TV News LIES

A senior State Department delegation traveled to Cuba on April 10 for talks with the government, a State Department official confirmed to USA TODAY. A senior State Department official also had a separate meeting with former Cuban leader Raul Castro's grandson during the visit, the person said.

It was the first time that a U.S. government plane had landed in Cuba since 2016. Axios was the first news outlet to report that the meetings took place.

The officials told the Cuban government that the island's economy is in free fall and its ruling elites had a narrow window to make reforms before circumstances irreversibly worsen, the State Department official said. The person said that Trump is committed to pursuing a diplomatic solution, if one is possible, but will not let allow the island to collapse into what he views as a major national security threat, if Cuba’s leaders are unwilling or unable to act.

At the meeting, the U.S. proposed to bring Starlink's high-speed internet services to Cuba. But the officials said Havana needs to enact reforms that will make Cuba's economy more competitive and attractive to foreign investment. They also pushed for compensation of Americans and American-owned businesses that had their property confiscated and a lifting of constraints on political freedoms.

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A gunman shot and killed eight children – including seven of his own – in what police described as a "violent domestic incident" in a quiet suburban neighborhood, shocking residents and officials who called the attack an "unimaginable tragedy."

Officers responded to shootings at two homes in a south Shreveport neighborhood before dawn on April 19, according to the Shreveport Police Department. The children ranged from ages 3 to 11, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner's Office. Authorities earlier released a different age range for the victims.

Police said the suspect, identified as Shamar Elkins, also shot the mother of his children and another woman, both of whom survived with serious injuries. Elkins then fled the scene on foot and stole a car at gunpoint, leading to a police chase that ended with officers shooting him dead, according to police officials.

The attack, which is among the deadliest mass shootings since January 2024, rocked the historic riverfront city.

"I just don’t know what to say, my heart is just taken aback," Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said at a news conference, adding that the attack is unlike anything he's ever seen in his more than four decades in law enforcement.

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On 8 April, Israel's military launched the psychopathically titled Operation Eternal Darkness against Lebanon, with predictably macabre results. In the span of a mere 10 minutes, Israel struck more than 100 sites across the country, killing more than 300 people and wounding at least 1,150.

The killing spree took place amid the regional ceasefire that had ostensibly taken hold after five weeks of cataclysmic war unleashed on Iran by the US and Israel.

Of course, Israel is not much one for ceasefires - and especially not when it comes to Lebanon. In just seven months following the so-called ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, Israel not only continued to occupy territory in southern Lebanon but also kept up regular air strikes on the country, killing no fewer than 250 people. And things only went downhill from there.

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Once you picture schoolgirls, university students, mothers, aunts and grandmothers lying on their stomachs in prison pyjamas - their hands tied behind their backs, and soldiers looming over them, beating them if they move even slightly - you cannot forget the image. 

When you hear a female prisoner say she has "nothing but her heart", you immediately grasp how prison can dismantle lives. 

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is marked every year on 17 April to spotlight ongoing human rights violations - and today, conditions are worse than ever. Since the launch of the Gaza genocide, starvation, isolation, humiliation, strip searches, torture and overwhelming fear have become constant realities for Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.

More than 700 Palestinian women have been arrested in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since the genocide began in late 2023, according to rights groups. Enduring night raids on their homes or detention at military checkpoints, most have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse both during and after their arrest.

“Everything is different from the prisons of the 1990s. All changed with the genocide,” Ramallah-based lawyer Sahar Francis, who is also the former director of the prisoners’ rights group Addameer, told a recent webinar entitled Women, Prison Sumoud.

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The president of the Palestine Football Association (PFA), as well as two other officials from the organisation, have been denied visas to Canada for the annual Fifa Congress, which is being held in Vancouver on 30 April, The Guardian revealed on Friday.

Canada is one of the hosts of this year's World Cup, alongside the US and Mexico.

The PFA has now urged Fifa - football's governing body - to intervene on its behalf.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has said it would not divulge details on individual cases, but that "applications are considered on a case-by-case basis based on the information presented by the applicant".

Last month, after carrying out an investigation based on a 2024 complaint, Fifa insisted that "the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law", and therefore, it would "take no action". 

In February, the groups Irish Sport for Palestine, Scottish Sport for Palestine, Just Peace Advocates, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, and Sport Scholars for Justice in Palestine filed a 120-page complaint with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against Fifa's president, The New York Times reported.

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PFA president Jibril Rajoub was reportedly set to address the Fifa Congress on the matter of Israel holding football matches in the West Bank, which is illegally occupied land, according to the United Nations.

A deadly shooting spree in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district ended with the liquidation of the attacker by police special forces after he killed s people and took several hostages in a local supermarket.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Saturday, April 18 that the perpetrator was neutralized during a storming operation by elite KORD units.

According to the president, 10 people remain hospitalized with various injuries, and four hostages were successfully rescued during the assault. “The circumstances are being clarified. My condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” Zelensky stated, adding that he has instructed the Interior Ministry and the National Police to provide the public with all verified information.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko identified the attacker as a 58-year-old native of Moscow who utilized automatic weapons. Before barricading himself in the Velmart supermarket, the gunman opened fire on civilians and reportedly set fire to the apartment where he was registered.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former President Barack Obama visited an early childhood education center in the South Bronx on Saturday.

As the two leaders entered the pre-K classroom, a group of 19 students dressed in blue and plaid school uniforms let out squeals upon seeing Mamdani. Their teachers, who knew the mayor was coming but not his special guest, gasped at the sight of the 44th president of the United States.

“My name’s Barack,” the president said, introducing himself to the children. As the two men took seats in front of the kids, the children started shouting out their own names, and with one boy shouting out, “I know who you are, you are Mamdani.”

During the event, which was first reported by Politico, Mamdani and Obama read to the students and joined them in a rousing rendition of the “Wheels of the Bus.” Before meeting with the children, they discussed Mamdani's affordability-focused vision for the city — including universal child care, according to the mayor.

Obama and Mamdani did not take questions.

This marks their first face-to-face meeting and comes months after Obama called Mamdani just before Election Day in November. The former president praised Mamdani's campaign and offered to be a sounding board if he won the election. During the Bronx event, there was also a clear chemistry between Mamdani and Obama, who interacted with the children and teased each other with ease.

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Iran said Saturday it had reinstated control of the Strait of Hormuz, and was reversing course on its decision to reopen the critical waterway until the United States completely lifts its blockade of Iranian ports.

The announcement came the morning after President Donald Trump had said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports will remain and attacks could resume if no agreement is reached before the current ceasefire with Iran expires next week.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Saturday, Trump said Iran had tried to get "cute" in taking back control of the Strait of Hormuz.

"They got a little cute, as they have been doing for 47 years. Nobody ever took them on. We took them on," Trump said.

Asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One the previous evening about what he will do if there's no deal before the ceasefire expires, Trump said: "I don't know. Maybe I won't extend it, but the blockade is going to remain. But maybe I won't extend it, so you'll have a blockade and unfortunately we'll have to start dropping bombs again."

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