TV News LIES

A high-rise building in Manhattan was deemed unstable on Tuesday after authorities determined that support columns buckled, spurring evacuation of nearby buildings, according to officials and reports.

Officials said they also found “structural issues” on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer pharmaceutical building, which is being converted into residential apartments. “Two structural columns buckled, and there were multiple cracks and sagging floors,” the fire department said on X.

Workers were expected to begin stabilizing the building on Tuesday evening. According to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, a team went through each floor and did not detect any additional movement of the support columns, allowing the on-site contractors to begin the emergency repair work.

The temporary measures are meant to stabilize the building and are expected to stretch into the coming days, impacting a busy corridor of midtown near the famed Grand Central Terminal, which is a hub for metro area commuters and residents as well as tourists.

Officials said they received reports of a “structural issue at an active construction site” on East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues, before 8am.

The fire department also posted a photo of a dramatically bent beam on its X account.

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams – the steel beams – have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” John Esposito, the fire department chief, said. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings.”

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Nearly a year after floodwaters destroyed their home along the Upper Guadalupe River, Juliet and Scott Welden watched construction crews build a new one on the same property.

This time, the house was elevated 8 feet above the ground in hopes that it can withstand another catastrophic flood.

“We watched the water enter our home, and the floors buckled,” Juliet Welden said. “The furniture floated. Rooms began collapsing, and the water kept rising.”

The force of the current pushed the couple out of their house. They survived by clinging to a large bush as the flood tore through their neighborhood.

At least 130 people died along the Upper Guadalupe River after torrential rain struck the Texas Hill Country during the Fourth of July holiday. The Weldens’ rebuilding effort has been supported by federal disaster assistance and contributions from churches, foundations and other community organizations.

“The local community — there’s a lot of love, compassion, kindness, generosity,” she said, adding that churches and private groups often provided the most immediate assistance.

The Weldens expect to move into their new home in October.

Less than 100 miles away, survivors along Sandy Creek describe a much different recovery.

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A shooting altercation between two groups of young people at a shopping mall in Dearborn, Michigan, left two people dead and a third injured over what is typically the most violent weekend of the year in the US, police said.

The shooting occurred as the US began celebrating the Fourth of July, historically a holiday weekend that sees higher rates of gun violence across the country. In 2024, the Gun Violence Archive reported more than 500 shootings over Independence Day weekend.

The shooting at Fairlane Town Center on Friday sent mall patrons scrambling, including a person who was hit by a vehicle outside the mall while attempting to flee, said Issa Shahin, the Dearborn police chief.

People believed to be linked to the fight were being questioned at the police station, but no one was immediately taken into custody, he said.

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A new national poll reveals a striking paradox in public sentiment ahead of America's 250th anniversary: a disconnect between Americans' strong patriotic pride and their lack of civic knowledge.

According to a survey from the libertarian Cato Institute think tank of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted in late June, 86% of respondents said they are grateful to be American and 70% believe the nation's founding principles remain relevant.

However, nearly half of Americans (46%) don't know that America's 250th anniversary commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

This civic ignorance extends to basic governance: Nearly 60% do not know the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to limit government power, and do not know why the colonies declared independence from Great Britain.

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As if the 250th anniversary celebrations in the capital haven't been troubled enough, with lackluster attendance, a brutal heatwave, environmentally damaging fireworks, and restrictive security measures due to Donald Trump's planned speech, Thursday's incident was another cause for concern.

In a video shared online by progressive media influencer Aaron Parnas, two groups of young dancers on stage can be seen going through their routine to music when a large, rectangular piece of the structure falls from above, narrowly missing the group on stage right.

At least one of the dancers seemed to see the object in mid-air before it hit the stage, and ran out of the way.

There appeared to be around 18 dancers on stage at the time, with nine in each group. Two men were also on the side of the stage nearest the point of impact.

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A federal appeals court reversed a lower court’s order requiring the National Park Service (NPS) to restore signs and exhibits that were removed by the Trump administration.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday halted the ruling, which would have restored park materials that the administration says were purged as part of the administration’s effort to get rid of materials that “disparage” Americans.

The judges determined that the Trump administration “made a strong showing that the harms that the district court relied on” to order the restoration of the materials did not meet the standards for an injunction.

Judges David Barron, Gustavo Gelpí and Julie Rikelman also found that the groups suing the government “cannot show that a stay of the district court’s order … would cause them substantial injury.”

Barron was appointed by former President Obama, while Gelpí and Rikelman are appointees of former President Biden.

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