TV News LIES

New York's Appellate Division has upheld Judge Juan Merchan's decision not to recuse himself from former President Trump's hush money case.

Trump's defense team had sought Merchan's recusal based on his daughter's work for a consulting firm with Democratic clients.

A panel of appellate judges ruled that Trump failed to prove the judge overstepped his authority by denying a defense motion for recusal.

A strong gust of wind toppled the stage at a campaign rally Wednesday evening in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, killing at least nine people — including a child — and injuring 63, the state's governor said.

The collapse occurred during an event attended by presidential long-shot candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez, who ran to escape. Videos of the collapse on social media showed people screaming, running away and climbing out from under metal polls.

The victims "will not be alone in this tragedy," Máynez told reporters Wednesday night, adding that he had suspended upcoming campaign events.

Afterward, soldiers, police and other officials roamed the grounds of the park where the event took place while many nearby sat stunned and haunted by the tragedy.

More...

The United Nations’ top court is expected to issue an order on Friday on Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, potentially ordering Israel to halt the operation.

The court has no way to enforce its orders, but the case, brought by South Africa, has put increasing international pressure on Israel to show more restraint in its military campaign in Gaza.

Last week, as part of its defense at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel characterized its military operation in Rafah, which lies on Gaza’s border with Egypt, as “limited and localized.” It argued that the court’s judges should not restrict Israel’s actions in Gaza. Lawyers for South Africa argued that Israel’s Rafah offensive was “the last step in the destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian people.”

Israel’s government has accused South Africa of acting as a “legal arm of Hamas” by filing the case in The Hague and it says it is not bound by the court’s rulings.

More...

Members of a Republican-led congressional committee confronted another set of university heads on Thursday over their approach to pro-Palestinian protests in the latest hearings on Capitol Hill on a reported increase of campus antisemitism.

Republicans on the House of Representatives’ education and workforce committee repeatedly clashed fiercely with Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University in Illinois, over his decision to negotiate an end to a tented protest community rather than call in police, as has happened on other campuses.

In a sometimes fiery three-hour session, Schill – who opened his testimony by declaring that he was the Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors – became the lightning rod in a hearing also featuring the chiefs of Rutgers University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

More...

South Dakota’s far-right governor Kristi Noem is now officially barred by Indigenous groups from visiting all tribal lands in her own home state.

The sweeping ban is the latest development in the contentious relationship between Noem and Indigenous tribes after controversial comments the governor made connecting tribal leaders to international drug cartels.

It is only the latest scandal for Noem, long a controversial acolyte of Donald Trump, who garnered outrage after the Guardian reported on her book in which the governor revealed that she had shot her family dog and goat in cold blood.

More...

 

One of the US’s leading anti-abortion activists has been appointed to a Texas health committee tasked with reviewing maternal deaths.

The move worries reproductive justice advocates who say the state’s abortion ban – among the strictest in the US – has placed pregnant women’s lives in jeopardy. The appointment could undermine the committee’s ability to accurately examine the impact of the law on deaths during and in the immediate aftermath of pregnancy, they say.

“This appointment speaks volumes about how seriously certain state leaders are taking the issue of maternal mortality,” said Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, an abortion assistance group that advocates for reproductive health equity. “It is another sign that the state is more interested in furthering their anti-abortion agenda than protecting the lives of pregnant Texans.”

More...

Powerful Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into an alleged quid pro quo offer from Donald Trump to fossil fuel executives.

At a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago home and club last month, the former president reportedly told oil bosses he would immediately roll back dozens of environmental regulations if elected, and requested $1bn in contributions to his presidential campaign. It would be a “deal” for the executives because of the costs they would avoid under him, he reportedly said.

On Thursday morning, the chairmen of two Senate committees each sent letters to eight oil companies and top fossil fuel trade group the American Petroleum Institute.

The letters from Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate budget committee chairman, and Ron Wyden, the Senate finance committee chair, accused the companies of engaging in a quid pro quo with Trump and requested additional details about the meeting.

More...

 

In Florida, the rainbow will only have three colors during Pride month this year: red, white, and by-god blue.

Earlier this month, the Sunshine State effectively announced that it was banning the lighting of bridges in rainbow colors during June by annexing the month as part of its so-called “Freedom Summer.” Between May 27 to September 2 this year, bridges from Jacksonville to Miami Beach will only be permitted to display the colors of the traditional American flag.

In an announcement on X, Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue claimed the red, white, and blue lights would demonstrate that, under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida is “the freest state in the nation.” (Just not free enough to celebrate Pride month however they want, of course.)

“As Floridians prepare for Freedom Summer, Florida's bridges will follow suit, illuminating in red, white, and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day!” he wrote.

More...