TV News LIES

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against President Trump’s effort to cut billions of dollars of foreign aid that was previously approved by Congress through “pocket rescissions.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, refused to block a lower court ruling from earlier this week that said the administration must release the preapproved funding and ruled the effort to withhold it was likely illegal.

The three-judge panel did not elaborate on their ruling, writing that “appellants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.” 

Justices Cornelia Pillard and Florence Pan — appointed by former Presidents Obama and Biden, respectively — supported the lower court decision while Judge Justin Walker, an appointee of Trump, dissented.

The ruling came two days after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali that condemned the administration’s unwillingness to spend the funds appropriated by law.

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The National Hurricane Center is tracking systems in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Hurricane Kiko is holding its own in the Central Pacific Ocean, but a tropical wave moving westward across the Atlantic Ocean continues to look less and less impressive.

Hurricane Kiko – maintaining sustained winds of 140-mph – is expected to begin weakening over the weekend but could still retain hurricane strength on Sept. 8 as it approaches waters to the north of the Hawaiian Islands, the National Hurricane Center said.

The state of Hawaii issued an emergency declaration on Sept. 5, an administrative action government agencies often take before tropical storms, hurricanes and other impending weather disasters. Such declarations pave the way for emergency measures and resources that allow officials to respond quickly during emergencies.

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Israel's military says it has taken control of almost half of Gaza City as it prepares for a large-scale ground offensive to fully occupy its densely populated urban center.

Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing the military now has "operational control" of 40% of Gaza City and will continue to expand and intensify the offensive in the coming days. The military called around 60,000 reservists back to war to support the expansive operation, which Israel says is aimed at returning hostages and dismantling Hamas rule.

Last week, the military declared all of Gaza City a "dangerous combat zone" and is striking at high-rise buildings in the city's central and western neighborhoods. These areas, including its western shoreline, have been crowded for months with displaced people and tents.

Already, entire neighborhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City have been leveled by Israeli strikes and thousands of Palestinian families displaced. In the past three weeks, Gaza's civil defense, or first responders, say Israel has destroyed some 1,500 homes in the Zaytoun and Sabra neighborhoods of eastern Gaza City. That destruction can be seen in satellite images, as well.

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Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

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The U.S. jobs engine is sputtering and looks to be in danger of stalling out.

U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate inched up 4.3%. Revised figures also show there was also a net loss of jobs in June for the first time since 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

The U.S. has now had four months in a row of pretty anemic job growth. Average job growth between May and August was down 75% from the same period a year ago.

The weakness was visible all across the economy.

"There are not a lot of silver linings in the report," said economist Julia Coronado of Macropolicy Perspectives. "We are losing engines of job growth."

There was a net loss of jobs last month in manufacturing, construction, and oil drilling — all industries that the Trump administration is trying to promote.

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Veterans who helped the US’s Afghan allies find refuge in the US say they are outraged that a fellow veteran and advocate now faces federal conspiracy charges for his role in a protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Some call the arrest of former US army sergeant Bajun Mavalwalla II “shameful” and “un-American”. Mavalwalla is part of a community of American military veterans who, in the wake of Kabul’s fall to the Taliban in 2021, worked to rescue Afghans who supported the US military operations in their home country.

“He is one of us – and his arrest sends a message that peaceful dissent is being criminalized,” Shawn VanDiver, the founder and president of #AfghanEvac, an umbrella group bringing together military veterans, national security leaders, intelligence workers and refugee rights groups, wrote to his membership after the Guardian revealed Mavalwalla’s arrest on Tuesday.

“We want to say this loud and clear. We will not be intimidated,” VanDiver, a navy veteran, wrote.

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A federal judge on Friday ruled against the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.

The ruling by US district judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means that 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire on 10 September have status to stay and work in the United States.

Chen said the actions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, in terminating and vacating three extensions granted by the previous administration exceeded her statutory authority and were arbitrary and capricious.

The DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Friday’s ruling came after an appeals court blocked Donald Trump’s plans to end protections for 600,000 people from Venezuela who have permission to live and work in the US, saying that plaintiffs were likely to win their claim that the Trump administration’s actions were unlawful.

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Donald Trump told reporters that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded in 2020 as having taken place this summer.

“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.

Trump, apparently misled by video of 2020 protests, threatens to send troops to Portland

Donald Trump told reporters that he might send national guard troops into Portland, Oregon, apparently because he was misled about the scale of small protests there by a TV report that incorrectly presented video recorded in 2020 as having taken place this summer.

“I will say this, I watched today, I didn’t know that was continuing to go on, but Portland is unbelievable, what’s going on,” Trump said. He then claimed, incorrectly, that he had seen video evidence of “the destruction of the city”.

In fact, a handful of protesters have demonstrated outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in a remote area of Portland along the south waterfront this year, but the scale of the protests, which attract dozens at most, is nothing like the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd that regularly drew thousands to tens of thousands of demonstrators to a central part of the city for months.

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