TV News LIES

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, when asked to explain the apparent about-face that led him to advocate the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, quoted a beloved Israeli pop ballad. “What you can see from there, you can’t see from here,” he said, referring to the shift in perspective he had supposedly undergone since coming to power.

Although the 2005 Gaza disengagement was perhaps less a change of heart than one of strategy, as his senior adviser later admitted, the lyric became a byword of Israeli politics, an oft-cited reminder that perspective is everything.

Israeli-born Holocaust historian Omer Bartov invoked the same line when he was asked how he had come to view Israel’s ferocious assault on Gaza as a genocide. Living in the US, where he has spent more than three decades, he said, had given him the necessary distance to see the annihilation of Gaza for what it was. “I think it’s very hard to be dispassionate when you’re there,” he said.

Bartov did more than simply apply the word genocide to Israel’s actions: he shouted it from the establishment-media rooftops, making the case in a lengthy July 2025 essay in the New York Times titled: I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. (He had addressed some of the arguments in a Guardian essay the year prior.) Bartov’s declaration cost him several close relationships, he told me, even though subsequent events have not only validated his analysis but further demonstrated the lack of concern for Palestinian suffering that has become prevalent in Israeli society.

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Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a US appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools.

It sets up a potential clash at the US supreme court over the issue in the future.

The fifth circuit court of appeals said in the decision that the law did not violate either the establishment clause or the free exercise clause of the first amendment.

The law is among the pushes by Republicans, including Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public schools. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of US law.

The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana. The appeals court in February cleared the way for Louisiana’s law, requiring displays of the commandments in public school classrooms. The fifth circuit court of appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court had first placed on the law in 2024.

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The Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send up to 1,100 Afghans who helped US forces during the war in Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a non-profit confirmed on Tuesday.

The resettlement talks, first reported by the New York Times, come after Donald Trump’s decision to stop an initiative that allowed Afghans who assisted US war efforts to apply to resettle in the U.S.

This group of more than 1,000 Afghans, who have been waylaid in Qatar for a year, reportedly includes interpreters as well as relatives of US military members. The group also includes more than 400 children.

According to the Times, the US evacuated these Afghans to Qatar for their protection because they supported US military efforts in their home country, which, since the US military withdrawal, is once again under Taliban control.

The DRC, meanwhile, is suffering from an enormous displacement crisis following decades of conflict and instability. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 8.2 million people were displaced as of September 2025, with this number expected to reach 9 million by year’s end.

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A watchdog organization has filed a new request for records pertaining to FBI Director Kash Patel, citing new reports of excessive alcohol use from the intelligence chief.

The request from the Democracy Forward Foundation (DFF) cites The Atlantic’s recent report, “The FBI Director is MIA.”

“If the Director of the FBI is a liability – the American people need to know,” DFF President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a press release on Tuesday.

“News reports, including from The Atlantic, suggest that his levels of drinking and absentee leadership are not just unacceptable, but also a threat to the integrity of one of the most important law enforcement agencies in the country,” Perryman continued. “If true, this is not a minor lapse in judgment or a personal issue to brush aside; this goes to whether the FBI is being led with the discipline, reliability, and seriousness the job demands.”

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Pundit Tucker Carlson is expressing regret for voicing support for President Trump.

Carlson, who has been a sharp critic of Trump’s war in Iran, said during a recent episode of his podcast and online show that prominent people on the right who backed Trump ahead of the 2024 election are “implicated” in what’s going on in the Middle East.

“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be,” he said. “And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people and it was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”

The conservative commentator wondered out loud if it was “always the plan” to go to war with Iran, saying “you don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but like, clearly, there were signs of low character, we knew that, but there are tons of people of low character who, like, outperform their character.”

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President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he would extend the ceasefire with Iran until the country submitted a peace proposal and "discussions are concluded, one way or the other."

"We have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, calling Iran's government "seriously fractured" and saying the requests came from top Pakistani officials.

The president made the announcement as the chances for talks between the two sides were growing increasingly dim. Trump also confirmed he would continue the naval blockade of Iranian ports, a move that Iran's leaders have called "an act of war."

Vice President JD Vance was expected to leave for Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday morning to lead a U.S. delegation in talks with Iran. But the trip was called off as U.S. officials await a plan from the Iranians. Tehran, meanwhile, expressed frustration with American leaders and said it hadn't decided whether it would send diplomats to Pakistan at all.

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Virginia voters approved a complete redrawing of their congressional districts to offset pushes by President Donald Trump to increase the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

The approved maps could transform Old Dominion's 11-member delegation from a 6-to-5 Democratic edge to an overwhelming 10-to-1 advantage.

However, if the margin of victory is less than one-half of 1%, then the defeated side has the right under Virginia election law to ask for a state-funded recount. Republicans could also launch legal challenges to preserve the old maps.

Virginia Democrats celebrated the victory as results rolled in indicating the final tally would be in their favor. L. Louise Lucas, the state's Senate president and a prominent advocate for redistricting, said "THANK YOU VIRGINIA" in a post on X accompanied by an expletive-laden video victory lap.

Both parties pumped millions of dollars and work hours into the campaign, particularly in the last week of the early voting season.

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Dozens of US military veterans, some with visible disabilities, were arrested on Monday during a protest against the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran. Approximately 60 veterans and family members gathered in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, many wearing military fatigues. They unfurled banners reading “End the War on Iran” and “We Can’t Afford Another War” while standing stoically at attention.

The group held a flag-folding ceremony to honor American service members who have died in the conflict and those who might be killed if fighting resumes. Several protesters held red tulip flowers in memory of Iranians killed since the war began on Feb. 28.

Mike Prysner, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War (CCW), was among those arrested. Before his detention, he said: “This war is already deeply unpopular, and it is already a crisis for the Trump administration.” Prysner noted that more than 100 service members have already filed as conscientious objectors, adding: “If even more stand up, and some speak out, we have a real chance of deepening this crisis for Trump in a way that forces them to pull back from this war.” According to the center, roughly five dozen protesters were arrested by US Capitol Police for civil disobedience.

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