TV News LIES

President Trump has overseen a series of dramatic changes at the Kennedy Center since taking office at the beginning of the year.

The most significant shifts came in two waves, both of which resulted in artists canceling performances in protest of Trump’s takeover of the cultural institution.

In February, Trump replaced multiple board members with allies, who then elected Trump chair of the board, days after the president first announced on social media that he would serve in the position. He then named longtime ally Richard Grenell the center’s interim executive director.

This month, the board voted to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The president also hosted the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, which aired last week.

Here are some of the performances that were canceled:

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Democrat Renee Hardman won a special election for state Senate in Iowa on Tuesday, preventing Republicans from regaining a supermajority in the chamber, Decision Desk HQ projects.

Hardman, the West Des Moines mayor pro tempore, defeated Republican Lucas Loftin to fill the seat that has been vacant since state Sen. Claire Celsi (D) died in October.

Her victory denies Republicans a two-thirds majority in the upper chamber, which would have given them the power to override a governor’s veto, call for special sessions and approve a governor’s appointees on a party-line vote. 

With Hardman’s win, Iowa Democrats are closing out the year strong. Back in January, Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped an Iowa state Senate district that had overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024. And in August, Democrat Catelin Drey flipped another open state Senate seat, breaking the GOP supermajority. 

Her win is also the last in a string of notable victories for the party nationwide. Democrats most recently saw success in a special election for a state Senate seat in Kentucky. Prior to that, the party overperformed in a special election in Tennessee. And Democrats had a better-than-expected election in November, when they overwhelmingly won the governors’ mansions in New Jersey and Virginia, the mayor’s office in New York City, and a number of other notable downballot races.

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Donald Trump’s actions and incendiary remarks in the first year of his second presidential term have left many women, people of color and their allies in a tailspin.

Shortly after re-entering office, he released executive orders that attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and transgender rights. His January orders that called for an end to DEI and affirmative action led to thousands of cuts in the private and public sectors – and shake-ups within the journalism industry. One directive that banned access to gender-affirming care for youth under the age of 19 sent families into a flurry as they scrambled to ensure that their trans kids continued to receive treatment.

Another executive order directed his vice-president, JD Vance, to prohibit federal spending on Smithsonian programs or exhibits that focused on race. He also worked to suppress Indigenous history by again changing the name of the mountain Denali in the Athabascan language to Mount McKinley. And his mass deportation operations have torn families apart.

Along with his federal policies, Trump also shared racist, xenophobic and sexist comments during speeches, press meetings and on his social media platform, Truth Social, throughout the year.

Here’s Trump – in his own words – as year two of his second term looms.:

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A federal judge has dismissed an indictment against a Los Angeles TikTok streamer who was shot by an officer during an immigration enforcement operation and accused of assault against a federal agent, citing constitutional violations.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikTok creator who streams local breaking news, was accused in October of ramming his car into immigration agents’ vehicles after they surrounded him during an operation. Body-worn camera footage obtained by the Los Angeles Times shows that an agent fired his gun during the incident, shooting Parias in the elbow. A ricochet bullet also hit a deputy US marshal in the hand.

He was indicted by a grand jury and scheduled to go on trial on Tuesday.

But on Saturday, US district judge Fernando Olguin ordered the indictment dismissed, saying that the government deprived ​​Parias of his rights when it decided to detain him at the Adelanto ICE processing center – an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center about 90 miles (145km) east of Los Angeles – immediately after he was ordered released from jail on bond. Olguin also said that once at Adelanto, Parias’ defense team were unable to schedule any legal visits.

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New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in, not inside City Hall on New Year's Day, but dozens of feet below it.

The incoming Democratic mayor will be sworn in at the Old City Hall subway station during a private midnight ceremony, according to a Dec. 29 news release. New York Attorney General Letitia James will administer the oath of office, and the underground ceremony will be attended by Mamdani's family.

In a statement, Mamdani said the station is a "physical monument" to the city and called its subway system a lifeblood of New York.

“When I take my oath from the station at the dawn of the New Year, I will do so humbled by the opportunity to lead millions of New Yorkers into a new era of opportunity, and honored to carry forward our city’s legacy of greatness," Mamdani said in the news release.

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US senator Bernie Sanders amplified his recent criticism of artificial intelligence on Sunday, explicitly linking the financial ambition of “the richest people in the world” to economic insecurity for millions of Americans – and calling for a potential moratorium on new datacenters.

Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democratic party, said on CNN’s State of the Union that he was “fearful of a lot” when it came to AI. And the senator called it “the most consequential technology in the history of humanity” that will “transform” the US and the world in ways that had not been fully discussed.

“If there are no jobs and humans won’t be needed for most things, how do people get an income to feed their families, to get healthcare or to pay the rent?” Sanders said. “There’s not been one serious word of discussion in the Congress about that reality.”

Days from being scheduled to help swear New York mayor-elect and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani into office, Sanders said “the richest people in the world” were pushing the technology. He singled out tech moguls Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel while questioning their motives.

“You think they’re staying up nights worrying about working people and how this technology will impact those people?” Sanders said. “They are not. They are doing it to get richer and even more powerful.”

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