TV News LIES

Twelve hours after Israeli settlers brutally attacked several Palestinians and established a new illegal outpost in their village, the Israeli military stepped in.

But instead of detaining settlers or dismantling the illegal outpost, the soldiers targeted the Palestinian residents of Tayasir and a CNN team covering the incursion.

“Stop! Sit down! Sit down!” one of the Israelis shouted, his rifle aimed directly at us and the Palestinians we were speaking with.

Seventy-three seconds later, one of the soldiers came up from behind CNN photojournalist Cyril Theophilos and put him in a chokehold, bringing him to the ground and damaging his camera.

Within minutes, we and several Palestinians in the area were detained by the soldiers.

The two hours we spent detained by them laid bare the settler ideology motivating many of the soldiers who operate in the occupied West Bank – and the ways in which soldiers frequently act in service of the settler movement. Their comments build on a large body of evidence documented by journalists, activists and Palestinians that show Israeli soldiers supporting or standing idly by as Israeli settlers attack Palestinians or encroach on their land.

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A bill "aimed at combating renewed forms of antisemitism", which is due to be debated on by parliament next month, has sparked a heated controversy in France in recent weeks.

Many organisations and parts of the political left suspect the proposed legislation of exploiting the fight against antisemitism to censor and criminalise criticism of the Israeli government.

The bill was introduced in November 2024 by Caroline Yadan, an MP representing French citizens living abroad in a constituency including Israel and Palestine, who left President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance parliamentary group last summer to protest against his recognition of the State of Palestine.

Yadan, who is also vice-president of the France-Israel friendship group in the National Assembly, has also criticised the French president for calling in 2024 for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel.

Officially, the proposed law aims to address the “resurgence” of antisemitic acts in France since 7 October 2023 and the development of “an obsessive hatred toward the state of Israel”.

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A group of anti-war, US military veterans have slammed what they say are Israeli interests guiding US military policy, culminating in the current US-Israeli war on Iran that is putting American lives at risk. 

To the public's knowledge, 13 US military personnel have so far been killed since the war was launched on 28 February, but veterans said on Thursday that there are likely more casualties to be announced, given that the Pentagon's three military hospitals in Germany "are full".

President Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that there may be many casualties and that it's simply the cost of going to war. 

After critics blasted the president for wearing a campaign hat while receiving the first batch of caskets that were returned to the US, the White House decided that the second dignified transfer ceremony would no longer be open to the press.

While the anti-war veterans took stock of Washington's responsibility for starting the war, they pointed to deeply embedded Israeli operations that they say have become inextricable from the Pentagon's decision-making.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine and Saudi Arabia have reached an important agreement on defense cooperation during his surprise visit to the kingdom.

In a Telegram post, Zelensky said the document was signed ahead of his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He added that the agreement lays the foundation for further contracts, technological cooperation, and investment, while strengthening Ukraine’s international role as a security donor.

Zelensky highlighted that Ukraine is ready to share its expertise and defense systems with Saudi Arabia and cooperate to strengthen the protection of lives. 

“For the fifth year now, Ukrainians have been fighting against the same terrorist attacks with ballistic missiles and drones that the Iranian regime is currently carrying out in the Middle East and the Gulf region. And Saudi Arabia has what Ukraine is interested in. This cooperation can be mutually beneficial,” he said.

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has agreed to pay $148 million to settle claims from some 440 people sexually abused by priests and diocesan employees and volunteers.

In a statement, Bishop Mark O’Connell said while the settlement is substantial, “it cannot adequately compensate the survivors for the horrors they experienced.” He added that the settlement can “hopefully provide some solace to all those affected by the pain caused by the perpetrators and the failings of those who could have intervened but did not.”

The settlement comes after child abuse survivors were allowed to file sexual abuse lawsuits as part of a look-back window created by the 2019 New York Child Victims Act. Survivors are also claimants in an ongoing federal bankruptcy case after the Albany diocese filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023.

Then-Bishop Edward Scharfenberger told reporters when announcing the bankruptcy filings that the diocese “doesn’t see any other alternative” after settling 50 child sexual abuse case, and still struggling to settle over 400 more.

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A female executive at the top of the modelling industry had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and introduced him to women on the agency’s books, a Guardian investigation has found.

Until last November, Faith Kates ran Next Management modelling and talent agency, which has represented the likes of Alexa Chung, Milla Jovovich and Billie Eilish, a position she held for decades as the founder of the business. She stepped down quietly just weeks before the first major Epstein files were released, saying she intended to focus on charity work.

Links between Kates and the late sex offender have previously been reported, but analysis of documents published by the US Department of Justice reveals a much deeper relationship than previously known, with emails showing Kates secretly took business advice from Epstein and discussed multimillion-dollar loans.

Kates appears to have met Epstein regularly, including on one occasion with the then Prince Andrew at a New York department store in December 2010, the week of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s now infamous visit to the city to supposedly call off his friendship with the financier.

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A Republican sheriff in California has confiscated additional ballot materials from a special election, escalating his conflict with state lawmakers who say he is conducting a baseless investigation into claims of voter fraud.

On Tuesday, Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff who is running for governor, was already at the center of a legal controversy after seizing 650,000 ballots from last year’s special election. Earlier this week he ordered his office to seize 426 additional boxes of ballot materials as part of the alleged criminal investigation, prompting criticism from lawmakers including Rob Bonta, California’s Democratic attorney general.

Bianco’s ballot seizures have triggered several lawsuits against him, including one filed with the California supreme court by voters represented by the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The lawsuit seeks to block his recount of last year’s vote on Proposition 50, a measure to redraw California’s congressional districts in ways that favored Democrats.

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Law enforcement officers foiled a plot to assassinate New York-based Palestinian American activist Nerdeen Kiswani and arrested a 26-year old man in connection with the plan.
Kiswani wrote in post on X that late on Thursday, the FBI joint terrorism taskforce informed her that a plot against her life was “about to” take place, and that agents had conducted an operation in Hoboken, New Jersey, in connection to it.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday and a Department of Justice press release, Alexander Heifler, 26, was arrested on Thursday night on charges of unlawfully possessing and making firearms.

The complaint describes a weeks-long sting by an undercover officer who, at one point, infiltrated a group video call in which Heifler asked for assistance with “molotovs”. Heifler later met with the undercover officer on multiple occasions, at one point telling him that he had an address for the “victim”, which the complaint does not name. The officer was at Heifler’s residence when he assembled about eight molotov cocktails on Thursday.

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