TV News LIES

The extraordinary arrests of the journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort last week are a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration’s attacks on the press and pose a clear threat to first amendment freedoms.

Mere weeks after federal law enforcement executed a search warrant targeting a Washington Post reporter, the justice department is now pursuing criminal charges against two independent journalists for reporting from the scene of a protest in Minnesota citing – ironically – federal laws intended to protect the exercise of constitutional rights. These indictments are an affront to the first amendment of the US constitution.

On 18 January, protesters entered the Cities church in St Paul, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor, and interrupted a service with chants of “ICE out.” By all indications, Lemon, a former CNN host, and Fort, a local journalist, entered the church to cover the demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.

Being at the scene of a breaking news event to report as it unfolds is the job of journalists, and is activity protected by the first amendment, which expressly protects “freedom ... of the press”. But according to the federal indictment unsealed on Friday, the justice department is accusing Lemon and Fort of conspiring to deprive others of their constitutional rights – a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine, or both – and with allegedly obstructing the free exercise of religion in a place of worship. These charges are an attempt to criminalize journalism.

It is unprecedented for the justice department to invoke these laws to punish journalistic activity, and there is no basis for doing so that would be consistent with the first amendment. Indeed, before the indictment, a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota had refused to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon. In a letter to a federal appeals court regarding the magistrate judge’s decision, chief judge Patrick Schiltz of the federal district court in Minneapolis, a George W Bush-appointee, noted that Lemon was a journalist and that “[t]here was no evidence” that he “engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so”.

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A message from Donald Trump celebrating the 19th-century US invasion of its southern neighbour – and the subsequent loss of more than half its territory – has touched a historical nerve in Mexico, with some seeing it as a veiled threat for future incursions.

Reacting to the US president’s statement, which described the invasion as “a legendary victory”, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said during her morning news conference on Tuesday: “We must always defend our sovereignty.”

Others were less subtle in their criticism. “Never, in the recent annals of Mexico-US relations had we seen anything like this,” wrote the former Mexican ambassador to the US Arturo Sarukhan, on X. “This is not only spiking the ball in the end zone; it’s an in your face F… You.”

The message, posted by the White House on Monday, said the US-Mexico war “reasserted American sovereignty, and expanded the promise of American independence across our majestic continent”.

But the conflict has long been a historical sore spot for Mexico: Following the capture of Mexico City by US troops in 1847, Mexico gave away 55% of its pre-war territory, including the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, much of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

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A leading historic preservation group has called on the Trump administration to halt the bulldozers tearing down the White House’s East Wing to make way for a massive ballroom.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, said Tuesday that the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million event space would “overwhelm the White House itself,” which is about 55,000 square feet.

The intervention follows the furor sparked by images of a demolition crew tearing through the East Wing’s facade on Monday.

“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough said Trump had taken a “wrecking ball” to the historic building and called the spectacle “just grotesque.”

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back at the “fake outrage,” as officials argued the East Wing, which was added in 1902, has been altered many times before.

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Several more beach homes have crashed into the ocean along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, littering the shoreline with hazardous debris while raising the total number of felled homes along the barrier island to 31 since 2020.

Video posted on social media shows entire homes buckling and bobbing away in the powerful surf along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the wake of a historic winter storm that brought high wind gusts and several inches of snow to the Carolinas.

As of Sunday, four homes in Buxton have fallen into the Atlantic. This brings the total number of homes lost to the surrounding ocean to 20 since September, and 31 since May of 2020, the National Park Service said.

All four of the privately owned homes were unoccupied at the time of their destruction, officials said.

Officials are trying to work with the property owners to develop a cleanup strategy, which has not been easy, said David Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which is managed by the National Park Service.

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The House voted Tuesday to end a nearly four-day partial government shutdown, approving spending through September for previously shuttered departments and providing 10 more days of funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

The 217-214 final vote to send the funding package to President Trump’s desk was close — but bipartisan, with 21 Republicans voting against it and just 21 Democrats voting for it. Democratic leadership voted against the package.

Trump swiftly signed the legislation Tuesday afternoon, ending the partial government shutdown, but a fight is likely to continue over the issue that triggered it: what policy reforms should be implemented for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The bipartisan vote came only after a dramatic procedural vote earlier in the day in which House Republican leaders worked to wrangle a handful of holdouts making demands on separate legislation affecting voting in elections.

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The ex-husband of former first lady Jill Biden has been arrested in connection to the December killing of his wife, police in Delaware said.

William Stevenson, 77, was indicted on Feb. 2, on charges of first-degree murder of 64-year-old Linda Stevenson, the New Castle County Police Department said in a news release.

Police did not say how Stevenson's wife died, but according to the release, he was arrested following "an extensive weeks-long investigation" into the death of his wife after officers responded to a domestic dispute on Dec. 28 at a home in the Wilmington area.

After a grand jury indicted him on the felony, police said officers arrested Stevenson at his home without incident.

Online New Castle County Jail records show Stevenson remained in custody on $500,000 bond on Feb. 3 at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution.

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The Timbisha Shoshone exhibit at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley is currently under review after the Trump administration advised National Park Service officials to remove certain language from a display.

The review came after the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe worked with the National Park Service to add language and materials to the exhibit to mark the 25th anniversary of the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act, which formally recognized the tribe’s ancestral connection to Death Valley, granted a permanent land base to the tribe, and established co-management of much of the park.

The phrases in question “We are still here” and “This is our Homeland” have been a part of the exhibit since it was created, but came under review after the Park Service submitted plans to add a medallion and earrings to the Timbisha exhibit as part of a public ceremony for the act’s anniversary.

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President Donald Trump said Republicans should "nationalize" the voting process as he continues to level unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, more than five years after losing to Joe Biden.

Trump called for Republicans at the federal level to seize control of elections from states during an appearance on the podcast of Dan Bongino, who returned to his show on Feb. 2 after resigning in January as FBI deputy director in the Trump administration.

"The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least ‒ many, 15 places.'" Trump said. "The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked."

The Constitution gives authority to states ‒ not the federal government ‒ to set "the times, places and manner" of holding federal elections, but it empowers Congress to "make or alter" rules.

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