TV News LIES

US President Donald Trump has announced what he called "tremendous" new sanctions against two of Russia's largest oil companies, in a bid to pressure Moscow into ending its war on Ukraine.

The measures target Rosneft and Lukoil - two major oil corporations that help fund the Kremlin's "war machine", according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

They represent the first direct interventions the Trump administration has imposed on Russia over its invasion, and have therefore been viewed as a geopolitically significant moment.

The sanctions, imposed by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), effectively blacklist Russia's two largest oil producers.

Rosneft, a state-controlled company headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's close ally Igor Sechin, and Lukoil, a privately owned firm, account for nearly half of the nation's total crude-oil exports, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Between them, the two corporations export 3.1 million barrels of oil per day.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recorded its deadliest year since the early 2000s as agency officials push to increase the number of people in its custody.

According to a review of deaths by NPR, at least 20 people have died in ICE custody so far this year. The number comes as ICE is also holding nearly 60,000 people in immigration detention, the highest number in several years.

Deaths reached a peak in 2025 for the first time since 32 deaths were recorded in 2004, and 20 deaths were recorded in 2005.

Former agency officials are warning that increased detention population, decreased oversight, an increase in street and community arrests and continued difficulties staffing medical teams will result in more deaths. This summer, ICE received about $70 billion to hire more staff, including deportation and detention officers, and increase its detention space. Across the country, media and immigration advocates have reported overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and issues with food and health care access — a byproduct of a rapid scaling-up of immigration arrests.

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The Trump administration has approved more oil and gas drilling across Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR), prompting widespread criticism from environmental conservation organizations.

On Thursday, the interior secretary announced the opening of 1.56m acres across ANWR’s coastal plains, which is home to various wildlife including polar bears, caribou and moose, as well as whales and seals.

The interior department also announced an oil and gas lease sale with the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska this winter, which is set to mark the first sale in the 23m-acre reserve since 2019. Thursday’s announcement comes as part of the Trump administration’s reversal of Joe Biden’s decision in 2024 to expand federal protections across the reserve.

In addition, the department reissued necessary permits to establish the Ambler Road Project, a controversial proposal for a 211-mile gravel road, part of which will be built through south-western Alaska’s Izembek national wildlife refuge.

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Democracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI.

Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power. Across classrooms, museums, boardrooms and federal agencies, the key pathways to opportunity and success are under attack through a coordinated disinformation campaign of erasure, distortion and suppression.

The impact of these tactics is concrete and undeniable. Since the start of this year, Onyx Impact’s research has found, 306,000 Black women have lost their jobs and $3.4bn in grant programs investing in Black communities has been slashed – including $9.4m in sickle cell disease research, $42m in programs designed to address Black maternal mortality and $31m in cuts to address asthma rates and air pollution harming Black children.

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The New York attorney general, Letitia James, on Thursday revealed that her legal team plans to ask a federal judge to dismiss the criminal charges against her on the grounds that the US attorney in eastern Virginia who obtained the indictment was unlawfully appointed, according to a court filing.

James’s legal team made the move the day before James is scheduled to be arraigned in the US district court in Norfolk, Virginia, where she is expected to plead not guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution.

Lindsey Halligan was appointed by Donald Trump last month as US attorney for Virginia’s eastern district, after her predecessor was forced out of his job after he expressed concerns with the strength of the evidence against both James and the former FBI director James Comey.

Comey has also since been indicted in the same district on charges of obstructing Congress and making a false statement.

Trump has promised to seek retribution against people he alleges used the justice system against him in an effort to prevent him from returning to power, including Comey and James.

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'We're just gonna kill people': Trump says he doesn't need a declaration of war for strikes on suspected drug smugglers

Donald Trump’s statement on Thursday that he has no intention of asking Congress for a declaration of war ahead of possible strikes on suspected drug smugglers in Venezuela, “we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country”, thrilled his supporters but disturbed many Americans.

Asked by a reporter if he intended to go to Congress, Trump suggested that his administration would brief lawmakers on the military operation, but said that he saw no reason to seek congressional authorization.

While Trump supporters posted video of the remarks on social media with a mic-drop emoji, a Democratic party account posted it without comment, apparently certain that the president’s violation of constitutional provision that only Congress can declare war was obvious.“I don’t think we’re gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war, I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re gonna to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” the president said.

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President Trump said Thursday he would not deploy federal troops to San Francisco, reversing course on plans to implement anticrime and immigration enforcement in the Bay Area.

Trump in a post on Truth Social said friends of his called him to ask him not to go forward with the surge after arguing the city’s Democratic Mayor Daniel Lurie “was making substantial progress.”

The president said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff were among “great people” who urged him not to deploy the National Guard to the city. 

He added that he spoke to Lurie on Wednesday evening, saying the mayor asked him “very nicely” to give him a chance to turn the situation around.

“I told him I think he is making a mistake because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the law does not permit him to move,” Trump said. “I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer, but let’s see how you do?’”

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Trump has filed administrative complaints with the Department of Justice alleging that his rights were violated by DOJ investigations into his illegal retention of classified documents and the role Russia played in the 2016 election.

The $230 million in damages he is seeking would need to first be approved by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Civil Division head Stanley Woodward Jr. before likely needing Trump’s ultimate approval.

Blanche previously served as Trump’s personal attorney during these investigations, while Woodward served as counsel for Trump aide Walt Nauta in the classified documents case. The conflict of interest is so obvious that even Trump has commented on it.

“I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said, ‘I’m sort of suing myself,’” Trump said in the Oval Office on Oct. 15. “I don’t know, how do you settle the lawsuit? I’ll say, ‘Give me X dollars, right?’ And I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit. It’s a great lawsuit. And now I won, it sort of looks bad, I’m suing myself, right?”

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