TV News LIES

Friday night Shabbat services at Tzedek Chicago have all the hallmarks of a typical service, with candle lighting and a rousing rendition of Lecha Dodi, a key hymn welcoming the Sabbath.

But this service also leads with a prayer for the people of Gaza, composed by Rabbi Brant Rosen: "In this moment of ceasefire," a congregant reads, "let us remain steadfast in our solidarity with the people of Gaza who have resisted the relentless violence of genocide with bottomless wells of courage and resilience."

For Rosen, solidarity with Palestinians has become a core Jewish value. He founded Tzedek Chicago — the word "tzedek" means "justice" in Hebrew — after breaking with the Zionism of his upbringing. For Rosen, the break came after a 2008 incursion by Israel on Gaza in which he felt that Israel was committing war crimes against the Palestinian people.

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More than 1,300 people in Syria have been killed — many believed to be civilians — in the span of three days amid intense fighting between forces associated with Syria's new government and those loyal to the deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to a human rights group.

The conflict is considered the country's worst violence since insurgents toppled the Assad regime back in December. It's also the biggest test for Syria's new government since it has assumed power.

On Sunday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 830 civilians have been killed, along with 231 Syrian security forces and 250 Alawite militants. The figures could not be independently verified.

The Observatory characterized many of the killings as executions and massacres, carried out in revenge against the Alawite community, which made up Assad's traditional base of support. The human rights group also reported burning of homes and forced displacement, worsened by the absence of international intervention.

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It has become a familiar routine for the Palm Beach county sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, and his deputies. Almost every Tuesday in recent weeks, the Federal Aviation Administration has posted to its website a formal “notice to airmen” advising of upcoming flight restrictions over south Florida, signaling once again to those who must protect him that Donald Trump is on his way to Mar-a-Lago for another weekend of golf.

The president is at his waterfront mansion again this weekend, his sixth visit to Florida and the beloved golf courses he owns since his 20 January inauguration.

His increasingly frequent and disruptive trips home are fast becoming a drain on county resources, obligating Bradshaw to put helicopters in the air, extra manpower on the ground, and boats on both sides of Trump’s opulent mansion sandwiched between the Atlantic and the Intracoastal Waterway almost continuously.

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A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested on Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who claimed they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.

Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment, blocks from the private Ivy League university’s main campus in New York when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.

Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.

The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in civic freedoms across 198 countries. Other countries that have previously been featured on the watchlist in recent years include Zimbabwe, Argentina, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates.