TV News LIES

Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, is stepping down from his post at the end of the year.

"It is with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement," Bunch wrote in a statement. "I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward."

The Smithsonian Institution — which includes dozens of museums, libraries, research centers, and the National Zoo — has been a frequent target of criticism by President Trump. In August 2025, Trump called for a "comprehensive internal review" of eight Smithsonian museums, and directed them to "celebrate American exceptionalism." In July 2026, the Trump administration issued a report accusing the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History of "extreme political activism."

Bunch defended the museum internally. "At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America's story," he wrote in an email to his staff in July, obtained by NPR.

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Iceland’s government called in the U.S. ambassador on Monday after President Trump posted a map showing the Nordic nation blanketed by the American flag.

Trump, who has previously pushed to take over Greenland and Canada, posted an image to Truth Social of the American flag stretching across North America, Greenland, Iceland, Central America and the Caribbean, with the map labeled “United States of America.”Trump did not offer an explanation for the post.

Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir summoned U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Billy Long over the image, according to Icelandic public broadcaster RUV.

The Foreign Ministry told the outlet that officials made clear to Long, a former Missouri lawmaker and IRS commissioner who became ambassador in May, that Trump’s post was “completely inappropriate.”

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South Africa has accused Israel of breaking legally binding orders issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) intended to protect Palestinians in Gaza, while calling on the international community "to take all necessary action to prevent and punish genocide".

In a statement issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Pretoria said that Israel has refused to comply with three separate provisional measure orders issued by the ICJ. This refusal "undermines their protective function and entails further destruction of the Palestinian group", the statement says.

"The Provisional Measures were not only ordered to protect the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention, they also safeguard the administration of justice and the legitimacy of the ICJ itself, by ensuring that the rights the Court is called upon to vindicate are not destroyed before it renders its final decision." 

The statement added: "The Court’s orders are binding on Israel, and the international community also has an obligation to protect the Palestinian people from genocide, including to take all necessary action to prevent and punish genocide."

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An eight-year-old Palestinian girl, whose age was confirmed by al-Shifa hospital, was killed alongside her father in an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Sunday, hours after she attended the first day of the new school year.

Wafaa Yousef Nabil Akila and her father, Youssef Nabil Rabah Akila, were travelling in a vehicle in western Gaza City when an Israeli drone near the Hamid intersection struck the car.

The attack also wounded six other Palestinians, according to medical officials at al-Shifa hospital.

Photographs shared before the strike showed Wafaa smiling in a blue school uniform and giving a thumbs-up on her first day back at school.

Images from the aftermath showed her schoolbooks and supplies scattered across the charred wreckage of the vehicle.

“This is all that’s left, world,” one man said in the footage. “What truce are you talking about?”

“There has been no ceasefire,” another said. “Every day there are massacres. Every day there is killing. Every day children are dying.”

“Enough of this abandonment.”

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As a new NFL season begins this Wednesday, the danger of America’s most-watched sport has never been more clear.

A new and widely circulated study published in the British Medical Journal examined the donated brains of former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 and compared them with the overall number of players who died during that period.

More...Of the 235 donated brains in that period, 215 had evidence of the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). That group of 215 comprised 24.5% of the former players who died during that period in total. Given the finding, the study’s authors estimate that the prevalence of CTE among players who died in that period was at minimum 24.5% to a maximum of 97.7%, with the actual rate likely somewhere in between.

The implication of that finding cannot be overstated: it suggests that CTE is a disease that may affect a substantial share of those who spend their careers in the NFL. The players taking the field this season are being exposed to the same fundamental risk: the repeated blows to the head that have been linked to the disease. When we watch players deliver and receive those devastaMore...ting if also thrilling hits, when we watch the lines collide on every play, we are watching the repetitive head trauma that puts players at risk of developing CTE. We are watching lives being permanently altered in ways that will in the end result in heartbreak.

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The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon has said she is still losing work because of her outspoken support for Palestinians, despite what she ⁠described as a broader shift ⁠in public opinion against ​US support for Israel.

Speaking at the Venice film festival, where she is promoting her latest movie The Echo Chamber, Sarandon said some parts of the film industry continued to ⁠shun her over her activism.

“I think that the narrative has completely changed in terms of the historical relevance of Palestine and the ties of Zionists with America and our politics,” ⁠she said. “That has been a major revelation for people, how much money the United States gives to Israel, nobody really ​understood that.“

US opinion polls have shown support ‌for Israel softening and sympathy for ‌Palestinians rising since the start of the Gaza war in 2023.

But the 79-year-old actor said her support for the Palestinian ‌cause continued to carry professional consequences.

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Hurricane Lowell has put the western end of the Hawaiian Islands under a hurricane warning on Labor Day as it rapidly approaches with high winds, heavy rain, dangerous surf, and possible tornadoes.

"Flash flooding, damaging waves, and high winds are expected from Lowell," the National Hurricane Center warned in a late afternoon update on Sept. 7. The National Hurricane Center noted in its 8 p.m. ET advisory that conditions were deteriorating for the islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu.

Lowell's center is not forecast to make a direct landfall on the main Hawaiian Islands as it passes on Sept. 7 and 8. Still, the threats have increased for the islands of Niihau and Kauai because the storm's forecast track has shifted steadily eastward, the National Hurricane Center said.

The hurricane warning – meaning hurricane conditions are expected within the watch area – is in effect for Kauai County, including the islands of Niihau and Kauai. A tropical storm warning – meaning tropical storm conditions are expected within the watch area – is in effect for Oahu, the most populated Hawaiian Island.

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Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that the U.S. military dismissed as a “total lie.”

The purported attack came a day after the U.S. military said forces struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Navy warships being targeted with ballistic missiles. Experts called it a dangerous escalation after Iran’s previous attacks at sea targeted commercial shipping.

The war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. But since a fragile ceasefire agreement was announced in June, on-and-off fighting has persisted, with both sides trying to inflict military and economic pain as negotiations have collapsed.

The United States and Iran resumed attacks last week, following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and areas along Iran’s southern coast again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment that returned attention to the area where a school was hit in the war’s opening strikes.

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