TV News LIES

Aid experts have denounced the US’s “embarrassing” and “pitiful” initial response to the Nepal flood disaster after the US state department announced it was releasing $500,000 in emergency funds to help the relief effort.

The modest sum – which has since been increased – allocated in response to the devastation caused by mudslides in the mountainous Asian country was mocked on social media, where users contrasted it with the amount spent on other Trump administration priorities.

The death toll from last week’s flash floods has passed 1,000, with 4,400 people still unaccounted, according to officials in Nepal and China. Rescue teams are trying to find workers trapped in hydropower tunnels, which were buried in mud.

The US contribution has been upped to $3.6m, which state department officials say will be used to deliver food assistance to feed 10,000 affected households for up to three months, and pay for emergency items such as blankets, mosquito nets and shelter sheets.

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A Chinese immigrant was found dead just hours after being booked into immigration detention in a U.S. territory, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Lianyong Wei was arrested by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on Aug. 21 after allegedly attacking a family in their home, officials said. A day later, Wei, whose legal immigration status ended in 2019, was taken into custody "without incident, pending his removal proceedings."

The 51-year-old was found unresponsive during morning checks the next day by a corrections officer at the Saipan facility, run by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Corrections. Wei was pronounced dead at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 23.

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A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk must stand trial for aggravated murder, a felony charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

After several hours of closing arguments in Provo, Utah, judge Tony Graf ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Tyler Robinson, 23, who has been charged with the murder of one of the US right’s most prominent figures.

Robinson pleaded not guilty after Graf’s ruling. A trial date has yet to be set.

A key factor in charging aggravated murder is whether the shooter knowingly created a risk of death to anyone else as he carried out the killing.

Judge Graf said: “These circumstances support a reasonable inference that defendant was aware that other individuals were positioned near Mr Kirk when he fired.”

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A new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for this November’s US midterm elections was thrown together so hastily, and tested so little, that a single scanning glitch could see entire batches of ballots turned away, a whistleblower has told Congress.

The project – a key part of Donald Trump’s new restrictions on voting – is “perilously rushed and potentially unlawful”, according to the US senator Richard Blumenthal, who disclosed the warning in a letter to David Steiner, the postmaster general, on Tuesday.

Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the US Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, said the account he had received made clear the US Postal Service “lacks the technical or operational capability” to roll it out safely before ballots go out to voters.

The system stems from a March executive order by Trump tightening federal control over mail-in voting, directing USPS to check ballots against a federally approved voter list before sending them – a break from its usual role of simply delivering whatever is handed over by states. Courts have blocked and unblocked parts of the order repeatedly since, amid lawsuits arguing it oversteps into territory the constitution leaves to states.

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Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey won the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, dispatching a younger and more moderate challenger in a significant victory for the party’s progressive wing.

Markey defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq who had long been tipped as a rising star in the party but struggled to turn his potential into lasting political impact. Moulton, age 47, had made his comparative youth a major part of his campaign against Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years and will be 86 when his Senate term ends in 2032.

The party’s progressive wing rallied behind Markey, a reliable liberal who has closely aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and is known for his emphasis on combating climate change. Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) appeared together in a campaign ad for Markey.

Recent surveys had shown Markey pulling away from Moulton, who had an early edge in spending thanks in part to a nonprofit group that aired pointed ads suggesting Markey was too old to remain in Congress.

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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., named more than a dozen people he described as alleged Jeffrey Epstein "coconspirators" on the House floor Monday as he renewed his push to force the government to disclose millions of records connected to the convicted sex offender.

"Mr. Speaker, it's been a year since the president signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the government continues to withhold over 3 million files," Massie said.

Epstein Files Transparency Act II, to bring the fight to the state courts, accountability to the Department of Justice, and closure for survivors," he added.

"We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted," Massie said before naming a series of prominent Epstein associates and others whom he accused of wrongdoing, including former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Les Wexner, Leon Black, and Jes Staley.

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