TV News LIES

The Department of Veterans Affairs can no longer provide abortions to veterans, including in cases of rape or incest, following a Department of Justice memo that found last week that the practice was not legally sound.

The ban follows months of efforts by the Trump administration to roll back a Biden-era policy that, for the first time, permitted the VA to counsel veterans and their families about abortion, as well as offer the procedure in cases of rape or incest, or when a veteran’s pregnancy imperiled their health.

In August, the administration filed paperwork to officially roll back the policy, which had helped the VA’s network of 1,300-plus healthcare facilities – which treat nearly 10 million veterans each year – expand access to abortion, especially in the wake of the US supreme court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade.

That paperwork is still working its way through the lengthy rule-making process, a VA spokesperson confirmed.

“DOJ’s opinion states that VA is not legally authorized to provide abortions, and VA is complying with it immediately,” Peter Kasperowicz, VA press secretary, said in an emailed statement. “DOJ’s opinion is consistent with VA’s proposed rule.”

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The Supreme Court won’t let President Donald Trump deploy National Guard troops in Chicago for now, the first time the high court has weighed in on the president’s efforts to use the military to enforce immigration laws and fight crime in cities led by Democrats.

In a rare loss for Trump at the high court, the justices on Dec. 23 kept in place a hold that a lower court placed on the use of troops while litigation over the administration’s actions continues.

In an unsigned opinion, the court’s majority said the Trump administration “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.”

And the president can’t rely on “inherent constitutional authority,” the majority said. Three of the court’s six conservatives – Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – dissented.

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President Trump announced on Monday a new class of battleships as part of the U.S. Navy’s “Golden Fleet.” 

The president said that he approved a plan for the Navy to start construction of the two battleships, which will be equipped with guns, missiles, hypersonic weapons and high-powered lasers.

President Trump trumpeted the ships as being built with “all steel” as opposed to aluminum.

Trump said the timeline of building the ships would be about two and a half years

When asked if the new class of ships is developed to counter China, Trump said they are intended to counter “everybody.”

"They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump said standing alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a Mar-a-Lago public appearance.

The new battleships, which will anchor the “Golden Fleet,” will weigh more than 30,000 tons, and the military is expected to have between 20 and 25 as part of the effort to bolster the U.S. Navy.

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The United States interdicted a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, two sources familiar with the raid told USA TODAY on Dec. 20, just days after President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

The sources identified the vessel as the Centuries, which maritime records show is a Panama-flagged oil tanker. The ship is not under U.S. sanctions, the sources said. Marine traffic trackers showed the Centuries was off the coast of Venezuela in the waters of Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island.

The Centuries is a 333-meter-long oil tanker that last docked in Singapore in October, according to vessel tracker Maritime Optima. Its reported seizure would mark the second time in recent weeks that the United States has seized a tanker near Venezuela and comes amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region. The seizure was first reported by Reuters.

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The US military carried out a lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing four people, according to defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a post on Twitter/X, Hegseth wrote: “Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no US military forces were harmed.”

The announcement comes a day after Donald Trump announced a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. In announcing the blockade on social media, the US president accused Venezuela of using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said it had carried out strikes on three boats it accused of trafficking drugs in the Pacific, killing eight people. Since 2 September, more than 20 strikes have killed at least 99 people, most off the coast of Venezuela.

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The Navy quietly disciplined 18 Navy SEALs earlier this year after military investigators found a private group chat that contained racist memes targeting a Black SEAL who was also in the chat, according to documents and a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson. 

Using the Freedom of Information Act, CBS News obtained the Navy's investigation into members of SEAL Team Four, along with years of the unit's internal surveys, which give naval officers insight into the culture, morale and effectiveness. The investigation and other records show racial harassment towards one of the team's own members inside a force that prides itself on unit cohesion and honor—prompting action from the top commander. 

One racist meme sent to the SEAL in 2022 was described in the investigation as "Slave in Chains." Another meme sent in 2022 was titled "Monkey Face" and depicted the SEAL in uniform with his face distorted to look relike a monkey. A meme sent in 2023 compared him to the movie character Radio, a mentally disabled man played by Cuba Gooding Jr.

One racist meme sent to the SEAL in 2022 was described in the investigation as "Slave in Chains." Another meme sent in 2022 was titled "Monkey Face" and depicted the SEAL in uniform with his face distorted to look like a monkey. A meme sent in 2023 compared him to the movie character Radio, a mentally disabled man played by Cuba Gooding Jr.

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