TV News LIES

A California philosophy lecturer accused of assaulting federal agents after removing a tear gas canister from a crowd — the same canister that a U.S. Border Patrol agent had thrown at protesters during an immigration raid — was found not guilty by a jury on Thursday.

Jonathan Caravello, 38, faced up to 20 years in prison if he was convicted of the charge. The verdict is the latest blow to the Trump administration, which has thrown baseless assault charges at people who protest its mass deportation operations — but has repeatedly failed to secure convictions.

By the government’s own admission, no federal agent was hit or harmed by the canister, which flew over the heads of agents and landed far behind them. Prosecutors argued instead that Caravello threatened and intended to harm agents, although they failed to identify a specific individual who was supposedly at risk of being harmed. Caravello’s attorney presented evidence that Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas indiscriminately at peaceful protesters and observers without reason or warning, and that Caravello was acting in self-defense when he threw the canister away from the crowd.

The jury returned their verdict after roughly two hours of deliberation.

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The Pentagon has denied threatening the Vatican during a late January meeting with the Holy See’s then-envoy to the U.S., as Pope Leo XIV has warned against the growing use of military action in recent months.

The Pentagon’s policy office head, Elbridge Colby, met with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s former diplomat to the U.S., on Jan. 22 at the Pentagon, during which he warned the then-envoy that the U.S. military has the “power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” The Free Press reported Monday.

The outlet, citing unnamed sources, reported that a U.S. official raised the threat of the “Avignon Papacy,” referencing the period from 1309 to 1376, when France’s King Philip IV captured the Pope and subsequent popes resided in Avignon instead of Rome.

The Pentagon slammed the report as “grossly false and distorted,” saying that Colby had a “substantive, respectful and professional” meeting with Pierre and his team.

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The Pentagon is obstructing reporters and defying an earlier court order that required it to restore access to credentialed journalists covering the Department of Defense (DOD), a U.S. judge in Washington ruled Thursday — a blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to limit media access.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Defense officials must comply with his order from March 20 that sided with The New York Times and found the Pentagon’s press policy from last year to be unconstitutional, ordering Pentagon officials to reinstate the press credentials of Times reporters and all others who cover the U.S. military from the building.

The Pentagon said it plans to appeal Thursday’s ruling.

“The Department disagrees with the Court’s ruling and intends to appeal,” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said to The Hill’s partner NewsNation. “The Department has at all times complied with the Court’s Order — it reinstated the PFACs of every journalist identified in the Order and issued a materially revised policy that addressed every concern the Court identified in its March 20 Opinion. The Department remains committed to press access at the Pentagon while fulfilling its statutory obligation to ensure the safe and secure operation of the Pentagon Reservation.”

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Pete Hegseth and the Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has reached new heights with the Defense secretary’s purge of senior Army officials last week.

Tensions flared when Driscoll was picked last year by President Trump to negotiate with Ukrainian officials in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war, according to two former U.S.  officials familiar with the dynamics. A current U.S. official said Hegseth’s “paranoia” has been heightened in recent weeks as the president has fired two Cabinet officials.

“He’s just really uncomfortable with anyone who could potentially be outshining him,” the current official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, told The Hill about Hegseth.

The Pentagon pushed back, saying The Hill’s “sources are serving up fake news to anyone gullible enough to write about it.”

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First lady Melania Trump made a statement at the White House on Thursday to slam reports about any connections she may have had with Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

She also called on Congress to allow testimony from Epstein victims and to enter them into the official record. She denied being a victim herself and said an email exchange with Maxwell amounted to a “trivial note.”

She also called Epstein “disgraceful” and called for “lies” about her association with him to end “today.”

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect,” Trump said from the White House’s Grand Foyer. “I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirite.

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A prominent Palestinian children's rights charity has shut down its operations after decades of documenting violations against Palestinian children, blaming sustained Israeli pressure and restrictions.

In a statement posted on X on Tuesday night, Defence for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) said it had been forced to end its work due to an increasingly hostile environment that made continuing operations for the charity impossible.

“After 35 years of defending Palestinian children’s rights, we are not able to overcome operational challenges resulting from Israel’s targeted criminalisation of Palestinian human rights organisations," the charity, which is headquartered in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said in its post.

“For decades, DCIP has worked relentlessly to protect Palestinian children against all odds. Now, we look to others to take up the charge and fight for the future that Palestinian children deserve.”

Founded in 1991, DCIP has been a key source of documentation on Palestinian children impacted by Israeli military operations and detention practices.

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Questionnaires of children forcibly taken from a Kherson orphanage have been found on a Russian state adoption portal, according to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights.

In his Wednesday Telegram update, Lubinets said the questionnaires were discovered by a journalistic investigation.

Lubinets said the data “completely lacks any mention of Ukraine or their true origin,” which he said is an attempt to mask the children’s identity.

“This fact is yet another confirmation of the targeted policy of erasing the Ukrainian identity of our children and an attempt to ‘legalize’ their abduction,” he wrote.

He called it a “systematic practice” since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, which consists of “forced displacement or deportation,” then later “document changes, adoption, total re-education, and militarization.”

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The Red Cross said it was “outraged by the devastating death and destruction” in densely populated areas across Lebanon as Israel launched a massive wave of attacks on Wednesday.

Heavy explosive weapons struck bustling neighbourhoods, including in Beirut, without effective advance warnings, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

“Many who had begun thinking of the moment when they might return to their homes have been rushing to streets and hospitals, searching for missing loved ones or seeking a safety that feels increasingly out of reach,” said Agnes Dhur, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Civil Defence said at least 254 people were killed and 1,165 others were wounded in the attacks on Wednesday.

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