Lou Dobbs, the conservative political pundit and veteran cable TV host who was a founding anchor for CNN and later was a nightly presence on Fox Business Network for more than a decade, has died.

Lawyers for Fox News and a voting machine company are tangling over the high bar to prove defamation in a $1.6 billion lawsuit that has embarrassed the conservative network over its airing of false claims related to the 2020 presidential election.

While the FBI affidavit justifying the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is highly redacted, it includes new details about the classified information that was stored at the former president's home.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)Three Fox News hosts — Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro — are seeking the dismissal of claims against them and their employer as part of a $2.7 billion libel lawsuit brought by the voting technology company Smartmatic. It also argues that Dobbs' statements appearing to validate the claims of his guests were constitutionally protected opinions, not statements of fact. AdAll three hosts later aired a segment with an expert debunking some of the claims that had been made on its networks against Smartmatic and another voting technology company, Dominion. The Fox Business Network dropped Dobbs’ show Feb. 5, a day after the lawsuit was filed. Dobbs, in his motion to join the Fox request for dismissal, points out that he first covered Smartmatic a decade earlier, in 2006, when employed by CNN.

This 2018 image released by Fox News Channel shows CEO of Fox News Media Suzanne Scott, who has extended her contract with the news organization. Scott, who joined Fox News Channel as a programming assistant when the network launched in 1996, has been CEO of Fox News Media since 2018. (Fox News Channel via AP)NEW YORK – Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott signed a new contract Tuesday and the company said it will continue its “center right” programming mix despite a recent ratings slump and legal fight against its flagship Fox News Channel. Scott, who joined Fox News Channel as a programming assistant when the network launched in 1996, has been CEO of Fox News Media since 2018. The Fox Business Network dropped Dobbs' show on Friday, a day after the lawsuit was filed.

FILE - Lou Dobbs, with Fox News, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), on Feb. 24, 2017, in Oxon Hill, Md. Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight has been canceled. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)LOS ANGELES – Fox Business Network's “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” whose host has trumpeted unfounded assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, has been canceled. In a previous statement, Fox News said it would "vigorously defend against this meritless lawsuit in court.”AdThe replacement for “Lou Dobbs Tonight” will be announced soon, Fox News said. An interim show, “Fox Business Tonight,” will air starting 5 p.m. Eastern Monday with rotating hosts Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman and repeat at 7 p.m. EST.

A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its top hosts, Giuliani and Sidney Powell for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped steal the U.S. presidential election away from former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)MIAMI – A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its hosts and two former lawyers for former President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the U.S. presidential election. On Jan. 25, a rival election-technology company — Dominion Voting Systems, which was also ensnared in Trump's baseless effort to overturn the election — sued Guiliani and Powell for $1.3 billion. Fox "is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion,” the company said in a written statement. Death threats, including against an executive’s 14-year-old son, poured in as Internet searches for the company surged, Smartmatic claims.

Trump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.

Many Republican voters in Georgia are angry; certain that widespread voter fraud claims of which are baseless cost President Donald Trump the election. The companies deny several statements made about them, and there is no evidence any voting system switched or deleted votes in the 2020 election. That came days after Smartmatic sent a letter threatening legal action to Fox and two other networks popular with Trump supporters, Newsmax and One America News Network. A statement aired by Newsmax anchors on Monday, and also printed on the company website, was much broader and concerned both Smartmatic and Dominion. “No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election,” Newsmax said.

“As conservative media proliferated, it put a lot more pressure on the hosts to move to the right and embrace warfare politics,” Rosenwald said. This is a business.”Hemmer said she expects the Electoral College vote will begin to shift the narrative from “the election is undecided" to “the election was stolen.”The difficulty of that transition was evident in coverage of the Electoral College voting. With Congress meeting Jan. 6 to formally count the Electoral College vote, Kelly said, “the way I read it, we won't have a president-elect until then.”CNN treated it like a second election night, keeping a running tally of Electoral College votes on the screen. The Electoral College vote led Bret Baier's newscast, which was not a given considering COVID-19 vaccinations began Monday. Meanwhile, daytime anchor Bill Hemmer's hourlong newscast didn't even mention the Electoral College.

The figures from Statistics New Zealand showed the unemployment rate in the quarter ending June fell from 4.2% in the previous quarter. The new 24-hour record was marginally higher than 723 cases and 13 deaths reported on Thursday last week. Mexicos has had a positive rate of about 45% to 50% since the early weeks of the pandemic, largely because most people were tested only after exhibiting considerable symptoms. ___LAS VEGAS -- Nevada health officials say 95% of the 980 new coronavirus cases reported statewide during the last day were in the Las Vegas area. The states data page now carries a disclaimer saying the numbers represent an underreporting of actual positive cases per day.