TV News LIES

The Washington Post’s international desks and reporters who covered Silicon Valley — including the one assigned to Jeff Bezos’ sprawling e-commerce empire — were among the hardest hit when the capital’s most storied newspaper announced sweeping layoffs on Wednesday.

The bloodbath left the Post’s newsroom questioning the paper’s future, with one anonymous laid-off reporter telling HuffPost: “Are we a global news organization or do we just want to be Politico now?”

Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor, said in an all-staff Zoom call that the publication would undergo “a broad strategic reset” leading to “a significant staff reduction.”

In practice, this means big hits to local coverage, closing the sports section “in its current form,” eliminating the books section, shrinking the international team, restructuring the metro section, flattening the photography team and suspending its “Post Reports” podcast ― effectively gutting a legendary newsroom famed for breaking the Watergate scandal as it looks to respond to shifts in news consumption.

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President Donald Trump said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be worried about a U.S. military building up in the region, and hinted at a new round of strikes if Tehran attempts to restart its nuclear program.

"I would say he should be very worried," Trump said of Khamenei during an NBC News interview. "Yeah, he should be."

Trump has been trading bellicose barbs with Khamenei for weeks and had threatened military action in response to a violent crackdown on protesters, in which the Iranian government is accused of killing thousands. He has also said the country needs "new leadership" and repeatedly talked up an "armada" of warships he's deployed to the region.

The U.S. president previously credited himself with preventing mass executions in Iran, and said in the NBC interview that he'd had protesters' backs. He invoked U.S. strikes last summer on Iran's nuclear facilities and said he'd been told Iran is trying to restart its nuclear program.

"We said, 'You do that, we're going to do very bad things to you,'" Trump added.

Khamenei has hit back, accusing the U.S. of trying to "seize control" of the country. He said on Feb. 1 that any country that initiates war with Iran will "face a decisive blow" and warned that a conflict with America would become a regional war.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, this week for direct talks that could lay the groundwork an agreement between the two nations. Trump told reporters this week that he'd like to strike a deal with Tehran. "And if we can't, probably bad things would happen," he said on Feb. 2.

The U.S. president previously credited himself with preventing mass executions in Iran, and said in the NBC interview that he'd had protesters' backs. He invoked U.S. strikes last summer on Iran's nuclear facilities and said he'd been told Iran is trying to restart its nuclear program.

"We said, 'You do that, we're going to do very bad things to you,'" Trump added.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for California to use its new congressional map that adds up to five Democratic-leaning seats for the midterms, rejecting Republicans’ emergency bid to block it. 

Supported by the Trump administration, the California GOP has challenged the map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. They point to the mapmaker’s comments boasting about strengthened Latino voting power under the new design.

In a one-sentence order without any noted dissents, the Supreme Court declined the emergency application to halt the design for the midterms. It is not a final ruling, and the case could return to the justices and impact future election cycles.

The decision was not entirely surprising, given the court signaled in a separate ruling related to the use of Texas’s new GOP-favored House map ahead of 2026 that both Texas and California had drawn their new set of congressional lines for partisan gainCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called for the map after Texas Republicans began a mid-decade redistricting war by passing a new map that nets up to five GOP-leaning seats.

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In February 2024, just over three months into Israel’s war on Gaza, U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked an internal cable intended for wider distribution among senior officials in the Biden administration that warned northern Gaza had turned into an “apocalyptic wasteland,” according to Reuters.

Lew and Hallett reportedly blocked the cable, which described the consequences of Israel’s assault in harrowing detail, because they believed it lacked balance.

The cable was drafted by U.S. Agency for International Development staffers and was based on a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission by a small United Nations team that visited the area on January 31 and February 1, 2024.

I was part of that mission.

Northern Gaza had been under a total siege for over three months when we were eventually allowed to enter in January 2024. We moved through Gaza City, Beit Lahia, Jabaliya, and Beit Hanoun.

What we found was an endless horizon of destruction. People were living under plastic sheeting or in the rubble of buildings. Schools had been destroyed. In parts of Beit Hanoun, the entire area had been depopulated and decimated. There was a deadly shortage of clean drinking water, food and access to healthcare.

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Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.

In the weeks since, key parts of the federal government’s narrative have fallen apart.

The events took place on the afternoon of 8 January, one day after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

According to a DHS press release and social media posts issued the following day, border patrol agents were conducting a “targeted” stop of a vehicle in Portland occupied by two members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang. Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, a woman in the passenger seat, had been “involved” in a Portland shooting last year, the agency wrote.

During the border patrol stop, the driver, Luis Niño-Moncada, “weaponized their vehicle against” officers, DHS said, prompting an agent “to defend himself and others” by shooting the occupants. Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest, Niño-Moncada was hit in the arm and both were hospitalized, then taken into federal custody, DHS noted. The agents were uninjured.

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A federal judge declined to compel federal officials to preserve all evidence in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, voicing confidence Monday that court intervention isn’t needed.

“Plaintiffs identify reasonable concerns regarding Defendants’ ability and willingness to preserve and maintain the integrity of the evidence in their possession related to Mr. Pretti’s shooting,” wrote U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, “but in my judgment, the record as it stands today largely addresses these concerns and does not justify a continuing preservation order.”

Minnesota and Hennepin County went to court after federal officials turned local and state personnel away and refused to share evidence in the Pretti investigation.

Tostrud has yet to decide whether the evidence must ultimately be turned over, but his new ruling means he won’t immediately intervene as the lawsuit moves forward. Tostrud is an appointee of President Trump.

A Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, in Minneapolis last month. He became the second U.S. citizen to die at the hands of federal agents during Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, fueling outrage and demands from Democrats to change immigration enforcement.

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Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing this weekend after she didn’t show up to church Sunday morning near her home in the Tucson, Ariz., area.

Here is everything we know about her disappearance:

What’s the latest on the investigation?

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said during a news conference on Monday that Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday evening around 9 p.m. Her family reported her missing around noon Sunday after she did not show up to church. 

“We believe now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do in fact have a crime scene, and we‘re asking the community‘s help,” Nanos said. 

Nancy Guthrie did not suffer from dementia and had full cognitive function, though she had physical limitations and was not able to walk more than 50 yards on her own, the sheriff said.

Police were combing through hours of surveillance video at the home and imploring neighbors in Guthrie’s area to do the same on Monday.

The FBI is aware of the case, NBC News reported, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with homicide detectives, were assisting with the search, according to the sheriff. 

Nanos expressed urgency as he said Nancy Guthrie needs medication that if not taken within 24 hours of her disappearance could be “fatal.”

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Russian forces attacked a bus carrying miners in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday, Feb. 1, killing 15 people.

The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration (OVA), Oleksandr Ganzha, said on Telegram that a Russian drone struck near a company bus in the Pavlohrad district.

The State Emergency Service (DSNS) and Ternivka Deputy Mayor Oleksandr Dobrovolskyi also confirmed the attack and casualties. The National Police reported that the bus burned down as a result of the strike on civilian infrastructure.

“The epicenter of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners after their shift. As of now, 15 miners are confirmed dead, and seven others were injured,” DTEK said in a statement.

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