TV News LIES

A federal judge ruled that hours of audio recordings tied to former President Joe Biden’s 2017 memoir can be turned over to the Heritage Foundation, rejecting his bid to block the disclosure.

In a ruling June 20, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said Biden’s privacy interests, while real, are outweighed by the public’s interest in the materials and the government’s obligation under the Freedom of Information Act to promote transparency.

The decision marks a setback for Biden, who in May sued the Department of Justice in an effort to stop the release of the recordings. The Heritage Foundation has argued the files could show evidence that Biden mishandled classified information, a claim he has denied.

Biden’s legal team immediately moved to seek an injunction pending appeal, signaling an ongoing fight over whether the audio can be released.

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At least 29 people have been killed in a new wave of Israeli attacks on Lebanon across southern Lebanon and the eastern Beqaa Valley, just a day after a ceasefire was announced.

Lebanon’s civil defence agency said a series of Israeli attacks on the Nabatieh district in the country’s south on Saturday killed 16 people and wounded 12 others.

The ageneecy said its personnel had been working since dawn to respond to the ongoing attacks.

An Israeli strike on the village of Barish in Tyre, a coastal city known as Sour in Arabic, killed four members of the same family, which Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) described as a "massacre".

The NNA also reported that at least seven people were killed and 13 were injured in an Israeli attack on a village near the southern city of Sidon.

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Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza have accused the Bank of Palestine of freezing or closing their accounts without adequate explanation, leaving them unable to access salaries, aid and personal savings.

Several account holders told Middle East Eye they were unable to access funds needed to pay rent, buy essentials and support their families after discovering their accounts had been restricted or shut down.

They said they received little or no explanation from the bank and were given no clear pathway to challenge the decisions.

Due to the chronic liquidity shortage in Gaza and widespread deterioration of banknotes, many Palestinians rely heavily on banking applications and digital wallets to access and transfer money.

Ahmed Sardah told MEE that he was trying to transfer money through the bank's mobile application when he discovered his account had been closed. He later learned that his PalPay and Jawwal Pay wallets had also been suspended.

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Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little fucker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book.

The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump aNews of Bessent’s alleged remarks may embarrass the Trump administration, although the meeting that did take place on 28 February 2025 proved outright disastrous, as Trump and JD Vance blasted Zelenskyy for not being grateful for aid in his fight against Russian invaders, and for not wearing a suit.

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little fucker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book.

The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump administration by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set to be published worldwide on Tuesday.

News of Bessent’s alleged remarks may embarrass the Trump administration, although the meeting that did take place on 28 February 2025 proved outright disastrous, as Trump and JD Vance blasted Zelenskyy for not being grateful for aid in his fight against Russian invaders, and for not wearing a suit.

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Federal agents have arrested hundreds of immigrants off New York and New Jersey streets in recent months in a stealth enforcement campaign that disproportionately targeted people from Latin American countries, according to an investigation by the City Reporter based on a review of more than 1,200 lawsuits.

More than 93% of the people grabbed off area streets who filed suit were from Latin American countries, although Latinos make up only 66% of immigrants without legal status in the region.

The arrests have rattled Latino neighborhoods, as people disappear in moments as mundane as buying milk, walking their dog, taking out the trash or picking up their children from soccer practice.

Street arrests are different from other types of immigration enforcement in that they unfold in minutes, often on quiet residential streets and out of public view. Many immigrants who had no expectation of being detained were targeted at the sole discretion of agents in the field. In some accounts of the arrests, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents said they stopped people because they looked similar to someone they had a warrant for, then realized they had a different subject, but apprehended the person anyway.

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At least 12 people in a crowd on a Chicago street suffered gunshot wounds after an SUV pulled up and two people inside the vehicle started shooting, police said.

The SUV drove away from the South Side neighborhood, leaving two people, both male, in critical condition following the shooting late on Friday, police said in a news release. One suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh.

The eight men and four women in the group ranged in age from 17 to 47. They were being treated at four hospitals.

Police said another man suffered unknown injuries and refused medical treatment.

Police initially responded to a call of one person shot, and found a woman with two gunshot wounds to her back and a man with four graze wounds to his back. Both were listed in fair condition.

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The Justice Department released a memo this week that quietly calls into question decades of civil rights protections for Americans with disabilities and stirred fear and anger among advocates and families.

The memo, an opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, argues that states do not have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support. These services allow many disabled Americans to continue to live, learn and work at home or in their own communities, among family and friends.

"It is now the position of the United States government that people with disabilities don't have a right to be part of their communities," says Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University who led disability law and policy efforts during both the Obama and Biden administrations. "I can't overstate how significant this change in position is."

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Israeli strikes in Gaza on Saturday killed at least six people, including two children and a cameraman with broadcaster Al Jazeera, according to Palestinian health officials.

Despite an October ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas, the enclave has seen near-daily Israeli attacks that have killed over 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The first strike on Saturday hit an apartment in Gaza City around 2 a.m., according to the ministry. At the site, an Associated Press reporter saw rubble and chunks of concrete stained with blood.

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