TV News LIES

Donald Trump is stuck between “a rock and a hard place” after three weeks of war in Iran and “sending a message of weakness” to the world, Leon Panetta, a former US defence secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, has told the Guardian.

Panetta, who served in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, recalled that national security officials were always keenly aware of Iran’s ability to create an energy crisis by blocking the strait of Hormuz. That very scenario is now unfolding, leaving Trump with no exit strategy beyond wishful thinking.

“He tends to be naive about how things can happen,” Panetta, 87, who supervised the operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden, said by phone. “If he says it and keeps saying it there’s always a hope that what he says will come true. But that’s what kids do. It’s not what presidents do.”

Trump’s war began on 28 February with what it hoped would be a knockout blow. A surprise strike by Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US and Israel soon gained air supremacy. But the longer the conflict has raged, the more that initiative appears to be slipping away.

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NHL reporter Jessi Pierce and her three children were killed on Saturday in a weekend house fire in Minnesota, the league announced on its sports website Sunday.

Pierce, 37, covered the Minnesota Wild as the correspondent for NHL.com for the past decade.

“The entire NHL.com team is devastated and heartbroken by the loss of Jessi and her children,” said Bill Price, vice-president and editor-in-chief of NHL.com, in a statement.

“Jessi’s love of her family and hockey was evident in the energy and passion she brought to her work for us. She was an absolute joy to talk to and work with. She will be deeply missed.”

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Socialist candidate Emmanuel Grégoire won the Paris race Sunday, succeeding fellow party member Anne Hidalgo as the French capital’s mayor, as results of the final round of municipal elections showed clear gains for the traditional left and right, and one major win for the far right in the French Riviera city of Nice.

French voters returned to the polls Sunday in about 1,500 communes. The vote is seen as a test of the balance of power on France’s local political map before the 2027 presidential race begins to take shape.

Definitive results were still pending Sunday evening in largest cities.

About 93% of 35,000 villages, towns and cities selected their mayors in the first round last week, with mostly one or two candidates, not associated with any party, competing.

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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which serves as the exclusive union for TSA officers, slammed Trump's plan to deploy ICE agents to perform security at airports while officers continue showing up to work without a paycheck.

"ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security," AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement, stressing that TSA officers go through extensive and specialized training that requires ongoing recertification.

"You cannot improvise that," he said. "Putting untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one."

Tens of thousands of TSA employees have been working without pay since the partial government shutdown went into effect earlier this year. While the shutdown leaves Homeland Security – which includes TSA – without funding, ICE officers' paychecks were already secured by previous funding.

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Israel bombs targets east of Tehran. IRGC officials assassinated by Israel. Netanyahu says Israel will “hold off” on further attacks on Iran’s energy facilities. Kuwait refinery hit for the second time.

Israel bombs Syria. Drone strike on Haifa oil refinery in Israel. IRGC claims it hit F-35 over central Iran. U.S. fast-tracks $16.5B in arms sales to Gulf allies amid Iran strikes.

3,200 vessels stranded west of Strait of Hormuz. Lebanon signals readiness for immediate talks with Israel.

Al-Aqsa mosque closed for Eid. U.S. proposal calls for full Hamas disarmament in Gaza.

Senate panel advances nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead DHS. Tulsi Gabbard says American and Israeli war aims in Iran diverge.

Israel bombs targets east of Tehran: The Israeli military said on Friday it has begun striking targets east of Tehran. Late on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had carried out over 130 strikes on targets in western and central Iran over the previous day.

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Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been cleared of all wrongdoing by a panel of judges appointed to review the findings of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, Middle East Eye can exclusively reveal.

The highly confidential report by the panel of three judges was submitted to the ICC’s executive oversight body, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), on 9 March. It will not be made publicly available, and has not been seen by the majority of the court's 125 member states.

Since December, the judges, who were appointed by the ASP, have been examining an external fact-finding report conducted by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into the allegations against Khan, which have unfolded in parallel with his office's efforts to pursue a war crimes investigation against Israeli officials over the war in Gaza.

The role of the panel has been to provide independent legal advice to the bureau, based on the facts presented in the OIOS report, on whether Khan, who has strenuously denied all allegations, has committed serious misconduct, less serious misconduct, or no misconduct at all.

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After the fourth winter of the full-scale war, Ukraine’s energy system is emerging from one of the most difficult periods in its history.

From December 2025 to March 2026, Ukrainians endured 12 major attacks and hundreds of smaller ones that did not stop for a single day, involving more than 5,000 Shahed-type drones, around 150 ballistic missiles, and hundreds of cruise missiles. But Ukraine’s energy sector held out, and now Ukrainian homes have electricity almost 24/7.

How was this possible?

Russian strikes during the winter of 2025-26 were the heaviest of the entire war.

Russians combined strikes with missiles, drones and artillery. As a prelude to these attacks, they often utilized missiles of different types, from different directions simultaneously, in order to exhaust or bypass Ukraine’s air defense system and inflict critical damage specifically on Ukraine’s energy system. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not shy away from strikes on civilian objects and even created a special “counter” on its website showing the percentage of Ukrainian energy infrastructure hit.

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The counter-terrorism official who resigned from Donald Trump’s administration over the US and Israel’s war against Iran has said he is bracing for political retribution – but would do it all again anyway.

Asked by conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly if he was concerned about a pre-existing FBI search investigating him for leaking classified information, Joe Kent said he was ambivalent.

Kent said he was “not concerned because I know I did nothing wrong”. But, alluding to the way the Trump administration has sought to criminally prosecute people the president considers enemies, he added: “Of course, I am concerned because we’ve all seen the full weight of the FBI and the government come down on individuals who speak out.”

US counter-terrorism chief who resigned says he fears retaliation but has no regrets.

“That has me a little bit concerned,” he also told Kelly on her podcast on Friday. “But I know that the truth and the facts are on my side.

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