National and international media news & headlines compiled by CLG

Supreme Court Strikes Down Injunction Preventing Government From Pressuring Big Tech to Suppress Free Speech | 26 June 2024 | The Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s injunction preventing the federal government from pressuring Big Tech companies to suppress free speech in a pivotal ruling Wednesday. The court did not rule on the question of whether the government may pressure social media companies to suppress speech in a way that would be illegal for the government to do itself. Instead, the court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to establish Article III standing to bring the case. “We begin–and end–with standing,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion for Murthy v. Missouri. Barrett delivered the majority opinion, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined, along with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined. Alito wrote that if the lower court’s evidence is correct, “this is one of the most important free speech cases to reach this court in years.” He zeroed in on the case of Jill Hines, who he said was “indisputably injured” by the government’s COVID-19 censorship campaign.

‘Spies Who Lie’ leader, cosigners were CIA contractors when they falsely implied Hunter Biden laptop was Russian fake | 25 June 2024 | Some of the 51 “Spies Who Lie” were active CIA contractors when they claimed files from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop had “the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election — a fact that was uneasily noted inside the agency, records acquired by The Post show. Former CIA acting director Michael Morell, who previously told Congress he organized the Oct. 19, 2020, letter to give Joe Biden a “talking point” ahead of a debate against then-President Donald Trump, was under contract with the CIA at the time, the agency told Congress. Ex-agency inspector general David Buckley also was a contractor at the time of the letter, according to an interim report from two House committees investigating the matter, and records suggest that at least two other letter-signers may also have had active contracts at the time.

U.S. can’t trace $62 million of military aid sent to Ukraine – watchdog –The Pentagon does not know whether defense items were “lost or destroyed,” an investigation has found | 27 June 2024 | The U.S. Defense Department is unable to locate 62 million worth of weapons given to Ukraine, according to a report released on Wednesday. The conclusions were presented by the Pentagon inspector general after an assessment on whether the DoD is effectively monitoring defense items provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The watchdog found that as of late November last year, a total 62.2 million in hardware designated for enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM) was reported as missing. Among them are night vision devices, Javelin anti-tank missiles, and missile launch units. According to the report, the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) in Ukraine “cannot tell which of these items were lost and which were destroyed.” The Ukrainian army has not yet provided clarification, it adds.

Pentagon doesn’t know if it funds dangerous biological research in China, new audit reveals | 25 June 2024 | Despite years of warnings that China operates an illicit biological weapons program, the U.S. military remains unable to determine whether it sends American tax dollars to Beijing for research that could make pathogens more dangerous or deadly, the Pentagon’s chief watchdog declared in a stunning new warning to policymakers. “The DoD did not track funding at the level of detail necessary to determine whether the DoD provided funding to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential,” the Pentagon inspector general concluded in a report released this month. The findings show the Pentagon has done little to improve transparency on a critical security issue in the two years since the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, first raised concerns that defense officials could not account for how biological research funds sent to China were being used.

Terrifying new video shows moment panic-stricken Russian tourists run for their lives as shrapnel from downed U.S.-supplied ATACMS missile falls over crowded Crimean beach | 25 June 2024 | Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a beach in Crimea was turned into a h-llscape as terrified sunbathers fled the shore to escape falling shrapnel from a downed [U.S.-provided] Ukrainian missile this weekend. Blasts rang out in sunny Sevastopol and on Uchkuevka beach on Sunday, prompting a desperate mass evacuation as parents scooped up children playing in the sand and sprinted for cover. Other clips later showed how injured holidaymakers were carted away from the scene on sunloungers. At least four people including two children were killed and 153 people were injured in the incident on Sunday, according to Russian reports. Moscow this week squarely blamed Washington, claiming the explosions were caused by U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles tipped with cluster munitions that were shot down by air defenses. Russian officials said that the missiles were supplied to Kyiv, aimed and guided by the US military, vowing retaliation.

