TV News LIES

Ken Paxton, the Donald Trump-backed Texas attorney general, triumphed over incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff for senator. His victory signals that even a scandal-plagued candidate can win over the deep red state with the support of the president.

“After a public service career lasting more than four decades and 18 consecutive campaign wins, tonight we’ve come up short in this primary runoff,” Cornyn said shortly after the race was called. “I’ve always supported the GOP ticket. I intend to do so again this general election.”

The race had wide implications for Trump’s strength heading into November’s midterm elections, where Paxton will now face James Talarico, a Democratic pastor and state legislator whose message of peace and populism has attracted much attention. If he wins, Talarico would become the first Democrat in more than 30 years to win statewide office in Texas.

Midterm elections often serve as a referendum on the sitting president and tend to help the opposing party. This year Democrats are favored to win the House of Representatives, though a supreme court decision that decimated the Voting Rights Act could allow for more Republican-leaning districts and complicate the picture. The race for Senate remains in flux, though candidatessuch as Talarico, Graham Platner in Maine, as well as purple states such as Ohio and Michigan, could upset the Republican lead.

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The implosion of a chemical tank at a Washington packaging plant early on Tuesday morning killed killed at least one person and left at least nine others with injuries including chemical burns, authorities said.

The Longview fire department confirmed one fatality at Nippon Dynawave Packaging in a statement on their social media page. It also confirmed eight employees were injured and one firefighter. There are nine people who are employees of the plant who remain unaccounted for, officials said.

According to the fire department, incident occurred when a tank containing white liquor, a chemical solution, ruptured. According to the state, the plant has a kraft pulp and paper mill and liquid packaging facility, and employs roughly 1,000 employees.

In a joint statement from the fire department, Nippon Dynawave Packaging and local agencies, officials said late on Tuesday morning that there were “fatalities related to the incident”.In a joint statement from the fire department, Nippon Dynawave Packaging and local agencies, officials said late on Tuesday morning that there were “fatalities related to the incident”.

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Members of a storied food co-operative in Brooklyn have voted to boycott about a dozen products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine – capping years of contentious debate over a conflict half a world away that has threatened to rip apart a landmark institution for liberal New Yorkers.

The Park Slope Food Coop vote, which took place Tuesday night during a three-hour virtual meeting attended by about 7,000 of the co-operative’s 17,000 members, follows months of dueling campaigning that one local rabbi opposed to the boycott described as a “proxy war”. The boycott is supposed to impact some brands of tahini, peppers and persimmons as well as other products. Sixty-seven percent of participants voted in favor of the boycott.

What may seem like a trivial squabble of little significance beyond the largely privileged community the co-op serves has become yet another microcosm of the deep rifts over Israel that the war in Gaza has exacerbated.

The pro-boycott faction – led by Park Slope Food Coop Members in Solidarity with Palestine, and endorsed by more than two dozen advocacy groups including several Jewish ones – argued that the boycott is in line with the co-op’s long history of socially conscious shopping, and cited past boycotts of products from apartheid South Africa, and Chile under the Augusto Pinochet regime, as well as of several companies over their anti-labor or environmental practices.

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A three-judge panel on Tuesday blocked Alabama Republicans’ congressional map that would’ve given the party a potential pickup opportunity in the midterms.

The judges ruled the Supreme Court’s recent blockbuster decision narrowing the Voting Rights Act does not impact their finding that the map intentionally discriminates against Black voters in violation of the Constitution.

It means Alabama cannot use its design this year unless Republican leaders appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which they have vowed to do.

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the ruling reads.

“And under the unusual circumstances of this case, we conclude that a limited order requiring the Secretary to continue using this Court’s race-blind map will not disrupt Alabama’s elections,” it continued.

Tuesday’s panel included U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, an appointee of former President Clinton, along with U.S. District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, who were both appointed by President Trump.

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The Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate bucked President Donald Trump and on May 26 rejected an effort to draw new congressional districts before the midterm elections.

Democrats' Palmetto State victory marked one of two small but needed wins on the same day for the national party, which has lost considerable ground over the last few weeks in the redistricting wars gripping the country ahead of November.

While congressional Democrats in Washington remain bullish that they'll take back the House of Representatives in the fall, a series of bruising court decisions has set them back considerably, preventing them from gerrymandering states in equal measure with Republicans.

Fueled by Trump and the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court, partisan map-drawing has spread like wildfire, with both parties in Congress aiming to grow and more deeply entrench their footholds in the House.

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In a historic first for Germany, nearly 700 students at the University of Leipzig voted almost unanimously on 19 May to demand that their university sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions over the genocide in Gaza.

The location is significant.

For decades, Leipzig has been regarded as one of Germany’s strongest centers of the "Antideutsche" current, a tendency within the radical left defined by militant anti-nationalism and vocal support for Israel under the banner of combating antisemitism. Antideutsche activists also frequently clash with pro-Palestinian activists at demonstrations and events.

The adopted list of demands calls on the university to recognise and condemn the genocidal nature of Israel’s war on Gaza, including the scholasticide taking place there, a term used to describe the systematic destruction of educational institutions, students and staff.

Students demand an end to all cooperation with Israeli universities and institutions, and insist that the University of Leipzig neither participate in, promote, nor publicise collaborations or activities organised or hosted by Israeli universities.

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The US and Israel are "actively working" to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, and are pursuing a new arrangement that would see the management of the revered Muslim site closely align with Israeli interests, multiple sources have told Middle East Eye.

US, Jordanian and Palestinian officials, as well as western and Gulf Arab sources, told MEE that under the plan, championed by President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no official role in the administration, and the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, the authority of the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf would abruptly end and a new body created by the Israeli government would declare the Al-Aqsa Mosque a "multi-faith centre".

According to the officials, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, the "new arrangement" would grant Jews "equal access" to the Muslim site and formally allow large-group Jewish prayer.

Israel would also have a major say over the appointment of imams, preachers and senior mosque officials, and would also be involved in signing off on the content mentioned in Friday sermons.

Two US officials told MEE that Washington had drafted a paper on how they envisaged the mosque's future. The officials said that the Trump administration would like to see the Al-Aqsa Mosque stripped of its Muslim identity, with the site turned into a landmark tourist attraction that hosts all three Abrahamic religions.

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Russian threats against the foreign diplomatic corps in Ukraine, calling the Kremlin’s statements “shameless blackmail” aimed at intimidating the international community.

The ministry said the security situation in Kyiv remains consistent with the level of threat the capital has faced in recent months amid repeated Russian missile and drone attacks.

In its statement, the MFA expressed gratitude to foreign diplomatic missions and personnel who continue to work in Ukraine despite the ongoing risks.

Ukrainian officials thanked foreign diplomats for continuing their work in Ukraine despite Moscow’s attempts at intimidation. The ministry said it remains ready to assist and coordinate with foreign missions to strengthen their security.

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