TV News LIES

A federal judge won’t throw out a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s administration over plans for a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund for the president’s allies after officials refused to provide a sworn statement that the fund is actually dead.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema wanted officials to file a “short, written declaration under the penalty of perjury” that the government won’t take any action to “create or operate” what critics have called a slush fund for Trump’s allies.

Government attorneys refused, so the lawsuit is still alive, and the case could now go to trial, the judge said Thursday.

Despite telling members of Congress that the government is “not moving forward” with the fund, Blanche said he’s “not committing to put anything in writing” and refused to rescind a memo establishing the fund. Last week, the Justice Department called the judge’s request for a written statement “unnecessary” and said it amounted to judicial “overreach.”

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An executive order by President Trump that seeks to enlist the U.S. Postal Service to limit voting by mail has hit a legal hurdle.

On Thursday, a Boston-based judge blocked key parts of the order that, at least so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year's midterm primary elections.

The ruling applies to this fall's general election and earlier races in nearly two dozen mainly Democratic-led states, plus Washington, D.C., that filed one of the five lawsuits against Trump's order.

The legal fight, however, is likely to continue. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the new ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling by another federal judge moves forward in a similar set of lawsuits based in D.C.

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New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board on Thursday approved Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) two-year rent freeze proposal for 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

The 7-1 decision by the independent board, consisting of mayoral appointees, applies to rent-stabilized apartments in buildings constructed before 1974 and buildings with certain tax breaks.

The rent freeze goes into effect starting Oct. 1 and lasts until Sept. 30, 2027.

Past iterations of the board have frozen the rent before, including under former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) before rent increases under his successor and Mamdani’s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams (D).

Activists poured into the streets of East Harlem in jubilation after the vote, which took place at El Museo del Barrio, The New York Times reported. Organizers passed around pizza and played music, where Queen’s “We Are the Champions” could be heard.

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On Thursday, a federal judge based in Washington, D.C., ordered the Justice Department to unredact additional pages of the Epstein files in a suit brought by attorney and independent journalist Katie Phang.

The preliminary injunction orders redactions be removed in key documents of interest in the files, including “at least eight email exchanges with Mr. Epstein regarding a ‘torture video’ and sexual activity with young women, including minors” as well as interviews with a woman who said she was abused by President Trump as a minor.

He also rebuffed the idea that Phang could have simply requested the documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), noting that the department itself had previously said the Epstein Files Transparency Act “directed a much broader and less redacted release of the files than would have been made under the FOIA. Certain exemptions which may have been made under FOIA were not made” in the Epstein Act release.

The Justice Department must either produce the documents or “show cause” as to why they cannot comply.

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Lake Powell ‒ the massive Colorado River reservoir that produces power for millions of homes across the West ‒ is the emptiest it has ever been entering the hottest part of the summer. And the worst is still to come.

Although the lake's levels have briefly fallen lower in years past, those low-water levels came in the spring, before melting snow refilled it. This year, that refill never happened.

As a result, Lake Powell will next spring fall to "minimum power pool," according to a newly released federal projection. If the water levels fall below that, the Glen Canyon Dam would stop generating electricity.

"This outcome is not a reflection of recent drought response actions, but rather a clear reminder that the Colorado River remains vulnerable," the federal Bureau of Reclamation wrote of its June 15 prediction.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at "Alligator Alcatraz" on Thursday morning and confirmed that the mission at the controversial immigration detention facility was completed and all the detainees have been relocated.

DeSantis made the announcement alongside White House Border Czar Tom Homan, and Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Anthony Coker at the isolated facility in the Florida Everglades.

During the news conference, DeSantis said that "Alligator Alcatraz" was always meant to be temporary until more detention centers could be located – and that has occurred.

"It served its purpose for the time," DeSantis said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede reported that vendors hired by the state to operate "Alligator Alcatraz" were notified that they were to begin "full demobilization" of the facility, quietly bringing a close to the $1.2 billion experiment that had once been hailed by DeSantis and President Donald Trump as a model that other states should pursue, according to sources.

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At least 188 people died and nearly 1,500 were injured June 24 after two devastating earthquakes hit a minute apart in northern Venezuela, the Caribbean nation with a long and deadly quake history.

The U.S. Geological Survey, using predictive modeling to estimate the death toll, said it would most likely run into the thousands, with a substantial probability of exceeding 10,000. A website set up to track missing people by leaders from the country's opposition said that about 24,000 people remain unaccounted for, Reuters reported.

The two quakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, struck shortly after 6 p.m. local time. They were two of the strongest quakes to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

Quakes of 7.0 to 7.9 magnitude are considered major, capable of causing severe, widespread damage.

Venezuela is vulnerable to powerful quakes because it’s on the active tectonic boundary between the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate. The two giant plates grind past each other, building stress across several major faults.

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Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli prime minister and aspirant for the top job in this year’s election, was upset. 

He slammed Benjamin Netanyahu after the recent announcement of a deal between Tehran and Washington, arguing that the current prime minister had squandered a unique opportunity.

Bennett praised the “extraordinary performance” of the Israeli army and security forces on the front lines during the war with Iran, “and the courage of the Israeli public on the home front”.

But in the end, Bennett said, “the government is once again incapable of turning all of that into lasting security achievements”.

The political era of Netanyahu has been the longest in the country’s history. His vision for the occupied West Bank and Gaza has been to crush the ambitions of the Palestinian people, forcing them to accept second-class status in perpetuity.

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