TV News LIES

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is putting his stamp on religion and its role in the military.

He tossed out the Army's spiritual fitness guide in December, lamenting its lack of explicit references to God in favor of broader spirituality. He's held Christian prayer services at the Pentagon with controversial pastors and framed elements of the war in Iran in biblical terms.

He announced in March that the Pentagon would reduce the number of recognized religious affiliation codes, which are used in part to connect service members with necessary faith resources, and that military chaplains would no longer display, but still retain, their rank insignia.

The shakeups continued in April..

On the same day Hegseth asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and immediately retire, two other high-ranking officials were ousted, including Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s chief of chaplains.

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It has long been considered offensive and antisemitic to draw comparisons between Nazi Germany and Israel, but on the specific question of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its wars of expansion, including the war on Iran, the dam has broken.

Norman Finkelstein, the eminent American Jewish scholar and son of Holocaust survivors, drew the direct comparison between Hitler’s war in the east and the war launched by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran on 28 February in a recent Middle East Eye interview.

I have long thought the comparison is merited, for a number of reasons, beginning in 2023 with the start of the war on Gaza.

Like Hitler's Germany, Israel's leaders made the fatal error of not knowing when to stop, and opening up several fronts - seven at one point. Each tactical victory - against Hamas, then Hezbollah, encouraged further audacious attacks. Having waged a genocidal campaign in Gaza, colonial expansion in the West Bank, and relentless attacks on Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, Prime Minister Netanyahu turned to Iran in 2025.

Why? A messianic ideology of Jewish supremacy that drives the prime minister and the settler politicians on whom he depends. The politics of ethnonationalism, territorial expansion and hyper militarism are similar, if not identical, to the ideology of the Second World War fascist axis led by Nazi Germany. And this ideology of ethnic supremacy leads to overreach.

Trump, as a white nationalist who believes in US exceptionalism, shares the same inflated belief in unlimited US power, but is less unequivocally bent on permanent war. (Trump bears some comparison with Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, whose record of failed imperial adventures more closely resembles Trump's.)

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US President Donald Trump announced the extension of the truce between Israel and Lebanon for an additional three weeks following talks with representatives from both countries, Ukrinform reported.

On Thursday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said senior Israeli and Lebanese representatives met in the Oval Office alongside Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michelle Issa.

“The meeting went very well,” Trump said, adding that the US would continue working with Lebanon to help defend itself against Hezbollah.

Trump said he looked forward to meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the near future, describing the talks as a “very historic meeting.”

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An American millionaire big-game hunter has died after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting expedition in Gabon.

Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner, was hunting yellow-backed duiker, an antelope species, in the central African country of Gabon when the incident occurred last Friday. While in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, he and his guide unexpectedly came across five female elephants accompanied by a calf.

Originally from Lodi, California, Dosio had built an extensive collection of hunting trophies over the years, including animals such as elephants and lions. He was reportedly a familiar name within the Sacramento Safari Club.

According to the Daily Mail, safari operator Collect Africa confirmed the death of its client. The company also reported that the professional hunter guiding Dosio sustained serious injuries during the encounter.

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President Donald Trump posted and reposted a wild series of messages in the middle of the night, with more than a dozen shared on Truth Social after 12 a.m. on Friday.

He demanded that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “resign.” He shared a post calling for an end to the filibuster to push his agenda through the Senate. He shared multiple posts accusing former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State ― and 2016 campaign rival ― Hillary Clinton of treason. In yet another, he shared a meme calling for arrests.

And he posted a rant at 1:13 a.m. suggesting that the 2020 election results “be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect!”

“The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the greatest political scams in American History, has been charged with FRAUD,” Trump wrote, referring to an indictment this week accusing the organization of funding extremist groups via its use of paid informants.

“This is another Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue, and many others,” he added.

ActBlue is the fundraising platform that has raised billions for Democratic candidates, now facing scrutiny over how it vetted donors.

Trump concluded:

“If it is true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT”

Trump has claimed repeatedly, without evidence, that the 2020 election was marred by fraud and insisted that he won.

He did not.

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Zanesville sculptor Alan Cottrill put the final touches – gold leaf gilding – on a 15-foot-tall bronze statue of President Donald Trump three months ago but he's been holding it hostage until he gets full payment.

"It's in an undisclosed location in Muskingum County, Ohio," Cottrill said. "I don't say any more than that."

Cottrill is in an ongoing payment dispute with $PATRIOT, a cryptocurrency group that commissioned the work in August 2024. The statue features Trump pumping his fist in the air following a July 2024 assassination attempt in western Pennsylvania.

Cottrill said he's been paid $300,000 for the piece, as agreed, and an additional $60,000 for the gold leafing. The hang up is over a copyright infringement when the crypto group used images of his original artwork to sell crypto tokens, he said.

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Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced Friday the investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is closed.

In a post on X, Pirro said the Fed’s inspector general “has been asked to scrutinize the building costs overruns — in the billions of dollars — that have been borne by taxpayers.”

While that’s happening, the investigation into Powell — which prosecutors have said is about potential fraud charges related to renovations of the Federal Reserve building, and statements during a testimony Powell gave to a congressional committee — is ending.

“The IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers,” Pirro said in her statement. “I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas.”

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday he would veto a controversial “buffer zone” bill to restrict protests around educational institutions, calling it an excessive restriction of the First Amendment.

The veto is the first of Mamdani’s administration.

The mayor said he would not veto a similar recent bill restricting protests near houses of worship. City Council Speaker Julie Menin had framed both bills as common-sense safety measures to protect people from harassment.

But Mamdani said the implications of limits on protests at campuses and schools were too broad.

“As the bill is written, everywhere from universities to museums to teaching hospitals could face restrictions,” he said in a statement. “This could impact workers protesting [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”

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