TV News LIES

Homicides in major US cities are falling at likely “one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded”, a crime analysis has found.

Jeff Asher of AH Datalytics, a New Orleans-based data-analytics company focused on criminal justice, education and the non-profit sector, discussed that finding with the Wall Street Journal on Monday after combing through quarterly data recently released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“There’s just a ton of places that you can point to that are showing widespread, very positive trends,” Asher told the Journal.

In 2002, during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a warning to President George W. Bush about launching a war there. “Once you break it," he said, “you’re going to own it.”

Thousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.

A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off by protesters calling for an end to the violence.

NBC Chicago reported that some travelers were seen getting out of their cars and walking along the highway to the airport. The Chicago aviation department said the protests caused substantial flight delays. Many protesters were arrested following the incident.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, two major highways – the southbound 101 across the Golden Gate Bridge and northbound 880 in nearby Oakland – were disrupted during morning rush hour as demonstrators echoed calls for a ceasefire and an end to US support for Israel.

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The New York judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial said Monday that Trump cannot attend arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court next week.

It came after the judge earlier delayed a decision on allowing Trump to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in May.

The attempts by Trump to take off certain days of his hush money trial that is expected to last weeks, if not months, came as the first day of trial was officially underway in Manhattan.

The decision to not allow Trump to be in Washington, D.C., on April 25, when the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on a presidential immunity claim Trump is making in his federal criminal case, came just before the New York trial adjourned Monday.

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has unveiled his plan to move foreign aid through the House, pitching four separate bills to address aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other national security priorities.

Johnson rolled out his proposal during a closed-door House GOP conference meeting on Monday, after months of delaying any decisions on the politically prickly topic.

The plan — according to two GOP lawmakers at the meeting — is to move the four bills under one procedural rule that would allow for an amendment process.

The fourth national security-related bill, according to one of the GOP lawmakers, would include a TikTok ban, a provision to allow the U.S. to use seized Russian assets to assist Ukraine, a lend-lease act for military aid and convertible loans for humanitarian relief.

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Massive coral bleaching across the world's oceans during the past year's extremely warm water temperatures was labeled a “global coral bleaching event” by federal officials on Monday.

It’s the fourth global coral bleaching overall and the second in the last 10 years, with extensive bleaching and heat stress across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

"From February 2023 to April 2024, significant coral bleaching has been documented in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of each major ocean basin," said Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch. Reef Watch monitors heat stress based on sea surface temperatures measured by satellite.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he will try to advance wartime aid for Israel this week as he attempts the difficult task of winning House approval for a national security package that also includes funding for Ukraine and allies in Asia.

Johnson, R-La., is already under immense political pressure from his fellow GOP lawmakers as he tries to stretch between the Republican Party’s divided support for helping Kyiv defend itself from Moscow’s invasion. The Republican speaker has sat for two months on a $95 billion supplemental package that would send support to the U.S. allies, as well as provide humanitarian aid for civilians in Ukraine and Gaza and funding to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan.

The attack by Iran on Israel early Sunday further ratcheted up the pressure on Johnson, but also gave him an opportunity to underscore the urgency of approving the funding.

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