TV News LIES

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has approved the issuance of gun licences to Israelis in 18 additional illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes to expand illegal outposts that undermine prospects for a two-state solution.

“The importance of the decision lies in the fact that these settlements will now be able to submit applications for a personal weapon licence,” Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday, claiming that the efforts were to “enhance self-defence and increase personal security”.

Israeli settlers have been emboldened by a wide-scale armament programme spearheaded at the start of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip by Ben-Gvir, and the near-total impunity they enjoy when carrying out attacks.

Israelis living illegally in the occupied West Bank have been armed with military-grade weapons ranging from US-made M16s to pistols and drones. Israeli authorities maintain that holding arms is necessary for their safety, but local and international organisations have long documented the organised, forced displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral lands.

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The Israeli military is turning the yellow line that demarcates the more than half of the Gaza Strip it occupies and controls into a physical border. Analysis of satellite imagery by Forensic Architecture shows that the Israeli military has begun constructing earth berms—large, raised mounds of earth—in areas along the yellow line to create a physical separation between the Palestinian population forced to live in the western half of the enclave, and Israeli forces who occupy the eastern half.

Israeli troops withdrew to the yellow line after the so-called ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10. Since then, they have engaged in a combination of construction of military infrastructure and roads in the over 53% of the territory that it controls—alongside the systematic destruction of existing buildings.

Previously, the yellow line was only drawn in Israeli maps or delineated by the military’s placement of physical yellow blocks—a total of 38 counted by Forensic Architecture—some of which have been moved hundreds of meters further into Gaza in some places, taking over even more Palestinian land.

This is the case in Jabaliya, for example, where the berms follow the path of the yellow blocks that Israel has been extending into the area under its control, but beyond the line marked on its own maps. Some of the berms have been constructed across roads, cutting them in half.

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Air-defense sirens wailed and explosions shook Kyiv early Saturday as Russia launched one of its heaviest assaults in months – just hours after Ukrainian, Russian, and US negotiators convened in Abu Dhabi for peace talks.

Kyiv Post reporters who spent the night in shelters described the barrage as “very, very massive.”

One correspondent added grimly: “I assume the situation following this strike is going to be extremely tough.”

The timing was unmistakable.

“With negotiations underway, Moscow is sending a message written in fire,” said a senior European diplomat in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This is how the Kremlin negotiates – with missiles.”

Meaghan Mobbs, daughter of former Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, echoed the sentiment in a pointed social media post: 

“With ongoing negotiations in Abu Dhabi, it’s hard not to read this as a signal of Russia’s intentions toward peace. I have stopped guessing at what point such behavior would so enrage POTUS that he decides to double down and give substantial aid to Ukraine.”

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For over four decades, Republican presidents have banned U.S. funds from going to groups that provide or promote abortion — and Democratic presidents have reversed the ban.

On Friday at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., Vice President JD Vance announced a major expansion of the policy. The Mexico City policy, named for where it was first unveiled, will now also bar funding to groups that promote "gender ideology" and diversity, equity and inclusion.

"We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life," said Vance. "We're expanding this policy to protect life, to combat DEI and the radical gender ideologies that prey on our children."

The administration is also expanding the policy beyond non-governmental charitable groups to larger organizations that cross country borders, like U.N. agencies.

Vance's announcement was met with cheers from the large crowd of March for Life participants gathered on the National Mall. Each year, anti-abortion advocates gather in D.C. for the rally.

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The US military said on Friday that it carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the US Southern Command said in a statement.

Friday’s strike marked the first known attack since Trump ordered the US military to capture the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

The statement said “two narco-terrorists were killed,” and a search for a survivor was under way. A video accompanying the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.

The US military has carried out more than 30 strikes against boats that it alleges were smuggling drugs off South American waters since early September. Those strikes have killed more than 100 people, according to the Associated Press, citing information from the Trump administration.

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New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has received a baby box from the Scottish government after modelling part of his election campaign on Edinburgh’s example of providing each expectant mother with a set of essentials.

Scotland’s social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said it would help the city’s leader develop his own plans for a “baby basket”.

She said: “I read with interest that mayor Mamdani was considering a baby basket scheme in New York and hope that, by sending a Scottish example, it will provide inspiration to help him to refine and develop his exciting policy.

“Scots share much in common with the people of New York; not least our history and heritage – as celebrated every year during New York Tartan Week.

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Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, who were arrested and charged for their role in an anti-ICE demonstration that disrupted Sunday church services in St Paul, Minnesota, have been released.

Video of the two women posted online showed them emerging from detention on Friday, raising their fists and embracing their loved ones. “Thank you all for being here,” Levy Armstrong said. “Glory to God!”

A federal judge ordered their release earlier in the day, ruling that the government had failed “to meet its burden to demonstrate that a detention hearing is warranted, or that detention is otherwise appropriate”.

A judge has also ordered the released of a third activist involved in the church protest, William Kelly, saying he was not a danger to the public, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

On Thursday, the White House was caught posting a digitally altered image of Armstrong’s arrest on social media, which had been manipulated to falsely portray her as crying, and to darken her skin.

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Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.

Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.

But an extensive review of Walker’s conviction by the DA’s office, along with the help of the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, found multiple problems with Walker’s case.

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