TV News LIES

The federal prosecutor who secured an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly threatening the life of President Trump in a since-deleted social media post of seashells has stepped down, according to a recent court filing.

A “notice of substitution” filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina on Friday stated that Matthew Petracca would no longer serve as the Justice Department’s counsel on the case and would be replaced by assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Severo.

The filing did not provide any explanation for Petracca’s removal from the case, and the Eastern District of North Carolina did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.

Petracca has also dropped off other criminal cases in the same jurisdiction in recent days, according to NBC News, which first reported his departure from the Comey case. The network also reported that Petracca had contemplated leaving the DOJ entirely but decided against it after taking a week off, citing two people familiar with the matter.

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The Israeli combat soldier saw his teammates yelling in celebration, congratulating one another. They had just struck a vehicle of Palestinians driving near the Israeli-controlled part of the Gaza Strip, killing everyone inside.

The reservist said scenes like this had become common after a fragile ceasefire took effect in October. In the weeks he was stationed in Gaza, he said, he saw soldiers relishing the chance to go after those who crossed — or came close to crossing — the so-called yellow line that divides the strip into Israeli-controlled and Palestinian areas.

“It was a jungle,” the soldier, in his 20s, told The Associated Press. “After the ceasefire, the order was: If someone crosses the line, you shoot them.”

As diplomatic efforts to strengthen the deal have stalled, three soldiers described to AP a sense of confusion in the embattled territory, with a lack of clarity on rules of engagement around the yellow line. Some commanders paid lip service to the agreement, the soldiers said, while privately voicing desire for the war in Gaza to continue. Sometimes, troops were too far away or acted too quickly to recognize who they were shooting, one soldier said — a concern echoed in comments from a whistleblower group of veterans.

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At a time when the American public is expressing unprecedented levels of distrust in the Israeli government, Congress just proposed tying the U.S. to the Israeli military more than ever before.

Buried in the House's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948.

Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. The U.S. and Israel already work together heavily on missile defense, but this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion.” In other words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.

If fully enacted, this proposal would provide a higher level of military-industrial integration than the U.S. has with any other country in the world. To be sure, the U.S. has worked closely with its NATO partners on co-production and shared supply chains, most notably via the Defence Production Action Plan. And, as the number one arms dealer in the world, the U.S. provides weapons to militaries across the globe. But that is mostly a one-way street, with the U.S. providing weapons to foreign buyers who only occasionally make parts for those weapons themselves, as in the case of the F-35’s global supply chain.

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Pramila Patten, the United Nations special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, said alleged abuses against Palestinians at the Sde Teiman prison camp were “an emblematic case which shows the total lack of accountability” enjoyed by perpetrators.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Patten said there was “solid evidence of sexual violence” that caused life-threatening injuries to a Palestinian detainee, citing findings documented by a UN commission of inquiry.

Patten said 10 Israeli soldiers were initially arrested over the alleged rape of the detainee, but noted that “five were immediately released within days” while “five others were put on house arrest”.

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Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, has accused Israel of attempting to evade accountability after the United Nations included it on a list of parties cited over conflict-related sexual violence allegations.

Writing on X, Gharibabadi said, “Instead of responding to the inclusion of its affiliated entities on the UN list of sexual violence in conflict, the Israeli regime has targeted the UN Secretary-General for punishment, a sign of the same dangerous pattern: evading accountability by attacking international institutions.” 

The Iranian official also referred to alleged abuses committed by Israeli security forces against Palestinian detainees and criticised Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, arguing that ceasefire commitments had not been upheld.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent diplomatic push into Central Asia yielded high-minded rhetoric but few substantive gains, as Kazakhstan resisted Kremlin pressure on trade and labor, foreign policy expert Paul Goble told Kyiv Post.

Faced with limited returns in Astana, Putin dedicated a significant portion of his post-visit press conference to lecturing Armenia – a move Goble described as a sign of Moscow’s anxiety over its fading influence in the former Soviet space.

The remarks came as Moscow has intensified pressure on Yerevan over its pro-European course. Russia has warned Armenia that it could lose preferential fuel and energy arrangements if it continues its EU path, while the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union has raised the possibility of suspending Armenia over its European ambitions.

While Moscow hoped to secure critical concessions during the high-level talks, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used his diplomatic experience to protect Astana’s strategic autonomy, Goble said.

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The US military said it had carried out another strike Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people.

US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the months-long campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence.

Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen Francis L Donovan, the top US commander in Latin America, who on Friday also met with Cuban military leaders near the US Navy base in Guantánamo Bay.

While the military’s social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in color instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it’s hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water.

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Republicans in the Louisiana legislature have approved a new congressional map ahead of the midterms that will likely net their party one seat in the race to control the House.

Louisiana lawmakers raced to eliminate one of two majority-Black congressional seats in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the current map unconstitutional in a sweeping decision last month that severely weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Following that ruling, and just days before early voting was set to begin — and with tens of thousands of voters having already returned mail ballots — Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushed to delay the House primary elections scheduled for May 16, allowing the legislature to redraw the map.

The rescheduled primaries are now set for Nov. 3.

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