TV News LIES

Meta will pay up to $18 billion and strictly limit how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram under a sweeping agreement with nearly all U.S. states to resolve claims it designed those social media platforms to addict children.

The settlements announced on Wednesday end a federal trial over allegations Meta‘s products harmed children and the company misled the public about their safety. Four of the states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — were expected to seek close to $200 billion in civil penalties.

While Meta will not undergo a fundamental overhaul, the accords represent a sweeping effort to define how it serves young users.

It could provide a template for resolving thousands of other lawsuits against social media companies. Governments around the world are trying to curb children’s access to harmful online content, including a ban in Australia on social media for children under 16.

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When Tim Brunner was at an auction barn earlier this week, he was surprised to see decent cows selling several hundred dollars cheaper than they were just a few weeks ago. 

He largely blames President Donald Trump. And he’s not the only one.

The White House’s abrupt decision last week to ease tariffs on 300,000 metric tons — more than 660 million pounds — of foreign beef imports has infuriated American cattle ranchers and congressional Republicans alike. 

While the president promised the 90-day change would ease high prices for staple foods like hamburgers, many domestic livestock producers took it as a slap in the face during an already-difficult time.

"It’s absolutely idiotic," said Brunner, the president of the Montana Cattlemen's Association, one of several organizations representing cattle ranchers across the Treasure State.

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Claims by Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell that her sex trafficking conviction was a “complete miscarriage of justice” were rejected Tuesday by a federal judge who said her assertions were based on “speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods.”

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written ruling that Maxwell’s habeas petition seeking to set aside her conviction and free her from a 20-year prison sentence on the grounds that there was “substantial new evidence” was “demonstrably meritless.”

“Maxwell’s petition falls very far from the mark,” Engelmayer said. “There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial.”

Maxwell maintained in a habeas petition last December that information that would have resulted in her exoneration at her 2021 trial was withheld and false testimony was presented to the jury.

She said the cumulative effect of the constitutional violations resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice.”

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Democrats and other Donald Trump critics reacted incredulously to a New York Times report on Sunday that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Jared Kushner, the president’s influential son-in-law, to discuss possible areas of collaboration.

The reported meeting comes months ahead of the November midterm elections in which Democrats are favored to retake the US House, a development that would make Jeffries speaker. If they are in the majority, Democrats are expected to use their oversight power to aggressively investigate the Trump administration, including self-enrichment by the president and his family.

There are longstanding conflict-of-interest concerns about the way Kushner has continued to make money from foreign nations as he works on foreign affairs, including conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza.

Asked about the reported meeting, Jeffries said in a statement: “Throughout this Congress, Republicans have adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to governing that has failed the American people. To stop the madness, we have repeatedly made clear that an extremist approach will not work and will be met with forceful opposition.

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Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.

“They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s.

Just as troubling is the smashed glass – still evident – on two posters containing lines in Arabic from the Quran hanging on one of the center’s walls.

He shows where valuables including a surveillance camera and television monitors were stolen and where swear words including the word “die” and other profanity were written on a whiteboard.

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The US Postal Service prepared to publish a final ⁠rule late ⁠on ​Friday to impose new requirements on states to provide the federal government with information on voters before the November ⁠midterm congressional elections, despite a ​pair of court ‌orders ‌that currently block the ‌changes from taking effect.

The USPS acknowledged in the text of the final rule posted online Friday, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next week, that two injunctions issued by federal courts in California and Massachusetts currently bar it from moving ahead with the changes to comply with a March executive order signed by Donald Trump.

In accordance with the order, the postal service would ‌require states to give the US Department of Homeland Security and other agencies access to lists of voters and to adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would make deliveries. If states did not comply, the USPS would refuse to deliver the ballots.

The federal government has sued 30 states and Washington DC for refusing to hand over lists of eligible voters.

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