TV News LIES

Toothpaste can be widely contaminated with lead and other dangerous heavy metals, new research shows.

Most of 51 brands of toothpaste tested for lead contained the dangerous heavy metal, including those for children or those marketed as green. The testing, conducted by Lead Safe Mama, also found concerning levels of highly toxic arsenic, mercury and cadmium in many brands.

About 90% of toothpastes contained lead, 65% contained arsenic, just under half contained mercury, and one-third had cadmium. Many brands contain a number of the toxins.

The highest levels detected violated the state of Washington’s limits, but not federal limits. The thresholds have been roundly criticized by public health advocates for not being protective – no level of exposure to lead is safe, the federal government has found.

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Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, the Supreme Court issued an emergency order halting the Trump administration’s reported efforts to fly Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison before they could challenge their deportation. The court’s late-night intervention is an extraordinary and highly unusual rebuke to the government, one that may well mark a turning point in the majority’s approach to this administration.

For months, SCOTUS has given the government every benefit of the doubt, accepting the Justice Department’s dubious assertions and awarding Trump immense deference. On Saturday, however, a majority of justices signaled that they no longer trust the administration to comply with the law, including the court’s own rulings. If that is indeed the case, we are likely careening toward a head-on conflict between the president and the court, with foundational principles of constitutional democracy hanging in the balance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, ordering his forces to end hostilities at 6 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian air defense units were repelling an attack by Russian drones on Saturday, saying that showed true Moscow's attitude to Easter and the lives of people.

"Based on humanitarian considerations ... the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period," Putin told his military chief, Valery Gerasimov, at a meeting in the Kremlin.

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All three people on board a small plane were killed when it crashed into a river in Nebraska the evening of April 18, authorities said.

The plane was traveling along the Platte River south of the city of Fremont in Dodge County, Nebraska, when it crashed, the sheriff's office there said.

The plane was a Cessna 180, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It crashed into the river at about 8:45 p.m. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

"The three occupants of the plane have been recovered and are confirmed deceased. Those identities will not be released at this time pending next of kin notification," the Dodge County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

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US president Donald Trump has said the White House would “take a pass” on brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine if there are no signs of immediate progress.

“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re going to just take a pass,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

“But hopefully we won’t have to do that,” he added.

The president’s comment came hours after US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the White House may move on unless there are signs of progress.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had signed a preliminary agreement on a minerals deal with the US, and that a final accord could be reached by the end of next week.

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U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Friday halted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's attempt to lay off the vast majority of its employees and gut the agency.

Her order comes after the CFPB had sent reduction-in-force notices to more than 1,400 staffers across the agency on Thursday.

The CFPB had proceeded with layoffs after a three-judge panel last week had ruled the agency could conduct a reduction in force if it made "a particularized assessment" to determine which employees were "unnecessary" for the bureau's performance of its statutory duties.

But the CFPB's union immediately took legal action seeking to halt the mass layoffs, saying the agency had not in fact conducted the thorough assessment required by that three-judge panel.

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