TV News LIES

A federal judge has awarded Hunter Biden $1.7 million in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, ruling that Byrne made false claims about Biden’s alleged involvement in a bribery scheme with Iran, according to reporting from The Guardian and The Hill.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California issued the judgment Friday after finding that Byrne acted with “intentional misrepresentation” and “conscious disregard” for Biden’s rights. The judge also awarded Biden $1 in nominal damages and ordered Byrne to pay nearly $35,000 in court sanctions.

The lawsuit, filed by Biden in 2023, centered on claims Byrne made in interviews and online that Biden had sought an $800 million bribe from Iran while his father, former President Joe Biden, was in office. Byrne alleged that Hunter Biden offered to help persuade his father to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets and take a softer approach during nuclear negotiations.

Biden denied the allegations, accusing Byrne of knowingly spreading false information designed to damage his reputation. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial, but Wilson entered a default judgment after Byrne failed to appear and the judge said he repeatedly disobeyed court orders and delayed proceedings.

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Lawyers for the suspect accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk are expected to keep questioning the reliability of DNA testing that prosecutors said links the defendant to the suspected murder weapon when a weeklong hearing continues Wednesday.

A member of Tyler Robinson's defense team interrogated a DNA analyst from the FBI on Tuesday about the techniques she used to connect Robinson to a rifle found wrapped inside a towel at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was shot in September while speaking to a crowd.

Defense lawyer Michael Burt cast doubt on the analyst's conclusions — a theme that's likely to come up again during the five-day preliminary hearing.

"She can't match Mr. Robinson to the questioned samples," Burt concluded.

Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride countered that the reliability of the DNA testing could be examined if the case goes to trial. He suggested the preliminary hearing was not the time to take up the matter.

"The point is there are explanations that are susceptible to different interpretations and arguments," McBride said. "The court is going to determine if it meets the threshold of reliability at trial."

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The New York Times said on Saturday, July 11, that the U.S. Department of Justice had ordered several of its journalists to testify before a federal grand jury after they reported on security concerns involving President Donald Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The media organization said subpoenas were issued on Friday, July 10, asking that the journalists appear before a grand jury on July 15 to testify "in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law."

The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and in some cases delivered to reporters' homes by federal agents, the news outlet reported. It described the move as "an extraordinary escalation in President Trump's efAccessforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations."

In a statement to Reuters, a Department of Justice spokesperson did not confirm or deny the subpoenas but said the administration was not targeting reporters but was concerned about people leaking classified information. The White House referred all questions to the Justice Department.

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Israel has issued orders to confiscate large tracts of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank in order to expand a road for Israeli settlers in the area.

One of the largest settler roads in the West Bank, Route 60 lies east of Ramallah and south of Nablus and its completion requires the appropriation of Palestinian land along its route.

The project will lead to the expropriation of privately owned paved agricultural land, in order to add new lanes and strengthen links between illegal Jewish settlements in the area.

Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, is among the Palestinian towns most threatened by the project, as the road runs alongside large areas of its agricultural land.

The Israeli expropriation notice announces the confiscation of hundreds of dunams, but the exact number is unknown because farmers found the confiscation orders discarded on their land rather than delivered to them directly.

Taysir Salem, a landowner in Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya, told Middle East Eye his grandfather owned 180 dunams (18 hectares) of land, which his family inherited and planted with trees. 

The land is now set to be confiscated.

"Route 60 will be extended through our land, and at our expense, they will take it by force and bulldoze half of a hill that belongs to us," he said.

"All the neighbouring towns will also be subjected to land theft because of the road," he added.

The official Israeli confiscation of the land is accompanied by a settler campaign to intimidate local residents and prevent them from accessing it fully.

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Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said US envoy Steve Witkoff described Gaza’s entire population as “two million Nazis” during a private meeting last year.

Speaking at a conference in Israel on Thursday, the far-right minister recounted a conversation held after Witkoff’s visited Gaza last August at the height of the Israeli genocide.

Smotrich said: "When Witkoff was appointed, I sat with him and Ron Dermer [former Israeli ambassador to the US]." They showed Witkoff a propaganda video, after which the US envoy turned to Smotrich and reportedly said: "Bezalel, I will not let two million Nazis live next to your children on fences."

Witkoff, a former property lawyer with no previous foreign policy or humanitarian experience, publicly presented the Gaza visit as an effort to “help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza”.

At the time, Israel was deliberately starving residents by restricting food entering Gaza and driving much of its population towards famine.

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The UK’s charity regulator has issued an official warning to a British charity which raises funds to support Israeli soldiers over a "distressing" video posted on its website.

The Charity Commission said the London-based UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers (UK-AWIS) had “breached their legal duties” after publishing a video appealing for donations to support Israeli forces involved in the war against Hamas.

“All of the trustees have failed to act in the charity’s best interests and manage its resources responsibly by exposing the charity’s reputation to unnecessary risk,” the commission said.

“This is a breach of trust or duty, or misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity.”

The video, which has since been removed from UK-AWIS’s website, Facebook and YouTube pages, appeared to show a person being killed as part of a montage of footage featuring air strikes and combat scenes, similar to promotional content produced by the Israeli military.

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Russia launched a ballistic missile attack on Kyiv early Saturday, striking four districts and injuring at least six people, Ukrainian officials said.

The first explosions were heard at around 3:38 a.m., before air-raid sirens sounded in the capital at 3:40 a.m. and in the surrounding region at 3:54 a.m.

“The enemy is attacking the capital with missiles. Please remain in safe places,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko later confirmed that the city had been targeted with ballistic missiles.

“The number of injured in the capital has risen to six,” Tkachenko reported.

Three people were hospitalized, while three others received medical assistance at the scene. Officials did not immediately provide further details on their conditions.

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A major housing bill will go into effect at midnight on Saturday without Donald Trump’s signature, after the president said he would refuse to sign the legislation because Congress has not approved new restrictions on voting nationwide.

The measure, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is the biggest change to federal policy for buyers, renters and homebuilders in decades, and Congress approved it with large margins last month after lengthy negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

But Trump has tied the bill to the Save America Act, which would impose a host of new restrictions on voters and state election officials nationwide ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which Republicans will be defending their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. A version of the Save America Act passed the House in February, but it is opposed by Senate Democrats and lacks the votes in that chamber to overcome the filibuster.

Last month, Trump canceled a signing ceremony for the housing bill, denying his Republican allies an opportunity to publicly highlight their efforts to address housing affordability, which surveys indicate is a top concern among voters.

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