TV News LIES

House Democrat calls Trump's new tariffs 'an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress', not an attempt to end forced labor.

As soon as the Trump administration announced its new tariffs on 85 countries, for supposedly failing to crack down on forced labor, the office of the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, turned its official, government social media account into a political battering ram: posting past statements against forced labor from 15 senators and members of Congress of both parties, in a transparent attempt to head off their criticism of the new tariffs.

One of those lawmakers, congresswoman Linda Sánchez, a California Democrat, denounced the pretext for the new tariffs as a sham anyway.

“President Trump isn’t serious about combating forced labor. He’s trying to make an end-run around the Supreme Court and Congress to reimpose his illegal tariffs,” Sánchez wrote on social media.

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The Trump family is making headlines again after money management companies tied to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have raked in about $6.3 billion from investments in defense-sector startups that receive hefty government contracts.

According to The Washington Post (1), portfolio funds linked to the Trumps have "invested in more than a dozen defense tech companies and other firms seeking businesses from the Pentagon and federal agencies."

The investment companies cited in The Post's analysis include Plainville, N.Y.-based 1789 Capital, an investment firm that says it's "Funding the Next Chapter of America's Exceptionalism" on its website's home page (2). The firm's leadership team includes Donald Trump, Jr., who's billed as a partner on the 1789 website.

Another firm, American Ventures branch, a branch of Dominari Holdings, holds approximately $1 billion in private assets, with Eric Trump reportedly heavily involved in the company.

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The House on Thursday approved a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, in a vote that reflected growing frustration inside Congress over the war and the ability of lawmakers to conduct oversight.

The resolution passed the House by a vote of 214 to 208. And while it is not legally binding, the resolution represents a symbolic rebuke to President Trump over a war that lawmakers never voted to authorize. It was the second such rebuke passed by the House since the start of the war.

Shortly after the House vote, Senate Democrats tried to advance a war powers resolution of their own, but the measure failed 47 to 49.

The votes came at a moment when attacks between Iran and the U.S. appear to be intensifying. Eighteen U.S. troops have died since fighting broke out in February, but four have died since July 17. U.S. forces have also suffered nearly 500 injuries, with 100 of those coming in the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon.

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President Trump has thrown the Saudi nuclear deal into question less than 24 hours after it was signed, making it conditional on the Saudis normalizing relations with Israel.

His Thursday announcement appears vastly different from what sources familiar had disclosed about the deal on Wednesday, raising questions about whether it marks a U-turn or just a confusing rollout.

The Saudis have long said that any normalization with Israel is conditioned on seeing a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state, something Israel has dismissed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing that Trump has said if the Saudis don’t join the Abraham Accords, “the deal is off.”

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Lawyers with the Department of Justice on Thursday agreed to unilaterally withdraw a series of subpoenas that sought to compel New York Times journalists to testify about their sources and to access their phone records. 

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would quash the subpoenas if the Department of Justice refused to withdraw them. 

"It's a matter of basic compliance with the law," Judge Subramanian said.

Attorneys for the New York Times were in court Thursday to fight a series of grand jury subpoenas they allege were an attempt to retaliate against and intimidate reporters whose work angered President Donald Trump. 

Lawyers for the newspaper had asked the judge to quash the subpoenas, which sought to compel the journalists to testify about their sources, as well as access the phone records of the reporters and some of their family members. 

Sean Buckley, the chief counsel to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that prosecutors would return to the judge if they decide to seek new subpoenas in the future. 

"Upon further consideration, the government is prepared unilaterally to withdraw the subpoenas at this time," he said.

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The charred shell of the Al-Masri family home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City was still smoldering on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the Israel military bombed it, killing Firas and Salsabeel al-Masri and their four children—Faryal, Salma, Amira and Naim—as they slept.

The airstrike came without warning in the middle of the night, destroying the upper floor of the simple two-story structure and setting it ablaze. “We were asleep in the middle of the night, at around 2 a.m. or so, when we heard a huge explosion,” Abu Youssef Al-Masri, the children’s grandfather, told Drop Site as he stood in front of the partially collapsed home. “We realized the house had been struck. The house collapsed and caught fire.”

The fire spared nothing inside, family belongings burnt to ash lay among broken cinder blocks, the walls that remained standing blackened with soot.

“The house burned completely. It was my brother’s home—he, his wife, and their four children. Burned until it was charred. My brother’s entire family has been erased,” Mohammed Al-Masri, the brother of Firas, said. “They burned before our eyes and we couldn’t do anything.” He spoke standing at the graveyard where the family of six were buried on Tuesday afternoon.

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One of the most intimidating aspects of modern US relations with the Arab and Muslim world is Washington's insistence that all Arab and Muslim-majority countries normalise relations with the state of Israel as a reward for its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

These demands have intensified since the US and Israel launched their war of aggression against Iran in February. Washington's long-standing push for Saudi normalisation continues unabated, as does its pressure on Qatar, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, and Indonesia, among others, to follow suit.

More recently, the US succeeded in bringing to power a new Lebanese government that has gone as far as supporting Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory by signing an agreement last month recognising the "sovereignty" of the genocidal state.

Which Israel, and which borders, are these Arab and Muslim-majority countries required to recognise?

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According to the reporting, US President Donald Trump approved one of the landmark policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, granting Riyadh a 30-year civilian nuclear deal that could allow uranium enrichment in the kingdom.

Israeli politicians took to social media to voice their concerns regarding the agreement, with some stating that it harms Israel's security interests and signals yet another failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Saudi Arabia's civilian nuclear programme will end with nuclear weapons and will lead to a frantic arms race throughout the entire Middle East," said Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing opposition Yisrael Beytenu party.

"The State of Israel must state clearly and unequivocally: we will strongly oppose this," Lieberman added, urging Israeli action in the US Congress to block the deal.

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