TV News LIES

A federal judge ordered the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, marking a blow to the Trump administration's efforts to keep him in immigration detention in connection with his pro-Palestinian activism.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey said June 20 that the evidence submitted to the court − which government lawyers failed to contest − showed Khalil, a 30-year-old lawful permanent resident, was neither a flight risk nor dangerous, and his prolonged detention since March was potentially punitive.

It was an extraordinary turn of events in the ongoing case, the first of several in which the Trump administration sought to detain and deport students and scholars over pro-Palestinian speech or activism. Justice Department lawyers have said the secretary of state can order a person's removal if their actions threaten foreign policy interests.

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Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled that several key pieces of the massive bill to implement President Trump’s agenda run afoul of the Byrd Rule and must be taken out of the package to allow it to pass with a simple majority vote on a special procedural fast track.

The parliamentarian ruled against several provisions under the jurisdictions of the Senate committees on Banking, Environment and Public Works, and Armed Services.

These included a provision that would have placed a funding cap on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which would have cut $6.4 billion from the agency by reducing its maximum funding to zero percent of the Federal Reserve’s operating expenses. The funding cut would have eliminated the agency.

The creation of the CFPB was one of the central reforms of the Dodd-Frank Act that Democrats passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

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At least 92 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip as desperate Palestinians continue to seek food amid an ongoing hunger crisis.

Among those killed since dawn on Thursday, 64 were in Gaza City and the north and 16 others were waiting for aid assistance near the Netzarim Corridor, which splits north and south Gaza.

Starving Palestinians have gathered in the area daily to receive packages from the United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which the United Nations has condemned for its “weaponisation” of aid.

Bassam Abu Shaar, who witnessed the Israeli attack at the aid site, told the AFP news agency that people had gathered overnight in the hope of receiving food.

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Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney raised safety concerns Wednesday about President Trump’s newly installed flagpoles at the White House.

In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill,” the former Trump official questioned how the president’s helicopter would continue to land safely on the South Lawn, where a flagpole now stands.

“I see a problem for where they’re supposed to land the helicopter — because this is right on the South Lawn, and I’m not really sure,” Mulvaney said in the interview when asked about the flagpoles.

“I imagine they considered this, they’d be landing someplace else, but I’m looking at this going, as the chief of staff who’s in charge of military operations at the White House, ‘Where are we landing the helicopter without creating an increased risk for the president of the United States?’ I don’t know the answer to that yet,” he added.

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Some ready-to-eat chicken fettuccine Alfredo meals sold at Kroger and Walmart are being voluntarily recalled following a nationwide listeria outbreak linked to 17 illnesses and three deaths as well as one fetal loss.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said it is investigating the outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes, which they say has been traced to products made by FreshRealm, Inc. under the Home Chef brand at Kroger and the Marketside brand at Walmart.

"FSIS is concerned that some products may be in consumers' refrigerators or freezers," the agency said in a statement. "Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase."

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In the early morning hours of 12 June, Moises Sotelo woke up to go to work in the rolling hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country, a place he has called home for decades.

But this morning was not business as usual. A car tailed Sotelo as soon as he left his driveway, according to an account from his co-worker. Trucks surrounded him just outside of St Michael’s Episcopal church, where he was detained by federal immigration agents. By the end of the day, Sotelo was in an Ice detention facility.

“He was in chains at his feet,” Alondra Sotelo-Garcia told a local news outlet about seeing her father arrested. “Shoelaces were taken off, his belt was off, he didn’t have his ring, he didn’t have his watch. Everything was taken from him.”

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