TV News LIES

A new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for this November’s US midterm elections was thrown together so hastily, and tested so little, that a single scanning glitch could see entire batches of ballots turned away, a whistleblower has told Congress.

The project – a key part of Donald Trump’s new restrictions on voting – is “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful”, according to the US senator Richard Blumenthal, who disclosed the warning in a letter to David Steiner, the postmaster general, on Tuesday.

Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the US Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, said the account he had received made clear the US Postal Service “lacks the technical or operational capability” to roll it out safely before ballots go out to voters.

The system stems from a March executive order by Trump tightening federal control over mail-in voting, directing USPS to check ballots against a federally approved voter list before sending them – a break from its usual role of simply delivering whatever is handed over by states. Courts have blocked and unblocked parts of the order repeatedly since, amid lawsuits arguing it oversteps into territory the constitution leaves to states.

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Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey won the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, dispatching a younger and more moderate challenger in a significant victory for the party’s progressive wing.

Markey defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq who had long been tipped as a rising star in the party but struggled to turn his potential into lasting political impact. Moulton, age 47, had made his comparative youth a major part of his campaign against Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years and will be 86 when his Senate term ends in 2032.

The party’s progressive wing rallied behind Markey, a reliable liberal who has closely aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and is known for his emphasis on combating climate change. Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) appeared together in a campaign ad for Markey.

Recent surveys had shown Markey pulling away from Moulton, who had an early edge in spending thanks in part to a nonprofit group that aired pointed ads suggesting Markey was too old to remain in Congress.

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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., named more than a dozen people he described as alleged Jeffrey Epstein "coconspirators" on the House floor Monday as he renewed his push to force the government to disclose millions of records connected to the convicted sex offender.

"Mr. Speaker, it's been a year since the president signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the government continues to withhold over 3 million files," Massie said.

Epstein Files Transparency Act II, to bring the fight to the state courts, accountability to the Department of Justice, and closure for survivors," he added.

"We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted," Massie said before naming a series of prominent Epstein associates and others whom he accused of wrongdoing, including former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Les Wexner, Leon Black, and Jes Staley.

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The Supreme Court on Aug. 31 cleared the way for President Donald Trump to continue construction on his $400 million White House ballroom, a major win for Trump's controversial effort to make over Washington landmarks.

Acting on an emergency appeal from the administration, the court ruled 5-4 that a federal judge wrongly paused the project until a legal fight could be resolved.

In an unsigned opinion, a majority of the justices said the administration is likely to win its argument that the group suing to stop construction cannot show its been sufficiently harmed. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's three liberal justices in dissent, calling the construction "likely unlawful" and the potential harms real.

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The Trump administration has been deploying an obscure legal maneuver to try to obtain private information on journalists, non-profits and unions, raising alarm over a power the government has asserted without judicial oversight.

In one instance, the government obtained six months of telephone records for Georgia Fort, a Minneapolis journalist. Fort was not notified of the request for her information, nor was she given a chance to contest the government’s effort to obtain them, her lawyers said in court papers.

In February of this year, federal prosecutors twice sought search warrants for account information for the YouTube channel of Fort and the journalist Don Lemon, both of whom have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in connection to a protest at a Minneapolis church in January that they were covering. A judge twice rejected the request, writing that the government had failed to establish probable cause of a crime and that he wanted Lemon and Fort to be informed of the request so they could have a chance to challenge it. About a month after the judge’s ruling in late February, the government said it was withdrawing the request.

In February of this year, federal prosecutors twice sought search warrants for account information for the YouTube channel of Fort and the journalist Don Lemon, both of whom have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in connection to a protest at a Minneapolis church in January that they were covering. A judge twice rejected the request, writing that the government had failed to establish probable cause of a crime and that he wanted Lemon and Fort to be informed of the request so they could have a chance to challenge it. About a month after the judge’s ruling in late February, the government said it was withdrawing the request.

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The far-right British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who enthusiastically supported President Trump's immigration crackdown, has been arrested and deported for allegedly living in the U.S. illegally.

"On August 27, ICE arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom, at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport," the agency said in a post on X. He entered the country legally in 2019 according to ICE, but he then overstayed. "Yiannopoulos was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing," the agency said in its statement.

In a separate statement to NPR, the Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos was deported back to the U.K. on Friday.

Yiannopoulos rose to prominence through his provocative statements criticizing political correctness, feminism and Islam. He also drew criticism for his alleged ties to white nationalists.

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A new National Park Service report backs Donald Trump’s proposed arch, despite what it says are adverse effects to the sightlines of a host of landmarks in Washington, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.

The report released on Friday says the 250ft-tall (76-meter) memorial arch is likely to disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location adjacent to the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

Many of Washington’s monuments, buildings and sites have been carefully planned over decades to reflect significant moments in the nation’s history and to evoke symbolism through sightlines that connect them to other sites. The arch will disturb the sightline between more Washington landmarks than anticipated, the report said.

But the Park Service report says “the same characteristics that make Memorial Circle sensitive from a preservation perspective are also the characteristics that make it the historically appropriate location for the undertaking”.

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The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) came under fire online this week after being accused of "Islamising" its programmes.

On 24 August, White House correspondent and War Room co-host Natalie Winters shared a thread on X titled "The Islamisation of Girl Scouts Across America", featuring photos of badges including one labelled "Girl Scout of the Islamic Faith", alongside others tied to Islamic practices such as Ramadan and Hajj.

“Mosque-based programs operate in Sacramento, Naperville, Long Island, Virginia, Maryland, Brooklyn, San Diego, and more—embedding prayer, hijab rules, Ramadan, Islamic education and mosque outreach into Girl Scouting,” Winters wrote.

The Girl Scouts of the USA responded to the controversy, claiming it is not a religious organisation, does not incorporate religious teachings in its programmes and welcomes girls from every faith.

“Any other faith-based patches are developed by independent organisations, not Girl Scouts of the USA,” the organisation wrote on X.

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