TV News LIES

The fate of one French judge is a case study in the west’s long unravelling. Nicolas Guillou cannot shop online. When he used Expedia to book a hotel in his own country, the reservation was cancelled within hours. He is “blacklisted by much of the world’s banking system”, unable to use most bank cards.

Guillou, you see, has been sanctioned by the United States, putting him on a 15,000-strong list alongside al-Qaida terrorists, drug cartels and Vladimir Putin. Why? Because alongside two other judges of the international criminal court pre-trial chamber I, he approved arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Mohammed Deif, the former commander of Hamas’s military wing. Guillou and his colleagues had “actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel”, the US claimed when imposing the sanctions in June. All are now barred from entering the US – but that is the least of the consequences.

The rationale is brutally clear. The rule of law does not apply to the world’s hegemon or its closest allies. This was bluntly spelled out by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who told the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan – himself sanctioned – that the ICC was “made for Africa and thugs like Putin, not democracies like Israel”. The US refused to sign up to the court, clearly fearing that its propensity to commit war crimes in foreign lands would lead to prosecutions. That put Washington in the same bracket as human rights abusers like China, Russia and indeed Israel. Only because Palestine acceded to the court a decade ago does the ICC now have jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory or by its citizens.

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A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.

Don Bacon, a Republican representative, called for Steve Witkoff’s immediate dismissal. “For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians,” the Nebraska lawmaker wrote on X.

“He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired.”

Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican wrote that the leak represented “a major problem” and “one of the many reasons why these ridiculous side shows and secret meetings need to stop”. He urged that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, be allowed to “do his job in a fair and objective manner”.

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Donald Trump lashed out on Wednesday against a New York Times reporter, calling her “ugly inside and out” in his latest personal insult against female members of the media after last week calling another “piggy”.

In a Truth Social post, Trump criticized the newspaper for an article suggesting he was running low on energy in his 80th year, insisting he had “never worked so hard in my life”.

Trump specifically targeted one of the authors. “The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,” he wrote.

Rumors surrounding the president’s health have been circulating for months, with more questions raised after Trump admitted to having an MRI last month. He claimed it was part of a standard physical and would not reveal what body part the test had analyzed.

On Tuesday, the Times wrote that Trump was exhibiting “signs of fatigue” as he “faces realities of aging in office”.

Trump, now the oldest person ever to hold the presidency, was said to have appeared drowsy at a 6 November Oval Office event, where his “eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds”.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the paper, defended its journalists.

“The Times’s reporting is accurate and built on first hand reporting of the facts. Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this,” he said in a statement.

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A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of Donald Trump’s multi-state redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.

The new map takes aim at North Carolina’s only swing seat, currently held by Democrat Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s north-east. The first district has been represented by Black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.

The three-judge panel denied the preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn US House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, contributing to Republicans gaining three more congressional seats.

North Carolina is one of several states this year in which Trump has broken with more than a century of political tradition in directing the GOP to redraw maps in the middle of the decade – without courts requiring it – to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Monday that House Republicans have been sidelined by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), accusing the Republican leader of only obeying the Trump administration.

In a post on the social platform X, Greene wrote that she and other House Republicans “came courageously roaring into 2025 with legislation that matched the 2024 electoral mandate only to be totally sidelined by Johnson under full obedience of the WH.”

“Executive orders are temporary, [QAnon] memes have not … obliterated the deep state, and my colleagues constantly trying to pass loyalty tests instead of demanding what is right won’t help Americans pay their rent or stop corporations from buying up homes, buy their groceries, provide good paying jobs and stop foreigners with visas from stealing their jobs, stop American tax dollars from funding foreign wars and causes, or rebuild the value of the dollar,” Greene continued.

“Passing effective legislation that gets signed into law is permanent and actually solves Americans problems,” she wrote.

Greene warned that as lawmakers “are switching gears into campaign mode and will be fighting for their lives, our legislative majority has been mostly wasted.”

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A federal appeals court over the weekend declined to lift a lower court order barring the Trump administration from using expedited removals to rapidly deport migrants without a court hearing.

The administration earlier this year looked to expand the use of such proceedings, which were previously only used for recent arrivals encountered close to the border. The White House aimed to broaden the use of expedited removals to those who crossed the border at any point in the last two years, anywhere in the country.

In a 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the panel declined to lift an August ruling that barred the administration from implementing the policy as the legal battle plays out.

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Vice President JD Vance called for prayers for the National Guard troops who were shot just blocks from the White House.

During remarks to U.S. troops at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Vance said that officials do not know the motive and said the troops shot were in “pretty tough condition.” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey later confirmed the troops, who were part of the West Virginia National Guard, had died.

“It's a somber reminder that soldiers, whether they're active duty reserve or National Guard, our soldiers, are the sword and the shield of the United States of America,” Vance said. “And as a person who goes into work every single day in that building and knows that there are a lot of people who wear the uniform of the United States Army, let me just say very personally, thank them for what they're doing. We're grateful to them.”

Note: There are conflicting reports about the conditions of the Guardsmen.  Please check bacdk for updates.

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A massive fire ripped through high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong on Nov. 26, killing dozens of people as authorities search for hundreds of missing pepole.

The fire broke out in Wang Fuk Court, a 32-story high-rise housing complex that houses 2,000 residential apartments across eight blocks, according to Reuters. The complex is located in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong, near the border between Hong Kong and mainland China.

The fire - the deadliest blaze in Hong Kong in three decades - left at least 36 people dead, including a firefighter, 29 hospitalized and 279 missing. About 900 people were in shelters.

Dramatic images from the scene showed the building's bamboo scaffolding engulfed in flames and thick plumes of dark smoke rising as firefighters below battled the blaze.

Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived in one of the complexes for more than 40 years, told Reuters he heard a loud noise around 2:45 p.m. local time and saw fire erupt in a nearby block.

"I don't even know how I feel right now. I'm just thinking about where I'm going to sleep tonight because I probably won't be able to go back home."

China's President Xi Jinping urged an "all-out effort" to extinguish the fire and to minimize casualties and losses, China's state broadcaster CCTV said. But Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of the Hong Kong Fire Department, told reporters at a news conference the "extremely high temperatures” are making it difficult to reach those trapped inside, CNN reported.

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