TV News LIES

Irish author Sally Rooney, whose stance in support of Palestine has earned international attention, has confirmed that her latest book Intermezzo will be published in Hebrew, causing mixed reactions on social media.

A supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for several years, Rooney first gained attention for her stance to join the cultural boycott of Israeli institutions after turning down an offer from Israeli publisher Modan to have her third book translated into Hebrew in 2021.

In collaboration with Israeli publishing house November Books and Local Call, +972 Magazine announced on Tuesday that after five years of communicating with the author to ensure a translation could be published "in a way that honors the principles of the boycott and stands in solidarity with the Palestinian demand for freedom, equality, and justice", a Hebrew translation of the novel will soon be available in Israel and Palestine.

In an interview with the Guardian published to time with the announcement, Rooney said: “Though my refusal to work with complicit Israeli publishing houses made the contractual side of things more complex, I was, of course, never boycotting the Hebrew language or any language. I’m very pleased that Intermezzo will soon be available in Hebrew with November Books.”

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A massive overnight Russian drone strike partially destroyed a multi-story residential building in Konotop, Sumy Oblast, injuring at least six people and prompting an urgent search-and-rescue operation for residents feared trapped beneath the debris, local officials said.

Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin said Russian forces targeted civilian infrastructure in the city, with the strike causing part of the high-rise to collapse.

“Behind me is a multi-story building. Part of it is gone. And there are people there,” Semenikhin said in a video address posted on social media.

Due to a lack of ambulances, the injured are being transferred to the hospital in civilian vehicles, Semenikhin added.

According to the mayor, there were “many” people injured in the attack. Emergency teams were working at the scene to clear rubble and search for possible survivors.

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The office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month filed a secret arrest warrant application for Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, sources briefed on the matter told Middle East Eye.

Israeli media reports over the weekend claiming the prosecutor’s office had filed five applications for Israeli officials are inaccurate, MEE understands.

An evidence review took place on Wednesday last week to examine the possibility of two more warrant applications, including one for national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, but they have yet to be filed.

MEE understands that the charges against Smotrich include forced displacement as a crime against humanity and war crime, the transfer of Israel’s own population as a war crime, and persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity.

If approved by the ICC’s pre-trial chamber the warrant for Smotrich would be the first ever issued by an international court for the crime of apartheid.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian long-range strikes have sharply reduced Russian oil refining in recent months, forcing Moscow to shut down oil wells and pushing its state budget deeper into deficit.

In his evening address, President Zelensky said Kyiv is expanding its deep-strike campaign against targets linked to Russia’s war machine, framing the operations as a justified response to Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian cities.

President highlighted the growing scale of Ukraine’s long-range drone program, saying strikes that once would have been considered exceptional have now become routine.

“There was a time when dozens of Ukrainian drones striking Russia was a big deal. Now, hundreds of our long-range sanctions every day are no longer a sensation,” Zelensky said.

Citing a Ukrainian intelligence assessment, the president said Russian oil refining has fallen by 10 percent in recent months. He said Russian oil companies have been forced to shut down oil wells, which he described as particularly damaging for Russia’s energy sector.

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The presence of two secret Israeli bases in Iraq may have led to the death of a shepherd who discovered them, according to an investigation by The New York Times (NYT).

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Israel set up a covert outpost in Iraq’s western desert during the conflict with Iran. The site was reportedly used to support air operations and housed special forces units.

According to the report, installations were built shortly before the war began in February and were later used during an attack in March on Iraqi troops who had nearly uncovered the site.

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the Israeli military deployed rescue teams and commando units to the forward position, tasked with extracting downed air crews from inside Iran if necessary.

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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in tandem with the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), has claimed operational responsibility for a highly destructive weekend air campaign that bypassed the Russian capital’s elite air defenses and heavily degraded occupied infrastructure in Crimea.

In a statement published to the intelligence agency’s official Telegram channel on Sunday, May 17, SBU Head Major General Yevhenii Khmara confirmed that specialized drone operators from the Center for Special Operations “Alpha” managed to simultaneously hit heavily fortified domestic manufacturing assets and frontline military airfields.

While the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have neutralized over 550 Ukrainian drones across 14 separate regions overnight, SBU flight logs and corresponding ground telemetry confirmed that precision munitions cleanly hit several highly sensitive targets inside the Moscow region.

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