TV News LIES

The FBI has deployed additional personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs”, director Kash Patel said on social media on Sunday.

The FBI director said the agency had already dismantled a $250m fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during the Covid pandemic in a case that led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions.

Patel said the FBI believes “this is just the tip of a very large iceberg”. Some of those involved in the alleged scheme are being “referred to immigrations officials for possible further denaturalization and deportation proceedings where eligible”.

Patel’s comments comes after federal prosecutors estimate as much as $9bn has been stolen across schemes linked to the state’s Somalia population, a figure nearly equivalent to Somalia’s entire GDP.

The FBI director also said he was aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota, which appears to refer to an online report by independent journalist Nick Shirley about a daycare center in Minneapolis that received $4m despite reportedly having no enrolled kids. The 42-minute video has been viewed 84m times since it was posted on 26 December.

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Two helicopters crashed midair in New Jersey on Sunday, killing one person and critically injuring another, authorities say.

Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25 a.m. Video from the scene shows a helicopter spinning rapidly to the ground. Police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters.

The Federal Aviation Administration described the crash as a midair collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were on board each aircraft. One was killed, and the other was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Sal Silipino, owner of a cafe near the crash site, said the pilots were regulars at the restaurant and would often have breakfast together. He said he and other customers watched the helicopters take off before one began spiraling downward, followed by the other.

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New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) challenged Elon Musk for claiming that people will “die” over his appointment of a non-firefighter as the new head of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY).

“Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?” Mamdani wrote in response to Musk in an X post Saturday.

Mamdani’s remarks came after the tech billionaire condemned the self-proclaimed democratic socialist’s decision to appoint Lillian Bonsignore in a Friday X post.

“People will die because of this. Proven experience matters when lives are at stake,” Musk wrote alongside a clip of Mamdani announcing Bonsignore’s new role.

Last week, Mamdani appointed Bonsignore, a FDNY veteran who helmed Emergency Medical Services Operations before retiring from the department in 2022, as FDNY commissioner. She is the second woman to hold the position and the department’s first openly LGBTQ+ commissioner.

Bonsignore is also the first woman to achieve a 4-star rank in FDNY history, Mamdani said in a separate X post celebrating her new position.

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Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayals of free-spirited ingenues made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France, and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and The Associated Press.

She was 91.

Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died at her home in southern France. He did not provide a cause of death, and said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month after a period of ill health.

Leading tributes, French President Emmanuel Macron said Bardot “embodied a life of freedom” and lived a “French existence.” Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party, which Bardot publicly supported in her later years, referred to her as a “passionate patriot” who represented “an entire era of French history.”

Her death comes two months after she underwent what her staff, described in a statement to AFP as “minor surgery” for an unspecified ailment in October.

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Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, surrounded by tents and debris, are suffering through more winter rains after two years of Israeli bombardment destroyed much of the Strip.

A polar low-pressure system accompanied by heavy rain and strong winds swept across the Gaza Strip on Saturday. It is the third polar low to affect the Palestinian territory this winter, with a fourth low-pressure system forecast to hit the area starting on Monday, meteorologist Laith al-Allami told the Anadolu news agency.

Many families have been living in tents since late 2023, for most of the duration of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The enclave is imminently facing freezing temperatures, rain and strong winds, as the authorities warn the downpour could intensify into a full-blown storm.

Mohammed Maslah, a displaced Palestinian now in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera in his rugged tent that he did not have a choice but to stay there.

“I could not find anywhere to live in Gaza, except Gaza Port,” he told Al Jazeera. “I’m forced to stay here because my home is under Israeli control. After just a few hours of rain, we were soaked.”

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Since President Donald Trump falsely proclaimed the dawn of a new era of peace and harmony in the Middle East in early October, Palestinians in Gaza have lived in an Israeli-imposed purgatory. The scorched-earth terror bombings and full-spectrum blockade on any life essentials entering Gaza have been replaced by sporadic, though daily, Israeli strikes and a trickle of food and medicine deliveries in quantities far below the terms agreed to in the October 10 “peace” deal. What is happening in Gaza is not a ceasefire, but a lower intensity, slower-paced killing operation by an Israeli regime daring Palestinians to fight back.

As the White House struggles to convince even a single nation to deploy forces in Gaza on a mission to disarm the Palestinian resistance, Hamas negotiators say there has been no formal communication from the U.S. on how it intends to proceed on any of the terms laid out in Trump’s sweeping plan. There have been no substantive discussions on how Gaza will be governed, who will be in charge of its internal security, when or how Israeli forces will withdraw, and what role Palestinians will play in determining their own destiny.

The fact remains that Hamas and other Palestinian factions did not sign an agreement beyond a ceasefire, exchange of captives, and an initial framework for the redeployment or withdrawal of Israeli forces from some parts of Gaza. Officially, there is no deal on a “second phase.” Moreover, several senior Hamas officials told Drop Site that there currently are no substantive negotiations happening with Palestinians outside of a process that appears aimed at using Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to give the appearance of Palestinian endorsement.

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The "ball" is dropping twice to ring in 2026.

Days ahead of the iconic Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop in New York City, America250 announced a "post-midnight moment" to mark America's 250th anniversary.

Shortly after the ball makes its 60-second descent to signal the start of the new year, the ball will be relit with an America250 design above the illuminated "2026" numerals and be dropped again at approximately 12:04 a.m. ET.

America250 will build "anticipation" for the moment with a series of features over the course of the evening, including a reveal of the America250 Ball Design atop One Times Square during “The Star-Spangled Banner" beginning at 6:04 p.m. ET.

According to America250, the nonpartisan entity charged with organizing the celebration, the moment will also mark the start of a partnership that will include another Times Square Ball Drop on July 4.

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When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) set its sights on Chicago in September, Chicagoans sprang into action to protect their immigrant neighbors: teaching each other how to recognize and safely document ICE agents, setting up “know your rights” trainings, and distributing whistles en masse so people could loudly alert anyone in the vicinity when ICE was spotted.

In the months since, whistles have become a popular raid alert tool in other cities across the country – New Yorkers wear them around their necks to warn neighbors, the people of New Orleans blast them outside ICE facilities and Charlotte residents used them to ward off Customs and Border Protection officials. While strongly associated with Chicago, the tactic is actually one that city organizers learned in part from groups in Los Angeles. Its spread is illustrative of the many ways cities are helping inspire and equip one another in the face of often unlawful federal activities.

Rain Skau, a co-coordinator of the Fight Fascism campaign of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles, said Angelenos began to use whistles to alert neighbors about ICE presence when agents first started hitting the city in June. Despite the federal government’s claims that these raids were targeting hardened criminals, Skau described one of the first raids at a Home Depot as mostly snatching women vending food in the parking lot, stuffing them into vans as meat sizzled on the grills they left behind.

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