TV News LIES

The National Weather Service has begun the work of renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America in its broad array of products and services, including maps, websites and forecasts, the agency announced Sept. 14.

Among the weather service products that use the name "Lake Ontario" are open waters forecasts, forecasts for the Niagara River and the surrounding region in New York.

Lake Ontario is part of the formal international boundary between Canada and the United States. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 27 directing U.S. agencies to change the name of Lake Ontario during a round of trade negotiations with Canada.

As recently as Sept. 13, the name "Lake Ontario" was still being used in the forecast discussion of the weather service office in Buffalo. It noted that a few showers were possible "southeast of Lake Ontario during the predawn hours of Monday morning."

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The Supreme Court on Monday, Sept. 14 declined to let the U.S. Postal Service tighten the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.

The ruling was a loss for President Donald Trump who has challenged the security of mail-in ballots. He’s pushed for greater federal control of elections, which are administered by states − many of which said the changes can't be implemented in time.

The adminisortration had asked the court to suspend a judge's ruling that paused Trump's new role for the Postal Service.

Under the controversial order Trump signed in March, states must give lists of verified voters to the Postal Service and use a specific design for ballot envelopes that includes unique voter barcodes. The Postal Service can refuse to deliver ballots that don't meet the new rules.

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Lebanese farmer Saleh* woke up before dawn on 3 September to harvest his fig trees in the southern Lebanese border village of Halta. 

When he stepped out and saw lights outside his neighbours' house, abandoned during the war, Saleh knew an Israeli army unit was there. 

The Israeli soldiers were searching houses in the village and called three residents on their mobile phones instructing them to come outside. 

After several hours of interrogations, they took the three men away, including Hatem Abdel-Aal, a member of the municipal council. The Israeli army returned Hatem at around midnight.  

“They told him you have to come to us by foot, without a car,” Saleh told Middle East Eye. “The man followed their instructions and headed their way. He couldn’t refuse.”

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Yemen's Houthi fighters' rapid advance along the Red Sea coast has put them in a prime position to control shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb choke point, while bolstering Iran’s leverage against the US, experts tell Middle East Eye.

“The Houthis have pulled off a military victory that puts them one step closer to be in full control of the Bab el-Mandeb,” Corey Ranslem, CEO of maritime security group Dryad Global, told MEE.

“I think it will actually be easier for the Houthis to exert control in Bab el-Mandeb than it is for Iran in the Strait of Hormuz because the US doesn’t have tangible military assets in the area,” he added.

After days of heavy fighting along a narrow plain known as the Tihama, on Thursday the Houthis routed Yemeni forces loyal to Saudi Arabia and seized the historic and strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha.

Arab media reported that the Houthis made further gains throughout the day. They deployed troops on the Hanish Islands, which sit in the middle of the Red Sea across from Eritrea. Meanwhile, Houthi forces continued to advance south to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the island of Perim.

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Russian strikes on Ukrainian food production infrastructure have intensified, with a Sept. 10 attack damaging the Bunge-owned vegetable oil processing plant in central Dnipro. 

The assault on Bunge follows a series of recent strikes aimed at Ukraine’s agricultural and food manufacturing sectors.

The facility, best known for producing the Oleina sunflower oil brand, was forced to suspend operations following damage to its production site.

The morning attack directly targeted part of the manufacturing complex. Global agribusiness giant Bunge confirmed that while its facilities sustained damage, no plant employees were injured. However, broader consequences of the strike in Dnipro resulted in two deaths and two injuries, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. Responders extinguished a blaze near the facility that destroyed 12 cars and two minibuses.

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A 10,000 year-old tooth in remarkable condition from an ancient Pacific mastodon, a large mammal that once inhabited North America, was recently discovered by a California scientist.

Brigid Lynch, a geomorphologist, was working at a preserve in San Mateo county, when she stumbled across a peculiar rock.

Paleontologists later confirmed it was not a stone, but an adult Pacific mastodon molar, according to a Wednesday news release from the Midpeninsula regional open space district (Midpen).

“The tooth itself is in immaculate condition. It’s the most complete mastodon molar from our area, and the most spectacular mastodon molar that I’ve ever seen. I had chills and shivers up and down my spine,” said paleontologist Wayne Thompson in a statement. “It’s another puzzle in the Ice Age saga that we can put into place.”

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Police in Jackson, Mississippi, have arrested a man in the death of Tasia Fortune, a 29-year-old Black woman found hanging from a tree behind a vacant house last month. The state medical examiner on Thursday ruled Fortune’s death a homicide.

Jackson police chief RaShall Brackney-Wheelock said at a news conference Friday that police had secured search and arrest warrants for Jacques Ratliff and arrested him when they encountered him walking on the street.

The state medical examiner’s office determined Thursday evening that the death was a homicide, Brackney-Wheelock said, allowing them to execute the warrants they already had on hand.

The killing of the mother of four has attracted national attention, both because of the severity of the crime and Mississippi’s brutal history of racist violence and lynchings.

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The world's leading Palestinian writer, Raja Shehadeh, has been on a mission to save his most personal work: his diaries.

The award-winning author of more than 20 books has been documenting decades of Palestinian life, starting in 1967 at the very beginning of Israel's occupation of the West Bank when he was a teenager.

His diaries capture a unique voice and front row view of history: his meetings with world leaders, his work as a human rights lawyer, and his role as legal advisor to the Palestinians during peace talks with Israel.

Shehadeh, now 75, feared his diaries and archives — kept in his garage in the West Bank city of Ramallah — were at risk of destruction from Israeli military operations. (The Israeli foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment about Shehadeh's fears.)

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