TV News LIES

The images coming out of Moscow in recent days speak for themselves: Ukrainian drone strikes on targets in Moscow have brought the war to the heart of state power and exposed the limits of Russia’s air defenses.

The Kremlin’s narrative of a controlled “special military operation” has been significantly undermined. President Volodymyr Zelensky describes the strikes as an “absolutely fair response.”

But are these developments more than symbolic? Is the war at a turning point? Political scientist Gustav Gressel is cautious on this point.

Are the strikes something new?

Gustav Gressel: The attack is clearly a signal to Moscow – and that was its purpose. Before May 9, Russia issued strong threats about any disruption to its Victory Day parade, even warning it could destroy Kyiv. The message was: “We can do this, you can’t.”

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Two police officers who clashed with rioters at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection in 2021 have sued Donald Trump over plans to create a $1.776bn “anti-weaponization” fund.

The fund, which critics have argued is essentially a slush fund, is set to compensate allies of the US president who he claims were victims of prosecutorial overreach.

It was created as part of an agreement in which Trump and his sons dropped a $10bn long-shot lawsuit against the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Harry Dunn, a retired US Capitol police officer, and Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan police department officer, filed a complaint in US district court in Washington DC on Tuesday.

“In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J Trump has created a $1.776bn taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the lawsuit says.

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A sinkhole was discovered at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Wednesday, shutting down a runway while emergency crews sought to determine its cause and how to fix it.

In a post on X, LaGuardia, which handles domestic travel, said the sinkhole had been discovered at about 11am “near runway 4/22” while the airport’s operator was conducting its daily morning inspection.

“The runway was immediately shut down, and emergency construction and engineering crews are onsite to determine the cause and complete necessary repairs as quickly and safely as possible,” the post said.

New York’s Port Authority warned that travelers should “expect delays and cancellations, particularly with forecast thunderstorms expected later today, and are strongly encouraged to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight status information”.

LaGuardia is built on land reclaimed from the surrounding bay in the 1930s, and sits on an area that once featured homes, hotels and an amusement park.

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Thousands of Mississippians, along with allies from other southern states, gathered at the state’s War Memorial Building auditorium on Wednesday in support of voting rights. It was the latest in a series of actions protesting the supreme court’s recent decision gutting the provision of the Voting Rights Act preventing racial discrimination, and held on a site integral to the state’s history of Black disenfranchisement.

Section 2 “stopped states, counties, cities, from passing redistricting maps that discriminate against Black voters and it led to the biggest growth of Black political power since Reconstruction”, said Amir Badat, the southern states director at the voting rights group Fair Fight Action.

“And now, the Roberts court has opened the door to the biggest destruction of Black political power since the end of Reconstruction.”

The rally was led by a coalition of organizations, including People’s Advocacy Institute, Mississippi Votes, Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, One Voice, Fair Fight, Mississippi for a Just World and NAACP, among them. It followed the “All Roads Lead to the South” rally in Montgomery, Alabama, over the weekend.

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President Trump on Wednesday attacked the Senate parliamentarian, accusing her of issuing reviews of Senate rules that have treated Republicans unfairly and calling for Republicans to end the filibuster.

Trump suggested that Republicans should have forced out the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, by replacing her.

“Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“There are many fair people who would be qualified for that vital job. The Republicans play a very soft game compared to the Dumocrats. It is their single biggest disadvantage in politics,” he added.

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Barney Frank, one of the first openly gay members of Congress and the progressive Democratic namesake of the Dodd-Frank Act, died on May 19, according to media reports. He was 86.

Frank had entered hospice care at his home in Maine in April, his sister told NBC Boston.

Frank represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013. He served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011, and was a leading sponsor of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted to provide financial stability following the 2008 mortgage crisis.

"In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Barney Frank was the gravelly-voiced, smart-as-a-whip congressman who fought hard to get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the finish line," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement on May 20. "His one-liners were wicked and wickedly funny. Barney delivered for working people, and the world is a poorer place without him."

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Two activists seized by Israeli forces in international waters while en route to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza have been threatened with death or lengthy imprisonment, their lawyers said on Monday.

The legal centre Adalah, which represents Thiago Avila and Saif Abu Keshek, said the pair have been subjected to psychological abuse and held in solitary confinement since their capture last week.

On Tuesday, a court in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon extended their detention until Sunday.

Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish national of Palestinian origin, and Avila, a Brazilian national, were detained late on Wednesday when Israeli naval forces raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters off Greece.

They were taken to Israel and accused of assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership of and providing services to a terrorist organisation, and transferring funds to such a group. Both deny the charges.

Since their detention, the men have been held in cells under constant bright light, a practice intended to cause sleep deprivation and disorientation, according to Adalah. They are also blindfolded whenever taken out of their cells, including during medical examinations, which it described as a serious breach of medical ethics.

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