TV News LIES

Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans has said his country is sending 300 troops and Patriot air defence missile systems to Poland to “defend NATO territory, protect supply to Ukraine, and deter Russian aggression”.

The Netherlands’ announcement on Wednesday came as Polish officials said that an object that fell in a cornfield in Poland’s east on Tuesday night may have been a Russian version of the Shahed drone.

The explosion from the drone broke windows in several houses in the village of Osiny, near Poland’s border with Ukraine, but no injuries were reported, according to an official cited by Poland’s state news agency PAP.

Brekelmans told Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Wednesday that the military support to Poland came alongside other countries providing similar assistance to the NATO-member country, which borders Ukraine.

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Australia lashes Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu after he said the country’s prime minister was weak, with a top minister saying strength is more than “how many people you can blow up.”

For decades Australia has considered itself a close friend of Israel, but the relationship has swiftly unravelled since Canberra announced last week it would recognize a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu drastically escalated a war of words on Tuesday night, calling his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel.

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Ukraine says it has conducted a long-range drone attack on a supply ship that it claims was carrying drone components from Iran, striking it at a port north of the Caspian Sea, in a show of force hours before Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet for a summit in Alaska.

Photographs showed a partially sunken cargo vessel at Olya, near Astrakhan, more than 500 miles from the frontline. Ukraine’s military claimed credit for the attack and the overnight bombing of an oil refinery at Samara on the Volga River, deep inside Russia.

Ukraine’s general staff said the ship hit, the Port Olya-4, was “loaded with components” for Shahed-type drones “and ammunition from Iran”. The port, it added, was an “important logistics hub for the supply of military goods”.

Kyiv’s forces have repeatedly shown they can strike military logistics and energy targets hundreds of miles inside Russia, although the attacks only appear to have a dampening impact on the Kremlin’s long-term war effort.

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has ruled out any U.S. military Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has ruled out any U.S. military “invasion” into Mexico following the Trump administration’s reported plans to use military force against Latin American drug cartels.

"The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military," Sheinbaum said Aug. 8 at her regular morning news conference. "We co-operate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out."

Sheinbaum comments are in response to a New York Times report Aug. 8 that President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to target transnational fentanyl traffickers that use Mexico as a base of operations.

The Times said Trump had secretly signed a directive to begin using military force on foreign soil against cartels. In February, the U.S. designated the Sinaloa Cartel and other Mexican drug cartels as global terrorist organizations, which some analysts have warned could be a stepping stone to such military action.

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Germany will suspend arms exports to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced Friday, marking Berlin’s clearest shift yet in response to Israel’s escalating military campaign.

“Under these circumstances, the German government will, until further notice, not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip,” Merz said in a government press release. He added that Israel’s intensified operations in Gaza — approved by its Cabinet overnight—make it “increasingly difficult” to see how stated goals like the release of hostages or the disarmament of Hamas can be achieved.

The move stops short of a full weapons embargo and leaves open the possibility of continued exports for systems unrelated to the Gaza campaign, such as missile defense or naval equipment.

Germany has long emphasized Israel’s right to self-defense and reiterated Friday that “the disarmament of Hamas is essential.”

However, Merz sharply criticized the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s planned offensive, urging the government to allow “full access for aid deliveries, including for U.N. organizations and other non-governmental institutions.”

“The Israeli government carries greater responsibility than ever for the civilian population’s supply,” Merz said.

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The Trump administration is doubling to $50m a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narcotraffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said on Thursday in a video statement announcing the reward.

Maduro was indicted in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency, along with several close allies on federal charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. At the time, the US offered a $15m reward for his arrest. That was later raised by the Biden administration to $25m – the same amount the US offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden in 2001, after the September 11attacks.

Despite the big bounty, Maduro remains entrenched after defying the US, the European Union and several Latin American governments who condemned his 2024 reelection as a sham and recognized his opponent as Venezuela’s duly elected president.

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