TV News LIES

The Department of Homeland Security has launched an immigration and fraud crackdown in Minneapolis amid a welfare-abuse scandal in Minnesota.

CBS and CNN reported that around 2,000 federal agents have been deployed in the Twin Cities area as part of a 30-day surge in operations.

On Tuesday, the department's official account wrote “GOOD MORNING MINNEAPOLIS!” – the first in a series of posts about operations in the region.

In a post on her own X account, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is pictured overseeing arrests, and promising to “expose and deliver accountability for the rampant fraud and criminality happening in Minnesota.”

The push comes amid new allegations of fraud by some day care centers run by Somali residents in Minnesota following claims by a right-wing influencer.

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Former Del. Mike Jones (left) and Charlie Schmidt won special elections Tuesday, with Jones capturing the Richmond-area Senate District 17 seat vacated by Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi and Schmidt succeeding Jones in House District 77.

Former Richmond Del. Mike Jones is headed back to the General Assembly — this time as a state senator — after winning Tuesday’s special election in Virginia Senate District 15, a Democratic-leaning seat vacated late last year by Ghazala Hashmi.

By 8 p.m., Jones had defeated Republican John Thomas by a margin of 67.8-32% out of 15,409 votes cast, according to unofficial election results, securing a seat that stretches across much of Richmond and parts of Chesterfield County.

The win caps a fast-moving political reshuffle sparked by November’s statewide elections and ensures Democrats retain control of the district as lawmakers prepare to convene for the 2026 General Assembly session next week.

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The Israeli military carried out further strikes in areas of Gaza beyond its immediate control, in the latest violation of a ceasefire deal brokered by the US in October.

The attacks killed at least three Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, in and around Khan Younis and injured many more near the Bureij refugee camp, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli forces also continued to demolish homes and infrastructure across northern and eastern Gaza, including Gaza City neighbourhoods, saying they were targeting militant facilities.

In southern Lebanon, meanwhile, an Israeli drone strike on Sunday killed two people after targeting a car near the town of Bint Jbeil, the Lebanese ministry of health said.

The attack reportedly occurred in the Ayn al-Mizrab area, destroying the vehicle and damaging nearby buildings.

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The Israeli army has spent the last 24 hours expanding the so-called 'yellow line' in eastern Gaza, particularly in the neighbourhoods of Tuffah, Shujayea and Zeitoun, also in eastern Gaza City, squeezing Palestinians into smaller and smaller groups in the enclave.

This is what Al-Jazeera reports, from its field staff. Israel now physically occupies more than 50% of the Gaza Strip, the Arab news outlet points out. The Israeli army's actions today are also pushing the army closer to the main artery of Salah al-Din Street, forcing displaced families sheltering near the area to flee, as more and more of them are under intense threat, while Israel's genocidal war against Gaza shows no sign of abating.

Intense artillery shelling and helicopter fire also resumed today, 5 January, in areas south of the besieged enclave, north and east of the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.

On 4 January, Israel launched further attacks in areas of Gaza outside its direct military control, according to Al-Jazeera. At least three Palestinians were killed in several Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, according to medical sources. A five-storey building in central Gaza collapsed: it had been the target of Israeli shelling in late 2023. Civil Defence teams are searching for missing people under the rubble. The Wafa news agency reported that at least five people were injured.

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World leaders and top military officials are converging on the French capital Tuesday under growing doubt that a Western-backed peace plan for Ukraine can move beyond political symbolism and impose real costs on Moscow – or whether it risks becoming yet another diplomatic exercise overtaken by events on the battlefield.

The meeting, convened under the banner of the “Coalition of the Willing,” comes as Russian missiles continue to strike Ukrainian cities and as analysts warn that any agreement lacking enforcement mechanisms is unlikely to deter the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials say the framework under discussion is “90 percent” complete. But that final 10%  – security guarantees, US buy-in and clear penalties for Russian violations – may ultimately determine whether the plan survives contact with reality.

“This week, we will be working with our European and American partners to ensure that Ukraine has the assistance it needs,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.https://www.kyivpost.com/post/67472

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The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges on Monday, two days after his capture by US special forces in an operation ordered by Donald Trump that sent shockwaves around the world.

The brevity and formality of the arraignment hearing in federal court in Manhattan – barely 30 minutes during which Maduro was asked to confirm his name and that he understood the four charges against him – belied the far-reaching consequences of the US action.

As Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores addressed the court in lower Manhattan, the UN security council held an emergency meeting just a few miles to the north, where a dozen countries condemned the US “crime of aggression” and secretary general António Guterres suggested the operation constituted a breach of international law.

Maduro, 63, insisted to federal judge Alvin Hellerstein that he was “still president of my country”, had been illegally “captured” at his Caracas home, and was “a prisoner of war”.

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” Maduro said in Spanish during repeated attempts to speak over the judge.

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The nonprofit charged by Congress with allocating funds to NPR, PBS and other US public radio and television stations announced is dissolving after massive federal funding cuts under Donald Trump.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced on Monday that its board of directors had voted to dissolve the organization after nearly 60 years in operation.

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, said in a statement Monday that the organization’s board of directors voted to dissolve the organization as it “faced a profound responsibility”.

She added: “CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attack.”

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The Trump administration sued two California cities on Monday, seeking to block local laws that restrict natural gas infrastructure and appliances in new construction.

The lawsuit is the administration’s latest attack on energy policies that seek to rein in the use of fossil fuels to combat climate change. California, a Democratic stronghold, has among the most aggressive climate change policies in the world.

Republicans, including Donald Trump, for years have attacked local Democratic efforts to limit gas-powered appliances.

In the complaint filed in US district court in the northern district of California, justice department attorneys alleged that ordinances passed by the San Francisco-area cities of Morgan Hill and Petaluma since 2019 violated a 1975 law that prevents states and cities from regulating the “energy use” of products subject to federal standards.

“The natural gas bans not only impose crushing costs on California residents but are also unlawful,” the complaint said.

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