank of the US from 1987 to 2006, tasked with setting interest rates and supervising and regulating banks and other financial institutions, he easily ranked as one of the most powerful individuals in the world. He served under four presidents: Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton – even though Greenspan was a lifelong Republican – and George W Bush.

His reputation rested on a series of smart interventions that included averting a global economic meltdown after the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash and again in the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and restoring confidence in the wake of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. His biggest triumph was to preside over one of the longest economic booms in US history, between 1991 and 2001.

“By the dawn of the new millennium, it was nearly impossible to find anyone in America who was not gaga over Greenspan. Democrats and Republicans, Wall Street and Main Street, dogs and cats – all were high on the Fed chairman,” the economic journalist Justin Martin wrote in Greenspan: The Man Behind Money (2000).

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The Department of the Interior on Monday said five individuals were arrested in connection to reports of vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. 

“Five individuals have been arrested for vandalism. Five additional individuals were issued federal citations,” a department spokesperson told The Hill.

The spokesperson said a total of 14 police reports have been filed for vandalism, including the alleged crimes described in President Trump’s recent Truth Social posts.

“Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP,” Trump wrote in a Monday post.

“It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!),” he added, referring to an image posted on social media by the former FBI director last year which led to the Justice Department prosecuting Comey for threatening the president.

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The Senate on Monday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill aimed at lowering housing costs, sending the legislation to the House.

The rare show of near-unanimous support comes as lawmakers hustle to score wins on affordability that they can trumpet back home during a midterm campaign cycle that has focused heavily on rising costs.

The bill, which the Senate approved on an 85-5 vote, is expected to pass the House this week and head to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. 

Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have been driving the package in the Senate, along with their House counterparts, Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Scott, speaking on the floor to tout the bill, said young people today feel similarly to how he felt in his youth.

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New details of an unverified ransom note previously sent to at least one news outlet following the alleged kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie, are becoming public four months after her disappearance.

A second ransom note released shortly after the 84-year-old's suspected abduction in Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 1 claimed that she was dead, NBC News, ABC News and CBS News reported on Monday, June 22. NBC and ABC cited unnamed people "familiar with" the case, while CBS referred to "sources who reviewed the notes."

After stepping back from the "Today" show in February, Savannah Guthrie returned to the program to resume anchoring duties in April. Sitting down with her longtime colleague Hoda Kotb in March, a tearful Guthrie said she and her siblings "are in agony" over her mother's disappearance, adding, "It is unbearable."

"There are a lot of different notes, I think that came. And I think most of them, it's my understanding, are not real," Guthrie told Kotb in a "Today" interview segment released March 26. "But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those were real."

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using a database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status, saying the administration has knowingly given inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in a 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

The White House referred USA TODAY to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters and other advocacy groups, Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, said the Trump administration’s newly modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system combines citizenship data and other sensitive data with information from the Social Security Administration to create a clearinghouse that Congress has expressly prohibited.

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US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that President Donald Trump had asked him to turn over "a new leaf" in American ties with the Iranian people.

But at the same time as the talks were occurring, Trump threatened to continue bombing Iran if it did not contain Hezbollah.

Vance arrived at the Burgenstock mountain resort in Switzerland on Sunday morning to join Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for technical thttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-hopes-turn-over-new-leaf-iran-trump-threatens-resume-bombingalks with Iranian officials following last week's signing of a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran.

"This is a historic meeting," Vance said, adding that the goal was to "turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran, and to extend an outstretched hand".

"The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf? Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently?

"Or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference, but it's certainly very much something that can happen."

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When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated the US-Israeli war on Iran at the end of February, Israel's objectives appeared clear: dismantling Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and bringing about the collapse of the Iranian government.

Now, following the signing of an agreement between Iran and the US, with negotiations between the two countries continuing in Switzerland, a new poll has found that 92 percent of Israelis believe Iran has won the war.

The survey, conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that Israelis overwhelmingly view the war and subsequent deal with the US in a negative way, with 83 percent of those polled saying the campaign has weakened Israel's long-term security and 86 percent feeling negatively about the outcome.

This public perception mirrors the feelings of Israel's political and military elite, many of whom see the end of the war on Iran as representing a turning point that could weaken Israel's regional influence.

The poll found that 72.5 perchttps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ninety-two-percent-israelis-think-iran-has-won-war-new-poll-findsent of Israelis do not believe Netanyahu when he says Israel achieved significant gains and removed an existential threat, a feeling that also reflects the growing uncertainty around the prime minister's future.

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