TV News LIES

The most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian leader — Marwan Barghouti — is not among the prisoners Israel intends to free in exchange for hostages held by Hamas under the new Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israel has also rejected freeing other high-profile prisoners whose release Hamas has long sought, though it was not immediately clear if a list of around 250 prisoners issued Friday on the Israeli government’s official website was final.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told the Al Jazeera TV network that the group insists on the release of Barghouti and other high-profile figures and that it was in discussions with mediators.

Israel views Barghouti as a terrorist leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2004 in connection with attacks in Israel that killed five people.

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The Trump administration laid off more than 4,100 employees Friday amid the ongoing government shutdown, according to a new court filing from the Justice Department. 

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston had ordered the administration to hand over the information in a lawsuit government unions filed just before the shutdown began.

Various agencies have since confirmed the layoffs, but the government’s new court filing provides the clearest picture yet of the breadth of the cuts.

The most significant layoffs took place at the Treasury Department, with 1,446 employees receiving RIF notices Friday.

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The State Department is offering a $15 million reward for information linked to four Chinese nationals it says have helped the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) procure U.S. military equipment and drone technology.

Liu Baoxia, Li Yongxin, Yung Yiu Wa and Zhong Yanlai are accused of facilitating the sale of U.S. goods to front companies based in China that would send the technology to Iran, according to a State Department release.

Iran would then transport products to the IRGC and its linked companies including Shiraz Electronics Industries and Rayan Roshd Afzar, which use U.S.-controlled technology to develop and manufacture unmanned aerial vehicles, arms and weapons systems, according to the State Department.

Manufactured products are then sold to governments and groups in allied countries such as Russia, Sudan and Yemen in violation of U.S. sanctions.

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A grand jury in Virginia indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, marking the second Trump foe to face federal prosecution in recent weeks.

James was charged with one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. The indictment alleges that James bought a house in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020 with a mortgage that required her to use it as a second home, but she ultimately rented it to a family and used it as an investment property. It accuses her of misrepresenting how the house was used to get a more favorable interest rate.

Lindsey Halligan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement: "No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public's trust."

James called the charges "baseless" in a video statement.

"This is nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system," she said.

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Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal that's intended to end to the devastating Gaza war which unleashed the deadliest fighting ever between Israelis and Palestinians.

President Trump said on Truth Social that Israel and Hamas "have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan."

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!"

The announcement came just hours after Trump told reporters at the White House he was prepared to travel to the Middle East as early as this weekend.

TVNL Comment:  This has happened many times before, and Israel has always broken any deal to continue the cease fire agreement.  Phase one is a beginning, but Netanyahu has stated he will never leave Gaza or the West Bank.  Never.  Watch this space. Once the hostages have been released, the bombing and the slaughter will continue.  We would love to be wrong, but the message has been very clear.

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The momentum to find a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine has been exhausted since the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin summit in Alaska, Moscow’s deputy foreign minister has said.

Growing relations between Washington and Moscow culminated in the August meeting, the second between the two presidents, which some hoped would see progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, we have to admit that Anchorage's powerful momentum in favour of agreements has been largely exhausted by the efforts of opponents and supporters of the war," Sergei Ryabkov said according to Interfax.

"This is the result of destructive activities, primarily by the Europeans," he said.

The deputy foreign minister also warned Washington against sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, echoing repeated warnings from the past week.

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Numbers alone cannot capture the toll the Israel-Hamas war has taken on the Gaza Strip.

But they can help us understand how thoroughly the conflict has upended the lives of 2.1 million Palestinians living in the territory and decimated the territory's 365 square kilometers (140 square miles).

Out of every 10 people, one has been killed or injured in an Israeli strike. Nine are displaced. At least three have not eaten for days. Out of every 100 children, four have lost either one or both parents. Out of every 10 buildings that stood in Gaza prewar, eight are either damaged or flattened. Out of every 10 homes, nine are wrecked. Out of every 10 acres of cropland, eight are razed (more than three out of every four hectares).

The war began when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

In response, Israeli leaders promised a punishing offensive on the strip to annihilate Hamas and free the hostages.

Here's a closer look at the devastation that followed, by the numbers.

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Devices were found inside his front pocket and a backpack he was carrying on the scene, in addition to a tent encampment set up in close proximity to the cathedral, the records show.

A man arrested outside the annual Red Mass ceremony held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral had over 200 explosive devices in a tent on the church’s stairs, according to police. 

Louis Geri, 41, touted homemade explosives when officers approached him on the step ahead of the service typically attended by Supreme Court justices to ring in a new term, according to court records reviewed by the Washington Post.

Authorities also found vials of nitromethane, a colorless, organic compound used in explosive devices, the court records showed.

Geri said he had a background in explosives and told officers at the scene that the vials were intended to be used as grenades with rubber bands to secure the fuse, according to court records, per the Post.

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