TV News LIES

The cancellation of the official House delegation to the annual Munich Security Conference has drawn pushback from Democrats who still plan to attend, even as it’s upended a decades-long tradition of robust bipartisan participation in the high-profile global policy forum.

A House leadership aide told The Hill that cancelling congressional delegations (CODEL) is standard operating procedure during the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

But House Democrats have sharply criticized Republicans for the cancellation, arguing that attending the conference is critical to restoring the United States’ standing with allies amid the Trump administration’s aggressive foreign policy approach.

“Because of the Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, because Republicans refuse to make any compromises or any changes to ICE after the deadly murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, we have a shutdown, and therefore, we cannot go on official CODELS. I’ve decided, along with a number of my Democratic colleagues, to go anyway,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said in a video statement on Thursday.

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died after being poisoned with a rare "dart frog toxin," the United Kingdom's Foreign Office said in a statement released Feb. 14.

The announcement comes two years after Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony. The UK and several other European countries including France, Sweden and Germany accused Russia of orchestrating the poisoning.

"Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia," UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said. She was speaking during an appearance at the Munich Security Conference, which runs through Feb. 15.

"Russia saw Navalny as a threat," Cooper said in Germany, where she met with Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya. The Russian government has not sent a delegation to Munich for the annual security and defense forum. Russia's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a comment on the poisoning allegation.

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Former President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 interview that a video President Donald Trump posted that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, decried by many as racist, was part of a shameless "clown show."

Obama made the comments after podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen said in the interview that a series of messages from White House officials, such as the video posted by Trump and administration officials labeling people who died at the hands of ICE agents as "domestic terrorists," showed a level of cruelty that would have been disqualifying in earlier political times. He asked Obama how the country can come back from that discourse.

"It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction," Obama said. "But as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness."

"There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office," Obama added.

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Israeli fire kills one and wounds several in Gaza: One Palestinian was killed and at least ten others were wounded by Israeli forces on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. Mohammed Dabbash was killed by Israeli army fire in Al-Zarqa area northeast of Gaza City. Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers advanced near the Kuwait roundabout east of Gaza City, opening heavy fire and injuring at least ten Palestinians along Salah al-Din Street, where Palestine Red Crescent Society crews evacuated three wounded under gunfire.

Palestinian paramedic dies in Israeli detention: Hatem Rayyan, a Palestinian paramedic who was detained by Israel on December 27, 2024, during the siege of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, died inside Israel’s Naqab Prison. The Prisoners’ Media Office said his death “brings the number of identified martyrs from the prisoners movement since October 2023 to 88, including 52 prisoners from the Gaza Strip,” describing it as part of “a systematic killing policy and enforced disappearance targeting Palestinian prisoners.”

Trump to launch Gaza reconstruction fund and Stabilization Force at first “Board of Peace” meeting: President Donald Trump will unveil a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction fund for the Gaza Strip and outline plans for a United Nations-authorized International Stabilization Force at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace on February 19 in Washington D.C., Reuters reports. Delegations from at least 20 countries will attend the gathering, with several states reportedly prepared to contribute “several thousands” troops. The meeting is also expected to include briefings on the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza—the Palestinian body designated to assume day-to-day governance from Hamas.

Whistleblowers say CPJ cancelled its annual index to protect Israel: Whistleblowers told The Electronic Intifada that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) scrapped its annual Impunity Index because Israel was set to rank number one. The index—published annually since 2008 and regularly referenced in UN reports—measures countries where journalists are deliberately killed and killers go unpunished. The 2024 edition, covering killings through 2023, ranked Israel second. The 2025 index, reflecting 2024 amid record killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, would have pushed Israel to the top of the list.

Since the index is calculated as a 10-year rolling rate relative to population, Israel would have been ranked near the top, if not number one, for many years to come, the whistleblowers said. They alleged donor and board pressure played a role. In response to Electronic Intifada, CPJ denied that donor considerations play any role in its decisions with respect to Israel or any other country.

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President Donald Trump will announce a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a U.N.-authorized stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace next week, two senior U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Delegations from at least 20 countries, including many heads of state, are expected to attend the meeting in Washington, D.C., which Trump will chair on February 19, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Trump signed documents in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23 establishing the Board of Peace. The board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza plan.

While regional Middle East powers, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western U.S. allies have been more cautious.

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Putin believes the Cold War was World War III, a system war decided by exhaustion, infiltration, and fear. In 2026, he is trying to replay that playbook against NATO, using cyber sabotage, information warfare, energy coercion, and nuclear intimidation to slow Western decisions.

This video breaks down the hard data behind that toolkit: the US record on Russian influence operations, the $10B+ NotPetya damage estimate, the 2022 gas shock and power price spike mechanics, and the measurable surge in NATO and EU defense spending after Russia escalated.

The pattern is consistent: create pain in wallets and daily life, flood the information space, then force democracies into internal blame fights.

You will also see how these tools stack, because each crisis amplifies the next: distrust makes disruption feel bigger, and disruption makes compromise look tempting.

Sources referenced include US Senate Intelligence, US Department of Justice filings, NATO spending reports, the IEA, and EU Commission market reporting.

Ukraine is the front line, but Western cohesion is the center of gravity. If allies stay unified and speed decisions, the strategy fails. If allies fracture and delay, Putin buys time, and time is the resource he can still manufacture.

More...https://www.kyivpost.com/videos/70014

Two federal immigration agents involved in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis last month appear to have lied about the details of the incident, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.

The agents have been placed on administrative leave after "a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements," the spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said.

The rare acknowledgment of potential missteps by ICE agents comes after the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons, told Congress on Thursday that ICE has conducted 37 investigations into officers' use of force over the past year. He didn't say whether anyone has been fired.

McLaughlin said the agency is investigating the January 14 shooting of the Venezuelan immigrant, and the officers involved could be fired or criminally prosecuted for any violations.

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A passerby jumped into a frigid Florida pond to save a pregnant woman from her sinking car recently – giving her the opportunity to safely birth her baby hours later, according to authorities and those at the center of the riveting rescue story.

As she told it to local news outlet WPTV, Shedly Apollon of Florida’s Port St Lucie community was 34 weeks pregnant, with pre-eclampsia, and driving to a prenatal massage arranged for her by her fiance on the morning of 6 February when she began feeling dizzy. Apollon, who was also celebrating her birthday that day, stopped to try to let it pass before resuming her trip. When she realized she wasn’t feeling better, she attempted to pull over again.

Only that time she inadvertently plunged headlong into a pond.

“I started to feel some water on my feet, so I started to panic a little,” Apollon said to WPTV of the moments when her vehicle started sinking into the pond.

Fortunately for her, Logan Hayes, of nearby Sebastian, was running errands in that area at the time. He saw Apollon’s car barrel into the pond and – despite temperatures in the low 40s fahrenheit as well as an active cold weather advisory – he instinctively dove into the water.

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