TV News LIES

Everything modern civilization has built rests on two modest skills: Reading and arithmetic. America spent two centuries showing what they make possible. It is now showing what their absence does.

The news from American classrooms is, for lack of a better word, depressing. Reading and math scores have been declining for more than a decade. Some of the fall predated the pandemic, which made matters considerably worse. The latest chapter in the story is the strangest, and perhaps the most disturbing. Professors report freshmen who cannot read basic sentences, let alone finish books. They struggle to follow arguments from beginning to end, as though every paragraph should arrive with a skip button.

The usual suspects line up for blame. Smartphones capture attention before the day even starts. Social platforms tuned to drip-feed dopamine and keep users hooked. Academic standards lowered until failure itself becomes increasingly rare. Grades inflated until everyone graduates feeling truly exceptional. All of it matters, but none of it gets to the heart of the problem.

That’s because the problem in the classroom is civilizational. For most of the last century, IQ scores rose across the rich nations. Each generation outscored the one before. Researchers called it the Flynn effect, after the man who clocked it. Better food, more schooling, smaller families, and greater mental stimulation all contributed to the cumulative gains. The brain had a tailwind, but that tailwind has turned. Studies in the U.S. and beyond now show scores dropping among the young. For a century, the line went up. Now it goes down.

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At least 12 people in a crowd on a Chicago street suffered gunshot wounds after an SUV pulled up and two people inside the vehicle started shooting, police said.

The SUV drove away from the South Side neighborhood, leaving two people, both male, in critical condition following the shooting late on Friday, police said in a news release. One suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh.

The eight men and four women in the group ranged in age from 17 to 47. They were being treated at four hospitals.

Police said another man suffered unknown injuries and refused medical treatment.

Police initially responded to a call of one person shot, and found a woman with two gunshot wounds to her back and a man with four graze wounds to his back. Both were listed in fair condition.

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Three hikers died from suspected heat-related illness in Grand Canyon National Park amid extremely hot temperatures, officials said.

Grand Canyon National Park rangers and emergency personnel responded to incidents on June 12 and June 16, resulting in three deaths, according to a June 19 National Park Service news release. Hikers were on trails in the Inner Canyon, where officials said temperatures in the shade could reach 109 degrees around midday.

“Hiking in Grand Canyon can be a challenge for anyone, especially during the heat of summer,” the park service news release said. Park officials have warned visitors to avoid the Inner Canyon during peak daytime hours because of extreme temperatures.

On June 12, a 72-year-old man died from symptoms of heat-related illness along the South Kaibab Trail. The park service website said the trail offers expansive views but little shade and no water other than a water filling station at the trailhead during the summer.

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More than 26,000 New Jersey residents have been kicked off their monthly food benefits since the Trump administration’s federal work rules took effect, state officials said.

Emergency food advocates say it’s only going to get worse, further straining food pantries that are already seeing surging demand amid soaring gas prices and stubbornly high living costs.

“One of the most alarming things is it's just the beginning,” said Elizabeth McCarthy, CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, an anti-hunger group. “We really expect this to keep happening.”

The work requirements passed by congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump last summer overhauled the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps families afford groceries. The changes required states that were exempt from work requirements because of high unemployment rates to comply and made more groups of people subject to those rules, such as homeless people, veterans and older adults.\

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On Thursday, New York City fans came out in droves to celebrate the New York Knicks' first NBA championship win since 1973. The ticker tape parade started in Battery Park, traveled down Manhattan's famed "Canyon of Heroes," and ended at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a speech praising the Knicks team.

Rick Brunson and Jalen Brunson of The New York Knicks celebrate winning the 2026 NBA Championship with a ticker tape parade at City Hall.
Elias Wlliams for NPR

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrates the New York Knicks winning the 2026 NBA Championship during a ticker tape parade at City Hall

Jose Alvarado of The New York Knicks celebrates winning the 2026 NBA Championship during a ticker tape parade at City Hall.

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Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione are now withdrawing plans to argue at his state murder trial that he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance" in the alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, according to reports.

The development came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that they planned to argue that Mangione had lost control of his actions due to an extreme mental health crisis. In a letter to Carro on June 18, the lawyers said they were "at this time" withdrawing his psychiatric defense, Reuters and The Associated Press reported.

Under New York law, murder defendants can seek to convince a jury that their actions can be explained by an "extreme emotional disturbance" that reduces their criminal culpability. Carro would ultimately decide at trial whether there was enough evidence for the murder charge to be reduced.

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