TV News LIES

When the ‘“department of government efficiency” was raging unchecked through the federal government in February 2025, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered his subordinates to find cuts of 8% a year for the next five years, theoretically trimming a total of $340m from the Pentagon budget.

The disclosure briefly sent Palantir and defense stocks tanking – though soon the plan evaporated, as if it never existed.

Instead, Hegseth is now demanding a $454bn increase for 2027 military spending, to a total of almost $1.5tn, in what he describes as a “generational investment”.

Adjusted for inflation, that would for the first time match – and even exceed – US military spending at the height of the second world war during national mobilization, according to a chart prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

More...

A Secret Service agent assigned to JD Vance’s protective detail is “the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security”, according to the Secret Service chief of communications.

The agent came under suspicion after allegedly providing information that appeared in an MS Now report about the vice-president’s planned Marine Corps helicopter trip with his son to a golf lesson, a source told CNN.

The report also claimed there was a “building morale problem” among the agents assigned to protect Vance and his family. The trip was ultimately called off due to severe thunderstorms.

The source said the publication of those travel plans triggered unease among the Secret Service, the FBI and White House officials, who “fumed over operational details being described in the press”. A second source told CNN that investigators identified the individual they believe was responsible for leaking the information.

More...

Concerns are growing in southern California over a cluster of “exceptionally rare” cancer cases that has sickened multiple children in a suburban community.

Families living in the Orange county neighborhood of Ladera Ranch, home to about 26,000 people, have reported that six children in the community were diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, Katrina Foley, the vice-chair of the county board of supervisors, said in a statement.

Ewing sarcoma is a rare cancer that primarily affects bone and soft tissue and is largely seen in young adults and children.

At a community meeting this week, hundreds of residents turned up to voice their concerns, including several who spoke about additional cancer cases in adults and pets. While the American Cancer Society reports there are “no known lifestyle-related or environmental causes” of Ewing sarcoma, many residents believe the cancer cases are linked to the use of herbicides and pesticides.

More...

House Democrat calls Trump's new tariffs 'an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress', not an attempt to end forced labor.

As soon as the Trump administration announced its new tariffs on 85 countries, for supposedly failing to crack down on forced labor, the office of the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, turned its official, government social media account into a political battering ram: posting past statements against forced labor from 15 senators and members of Congress of both parties, in a transparent attempt to head off their criticism of the new tariffs.

One of those lawmakers, congresswoman Linda Sánchez, a California Democrat, denounced the pretext for the new tariffs as a sham anyway.

“President Trump isn’t serious about combating forced labor. He’s trying to make an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress to reimpose his illegal tariffs,” Sánchez wrote on social media.

More...

The Trump family is making headlines again after money management companies tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have raked in about $6.3 billion from investments in defense-sector startups that receive hefty government contracts.

According to The Washington Post (1), portfolio funds linked to the Trumps have "invested in more than a dozen defense tech companies and other firms seeking businesses from the Pentagon and federal agencies."

The investment companies cited in The Post's analysis include Plainville, N.Y.-based 1789 Capital, an investment firm that says it's "Funding the Next Chapter of America's Exceptionalism" on its website's home page (2). The firm's leadership team includes Donald Trump, Jr., who's billed as a partner on the 1789 website.

Another firm, American Ventures branch, a branch of Dominari Holdings, holds approximately $1 billion in private assets, with Eric Trump reportedly heavily involved in the company.

More...

The House on Thursday approved a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, in a vote that reflected growing frustration inside Congress over the war and the ability of lawmakers to conduct oversight.

The resolution passed the House by a vote of 214 to 208. And while it is not legally binding, the resolution represents a symbolic rebuke to President Trump over a war that lawmakers never voted to authorize. It was the second such rebuke passed by the House since the start of the war.

Shortly after the House vote, Senate Democrats tried to advance a war powers resolution of their own, but the measure failed 47 to 49.

The votes came at a moment when attacks between Iran and the U.S. appear to be intensifying. Eighteen U.S. troops have died since fighting broke out in February, but four have died since July 17. U.S. forces have also suffered nearly 500 injuries, with 100 of those coming in the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon.

More...

President Trump has thrown the Saudi nuclear deal into question less than 24 hours after it was signed, making it conditional on the Saudis normalizing relations with Israel.

His Thursday announcement appears vastly different from what sources familiar had disclosed about the deal on Wednesday, raising questions about whether it marks a U-turn or just a confusing rollout.

The Saudis have long said that any normalization with Israel is conditioned on seeing a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state, something Israel has dismissed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing that Trump has said if the Saudis don’t join the Abraham Accords, “the deal is off.”

More...

Lawyers with the Department of Justice on Thursday agreed to unilaterally withdraw a series of subpoenas that sought to compel New York Times journalists to testify about their sources and to access their phone records. 

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would quash the subpoenas if the Department of Justice refused to withdraw them. 

"It's a matter of basic compliance with the law," Judge Subramanian said.

Attorneys for the New York Times were in court Thursday to fight a series of grand jury subpoenas they allege were an attempt to retaliate against and intimidate reporters whose work angered President Donald Trump. 

Lawyers for the newspaper had asked the judge to quash the subpoenas, which sought to compel the journalists to testify about their sources, as well as access the phone records of the reporters and some of their family members. 

Sean Buckley, the chief counsel to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that prosecutors would return to the judge if they decide to seek new subpoenas in the future. 

"Upon further consideration, the government is prepared unilaterally to withdraw the subpoenas at this time," he said.

More...