TV News LIES

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad.

Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.

Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee's oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world's governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.

In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything we've discussed, there's only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! You'll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don't please the officials, they'll be put straight on the next flight home. If they're lucky."

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Civil rights attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the United States government on Tuesday on behalf of the families of two men from a small fishing village in Trinidad who were killed in a US military airstrike on a small boat in the Caribbean Sea on 14 October.

The lawsuit, shared in advance with the Guardian, says that Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both of Las Cuevas, Trinidad, were returning to Trinidad from Venezuela when they and four other people were killed in the strike. It was the fifth attack announced by the White House under Donald Trump’s campaign against the small go-fast boats the administration claims are connected to cartels and gangs.

The suit was filed four days after the administration announced the 36th such boat attack on Friday, this one in the eastern Pacific. The death toll of the boat strikes stands around at least 117 people dead so far.

The lawsuit said the strikes were illegal. “These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit said. “Thus, they were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”

Legal scholars have said the strikes, launched against civilians in boats far from the US, are violations of domestic and international law. The Trump administration maintains they are legal, under a secret opinion written by the justice department that argues the US is in an armed conflict with cartels and that the laws of war apply to the strikes.

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News that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present during the upcoming Winter Games has set off concern and confusion in Italy, where people have expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. HSI officers are separate from the ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there was no indication ERO officers were being sent to Italy.

That distinction, however, wasn’t immediately clear to local media on 
Italy reacts to US security deployment

The reaction among some in Italy reflects not only a worsening perception abroad of the administration’s tactics on immigration but also underscores a broader rift between the U.S. under President Donald Trump and its international allies.

Vague reports that ICE would be deployed in some capacity surfaced over the weekend, resulting in a series of online petitions gathering support of people opposed to the presence of ICE at the Games. They followed a RAI news report that aired Sunday showing an Italian news crew being threatened in Minneapolis by ICE agents. Trump’s immigration crackdown has in recent weeks intensified in Minneapolis, leading to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers.

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The so-called Board of Peace that President Donald Trump officially launched in Davos, Switzerland last week is developing sweeping plans for a U.S.-backed administration to rule Gaza, according to a draft of the Board’s resolution.

Drop Site obtained the unsigned document, which is dated January 22, 2026 and titled “Resolution No. 2026/1,” from three independent sources, all of whom are in regular contact with U.S. and Israeli authorities regarding Gaza reconstruction. The sources confirmed that its contents align with ongoing discussions in Israel and the U.S. about the implementation of planned governance structures for the Strip.

The resolution, which is the first of its kind from the Board of Peace, details the structure of a U.S.-backed governing authority that would assume full legislative, executive, and judicial control over Gaza, including “emergency powers.” The stated goal of the Board of Peace is to transform Gaza into a “deradicalized and demilitarized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.”

The copy of the document obtained by Drop Site is unsigned. A blank space is left for the signature of Donald J. Trump, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Peace. It remains unclear whether the resolution has been formally adopted, or whether the version received reflects a final text.

The metadata indicates that the document was first created in mid-December by the State Department—and the date on the document corresponds to President Trump’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he formally presided over the official launch of his board. The State Department declined to comment to an inquiry from Drop Site about the resolution.

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Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said she has had enough of orders from Washington, in a speech to a group of oil workers broadcast on Venezuela’s state-run television network Sunday.

Rodríguez’s remarks come a little more than three weeks after President Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an audacious military raid in Caracas. He has since declared the U.S. would take over the country’s oil industry and dictate orders to the government. 

“Enough already of Washington’s orders over politicians in Venezuela,” Rodríguez told a group of oil workers in Puerto La Cruz, CNN reported. 

“Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. This republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country.”

Trump greenlit Rodríguez staying in her role after the capture and transfer of Maduro to New York to stand trial for criminal drug charges. 

Trump told reporters last week that Rodríguez had “shown very strong leadership so far,” “had done a very good job,” and was working with the U.S. to move millions of barrels of oil “into the United States.”

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United States envoy Steve Witkoff says he and his colleague Jared Kushner have held “constructive” talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Israel continues its deadly bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a short statement on Sunday, Witkoff said the “positive” discussion focused on “the continued progress and implementation planning for Phase 2 of President Trump’s 20-Point Plan for Gaza”, which the US and Israel are advancing in “close partnership”.

Witkoff added “broader regional issues” were also discussed in the meeting on Saturday, a likely reference to heightened tensions between the US and Iran and speculation that Washington and Tel Aviv may still yet attack Iran as they did during the 12-day June war against Tehran.

Israel, in the meantime, continues bombarding Gaza despite agreeing to a ceasefire in its genocidal war, committing near-daily violations of the October 10 agreement brokered by the US.

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