TV News LIES

Leading lawyers and legal experts have called on the governing bureau of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to uphold the findings of a judicial panel that cleared the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, of wrongdoing following a sexual misconduct complaint.

The 21-member bureau of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) is set to convene again on Monday for the third time to discuss its response to the report by three senior judges and the next course of action in the long-running saga, which has sidelined Khan since he took indefinite leave in May 2025.

Speaking to Middle East Eye ahead of Monday’s meeting, Khan’s lead counsel, Sareta Ashraph, said the process followed by United Nations investigators and judges had been “gender-competent” after a number of civil society groups called on the bureau to reject the panel’s findings.

Other legal experts voiced confidence in the competence and experience of the three-judge panel in their handling of the highly sensitive and complex case.

More...

A Russian Antonov-26 military plane crashed while flying over the Crimean peninsula, killing 29 people, the TASS news agency reported Wednesday, quoting Russia’s defence ministry.

“On 31 March at around 18:00 Moscow time, contact was lost with the An-26 military transport aircraft whilst it was on a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula,” the defense ministry said.

“The search and rescue team has located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft. According to reports from the scene, the six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” the ministry said.

According to the same source, no signs of external impact were found on the wreckage, suggesting that a technical failure was the likely cause of the crash at this stage.

More...

When Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, New York State resident Ellen Robillard briefly looked into getting Canadian citizenship. Her mother, after all, was born in Nova Scotia.

As a Democrat, Robillard was despondent at the election results, but she abandoned the idea after realizing that her young son wouldn’t be eligible for citizenship under a law that barred Canadians born abroad from passing their citizenship to children if they were also born outside Canada.

In 2023, however, the Canadian courts ruled that law unconstitutional and the changes to eligibility came into effect in December, suddenly opening up a pathway to Canadian citizenship for many Americans at a time of political upheaval, violence and uncertainty in the US.

Robillard, 52, is applying for citizenship with her son now that the first-generation rule has been scrapped.

Since criteria for citizenship expanded with the passage of Bill C-3 of Canada’s Citizenship Act, millions of Americans have become eligible to claim Canadian citizenship. The amendment reverses a “first-generation” limit imposed by Canada’s Conservative government in 2009.

More...

The Israeli Knesset on Monday passed a death penalty law targeting Palestinians, in a move condemned by human rights organisations.

The legislation establishes two separate pathways for the death penalty based on national identity. The law makes the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are tried in military courts.

”This law institutionalizes the state-sanctioned, cold-blooded killing of individuals who pose no threat whatsoever,” Suhad Bishara, legal director at Adalah, a Palestinian-run legal centre, said in a statement.

“By design, this legislation exclusively targets Palestinians, violating the fundamental principle of equality and prohibition on racial discrimination,” Bishara added.

Adalah plans to petition the Supreme Court against the law.

More...

One of the Kremlin’s most widely viewed advocates of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, Yuri Podolyaka, on Friday, told Russian audiences the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is superior to the Russian army in fighting efficiency, and that a spring offensive attacking Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions would probably fail with heavy losses to the attacker.

“Little by little, the advantage is going to our enemies. Very experienced guys are working there. They are highly qualified specialists. They know how things work, and they are working to take advantage of the technical superiority that they have. Unfortunately, they are succeeding. I know it seems [to Russian viewers] like we [Russia] have more strength andhttps://www.kyivpost.com/post/72871 more resources, but the enemy is counterattacking, and he is succeeding,” Podolyaka said.

A former Ukrainian citizen transferring his loyalty to Moscow in 2014, Podolyaka, with his hugely popular Telegram news program “The World Today With Yuri Podolyaka” (Russian: “Мир сегодня с Юрий Подоляка”) has a Telegram audience of some 2.8 million subscribers and a YouTube audience of 2.7 million, making him one of Russia’s top two or three milbloggers.

More...

Israeli forces blocked two senior Catholic leaders from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in occupied East Jerusalem to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch, and Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, were stopped en route to the church.

The leaders had attempted to enter privately without any ceremonial procession or public gathering, but were refused access.

The church bodies said this was the first time in centuries that the heads of the Catholic Church had been prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at the Holy Sepulchre.

“This incident is a grave precedent, and disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem,” they said.

More...