TV News LIES

Ukraine was a priority, not the priority, as Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul touched down in Washington early this week.

Russia’s war is entering a more fragile phase, European anxiety is rising, and Berlin wanted to hear directly how firmly the US still sees itself anchored to Kyiv’s defense.

The visit came just days after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged Europe to “raise the price of the war in Ukraine” to force Russia into accepting a ceasefire – a signal that patience in Berlin is wearing thin.

Wadephul’s meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio opened with Ukraine, according to officials familiar with the talks, reflecting Germany’s concern that the conflict might slip amid a crowded global agenda.

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Democratic US senator Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to nullify the “chilling” attempt by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to reduce the military veteran’s rank and pension as punishment for speaking out against the Trump administration.

Hegseth had previously issued a formal censure to Kelly, a decorated retired navy captain and Nasa astronaut, for alleged “seditious statements” he made urging service members to resist unlawful orders. It began a process that could lead to Kelly, a senator for Arizona since 2021, being demoted and having his pension cut.

The lawsuit, filed in Washington DC federal court, argues that comments made by Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers – all military or intelligence veterans – in a short video to service members in November were protected free speech.

The 46-page court filing accuses Hegseth, the Department of Defense, the US navy, and John Phelan, the navy secretary, of “trampling” on constitutional protections “essential to legislative independence”. The filing said the defense secretary was attempting to dismantle the “bedrock principles of our democracy”, freedom of speech and the separation of powers.

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The number two prosecutor in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia has been fired, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of dismissals in an office that is leading controversial criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James.

The number two prosecutor in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia has been fired, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of dismissals in an office that is leading controversial criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James.

Robert McBride, a former federal prosecutor in Kentucky, was brought in late last year to serve as the deputy to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally who the president installed as the acting US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia in September. McBride was dismissed after declining to lead the Comey prosecution, which a judge threw out in November after ruling Halligan was unlawfully appointed, one of the people said. (The justice department is appealing the ruling.)

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Federal immigration agents detained an employee of the New York City council on Monday, sparking outrage from the city’s leaders and renewed rebukes against the Trump administration’s immigration actions.

“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement on X. “I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

The employee was taken in during a “routine immigration appointment”, according to statements from Mamdani and council speaker, Julie Menin. The council was made aware he had been detained on Monday afternoon, after the employee called the council’s human resources department for help, ABC News reported.

Federal immigration agents detained an employee of the New York City council on Monday, sparking outrage from the city’s leaders and renewed rebukes against the Trump administration’s immigration actions.

Menin did not name the employee, but said he was legally in the US and had authorization to remain in the country through October 2026. She said the council was working to secure his release, and called the action “overreach”.

“Across the nation, we have seen aggressive escalations by ICE that raise serious concerns on the use of excessive force and a lack of accountability,” she said. “As New Yorkers, we will stand up for the rights and dignity of every neighbor.”

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As a neurologist, I care for some of society’s most vulnerable individuals — children with severe disabilities who are often mocked, dismissed or misunderstood. My career is rooted in supporting people with physical and cognitive differences, educating about empathy and respect for human diversity, and applying the principles of science and medicine to improve the lives of those facing challenges of one kind or another.

From that perspective, President Donald Trump’s public admonition of a female reporter in November — “Quiet, piggy” — was gut-wrenching and continues to resonate weeks later. To some, it was an offhand, albeit misogynistic, fat-shaming insult. To me, the remark instantly evoked Piggy, the vulnerable and marginalized character in William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” and revealed something far more troubling: a display of dominance, denigration and the subjugation of those deemed less worthy.

The rapid spread of the phrase across media platforms underscored a deeper danger — one that has only grown more unsettling as public displays of intimidation and condemnation increase. It is not just the cruelty of the words but the authority of the speaker, and the delight of many in his audience, that makes them so corrosive.

“Quiet, piggy” is not a joke. It is an illustration of how normalized bullying has become, and an affront to the people I care for and the values that guide my work.

Others have drawn parallels between “Lord of the Flies” and our political moment. In 2020, The New York Times published Jennifer Finney Boylan’s essay “President of the Flies,” in which she described feeling cast onto “some cruel and hostile strand ... where people with disabilities were mocked, immigrants ... were reviled, and grabbing women by their private parts was ... A-OK.”

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Senate Republicans are rushing to defend Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell from a Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation that Powell says is politically motivated and aimed at undercutting the Fed’s independence.

GOP lawmakers are challenging the Trump administration’s investigation of Powell a week after five Republican senators voted to advance a war powers resolution to bar Trump from taking military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization.

The loudest warning shot against the White House came from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, who accused Trump’s advisers of deliberately trying to undercut the Fed’s independence and threatened to block the president’s nominees to the Fed until the investigation is “fully resolved.”

He said the criminal probe into Powell’s testimony before Congress last year over the $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington raises questions about the “independence and credibility of the Department of Justice.”

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Former late-night comic David Letterman blasted his old network over a shift in its news coverage during the first year of President Trump’s second term.

“By the way, what about those idiots at CBS?” Letterman said as part of a video posted to his YouTube channel, a medium he has used to comment on current events in recent months since leaving network

“CBS News is a wreck,” he continued. “CBS News for decades … go back to World War II … Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftops of buildings in London. … That integrity of CBS News has been trampled on, pissed on and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.”

Letterman said the recent changes at CBS are “hurting my feelings” and that he is “sick and tired” of progressives saying, “wait until those midterms,” countering “we’re far downstream of those midterms having an effect on this.”

The host’s comments were first highlighted by Mediaite.

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Minnesota and Illinois, two states targeted by the Trump administration for immigration enforcement, sued Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday, aiming to curb the agency’s crackdown after a woman was shot and killed by a federal agent last week.

Officials in Minnesota are seeking to stop Homeland Security agents from deploying to the state over the objections of Gov. Tim Walz and the mayors of the Twin Cities. Illinois attorneys are asking the court to bar federal agents from using the controversial tactics employed in their crackdown on the Chicago area.

The court filings come comes as hundreds more federal agents are being sent to Minnesota, the Trump administration said, as furor grows over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the deployments amounted to a "federal invasion."

"People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted. Schools have gone into lockdown. Businesses have been forced to close. Minnesota police are spending countless hours dealing with the chaos ICE is causing," Ellison said in a statement. "This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end."

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