TV News LIES

Two women reported to be relatives of assassinated Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani who were arrested in the United States are not, in fact, related to him, according to a news report.

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarina were arrested in early April after their residency permits were rescinded. This came after far-right campaigner Laura Loomer claimed they were related to the late Quds Force leader on social media and said she reported the women to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for “posting content sympathetic to the Iranian regime and Ayatollah”.

However, according to Iranian birth records, identification papers, a family will and other personal documents seen by the US-based website Drop Site News, they are not related to Soleimani, even distantly.

Soleimani Afshar was, according to the outlet, involved in anti-Islamic Republic protests in the 1990s and 2000s and spent a week in prison for her activities before moving to the US.

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Soldiers and officers described widespread, routine theft of belongings, including motorbikes, televisions, paintings, sofas and carpets.

Despite being aware of the practice, both senior and junior commanders have largely failed to take disciplinary action to curb it, according to testimonies.

As Israeli troops leave Lebanon, they openly load stolen goods onto their vehicles without attempting to conceal them.

“It’s on a crazy scale,” one soldier said. “Anyone who takes something – televisions, cigarettes, tools, whatever – immediately puts it in their vehicle or leaves it to the side. It’s not hidden. Everyone sees it and understands.”

“In our unit, they don’t even comment or get angry. The battalion and brigade commanders know everything,” one person said.

Another described a case in which a commander shouted at soldiers carrying looted items in a jeep and ordered them to discard them, but no further action was taken.

“Commanders speak against it and say it’s serious, but they don’t do anything,” another soldier said.

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For two years, establishment Democrats have led a wide-ranging legal attack on University of Michigan pro-Palestinian student activists, aiming to shut down their protest of Israel. On Sunday, Democratic Party delegates symbolically rebuked the establishment’s draconian campaign. Two pro-Palestinian candidates notched upset wins against pro-Israel-backed opponents in statewide primary races in this critical upper Midwest swing state.

The races, decided by the Michigan Democratic Party’s delegates during a nominating convention, mark material and symbolic victories for pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan (U-M)—some of whom continue to face investigations over their protests of the genocide. And, as more polling shows the extent to which support for Israel has collapsed across the political spectrum, the wins indicate that the pro-Israel playbook is failing even in lower, state-level races.

In the state Attorney General’s race, Ann Arbor’s progressive Jewish prosecutor, Eli Savit, beat Karen McDonald, who was backed by major corporations and pro-Israel donors. And in the race for a seat on the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, defense attorney Amir Makled defeated incumbent regent Jordan Acker, who helped lead the school’s legal attack on the pro-Palestinian students. Makled represented some of the students who beat the U-M prosecutions.

Makled, who is Lebanese-American, overcame an onslaught of allegations that he is antisemitic and supports Hezbollah. He told Drop Site the wins show “the electorate is done with AIPAC-aligned candidates and their smear campaigns.”

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The 41-year-old, an American-born Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 2 March while visiting family in Kuwait.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that his arrest came after he made a series of social media posts related to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The posts included footage of a US fighter jet crashing into a US airbase in Kuwait. The CPJ emphasised that he had shared publicly available footage and images.

“We are relieved that, after 52 days in detention, Ahmed has been found innocent on all charges. Our focus now is upon ensuring the liberty and safety of our client,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher, international counsel to Shihab-Eldin’s sisters, said in a statement.

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A display of 20,000 teddy bears appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Thursday to represent Ukrainian children that have been forcibly taken to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, AFP reported.

The demonstration, organized by Razom for Ukraine and the American Coalition for Ukraine, was held near the US Capitol under the message: “Bring Them Home.”

Melinda Haring, senior advisor for Razom for Ukraine, said the display was meant to show the scale of the abductions.

“There are 20,000 teddy bears on this fence,” Haring said. “Each of these teddy bears represents a Ukrainian child that was taken since 2022. Now, there’s officially about 20,000 Ukrainian children. The number is definitely larger than that, but we’re here to draw attention to Vladimir Putin and what he did to Ukrainian children.”

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The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies.

They reshape the world to suit their demands. One of the symptoms of the pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more stones on the pointless mountain of wealth. And we can see it happening. Last week delivered the biggest news of the year so far, perhaps the biggest news of the century. But partly because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard it. We might find ourselves committed to a civilisation-ending event before we even learn that such a thing is possible.

The news is that the state of a crucial oceanic circulation system has been reassessed by scientists. Some now believe that, as a result of climate breakdown changing the temperature and salinity of seawater, it is more likely than not to collapse. This system – known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) – delivers heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic. Recent research suggests that if it shuts down, it could cause both a massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic changes in the Amazon’s water cycles. This could help tip the rainforest into cascading collapse and trigger further disaster.

Amoc’s shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic temperatures by roughly 6C and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored in the Southern Ocean, accelerating climate catastrophe.

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India on Thursday criticised as inappropriate a post by Donald Trump in which he shared comments that called the South Asian country a “hellhole”.

The inflammatory post on Truth Social comes ahead of a planned visit next month to India by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is seeking to ease recent tensions between the normally friendly powers.

On Wednesday Trump posted a 4-page screed – apparently a transcription of remarks from conservative podcast host Michael Savage – that denounced the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country.

Without evidence, the post accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. Trump also posted a video of Savage delivering those comments to his podcast audience.

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A White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.

The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.

The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.

The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.

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