TV News LIES

The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was fired Thursday, one day after telling lawmakers he did not think it was in the public’s interest to eliminate the agency.

A FEMA spokesperson confirmed Cameron Hamilton was no longer serving as acting administrator. That role is now being filled by David Richardson, who was appointed in January as assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.

Politico first reported on Hamilton’s firing.

Hamilton testified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, where he was asked about the push from the Trump administration to get rid of FEMA and largely turn over disaster response to the states.

“I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton told lawmakers.

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The nation's biggest cities are sinking, according to data from a new study.

Known scientifically as land "subsidence," the most common cause of the sinking is "massive ongoing groundwater extraction," say the study authors, though other forces are at work in some places. The cities include not just those on the coasts, where sea level rise is a concern, but many in the interior.

In every city studied, at least 20% of the urban area is sinking – and in 25 of 28 cities, at least 65% is sinking.

He added that the study "offers critical information for urban planning, infrastructure adaptation, and hazard preparedness."

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Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday became the first ever pope from the U.S., a surprise selection by 133 cardinals from across the globe on the second day of the papal conclave in Rome.

The new pontiff, who took the name Leo XIV, greeted the thousands of exuberant faithful and onlookers, many overcome with emotion as he spoke from the red velvet-draped central balcony at St. Peter’s Square.

"Peace be with you all," he told the cheering crowd in fluent Italian. Leo, who became the church's 267th pope, also spoke in Spanish but not English in his brief address.

Leo thanked Pope Francis and repeated his predecessor's call for a church that is engaged with the modern world and "is always looking for peace, charity and being close to people, especially those who are suffering."

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At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in two Israeli strikes on a crowded restaurant and market on the same street in Gaza City, medics and the Hamas-run health ministry say.

Graphic videos posted on social media showed bodies slumped at tables the Thailandy restaurant, in the northern Rimal neighbourhood, which was also operating as a community kitchen.

Footage from the nearby marketplace showed a small child with a rucksack lying dead in the street.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

Earlier, hospitals said at least 59 people had been killed in attacks since Tuesday night, most of them at two schools serving as shelters for displaced families.

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A federal appeals court in New York Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to transfer Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student, from Louisiana to Vermont to continue her immigration detention in that state while a judge there decides whether to release her on bail.

The Trump administration has one week to comply with the transfer, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

"The District of Vermont is likely the proper venue to adjudicate Öztürk's habeas petition because, at the time she filed, she was physically in Vermont," the panel wrote in its ruling.

Öztürk has been detained at a federal facility in Louisiana after being arrested on the street in Somerville, Massachusetts on March 25 by six federal plainclothes immigration agents. The Department of Homeland Security later accused her of engaging "in activities in support of Hamas."

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Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that Russia is “asking for too much” to end its war with Ukraine, underscoring new frustrations in the Trump White House over its efforts to court Moscow on peace talks.

Speaking to the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington, he said that the U.S. is focusing on a long-term settlement since Russia has rejected the U.S. call for a 30-day ceasefire. Moscow has said that sort of temporary pause is not in its strategic interest because it would allow Ukraine to regroup.

Earlier this year, Utah and Idaho’s Republican-controlled legislatures passed bans on flying the rainbow pride flags and other “unofficial flags” on government property.

Leaders in both states’ capital cities, Salt Lake City and Boise, recently devised an inventive workaround – changing their official flags.

Salt Lake City’s mayor, Erin Mendenhall, proposed the adoption of three new city flags, which were unanimously approved by the city council. All three have the city’s traditional sego lily design, respectively imposed over a pride flag, a trans flag and a Juneteenth commemoration flag.

“Our city flags are powerful symbols representing Salt Lake City’s values,” said Mendenhall in a press release. “I want all Salt Lakers to look up at these flags and be reminded that we value diversity, equity and inclusion – leaving no doubt that we are united as a city and people, moving forward together.”

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The Trump administration’s reported plan to hurriedly deport immigrants to war-torn Libya would “clearly violate” an earlier court order barring such summary deportations, a federal judge warned Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s assessment followed an emergency motion filed by lawyers for a group of Asian immigrants seeking to block a military flight that appeared to be on the verge of taking off from Texas — even as the two competing governments that control portions of Libya reportedly indicated they would reject deportation flights from the United States.

Citing “alarming reports” in the media and accounts from some of their clients — nationals of Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines — the lawyers said the immigrants are at risk of being sent to Libya in defiance of an earlier injunction, issued by Murphy, prohibiting deportations to so-called third-party countries without notice and a chance to make a legal challenge. They asked Murphy to quickly prevent any deportation flights to Libya and to ensure the Trump administration is complying with his earlier order. They also asked Murphy to block flights to potential “stopover” nations like Saudi Arabia.

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