Julian Assange reaches plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free –The WikiLeaks founder has been held in a prison outside London for the last five years and fought extradition to the United States. | 24 June 2024 | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge this week as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to go free after spending five years in a British prison, according to court documents. Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say. A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie to U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands said that Assange would appear in court at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (or, 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday) to plead guilty and said that DOJ expects Assange will return to Australia, his country of citizenship, after the proceedings.

Finland to roll out vaccines for bird flu next week in world first – as human cases of virus spread across the globe | 25 June 2024 | Finland will become the first nation to offer bird flu vaccinations as it plans to roll out the shots next week to high-risk workers amid rising concerns over the virus jumping from animals to people. Officials in the Nordic nation say 10,000 doses will be administered to those working closely with animals, such as poultry and fur farm workers. Patients will receive two doses of the shot at least a week apart, with vaccines to be distributed once they are delivered from stockpiles in central Europe… In the US, a total of 4.8million doses of a bird flu vaccine are set to be delivered by late summer — although there are currently no plans to distribute them.

WH correspondents slam CNN for excluding outside press from Biden-Trump debate | 27 June 2024 | The White House Correspondents’ Association blasted CNN on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to expand access to the evening’s first presidential debate of 2024 to reporters outside the network. The debate between Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was brokered by the campaigns and will be different from past showdowns in its lack of an audience and the muting of microphones when a speaker’s time is up. The move means TV viewers may entirely miss off-mic remarks and that coverage will be limited to what CNN cameras show at the time — with CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper expected to be the only journalists in the room if there is other related significant news to tell. Reps for both Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, said it would be okay to allow the daily White House press pool to observe the face-off, but CNN allegedly refused. The Atlanta-based cable news outlet has instead relegated journalists unaffiliated with CNN to another building.

White House Press Corps Forced to Watch Feed of CNN Debate From Building Across the Street Because They Believe There May Be a ‘Medical Emergency’ Involving One of the Candidates Requiring On-Scene Coverage | 27 June 2024 | According to Real Clear Investigations reporter Paul Sperry, the White House press corps is being forced to watch feed of the CNN presidential debate Thursday night from a building across the street because they believe there may be a “medical emergency” involving one of the presidential candidates (Joe Biden). “White House press corps has petitioned CNN to open up the debate studio to reporters, who for now have to watch a feed from a building across the street, b/c they believe there may be a ‘medical emergency’ involving one of the prez candidates requiring on-scene coverage,” Paul Sperry said on X…. Thursday night’s CNN debate in Atlanta will be hosted by Trump haters Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

NY v. Trump: Judge Merchan partially lifts gag order on former president | 25 June 2024 | Judge Juan Merchan has partially lifted the gag order he [insanely] imposed against former President Trump — weeks after the jury found him guilty on all counts. Trump and his legal team have been fighting the gag order since it was imposed upon him at the start of the trial, but had ramped up their efforts when it concluded last month. The former president and presumptive Republican nominee’s legal team had argued the gag order should be lifted before the June 27 presidential debate. Merchan’s gag order barred Trump from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case — other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff. Merchan on Tuesday partially lifted the gag order because the trial has concluded. Trump is now able to speak about protected witnesses and jurors.

CNN cuts off Trump campaign spokeswoman mid-interview ahead of debate | 24 June 2024 | CNN abruptly cut Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt from the air on June 24 – just days before the network is set to host the first presidential debate between her boss and Joe Biden. Anchor Kasie Hunt ended the interview after Leavitt noted the debate stage would likely be a “hostile environment” for Trump — and accused CNN’s debate moderators, co-hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, of biased coverage of him in the past. (Video)

House votes to defund Mayorkas’s salary in DHS funding bill | 26 June 2024 | The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to block Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s salary. It was an amendment by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., for the House’s appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal year 2025, that would block funds in the bill from being used to pay Mayorkas. Just one Republican voted against the measure, which passed 193 to 173… A measure led by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., that passed would block DHS from implementing COVID-19 mask policies.

