TV News LIES

Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier filed a writ of habeas corpus on Tuesday in the district court of Travis County, Texas, claiming the state legislature’s Republican majority has unlawfully detained her in the state Capitol after she refused to consent to 24-hour police surveillance.

Collier, a Democrat representing Fort Worth, is one of over 50 Texas Democratic legislators who fled the state on Aug. 3 to block Republicans from enacting a new congressional map at President Donald Trump’s urging to create five new GOP seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The conservative outlet Newsmax has agreed to pay $67m to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over lies about voting in the 2020 election.

The settlement came as the case was headed to trial. Earlier this year, Delaware superior court judge Eric Davis ruled that Newsmax had defamed the voting technology company by broadcasting false claims about its equipment afthttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/18/newsmax-election-lies-dominion-settlementer the 2020 election. A jury would have considered whether Newsmax was liable for damages. Dominion had sued the outlet for $1.6bn.

After the 2020 election, lies about the security of Dominion voting machines, which are widely used in the US, became central to Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen from him. Allies and other rightwing personalities made baseless claims that votes had been flipped and that the equipment was not secure.

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President Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting, a move he said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin supported.

Mailing ballots is a popular option for voters to avoid waiting in line at polling places on Election Day. Election-security officials say voting has never been more secure and that the president has no role overseeing elections. But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud – despite election experts, including those in his first administration, who said mail-in voting is secure.

“We’re going to end mail-in voting," Trump told reporters Aug. 18 in the Oval Office. "It’s a fraud."

He reiterated arguments he made earlier in a social-media post. He argued elections would be more reliable if everyone voted in person with paper ballots rather than through machines.

“It’s very hard to cheat," Trump said of in-person voting.

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A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation's schools and universities.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives.

The guidance has been on hold since April when three federal judges blocked various portions of the Education Departmhttps://tse1.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.9PFlPe6_qkmMb4ujT9VhswHaEK?pid=Api&P=0&h=220ent's anti-DEI measures.

The ruling Thursday followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government's actions in a February lawsuit.

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Envelopes with white powder were discovered Thursday in New York City in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, according to the Big Apple’s Mayor Eric Adams. 

“New Yorkers, I have been preliminarily briefed on the matter unfolding at 26 Federal Plaza where envelopes containing white powder were discovered,” Adams said in a Thursday post on the social platform X. “I want to also reassure you that there are no known injuries at this time.”

Adams said that while officials are awaiting test results from “our federal partners,” New York City Fire Department hazmat teams are on the ground to “ensure the safety of everyone inside and outside of the building.”

The fire department told The Hill that a call was received around 3:55 p.m. local time regarding a white powder reported on the ninth floor. The building was evacuated and there were no reported injuries, according to the fire department. 

“Hazmat assigned, operations ongoing,” the department added.

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U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in a Thursday ruling permanently blocked two memos issued by the Trump administration that threatened schools with funding cuts for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.  

Earlier in the year, the Trump administration issued a “Dear Colleague” letter for universities threatening to take funding if they don’t end “illegal” DEI efforts. Soon after, K-12 districts got a memo to certify they have no DEI practices in their schools.

The American Federation of Teachers, Democracy Forward and others sued over both of the memos, arguing the administration did not go through the proper procedures and violated the rights of schools. 

“Plaintiffs have shown that neither challenged agency action was promulgated in accordance with the procedural requirements of the APA, and that both actions run afoul of important constitutional rights,” wrote Gallagher, who was appointed by President Trump.

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