TV News LIES

Average US gas prices have hit a new high at $4.23 a gallon, their highest since 2022 and a record since the start of the war with Iran, according to the motor club AAA.

The price of Brent crude, the benchmark that influences the price of gasoline in the US, now stands at $114.60 a barrel, up nearly 25% from the recent low since mid-April. US gas prices a year ago averaged $3.16 a gallon.

The milestone comes as US officials contemplate an extended blockade by the US and Iran of the strait of Hormuz, the transit chokepoint for 20% of the world’s oil.

“A significantly bigger risk arises if higher gasoline and oil prices leak into other necessities such as grocery and utility prices – though so far there is little evidence for this,” said Bank of America analysts in an NBC News report.

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The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will be heading home following a record-setting deployment of more than 300 days that included participating in the war against Iran and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, two US officials said Wednesday.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements. The Washington Post reported the development earlier.

The arrival of the USS George HW Bush to the region last week meant three American aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East – a number not seen since 2003 – during a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war. The USS Abraham Lincoln also has been in the region since January as tensions with Tehran ramped up.

This month, the Ford broke the US record for the longest post Vietnam-war deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June.

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The sheriff of New Orleans was hit on Wednesday with a sweeping 30-count indictment alleging malfeasance and payroll fraud amid an outside investigation into her office that was prompted by a massive jailbreak nearly a year earlier.

The indictment against sheriff Susan Hutson, whose duties include operating the New Orleans jail, was brought by Louisiana state attorney general Liz Murrill. It came days before Hutson was set to leave office, bringing a sudden and sharp conclusion to a tenure that began in 2022 with promises of sweeping reform.

Hutson’s chief financial officer, Bianka Brown, was also indicted on 20 felony counts.

Murrill’s office alleges Hutson’s refusal to follow basic legal requirements and failure to take minimal precautions enabled a 10 May 2025 mass escape that was one of the largest and most brazen jailbreaks in recent US history.

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Today, the supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.

As my colleague Sam Levine notes, at the heart of the case, Louisiana v Callais, was a question of how much lawmakers are allowed to consider race when they redraw districts to ensure that black voters are adequately represented.

In a 6-3 decision, split along partisan lines, the court struck down a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana, rendering ineffective section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.

The ruling gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that weaken the influence of black and other minority voters. It comes as Donald Trump has pushed for red states to redraw their congressional maps in ways that would help Republicans win more seats in this year’s elections.

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A divided federal appeals court said Wednesday it will not grant a rare meeting of its active judges to hear an appeal of an $83 million verdict against President Donald Trump for defaming a magazine advice columnist over an encounter three decades ago.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to reject a so-called “en banc” hearing comes several months after Trump appealed to the Supreme Court another jury’s decision to grant $5 million the writer, E. Jean Carroll, after concluding that he had sexually abused her in a department store dressing room in 1996 and later defamed her. The high court has not yet decided whether to hear the case.

Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that her client was “eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice.”

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The Virginia Supreme Court will allow a lower court order temporarily blocking the commonwealth from certifying the results of a redistricting referendum to remain in place, dealing a blow to Democrats who sought to challenge the ruling.

The high court on Tuesday denied a motion by Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) to appeal last week’s ruling from a Tazewell County circuit court judge that found the referendum unconstitutional.

Judge Jack Hurley Jr. sided with the Republican National Committee (RNC) in February in a lawsuit seeking to block the April 21 referendum, arguing against its timing and the phrasing of the ballot question.

But the state Supreme Court stepped in and allowed it to continue, stating last month that while there were issues of “grave concern” regarding the process undertaken by the Virginia General Assembly, it declined to offer an opinion on the matter.

“It is the process, not the outcome, of this effort that we may ultimately have to address,” the court said. “Issuing an injunction to keep Virginians from the polls is not the proper way to make this decision.”

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The Supreme Court on April 29 threw out a congressional map in Louisiana that had been drawn to protect the voting power of Black residents, a decision that limits a landmark civil rights law.

An ideologically divided court sided 6-3 with the Trump administration and with the non-Black voters who challenged the map as relying too heavily on race to sort voters – and it did so just three years after upholding the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s vote dilution protections for racial minorities.

Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito called the map an "unconstitutional gerrymander" that violates the constitutional rights of the non-Black voters who challenged it.

The court's three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan said the consequences of the majority's decision "are likely to be far-reaching and grave," rendering the protections of the civil rights law "all but a dead letter."

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A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is facing charges over an alleged scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Dr. David Morens, 78, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month and charged with five counts, including conspiracy, destruction of records in federal investigations, and concealment of records. He made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge Monday and is set to be arraigned next week.

Morens served as a senior adviser to NIAID's Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022. Dr. Anthony Fauci led the institute for nearly 40 years, serving under seven presidents, and retired in 2022 during then-President Joe Biden's administration.

Prosecutors allege that Morens and two unnamed, unindicted co-conspirators worked together to defraud the U.S. by shielding federal records related to the pandemic from the public. The first co-conspirator, identified as "co-conspirator 1," served as the president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit group that received a grant in 2014 titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence."

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