Reality Check with Ross Coulthart
Episode overview

Shocking new images shown during Day 1 of D4vd's preliminary hearing | Jesse Weber Live Full Show

Reality Check with Ross Coulthart · 23 July 2026 · 34m · 2 Egleze moments
Shocking new images shown during Day 1 of D4vd's preliminary hearing | Jesse Weber Live Full Show
Episode summary

NewsNation’s Jesse Weber Live led with day-one testimony from the preliminary hearing of singer David Anthony Burke (known as “D4vd”), who has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder and continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. Weber said prosecutors allege Burke killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and later dismembered her body; guests Brian Entin and Lauren Conlin described graphic images shown in court and body-camera footage from an earlier police contact about the relationship. Conlin and Entin discussed investigators’ alleged findings, including explicit messages and alleged purchase-history evidence, while noting the defence’s attempts to probe evidence-handling and decomposition-related limitations.

The programme then turned to Washington, where Weber reported the Trump administration had paused roughly $1bn in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over suspected fraud, and contrasted it with the “sober living” Medicaid-fraud allegations in Arizona. Coverage also focused on a contentious Senate hearing in which Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs chair Gen Dan Caine sought additional funding for the US conflict with Iran, facing bipartisan questions about transparency, strategy, and the Strait of Hormuz.

Weber also reported that a US official told The Telegraph the White House would not intervene in the extradition case involving Andrew and Tristan Tate. Later segments examined AI’s growing role in China’s micro-drama industry and Hollywood labour concerns, and closed with a debate over renewed Amelia Earhart searches and a viral clip of a Delta pilot helping load luggage during delays.

Key points
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2 moments from this episode

Source-linked · editorially selected
01
Crime & Justice

D4vd hearing: reporter says defendant watched gruesome photos “like a movie”

LA Magazine contributor Lauren Conlin, reporting from the first day of singer David Anthony Burke’s (stage name “D4vd”) preliminary hearing in Los Angeles, said she did not expect the court to show graphic images so early in proceedings. Conlin told NewsNation she watched Burke stare at the screen as the prosecution displayed photographs of the victim’s remains, which she described as a disturbing moment for the family seated in the front row.

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02
Military

Hegseth tells senators he cannot predict Iran war costs

Pete Hegseth told senators at a Pentagon funding hearing that it would be unwise to forecast the future cost of the US conflict with Iran. Lawmakers pressed him and Joint Chiefs chair Gen Dan Caine for clearer objectives, timelines and transparency about Iran’s remaining capabilities. NewsNation aired exchanges in which senators questioned whether earlier assessments of Iran’s military degradation were accurate.

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