TV News LIES

President Donald Trump's long-running explanation for not releasing his tax returns was upended on May 19 when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a Justice Department document that effectively shut down any existing Internal Revenue Service audits, investigations and enforcement actions against Trump, his family and his sprawling business empire.

Since his 2016 campaign, Trump has declined to follow the tradition of U.S. presidents releasing tax returns, saying he couldn't do so because of ongoing IRS audits.

“I may even release my current returns,” Trump told reporters May 20 when stepping off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland when asked about the agreement between the president and his own administration.

Meghan Faulkner, communications director for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Trump to release his taxes now that the audits have shut down.

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Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said Thursday the U.S. is pausing a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan because of the Trump administration’s war with Iran.

Speaking during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing, Cao insisted the U.S. still had “plenty” of missiles and interceptors, even as scrutiny grows over America’s dwindling munitions stockpiles.

“Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury — which we have plenty,” Cao told Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “We’re just making sure we have everything, but then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary.”

Asked by McConnell if he expects the sale to be approved at some point, Cao said that it would be up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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Germany on Wednesday criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over remarks that he would push for the eviction of the West Bank community of Khan al-Ahmar following reports of an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant request.

“We have, of course, taken note of these statements with the utmost concern, and we firmly reject them. We have also spoken out on this issue on several occasions in the past. There must be no expulsions. We call on the Israeli government to abandon these plans,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Josef Hinterseher told journalists in Berlin.

He stressed that the German government’s position was “clear and unchanged,” adding: “Unilateral measures -- as part of a broader intensification of settlement policy, into which the entire situation in the West Bank is embedded -- violate international law, pose a risk of further instability in the region and in the West Bank itself, and significantly stand in the way of a two-state solution.”

British news outlet Middle East Eye reported Monday that a request had been submitted to the ICC seeking secret arrest warrants against Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

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Hezbollah’s drone capabilities are limiting 80 percent of Israeli assaults on southern Lebanon, according to a report by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

On Monday, Kan reported that the Israeli military had estimated that drones fired by Hezbollah had severely restricted Israeli troop movements in Lebanon, and contributed to battlefield losses.

The report stated that anti-drone systems were being distributed to only a limited number of Israeli troops due to supply shortages, and that some military operations were not being carried out in daylight hours over fears of drone attacks. 

These drones have increasingly become a problem for Israel’s government, which has reportedly created a specialist task force, composed of military, defence and civilian experts, to develop systems to counter the threat. 

Israeli military intelligence sources told Kan that Hezbollah had moved away from a command and control structure, and was now operating guerrilla-style warfare.

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Irish author Sally Rooney, whose stance in support of Palestine has earned international attention, has confirmed that her latest book Intermezzo will be published in Hebrew, causing mixed reactions on social media.

A supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for several years, Rooney first gained attention for her stance to join the cultural boycott of Israeli institutions after turning down an offer from Israeli publisher Modan to have her third book translated into Hebrew in 2021.

In collaboration with Israeli publishing house November Books and Local Call, +972 Magazine announced on Tuesday that after five years of communicating with the author to ensure a translation could be published "in a way that honors the principles of the boycott and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian demand for freedom, equality, and justice", a Hebrew translation of the novel will soon be available in Israel and Palestine.

In an interview with the Guardian published to time with the announcement, Rooney said: “Though my refusal to work with complicit Israeli publishing houses made the contractual side of things more complex, I was, of course, never boycotting the Hebrew language or any language. I’m very pleased that Intermezzo will soon be available in Hebrew with November Books.”

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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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