TV News LIES

A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party.

The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country.

While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest.

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Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay payment of a $5.8m judgment for defaming a magazine columnist whom a jury determined he sexually abused has been emphatically rejected by a federal court judge.

In a single-sentence 4 July order, US district Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the president’s request for more time to pay the civil judgment owed to E Jean Carroll, who was awarded the damages after a New York jury concluded that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 – then defamed her after she publicly described the attack in 2019.

Trump’s move came days after the US supreme court, without explanation or reasoning, turned down his demand to review the jury’s 2023 verdict.

In a subsequent filing to Kaplan, the judge overseeing the case, Trump’s attorneys referred to how his former lead counsel, Justin Smith, had been confirmed to a federal judgeship in June on the president’s nomination. New lead counsel Josh Halpern therefore needed more time “to become completely familiar with the facts and procedural circumstances”, Trump’s attorneys contended.

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Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner on Monday said his campaign is “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” just minutes after Politico published a story in which a woman who previously dated the oyster farmer alleged he had sexually assaulted her.

“I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” Platner said in the two-minute video posted online.

Politico earlier on Monday reported that a woman Platner previously dated, Jenny Racicot, told the news outlet that Platner had forced her to have sex with him while he was intoxicated in 2021.

Platner vehemently denied accusations of sexual assault to Politico in his video.

The Hill has not independently verified the accusations. The Platner campaign did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment regarding the Politico story.

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The U.S. men's national team has been eliminated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup after a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16 on Monday, July 6 at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Mauricio Pochettino named an unchanged starting lineup after Folarin Balogun's suspension was suspended by FIFA and allowed to play.

Belgium got on the front foot at the opening whistle and piled on the pressure early leading to the opening goal by Charles De Ketelaere in the ninth minute. A failure to clear the ball from their own box led to a simple tap-in for the first goal of the match.

Malik Tillman got the U.S. level just after the half-hour mark with his second free-kick goal of the tournament. However, just two minutes later, the Red Devils retook the lead through another goal from De Ketelaere.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that Christians in Lebanon had asked Israel to “annex” their villages, many of which Israeli forces have damaged or destroyed.

Speaking on the pro-Israel US news outlet with host Jacqui Heinrich on "The Sunday Briefing", Netanyahu said “we…take care of our friends, especially the Christians in the Middle East”.

“Christian villages in Lebanon some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we protect them against Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them and we do the same things with Christians everywhere…in the Middle East,” said Netanyahu.

But Netanyahu’s remarks sit uneasily beside Israel’s own record in Lebanon, where its forces have destroyed churches, damaged Christian religious sites and filmed soldiers desecrating Christian symbols.

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Israel believes fighting in Gaza could resume within the next two months, potentially before October's elections, according to a report by Israel's Channel 12.

The broadcaster, citing Israeli officials, said on Saturday that Israel expects the US-led "Board of Peace" to conclude within the next two to three months that Hamas has violated the agreement by refusing to disarm.

Such a ruling could pave the way for Israel to renew raids in parts of Gaza outside their current control, raising the prospect of renewed fighting, the report said.

Channel 12 also quoted a political source as saying the board's director-general, Nikolay Mladenov, had considered declaring Hamas in breach of the agreement two months ago but postponed the move at the request of mediators.

"If nothing changes within three months, Mladenov will declare Hamas in breach of the agreement," the source said.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that over the course of the week, Russia launched approximately 2,200 attack drones, more than 1,730 guided aerial bombs, and 106 missiles of various types at Ukraine.

In a statement on Telegram on Sunday, July 5, Zelensky highlighted the relentless nature of the campaign targeting civilian infrastructure and front-line communities across the country.

Outlining the volume of weaponry deployed by Russian forces over the past seven days, the president reported the following figures:

Zelensky noted that while Ukrainian air defense forces currently intercept over 90% of incoming attack drones, the military remains highly vulnerable to the ballistic missiles and heavy guided bombs included in these massive strike packages.

He referenced a recent ballistic missile strike on Kyiv that resulted in 31 fatalities and 102 injuries as stark evidence of this vulnerability.

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Super Typhoon Bavi is bringing intense winds to the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, as forecasters warn of the potential for severe damage.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued typhoon warnings for the islands of Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.

On Monday morning local time, the eye of the storm was passing over the island of Rota. "Widespread destructive winds in excess of 150 mph are occurring," the NWS said. Rota is located some 40 miles northeast of Guam.

"This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation," forecasters said in an update.

Local NWS meteorologist Landon Aydlett spoke to NPR from central Guam just after 1:30 a.m. on Monday local time. He said weather conditions were steadily deteriorating across all four populated islands, including torrential rain and strengthening winds.

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