TV News LIES

Kate Adamala had been working on something dangerous.

At her synthetic biology lab, Adamala had been taking preliminary steps toward creating a living cell from scratch with one key twist: all the organism's building blocks would be flipped. Changing these molecules would create an unnatural mirror image of a cell, as different as your right hand from your left.

The endeavor was not only a fascinating research challenge, but could be used to improve biotechnology and medicine. But as Adamala and her colleagues talked with biosecurity experts about the project, grave concerns began brewing.

"They started to ask questions like 'have you considered what happens if that cell gets released or what would happen if it infected a human?'" said Adamala, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota. They hadn't.

More...

Israeli forces have killed at least 77 Palestinians across Gaza, including 47 people in northern Gaza City, as the military intensifies its campaign to seize the city and displace about one million people living there.

The killings on Saturday included 11 Palestinians who were shot dead while queueing for food aid, and came as the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 10 more people had died of malnutrition in the last 24-hour period . The victims included three children. 

In Gaza City, Israeli forces launched three strikes in quick succession, tearing apart an apartment block and killing at least seven people. Several more were wounded, including children.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said the attack caused “mahem and chaos” and damaged the surrounding areas.

“Many children were wounded. They arrived to the hospital fully soaked in their own blood. We saw one child transferred to the hospital who had the flesh of others who were wounded sticking to his back.”

Mahmoud said the attack was the latest since Israel declared Gaza City a combat zone.

“The military has increased its aerial bombings on densely populated areas, pushing people into further displacement. We are seeing people scrambling for shelter,” he added.

More...

American private military firms could be deployed to Ukraine as part of a long-term peace plan.

Donald Trump is in talks with European allies about allowing armed contractors to help build fortifications to protect American interests in the country.

The plan is being devised as a workaround after the US president promised that American troops would not be stationed in Ukraine.

US contractors could be deployed to help rebuild Ukraine’s front-line defences, new bases and protect US businesses.

The presence of private soldiers would act as a deterrent to discourage Vladimir Putin from breaking an eventual ceasefire.

The plan is being discussed alongside a range of other so-called security guarantees – drawn up by the coalition of the willing led by the UK and France – that will form the basis of a long-term peace plan.

Friday’s news that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is considering not seeking reelection inspired the type of internet callback that no political figure ever wants.

A smoke signal sent by the campaign said that Ernst will announce the decision officially next month.

Still, the report of the pending news was enough of an excuse for Ernst’s critics to remind others of the callous way she dismissed voter concerns about Medicaid cuts at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, back in May.

When one woman yelled that “people will die” because of the major cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs, Ernst snidely responded, “People are not ― well, we all are going to die. So, for heaven’s sakes, folks.”

The comments have followed Ernst ever since, even as she tried to reduce their impact in various ways.

More...

It's been 70 years since the lynching of Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi. White men kidnapped, tortured, shot, and dumped him in a river for whistling at a white shopkeeper. His killing drew global outrage and galvanized civil rights activists.

Now the state of Mississippi is adding to its collection of artifacts from the crime — the murder weapon.

"This is a pistol that we believe is the weapon that was used to kill Emmett Till," says Nan Prince, director of collections for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. She's in a basement conservation lab, with the gun and its leather holster carefully laid out on a rolling cart.

"It's a hard item to see," she says. "I've been in this field for a long time, and I've never had an artifact affect me quite like this…especially when you know how it was used and just the hatred that must have led to its use that night."

More...

The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order outlining how the city will attempt to resist Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Brandon Johnson pushed back on Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to deploy large numbers of federal officers into the country’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.

The Chicago police department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to the executive order Johnson signed.

The mayor directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or national guard deployment by the federal government”.

More...

 

A conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Friday that she will not seek reelection, creating an open race for a seat on the court that’s controlled 4-3 by liberals.

Justice Rebecca Bradley's decision not to run for a second full term comes after conservative candidates for the highest court in the battleground state have lost each of the past two elections by double-digit margins. Both of those races broke national spending records and the liberal won in April despite heavy spending by billionaire Elon Musk.

Liberal state Supreme Court candidates have won four of the past five races, resulting in them taking over the majority in 2023, breaking a 15-year run of conservative control. Regardless of who wins the April election, liberals will maintain their 4-3 court majority until at least 2028. If they can win next year, their majority would increase to 5-2.

More...

The U.S. is seeing a late summer surge in COVID-19 cases, tracking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The spike is particularly pronounced in one region of the country, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, where about 15% of COVID tests reported to the CDC are turning up positive.

But practically the entire Western country isn’t far behind. A dozen more states west of the Mississippi reported test positivity rates about 10% last week.

In reality, the number of cases across the country is likely underreported as more people opt to test for the virus with at-home kits over lab tests.

More...