TV News LIES

Federal officials tasked with implementing the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” program faced an extraordinary campaign of intimidation inside the Department of Homeland Security during the final months of Kristi Noem’s tenure and the arrival of her successor, a Guardian investigation found.

Over the past four months, the Guardian spoke with more than three dozen current and former Department of Homeland Security officials who described a climate of fear driven by Trump loyalists in senior positions, who sidelined or removed career officials who raised concerns about possibly illegal acts, and threatened termination or arrest in order to stop dissent. Several have also claimed they were subjected to polygraph examinations conducted by US military personnel.

In the past year-and-a-half, entire offices were dismantled, and oversight bodies were stripped of staff and authority. The divisions responsible for refugee policy, asylum, humanitarian protections and family unity were among the hardest hit. The practices have continued during the leadership transition to Markwayne Mullin, the current and former officials said.

“I wanted to work with refugees,” said Harun Ahmed, a former deputy chief in the refugee affairs law division at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a phone interview from Texas. “I wanted to help. I believe in public service.”

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New York City’s famed Solomon R Guggenheim Museum was among a number of Manhattan buildings that recently tested positive for the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease.

The city health department on Friday released a list of 31 buildings on the Upper East Side that have been ordered to clean and disinfect their cooling towers as the city deals with the latest outbreak of the disease, which is a serious form of pneumonia.

The distinctive, cylindrical-shaped art museum was among 19 that have already completed the remediation, according to the department’s list. The rest were expected to complete the work by Saturday.

City officials stressed the positive test results do not confirm any of the buildings as the source of the outbreak as the tests conducted could not distinguish between live and dead bacteria.

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The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is being drained again for another round of repairs, marking another setback in President Trump’s multimillion-dollar renovation of the historic Washington, D.C. landmark.

Trump had hoped to have the pool ready to be showcased by July 4, when the nation would celebrate its 250th anniversary, but the project quickly ran into problems. Peeling paint was seen on the surface and green algae blooms were seen in the water, prompting yet another round of repairs.

The delay caused disappointment for tourists who traveled to Washington in hopes of viewing the newly renovated pool.

“It kind of makes me sad a little bit,” Lindsay Anderson, a visitor from Nebraska, told DC News Now.

“I think it’s unfortunate that a lot of people are here in our nation’s capital.”

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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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