TV News LIES

NATO has started coordinating regular deliveries of large weapons packages to Ukraine after the Netherlands said it would provide air defense equipment, ammunition and other military aid worth 500 million euros ($578 million).

Sweden also announced Tuesday it would contribute $275 million to a joint effort along with its Nordic neighbors Denmark and Norway to provide $500 million worth of air defenses, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and spare parts.

Two deliveries of equipment, most of it bought in the United States, are expected this month, although the Nordic package is expected to arrive in September. The equipment is supplied based on Ukraine’s priority needs on the battlefield. NATO allies then locate the weapons and ammunition and send them on.

“Packages will be prepared rapidly and issued on a regular basis,” NATO said Monday.

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An Israeli drone strike killed one person in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday night, marking a fresh violation of last year’s ceasefire agreement, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement said that the strike targeted the town of Brital, southeast of Baalbek, without giving further details.

Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said an Israeli drone fired three missiles at a civilian car on a road in Brital.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the report.

Earlier Tuesday, local media reported low-altitude overflights by Israeli drones in southern Lebanon, including the Tyre district and the al-Qasimiyeh and Jouar areas.

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An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi sparked a major fire, Russian officials said Sunday, as the two countries traded strikes and the Ukrainian president announced a prisoner exchange.

More than 120 firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze, which was caused by debris from a downed drone striking a fuel tank, Krasnodar regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram. Videos on social media appeared to show huge pillars of smoke billowing above the oil depot.

Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, temporarily stopped flights at Sochi’s airport.

Farther north, authorities in the Voronezh region reported that four people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone strike.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 93 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight into Sunday.

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U.S. states and cities that boycott Israeli companies will be denied federal aid for natural disaster preparedness, the Trump administration has announced, tying routine federal funding to its political stance.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency stated in grant notices posted on Friday that states must follow its “terms and conditions.” Those conditions require they certify they will not sever “commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies” to qualify for funding.

The requirement applies to at least $1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search-and-rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems among other expenses, according to 11 agency grant notices reviewed by Reuters.

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Moscow broke its silence on President Donald Trump's comments ordering two nuclear submarines to "the appropriate regions" in response to "provocative" remarks by a former Russian president.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Aug. 4 that the country was "very attentive" to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation and believe "everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric."

Peskov also played down the significance of Trump’s comments, saying it was clear to Russia that U.S. submarines were already on combat duty. He said Russia had no appetite for getting into a prolonged argument with Trump.

Still, Trump's deployment of the nuclear submarines appears to be the first time social media rhetoric has led an American president to apparently reposition parts of the United States' nuclear arsenal. (Trump did not specify whether he was referring to nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines.)

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The Sydney Harbour Bridge was closed at 11.30am with police estimating at least 90,000 marched. Organisers claim up to 300,000 pro-Palestinian supporters walked in the rain across the bridge from 1.30pm after speeches from Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, Indigenous actor Meyne Wyatt and former Socceroo and Australian of the Year Craig Foster.

Those in the protest included the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr, and federal Labor MP Ed Husic. Shouts of “We are all Palestinian” could be heard from the front of the march.

Text messages from NSW police told people to stop walking across the bridge, and police said they would work with protester organisers to get people off the bridge in a staged manner.

The bridge emptied of people after 4pm, with protesters facing long delays on trains.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters in Melbourne were met by Victoria police in riot gear, trucks and a barricade as police blocked the plan for the protesters to block the Kings Street Bridge.

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