TV News LIES

A federal judge has, for a second time, struck down a Texas state law banning drag performances in settings where children may be present.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, US district judge David Hittner said Texas cannot enforce its drag show ban. He said that the measure improperly restricts speech and violates the first amendment of the US constitution.

The Texas ban, known as Senate bill 12, was passed in March 2023 and bans drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children, or “sexually-oriented performance” presented on the premises in the presence of an individual younger than 18 years of age.

Advocacy groups sued the state after the bill’s passage, arguing the ban on “sexually oriented performance” infringed on constitutional rights. Texas’s move was just one across several states in 2023, driven by a right-wing backlash to increasing queer and transgender rights and equality. Hittner initially declared the ban unconstitutional in September 2023, but it was unblocked by the 5th US circuit court of appeals in 2025, which returned the case to the judge.

That allowed Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is locked in a race for a US Senate seat against Democrat James Talarico, to resume enforcing the law earlier this year.

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Former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley told US lawmakers he repeatedly shared confidential and market-sensitive bank ⁠information with Jeffrey Epstein and ⁠was at one ​point named as a trustee of his estate, according to a transcript released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday.

These admissions come as lawmakers investigate the late convicted ⁠sex offender’s ties with political and business elites. Staley appeared before the committee in July as part of its investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Transcripts ⁠from the meeting were released on Wednesday.

In the closed-door, voluntary interview conducted on 24 July, Staley said he divulged to ​Epstein the bank’s communications with the Federal Reserve during the ‌2008 financial crisis, a figure of $44bn in private bank inflows over two weeks and details of pending deals. Staley also admitted to ‌sharing other confidential information about JPMorgan with Epstein, according to the transcript.

Lawmakers also questioned him about communications in which he discussed matters including his compensation, client relationships and developments related to his eventual move to Barclays.

Staley defended the exchanges, saying he believed he had the authority to share information when he considered it appropriate. He has maintained he had a close professional relationship with Epstein, but was unaware of his crimes.

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Tim Curry, a multitalented star of the stage and screen, died Tuesday at his home at the age of 80. The three-time Tony Award-nominated icon was best known for his eccentric characters, his musical background, and his comedic chops, leading to a varied and successful career in cult classics and box office hits.

Curry “passed away peacefully at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles,” according to a statement from his longtime manager Marcia Hurwitz. The cause of death has not been made public, but Curry had suffered from several health issues since having a severe stroke in 2012.

Though he was best-known for donning fishnets and a corset as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Curry had left his mark with a wide-ranging career spanning albums, voice work, and more.

Here are a few of the roles that allow his unmistakable artistry to live on.

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Meta will pay up to $18 billion and strictly limit how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram under a sweeping agreement with nearly all U.S. states to resolve claims it designed those social media platforms to addict children.

The settlements announced on Wednesday end a federal trial over allegations Meta‘s products harmed children and the company misled the public about their safety. Four of the states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — were expected to seek close to $200 billion in civil penalties.

While Meta will not undergo a fundamental overhaul, the accords represent a sweeping effort to define how it serves young users.

It could provide a template for resolving thousands of other lawsuits against social media companies. Governments around the world are trying to curb children’s access to harmful online content, including a ban in Australia on social media for children under 16.

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When Tim Brunner was at an auction barn earlier this week, he was surprised to see decent cows selling several hundred dollars cheaper than they were just a few weeks ago. 

He largely blames President Donald Trump. And he’s not the only one.

The White House’s abrupt decision last week to ease tariffs on 300,000 metric tons — more than 660 million pounds — of foreign beef imports has infuriated American cattle ranchers and congressional Republicans alike. 

While the president promised the 90-day change would ease high prices for staple foods like hamburgers, many domestic livestock producers took it as a slap in the face during an already-difficult time.

"It’s absolutely idiotic," said Brunner, the president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association, one of several organizations representing cattle ranchers across the Treasure State.

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A massive landslide along the Nepal-China border sent a torrent of mud, rocks and water through communities Wednesday, leaving a trail of destroyed homes, roads, bridges and power infrastructure.

At least 160 people have died in Nepal and China's Tibet region, including 157 in Nepal and three in China, while hundreds remain missing. Officials on both sides of the border have warned that the death toll could rise as rescue crews struggle to reach devastated areas, Reuters reported.

Video footage from the disaster zone shows the scale and speed of the destruction. Security cameras on the Chinese side of the border captured people running from a wall of debris as floodwaters rushed through a border crossing, sweeping away vehicles and buildings.

In Nepal, images showed roads buried beneath thick layers of mud, homes partially submerged and survivors being carried or transported to safer areas. Helicopters flew over valleys as rescue crews searched for people stranded by the flooding.

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Zvi Sukkot, a member of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, was filmed smashing the Palestinian Martyrs' Monument in the village of Madama, south of Nablus, with a sledgehammer.

In a video posted to Facebook, Sukkot said the memorial commemorated two Palestinians who had killed Israelis and argued that it could not be allowed to remain.

“We must take it down,” he said, adding that he wanted the memorial destroyed because children growing up in the village and passing it would be inspired to become “martyrs” themselves.

Sukkot, who chairs the Knesset Education Committee, was accompanied by Israeli military forces during the incident, despite the army later saying that the destruction had not been authorised.

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South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham has won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

Her win came after an endorsement from President Trump, backing her for a full term in the seat formerly held by her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

She beat Rep. Ralph Norman for the nomination in Tuesday's special election primary runoff after no candidate won the GOP special election primary outright earlier this month. She now faces Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, in November in the heavily Republican state.

Trump had backed Graham, a political newcomer, as the interim replacement for her brother, who died from a heart condition on July 11 and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve out the remainder of her brother's term.

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