Suspect in deadly Texas Chick-fil-A shooting in U.S. illegally, ICE confirms –Irving PD identified suspect Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta, 37, as having an ‘ICE hold’ | 27 June 2024 | Authorities say the suspect in a deadly Texas shooting that killed two people inside a fast-food restaurant is in custody, and that he is in the United States illegally. Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta, a 37-year-old citizen of El Salvador, is charged with capital murder of multiple persons after a shooting Wednesday at a Chick-fil-A in the 5300 block of North MacArthur Boulevard in Irving, police announced. “We can confirm that the suspect was taken into custody early this morning,” a spokesperson for Irving Police Department told Fox News Digital on Thursday morning, adding that Mendoza Argueta has an “ICE hold,” with the warrant agency being Immigration and Naturalization Service Dallas/Fort Worth.

DHS identifies over 400 migrants brought to the U.S. by an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network | 26 June 2024 | The Department of Homeland Security has identified over 400 immigrants from Central Asia and elsewhere who crossed into the U.S. in the past three years as “subjects of concern” because they were brought by an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network, three U.S. officials tell NBC News. While over 150 of them have been arrested, the whereabouts of over 50 remain unknown, the officials said, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to arrest them on immigration charges when they are located. One of the U.S. officials said people affiliated with ISIS [I-CIA-SIS] are operating as human smugglers in Central Asia and helping people there leave their countries and travel to the West, where they are then smuggled into the U.S.

8 arrested men with ties to ISIS feared to have been plotting potential terrorist attack in U.S., sources said | 26 June 2024 | Federal agents apprehended eight men from Tajikistan — a Central Asian nation that borders Afghanistan — because they were concerned the men could have been plotting a possible terrorist attack on U.S. soil, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News. The eight men residing in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia were taken into custody earlier this month and charged with violating civil U.S. immigration law by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They remain in ICE custody and face removal proceedings, according to two of the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the probe… The individuals — who sources said have ties to ISIS [I-CIA-SIS] — crossed into the U.S. via the southwest border between 2023 and 2024 but at the time, immigration officials had no information connecting them to the terrorist group.

House Democrat becomes the first Squad member ever defeated in a primary battle | 25 June 2024 | Two-term Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York has the dubious honor of becoming the first House member of either party to be defeated by a primary challenger so far in the 2024 election cycle. And Bowman also becomes the first member of the Squad, a progressive group of diverse House Democrats, to be ousted from Congress. This after the Associated Press projected that rival George Latimer would defeat Bowman in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New York’s 16th Congressional District, which covers southern Westchester County and a small portion of the Bronx. And the contentious battle between a member of the Squad and his more moderate challenger spotlighted the Democrats’ deep divisions over the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Bowman, who has been outspoken about his support for Palestinians amid the war in Gaza and has charged that Israel has committed genocide, was targeted by roughly 14 million in spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the deep-pocketed pro-Israel group that supported Latimer.

Trump-backed GOP congresswoman survives challenge from right in deep-red New York House district | 25 June 2024 | A Republican incumbent backed by former President Trump has survived a challenge from the right in her deep-red upstate New York House district. Rep. Claudia Tenney defeated attorney and businessman Mario Fratto in the Republican primary for New York’s 24th Congressional District. Fratto referred to Tenney as a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only) throughout the campaign and accused her of not being conservative enough on various issues, while Tenney tried to paint Fratto as anti-Semitic and extreme.

Toxic chemicals from East Palestine train disaster spread to 16 states | 24 June 2024 | Toxic chemicals released during fires following the Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio last year spread to 16 states and likely Canada, according to a study released last week. The pollution, some of which came from the burning of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, spread over 540,000 square miles, showing clearly “the impacts of the fire were larger in scale and scope than the initial predictions,” the authors of the study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found. Lead author David Gay, coordinator of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, said that he was very surprised by the way the chemicals had spread. “I didn’t expect to see an impact this far out,” he told The Washington Post.