TV News LIES

In their time as real estate brokers, the Israeli-American Alexander brothers – twins Alon and Oren and older brother Tal – were known as “closers”, the salesmen who could a get a sale over finish line, often to wealthy hedge funders who were then making hay in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Their technique, one real estate expert explained outside the 26th floor of the federal court house in lower Manhattan last week, was based on the sense that the property salesmen “were just like their clients” – young, eager and successful. Kim Kardashian and then-husband Kanye West, Jared and Ivanka Trump were clients.

And like many, they were party animals. Nightclubs in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami, Aspen, Tulum and Ibiza were seasonal stops. Tal and Oren, 38, were profiled in the New York Times on “How Two Luxury Real Estate Agents Spend Their Sundays”. The Wall Street Journal followed on the family’s $31m sale of their Miami beach home. US Vogue featured Oren’s wedding to a Brazilian model.

But a far nastier picture of their high life has been on display in court for the past few weeks, where the three brothers are on trial for sex trafficking. Prosecutors have accused each of the three brothers of violent, forcible rape of at least 10 women each and in some cases of threatening them if they spoke of their experiences.

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A Chicago teenager who garnered national attention for fighting for her father's release after he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025 has died, a family spokesperson said.

Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, died on Friday, Feb. 13, from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, according to a statement from the family's spokesperson. Torres Hidalgo had been diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer in December 2024.

The teenager was undergoing cancer treatment and had been home visiting her family for the weekend when her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was arrested in October 2025 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago, a GoFundMe page set up for the family states. He was detained during the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz," a major immigration enforcement campaign that brought a surge of federal agents to the Chicago area.

Following his arrest, Torres Hidalgo posted a video on social media calling for his release. She described her father as a hardworking immigrant who cared for her younger brother while she stayed at the hospital for treatment.

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Dozens of Palestinians have been injured as Israeli settlers carried out a wave of attacks across the occupied West Bank, destroying olive trees and vandalising property.

At least 54 Palestinians were wounded on Friday morning as settlers attacked several towns and villages under the protection of the Israeli military.

Settlers assaulted Palestinian farmers on their lands near Talfit, a village south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and Israeli troops fired tear gas and live ammunition at residents who tried to repel the settler attack.

Images from the village showed homes with broken windows and vehicles with smashed windshields as a result of the attack.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli settlers also destroyed about 300 Palestinian olive trees near the Ramallah-area town of Turmus Aya, the Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources.

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US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, announced the end of temporary protected status (TPS) for Yemen on Friday, the latest move by Donald Trump’s administration targeting immigrants.

The decision to end humanitarian protections that grant deportation relief and work permits to more than a thousand Yemenis in the US was taken after determining that it was against the US “national interest”, Noem claimed.

According to the National Immigration Forum, there are about 1,380 Yemeni nationals living and working in the US with TPS.

TPS provides relief to people already in the US if their home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary events. The Trump administration has sought to end most enrollment in the program – and tried to strip the status from a string of countries, including Haiti, Somalia and Venezuela – saying it runs counter to US interests. However, many of these attempts have been challenged and blocked in federal court.

The designation will now officially terminate for Yemeni immigrants 60 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register. The status was last extended in 2024 and is set to expire on 3 March this year.

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A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.

US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who are currently in countries outside Venezuela, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegally expelled from the US last March.

Boasberg added that the US government should cover the travel costs of those who wish to come to the US to argue their immigration cases.

Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, is one of the men affected and he spoke exclusively to the Guardian on Thursday by telephone from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, where he has lived since being released from detention in El Salvador.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/14/venezuelan-illegally-deported-return-fears
“I would like to go back to the US to defend myself in court and prove that I am not a member of the Tren de Aragua [gang] – but what happens if they detain me and I have to live through another nightmare?” Muñoz Pinto said.

He has no criminal record in any country. He was an engineering student in Venezuela and fled in 2024 after being beaten by police while protesting against the dictatorship there, first to Colombia and then north. He had an appointment in the US to request asylum under the Biden administration but instead was arrested and accused of being a member of the dangerous Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua because he had some tattoos, despite no evidence being presented of actual gang connections.

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Israeli fire kills one and wounds several in Gaza: One Palestinian was killed and at least ten others were wounded by Israeli forces on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. Mohammed Dabbash was killed by Israeli army fire in Al-Zarqa area northeast of Gaza City. Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers advanced near the Kuwait roundabout east of Gaza City, opening heavy fire and injuring at least ten Palestinians along Salah al-Din Street, where Palestine Red Crescent Society crews evacuated three wounded under gunfire.

Palestinian paramedic dies in Israeli detention: Hatem Rayyan, a Palestinian paramedic who was detained by Israel on December 27, 2024, during the siege of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, died inside Israel’s Naqab Prison. The Prisoners’ Media Office said his death “brings the number of identified martyrs from the prisoners movement since October 2023 to 88, including 52 prisoners from the Gaza Strip,” describing it as part of “a systematic killing policy and enforced disappearance targeting Palestinian prisoners.”

Trump to launch Gaza reconstruction fund and Stabilization Force at first “Board of Peace” meeting: President Donald Trump will unveil a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction fund for the Gaza Strip and outline plans for a United Nations-authorized International Stabilization Force at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace on February 19 in Washington D.C., Reuters reports. Delegations from at least 20 countries will attend the gathering, with several states reportedly prepared to contribute “several thousands” troops. The meeting is also expected to include briefings on the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza—the Palestinian body designated to assume day-to-day governance from Hamas.

Whistleblowers say CPJ cancelled its annual index to protect Israel: Whistleblowers told The Electronic Intifada that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) scrapped its annual Impunity Index because Israel was set to rank number one. The index—published annually since 2008 and regularly referenced in UN reports—measures countries where journalists are deliberately killed and killers go unpunished. The 2024 edition, covering killings through 2023, ranked Israel second. The 2025 index, reflecting 2024 amid record killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, would have pushed Israel to the top of the list.

Since the index is calculated as a 10-year rolling rate relative to population, Israel would have been ranked near the top, if not number one, for many years to come, the whistleblowers said. They alleged donor and board pressure played a role. In response to Electronic Intifada, CPJ denied that donor considerations play any role in its decisions with respect to Israel or any other country.

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