TV News LIES

The two Russian mobsters convicted in an international assassination plot targeting the Iranian American dissident Masih Alinejad were sentenced to 25 years in prison in a New York courtroom on Wednesday.

Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov were found guilty in Manhattan federal court this March of charges including murder-for-hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering.

Iran has targeted Alinejad for years because of her advocacy for women’s rights and unflinching criticism of the regime. Alinejad, who in addition to her activism is a journalist and author, has publicized Tehran’s human rights attacks on social media – and demanded change.

Alinejad described the pain that continues to linger from this assassination attempt in an address to the court about 30 minutes before the judge, Colleen McMahon, issued her sentence.

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A jury on Wednesday convicted an Illinois sheriff’s deputy of second-degree murder, a lesser charge, in the shooting death of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 to report a suspected prowler.

Sean Grayson could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison or even probation. The jury did not convict him of first-degree murder, a crime that carries a sentence of 45 years to life.

Massey’s supporters were angered by the result. Her father, James Wilburn, called it a “miscarriage of justice.”

“She called for help and she was murdered in her own home. ... Second-degree murder — that is not right. That is not justice for anybody’s family,” Teresa Haley, a civil rights activist in Springfield, Illinois, told reporters outside the courthouse.

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President Trump said on Wednesday that he has instructed the Defense Department (DOD) to immediately begin testing U.S. nuclear weapons on an equal basis to China and Russia.

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” Trump wrote. “This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”

The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

Trump’s announcement on TruthSocial came shortly before he was slated to meet face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since 2019 in South Korea on Thursday.

The U.S. halted the explosive testing of nuclear arms in 1992.

Former Trump’s national security advisor, Robert C. O’Brien, encouraged Trump, a presidential candidate, in June last year to test nuclear weapons if he wins the 2024 White House election.  

“Washington must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world for the first time since 1992—not just by using computer models,” O’Brien https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5580424-trump-directs-pentagon-to-start-testing-nuclear-weapons/wrote in an article for the Foreign Affairs magazine, which was published in June last year. “If China and Russia continue to refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks, the United States should also resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotopes of nuclear weapons.”

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There is not enough evidence to confirm that Tylenol causes autism but the pain medication should still be used cautiously, President Donald Trump's top health official said on Oct. 29, a month after the president said U.S. health officials would recommend limiting its use.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s comments also come one day after the Republican state of Texas sued Kenvue, the maker of the medicine also known as acetaminophen and which has been sold widely for decades.

"The causative association ... between Tylenol given in pregnancy and the perinatal periods is not sufficient to say it definitely cause autism. But it is very suggestive," Kennedy told reporters, citing animal, blood and observational studies."There should be a cautious approach to it," he added.

Trump, who is not a doctor, in September warned pregnant women against taking the medication without citing any scientific evidence. His unproven claim initially hit shares of the consumer health company, Kenvue, which was spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, and prompted pushback from many doctors.

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Mourners gathered at a church in Kyiv on Monday to honor two Ukrainian journalists killed last week when a Russian drone struck their car in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

War correspondent Olena Hubanova, who worked under the pseudonym Alyona Gramova, and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin were killed on Thursday by a Russian Lancet drone in Kramatorsk, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line. Another reporter who was part of the team was wounded.

It was the latest deadly attack on journalists covering the war in Ukraine. In a similar strike earlier this month, French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed and Ukrainian reporter Grigoriy Ivanchenko was wounded. Ivanchenko later had a leg amputated.

The growing reach of drones — now extending more than 20 kilometers from the front line — has made reporting increasingly perilous.

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Not only did U.S. Border Patrol boss Gregory Bovino show his face in a federal courtroom Tuesday, but he and a judge will be getting to know each other a lot better in the days to come.

That’s because U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she wants to meet with the Border Patrol’s commander-at-large every weeknight over the next seven days, as federal agents continue their aggressive deportation campaign that’s stretched from Little Village to Lake View.

Their daily meeting around 6 p.m. will give the judge a chance to speak with Bovino about the events of the day.

And as they do so, Ellis will have in her back pocket a request that she fully ban the feds from using tear gas amid the immigration blitz. The judge said Tuesday that, if agents continue to deploy gas, “they’d better be able to back it up.”

“And if they can’t,” she added, “then they will lose that as something they can use.”

Tuesday’s hearing revealed that Bovino has no body-worn camera — nor the training to use one. Bovino admitted that fact, even after telling the judge that 99% of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents here have that technology.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stood next to President Trump in Israel's parliament in Jerusalem and summarized the last two years of war:

"Israel achieved amazing victories over Hamas and the entire Iran terror axis — Sinwar, Deif, Haniyah, Nasrallah, Assad — they're all gone."

This list refers to countries (Iran, Syria and Lebanon), groups (Hamas and Hezbollah) and individuals (Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyah of Hamas, Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad of Syria) that have been Israel's main enemies for decades.

Yet at the same time, "While Netanyahu was winning wars, he was not able to win any of the peace, or any of the peaces," said Paul Salem, who's based in Lebanon with the Middle East Institute. "He was not able to turn his military victories into sustainable political wins. He was digging Israel deeper into a hole."

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s has accused its owner of being part of a movement of “corporate butt kissing” of Donald Trump and says management blocked the ice-cream brand from producing a flavour in support of peace in Gaza.

Ben Cohen told the Guardian that Unilever was pursuing a “corporate attack on free speech” by blocking the development of a special flavour in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is understood the flavour had been approved by Ben & Jerry’s independent board and first mooted about a year ago.

Magnum, the group’s ice-cream arm, confirmed it had not gone ahead with the board’s suggestion for a Palestine product this summer.

Cohen has mounted a “Free Ben & Jerry’s” campaign to persuade Unilever to sell the brand to a group of socially minded investors who he says have pledged to allow it to continue its “social mission.”

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