TV News LIES

A man who disarmed one of the gunmen in the deadly attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach is being praised for his heroic efforts and saving lives.

One clip broadcast on Australian television and shared on social media shows an unarmed man walking up behind one of the suspected gunmen, who was shooting a long gun, and then grabbing him around the neck. The civilian appears to wrestle and disarm the gunman, who falls to the ground before walking away. The man then points the gun at the alleged shooter and then raises his hand in the air.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on Sunday praised the man's actions, calling it "the most unbelievable scene" he's ever seen.

"A man walking up to a gunman, who had fired on the community, and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people — that man is a genuine hero," Minns said during a press conference. "And I've got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery."

The man being heralded for his bravery has been identified by several news reports as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit shop owner. NPR has not independently verified the man's identity. A relative of the man told Australia's 7News that Ahmed was shot twice and is in the hospital.

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At least 11 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in a shooting at Sydney's popular Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 that targeted Australia's Jewish community, police and officials said.

New South Wales police said two suspects had been taken into custody, one of whom later died. The other suspect was in a critical condition. The attack, on the first day of Hanukkah, was declared a terrorist incident.

Authorities and local media reports citing eyewitnesses said the shooting began while about 1,000 people were attending a Hanukkah-related party on the beach. Australia has experienced a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues and sites since the war in Gaza began in 2023.

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Israel on Saturday said it killed a top Hamas commander in Gaza after an explosive device detonated and wounded two soldiers in the territory’s south.

Hamas in a statement did not confirm the death of Raed Saad. It said a civilian vehicle had been struck outside Gaza City and asserted it was a violation of the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10.

Saad served as the Hamas official in charge of manufacturing and previously led the militant group’s operations division. The Israeli statement described him as one of the architects of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, and said that he had been “engaged in rebuilding the terrorist organization” in a violation of the ceasefire.

The Israeli strike west of Gaza City killed four people, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw their bodies arrive at Shifa Hospital. Another three were wounded, according to Al-Awda hospital.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of truce violations.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings in Gaza have killed at least 386 Palestinians since the ceasefire took hold, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel has said recent strikes are in retaliation for militant attacks against its soldiers, and that troops have fired on Palestinians who approached the “Yellow Line” between the Israeli-controlled majority of Gaza and the rest of the territory.

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More than a million households are without electricity in Ukraine after a barrage of overnight Russian strikes hit energy and industrial infrastructure, officials said.

Ukraine's internal affairs minister, Ihor Klymenko, said five regions were hit and at least five people were injured, and work was under way to extinguish fires and restore supplies.

While Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have been common throughout the war, Moscow has intensified strikes as the country heads into winter.

It comes as US President Donald Trump's overseas envoy will travel to Germany this weekend to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders for more talks on ending the war.

On Saturday, Zelensky said more than 450 drones and 30 missiles were used by Russia in overnight strikes. Klymenko said the Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Chernihiv regions were hit.

Russia's defence ministry said it used weapons including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in the strikes - which are hard to track as they can change direction mid-flight.

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Afghan immigrants and advocates across the United States are pushing back firmly against the Trump administration’s most recent crackdown on legal immigration, saying the American government is punishing hundreds of thousands of people for the alleged actions of one man.

Since the shooting of two national guard soldiers in Washington DC late last month, with the authorities charging an Afghan man as the suspect, the Trump administration has taken harsh action, especially against Afghans in the US, generating a mix of fear, outrage and defiance in the diaspora.

The government has completely frozen asylum decisions at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), paused visa and immigration applications filed by Afghans and, more widely, halted all legal immigration cases for nationals of 19 countries listed on its travel ban, including citizenship ceremonies.

“The attacker hasn’t been put on trial, but the whole Afghan community has been labeled as guilty,” said Yahya Haqiqi, president of the Afghan Support Network in the US, an organization founded shortly after the fall of Kabul to Taliban control in 2021 that has helped thousands of Afghan refugees settle in Oregon.

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Germany summoned the Russian ambassador on Friday, accusing Moscow of orchestrating a cyberattack on the nation’s air traffic control systems and attempting to meddle in the country’s federal elections earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the German Federal Foreign Office asserted that Russian military intelligence was responsible for “a cyber-attack against German air traffic control in August 2024.” The official also alleged that Moscow had sought to interfere in the February federal elections, aiming to destabilize Germany’s political landscape.

In a statement to AFP, Russia’s embassy in Berlin dismissed the accusations, calling them “baseless, unfounded, and absurd” and denying any involvement of state structures or affiliated hacker groups.

“The objective of these Russian cyber and disinformation operations is unmistakable: to sow division, erode trust, provoke societal rejection, and undermine confidence in democratic institutions,” foreign ministry spokesperson Martin Giese said.

Giese indicated that the cyberattack bore the hallmarks of Fancy Bear, a hacking collective widely believed to operate on behalf of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, advancing Moscow’s political objectives.

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