Fox News settles with Dominion Voting in defamation case over network’s false election claims – National & International News – TUE 18Apr2023

Fox News to pay Dominion Voting $787.5M to avoid trial over network’s false election claims.

FBI arrests two for operating secret Chinese “police station” in New York.

Update: Man who shot teen who rang his doorbell arrested; teen released from hospital.

NATIONAL NEWS

Fox News settles with Dominion Voting in defamation case over network’s false election claims

Today, Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems announced a settlement in Dominion’s defamation case against the network. Dominion was seeking $1.6 billion in damages. The company also wanted public apology from Fox acknowledging that they aired accusations against Dominion that they knew to be false. The full terms of the settlement are not yet public. However, reporting has it that Fox will be paying Dominion $787.5 million.

The settlement averts a trial for which the jury had already been seated this morning.

On the night of the 2020 election, Fox News was the first of all the news networks to call several races, including Arizona, for Biden. In the weeks and months that followed, the network aired interviews and commentary with unfounded claims of voter fraud in an effort to regain favor with angry Trump supporters.

Personalities on the network uncritically aired claims that Dominion had conspired to flip votes from Trump to Biden in key states. This was despite public statements from members of Trump’s own team (including then-Attorney General Bill Barr) that these claims were bogus.

In recent months, text messages from various Fox personalities, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo, have surfaced as part of discovery for the trial. The texts revealed that these hosts were skeptical, and even derisive, of these claims. Nevertheless, they repeated them on air or allowed guests on their programs (such as Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell) to repeat them unchallenged. These revelations have already done a great deal of damage to Fox’s reputation. The trial was to last about 6 weeks and feature even more such disclosures, which would have only have done more damage to the network’s credibility.

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FBI arrests two for operating secret Chinese “police station” in New York

Yesterday, FBI agents arrested Chinese nationals Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, on charges of conspiring to act as agents for China and obstruction of justice. The charging documents accuse Lu and Chen, both New York City residents, of establishing an overseas “police station” in the city on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security.

 US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Pearce says, “This prosecution reveals the Chinese government’s flagrant violation of our nation’s sovereignty by establishing a secret police station in the middle of New York City”.

Watchdog groups believe there are at least 100 secret police stations operating in 53 countries. Agents working from these offices have engaged in intimidation tactics against Chinese nationals living in abroad, many of them critics of Chinese President Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party. A Chinese dissident in the US has accused Lu and Chen of pressuring them to return to China for punishment.

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Update: Man who shot teen who rang his doorbell arrested

An update on yesterday’s story about 16-year-old Ralph Yarl of Kansas City, MO. Ralph was shot in the head last week after going to the wrong house to pick up his little brothers.

Ralph has been released from the hospital, where has been since the shooting last Thursday. According to his mother, doctors only released Ralph because he can receive excellent care at home (his mom is a nurse, his aunt is a physical therapist, and his uncle is a doctor). Ralph is recovering well and able to walk and talk despite the injury to his left frontal lobe.

A GoFundMe set up by his aunt Faith Spoonmore has collected nearly $3 million from nearly 80,000 donors. Many of the donors have shared words of encouragement and well wishes for Ralph. In an update on the GoFundMe site, Spoonmore wrote that she had been reading the comments to Ralph. “It warms our hearts to see him smile at all the kind words” Spoonmore said.

Police have arrested Andrew Lester, the 85-year-old white homeowner who shot Ralph twice. He’s currently facing charges for felony assault in the first degree and a second felony count of armed criminal action. Reports indicate that Lester told police that he had come to the door and seen a Black man with his hand on the handle of his storm door. Lester claims he was “scared to death”. No words where exchanged before Lester shot Ralph with his 32 caliber Smith & Wesson. When Ralph fell, Lester shot him again in the arm and reportedly told him “Don’t come around here”.

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