TV News LIES

The world's biggest economy will be conspicuously absent from a meeting of the globe's 20 richest nations this weekend, as the U.S. boycotts the G20 Leaders' Summit hosted by South Africa.

The Trump administration is snubbing the event over false race-based claims and what it considers the summit's DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion -- agenda. Since returning to office Trump has accused the South African government of confiscating white-owned land and allowing the killing of white Afrikaners.

"You know we have a G20 meeting in South Africa, South Africa shouldn't even be in the Gs anymore, because what happened there is bad," Trump said earlier this month.

The government here has repeatedly tried to correct the U.S. administration, to no avail.

Ramaphosa has kept his cool and was taciturn this week, saying: "Their absence is their loss."

Still, it's a huge blow to South Africa on the global stage.

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Brazil's federal police on Saturday arrested former president Jair Bolsonaro over suspicion he was plotting to escape and avoid starting a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.

In a dramatic and unexpected twist in the final stage of a long and divisive criminal trial, federal agents entered Bolsonaro's house early Saturday under the order of a Supreme Court Justice to take the former president to the headquarters of the country's federal police in the capital, Brasilia.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case on Bolsonaro's attempt to keep the presidency after his defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, ordered the preemptive arrest after saying the far-right leader's ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday. His lawyers claimed in a statement that did not take place.

Bolsonaro, 70, who had been under house arrest, was ordered to wear the device after being deemed a flight risk. His aide Andriely Cirino confirmed to The Associated Press that the arrest took place around 6 a.m. on Saturday.

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Ofer Bronchtein was brought to tears as French President Emmanuel Macron delivered his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, recognizing a Palestinian state for the first time.

"Honestly, I cried," he told NPR in an interview in his Paris apartment after his return from New York. "I see it happening in front of me and I see the full room of the General Assembly and everyone is applauding."

Bronchtein says his only regret is that the Israeli delegation walked out of the General Assembly. The Israeli and U.S. governments opposed the move. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders who recognized Palestinian statehood were granting a "tremendous reward" to the Palestinian militant group Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Bronchtein refutes this, arguing it is no reward for a group that never sought a peaceful coexistence alongside Israel.

"I strongly believe that if there had been a Palestinian state before the 7th of October, if the Palestinians had been sovereign to run their lives as they wanted, the 7th of October [attack in Israel] would not have happened," he says.

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Israel’s military on Saturday launched airstrikes against Hamas militants in Gaza in the latest test of the ceasefire that began on Oct. 10, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said five senior Hamas members were killed. Health officials in Gaza reported at least 24 people killed and another 54 wounded, including children.

The strikes, which Israel said were in response to gunfire at its troops, came after international momentum on Gaza, with the U.N. Security Council on Monday approving the U.S. blueprint to secure and govern the territory. It authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security, approves a transitional authority to be overseen by President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

Israel has previously carried out similar waves of strikes after reported attacks on its forces during the ceasefire. At least 33 Palestinians were killed over a 12-hour period Wednesday and Thursday, mostly women and children, health officials said.

One of Saturday’s strikes targeted a vehicle, killing 11 and wounding over 20 Palestinians in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, said Rami Mhanna, managing director of Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The majority of the wounded were children, director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

Associated Press video showed children and others inspecting the blackened vehicle, whose top was blown off.

A strike targeting a house near Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza killed at least three people and wounded 11 others, according to the hospital. It said a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people including a child and wounded 16 others.

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Donald Trump said on Friday night that he’s “immediately” terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program seeking to limit deportations that his administration has already repeatedly sought to weaken.

Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community. Many fled the long civil war in the east African country and were drawn to the state’s welcoming social programs.

But how many migrants would be affected by Trump’s announcement that he wants to end temporary protective status could be very small. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.

Congress created the program granting temporary protective status (TPS) in 1990. It was meant to prevent deportations of people to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions.

The designation can be granted by the homeland security secretary and is granted in 18-month increments.

The president announced his decision on his social media site, suggesting that Minnesota was “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.

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Less than a year after the Palisades fire destroyed nearly 7,000 structures in Los Angeles, the first completed rebuilt home is being celebrated in Pacific Palisades.

In a statement, mayor Karen Bass confirmed that the Los Angeles department of building and safety had issued the certificate on Friday, certifying that the home had passed inspection and was ready for occupancy.

“The Palisades community has been through an unimaginable year, and my heart breaks for every family that won’t be able to be home this holiday season. But today is an important moment of hope,” said Bass.

“With more and more projects nearing completion across Pacific Palisades, the City of Los Angeles remains committed to expediting every aspect of the rebuilding process, until every family is back home,” Bass added.

The Pacific Palisades home features four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms spread across nearly 4,000 sq ft. It replaces a 1,600 sq ft ranch-style home destroyed in January. Across the Palisades and Eaton fire zones, nearly 2,000 rebuilding permits have been issued, according to the LA Times.

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European leaders on Saturday praised President Trump’s reported 28-point plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia for including “important elements,” but added that the plan needs “additional work” for peace to last.

The proposal would reportedly require Ukraine to relinquish the eastern territory of the Donbas region to Russia and cut its armed forces by half. In a joint statement released by the Council of the European Union, leaders signaled the plan is a good start — but merely a draft.

“We believe therefore that the draft is a basis which will require additional work,” they added. “We are ready to engage in order to ensure that a future peace is sustainable. We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force.”

They added, “We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.”

The coalition expressed their continued support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that they “will continue to coordinate closely with Ukraine and the U.S. over the coming days.”

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GOP lawmakers think Bondi fueled the firestorm — which Democrats have delighted in stoking — by telling Fox News anchor John Roberts in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting right now on my desk to review.”

Months later, the Justice Department and FBI released an unsigned memo asserting there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” and that federal investigators “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” That memo provoked widespread skepticism and accusations that the Trump administration wasn’t being fully transparent.

“There’s a https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5617816-senate-republicans-criticize-bondi-justice-department/lot of frustration with the Epstein stuff. People thought the DOJ really mishandled that in general, and unnecessarily elevated that,” one GOP senator, who requested anonymity to discuss frustration with Bondi, told The Hill.

The senator called Bondi’s statement to Fox News in February and the conflicting July memo an “unforced error.”

Bondi has since explained that she wasn’t talking about an actual client list but instead a stack of Epstein-related files and that it was Roberts, the interviewer, who used the words “list of Jeffrey Epstein clients.”

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