TV News LIES

The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned actor Jussie Smollett's conviction for staging a fake hate crime against himself.

In a decision issued Thursday, the court said the "Empire" actor, 42, should not have been charged for the same incident a second time after the original charges brought against him were dropped in 2019. Smollett was alleged to have falsely reported to police that he was the victim of a hate crime. He was found guilty in 2021 on five counts of disorderly conduct.

"Because the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement" with Smollett and he "performed his part of the agreement, the second prosecution was barred," the ruling said.

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An ancient cat was found almost perfectly preserved in Siberia's permafrost.

Researchers found the mummy of a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed cub in what is now Russia's northeastern Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, in 2020. A study published this past week in the journal Scientific Reports shows that the cat was just three weeks old when it died, but its cause of death is unknown.

The kitten still had its whiskers and claws attached when it was pulled out of the permafrost, and was covered in a coat of "short, thick, soft, dark brown fur." Its hair was about 20 to 30 millimeters long, according to researchers.

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Israel, has long rejected a Palestinian state in territory previously seized by Israel and has repeatedly signaled his staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Huckabee, a former TV host and Baptist preacher, frequently visits Israel and once said he wanted to buy a holiday home there. He has maintained throughout the years that the West Bank belongs to Israel, and recently said “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.”

His argument for a so-called “one-state solution” contradicts longstanding official U.S. support for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

He has described the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas as “horrific” and " beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime” and argued that the U.S. needs to stand firmly behind Israel.

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Arizona remained in a tense waiting game on Saturday for its election results, even as neighboring Nevada declared for Donald Trump overnight, giving the president-elect six out of seven swing states after election day on 5 November.

In Arizona, official tallies were 83% complete by mid-morning on Saturday with Trump leading at 52.7% and Harris at 46%, or about 180,000 votes ahead. But enough ballots remain uncounted – 602,000 as of late Friday night – for the state to remain undeclared. The state sensationally flipped to Joe Biden and the Democrats in 2020.

In the key US Senate race there between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego, Lake, who always denied that Biden won the White House fairly in 2020, was trailing the Democrat 48.5% to 49.5%, or by around 33,000 votes, mid-morning on Saturday.

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Phoenix police are facing widespread criticism following the release of body camera footage that showed two white officers violently using a stun gun on and punching a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy.

On Monday, attorneys for 34-year-old Tyron McAlpin, who has been charged with resisting arrest and two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, released body camera footage of McAlpin’s arrest on 19 August outside a Circle K convenience store in Phoenix, Arizona.

According to a police incident report, officers responded to a call about a fight in the store. ABC15 reports that the 911 caller said a white man was causing a disturbance in the store. The police officers, Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue, approached the man who claimed that he was assaulted while trying to stop someone from stealing a bike. The man proceeded to point to McAlpin, who was walking nearby, as the aggressor.

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The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880m to 1,353 people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests, in the largest settlement by a US diocese over decades-old abuse claims.

Archbishop Jose H Gomez expressed sorrow for the abuse in announcing the settlement on Wednesday.

“I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”

The archdiocese began mediating the abuse claims after California enacted a law that allowed new lawsuits to be based on past instances of sexual abuse involving minors.

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