TV News LIES

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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The Justice Department (DOJ) on Thursday defended renewed plans to inscribe President Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, insisting it does not run afoul of previous court rulings that found the change was unlawful.  

A DOJ lawyer told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper during a nearly two-hour hearing that the renowned performing arts center was in “structural and financial disarray” and the inscriptions only sought to recognize Trump’s role in helping restore it.

“We think it’s quite clear that there’s no renaming here,”Brantley Mayers said, claiming the Kennedy Center board’s decision does not violate a federal law that establishes the institution as a “living memorial” to former President John F. Kennedy Jr.

The hearing came in a challenge brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio board member who has been suing to halt the changes. The congresswoman was present in the courtroom.

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