TV News LIES

Politicians must be held accountable if their lies damage democracy, according to a former US federal prosecutor and FBI general counsel who was pursued by Donald Trump.

The US must be “as creative as possible” and introduce sweeping structural reforms if it escapes its current “mess”, said Andrew Weissmann, laying out a proposal for a legislative crackdown on election deceit.

“Lying can be held to account,” argued Weissmann, a senior figure in former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and Trump’s links to Moscow.

The former federal prosecutor remains a prominent voice against Trump and his assault on US institutions and justice, as a professor and analyst for liberal cable network MS Now.

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The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sent subpoenas to leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin over their March trip to Cuba, according to Fox News.

“the american govt would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’ve starved, than punish the epstein class,” Piker wrote Saturday on X in response to the report.

Piker said Sunday on his Instagram story that he hasn’t received a subpoena and on his live Twitch stream Sunday, he said before his trip to Cuba, he cleared it with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the office that Fox News reported issued the subpoenas. Piker called the alleged subpoenas an “intimidation tactic” from the American government.

Benjamin also said in a statement to HuffPost that she hasn’t been served a subpoena, though “perhaps” one is on its way. The co-founder of the feminist anti-war organization said she traveled to Cuba under the authorized category of providing aid to Cubans and she stayed in a hotel allowed under U.S. regulations.

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Independent journalist Don Lemon on Thursday called on news reporters covering President Trump to “have some dignity and a backbone,” using former late-night host Stephen Colbert as an example.

Lemon, on his podcast “The Don Lemon Show,” said that “all of the late-night shows are going dark” to praise Colbert ahead of the final episode of “The Late Show.” Then he turned his attention to the Washington Press Corps.

“Do not let Karoline Leavitt call on the next person when you’re not finishing your question. Stand up for your colleagues,” he said, referring to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Stand up for yourself. Have some dignity and a backbone.”

He urged White House reporters to stand up for their colleagues and “stand up for respect” when facing Trump’s insults during questioning, telling them to “stand up for the First Amendment.”

“The next time someone calls one of your coworkers a piggy, the next time he calls them a loser, the next time he insults them, the next time he tells a Black woman that she knows dirt better than him, say something!” Lemon yelled.

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It has been over seven months since Hamas and Israel came to a ceasefire agreement that promised to end the genocide in Gaza. But since then, senior leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad say, Israel and the U.S. have tried to implement terms that Hamas never agreed to—specifically, disarming the resistance while Israeli forces continue to occupy most of Gaza and violate the ceasefire on a daily basis.

President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” has unilaterally rewritten the Gaza ceasefire agreement, resistance leaders told Drop Site News, in an effort to compel Palestinians to surrender their liberation cause and institutionalize Israeli domination over the future of the Gaza Strip. Since mid-March, Hamas officials have been summoned to a series of meetings where U.S. officials, regional mediators, and the Trump-appointed “High Representative for Gaza” have pressured the group to disarm, warning a large-scale Israeli military assault may resume if they refuse to capitulate.

This campaign, they said, will fail and ultimately lead to a resumption of the armed struggle. “The [Israeli] aim is to end the Palestinian presence in the Gaza Strip, not merely occupation,” said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader, in an interview with Drop Site. “They are trying to send a message to the Palestinians that there is no solution within Palestine, and that the only solution is for them to leave.”

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One person has died and 36 others were injured Friday afternoon when a vessel exploded at a dry dock in Staten Island, police and fire officials said. The injured include 31 firefighters, four EMS workers and one civilian.

The blast happened around 4 p.m. at 3075 Richmond Terrace, between Lockman and Andros avenues on the north shore of Staten Island, according to the FDNY.

A fire marshal and a firefighter are hospitalized in critical condition, and five other firefighters have moderate injuries, authorities said. The other firefighter and EMS injuries were described as minor. One civilian died, and the other was listed in serious condition.

“This was a complex, fast developing emergency situation,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference late Friday.

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Federal judges on Friday declined to review an appeal filed by Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last March at the start of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists. Khalil’s lawyers said they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declined to review a January decision by a lower court that opened the door to Khalil’s deportation. The decision did not pertain to the main issues in the case, but rather what the appropriate venue was for Khalil’s case.

Khalil’s attorneys had argued that the case challenging alleged constitutional violations should be heard in federal district court, whereas the U.S. attorneys with the Department of Justice said such issues were best suited to immigration court, whose judges are hired by the U.S. Attorney General.

The ruling split the Third Circuit, with six judges voting to approve Khalil’s request and five judges voting to deny it. The dissenting judges contended that the court’s decision could threaten the constitutional rights of Khalil and other noncitizens.

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Rozan Kheira woke to the sound of explosions, screaming and panic. At 10pm, an Israeli air strike hit her family's home in Gaza City as they slept.

Her first instinct was to get out of bed. But when she tried to stand, she collapsed. She tried again and fell once more.

Only then did she look down and see blood pooling around her leg. Her foot had been severed, attached only by a small shred of skin.

"I had just woken up and couldn't comprehend what was happening," Kheira told Middle East Eye. "At that moment, I forgot we were even at war."

The 24-year-old Palestinian lay frozen in shock until her brother carried her downstairs.

That night, 19 November 2023, changed her life forever.

As Israel destroyed hospitals, killed medical staff and blocked fuel and medicine from entering Gaza, treatable injuries became life-altering disabilities - and in some cases, fatal.

Kheira was rushed to the Indonesian Hospital after the strike. "After hours of bleeding, I underwent surgery, and my foot was completely amputated," she recalled.

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Iran has destroyed $1bn worth of MQ-9 Reaper Drones, or roughly 20 percent of the US’s pre-war inventory of the sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a report by Bloomberg on Friday.

The report said that many of the drones were downed by Iran in flight, but that others had been destroyed on the ground when Iran targeted US military bases in the Gulf.

The MQ-9 is both a surveillance drone and capable of carrying a payload, typically Hellfire missiles or Joint Direct Attack Munition guided bombs.

Bloomberg reported that the US may have lost up to 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones in the war, a higher number than the 24 that a report released this month by the Congressional Research Service noted.

The $1bn price tag adds to the cost of the war on Iran, which a senior official at the Pentagon told Reuters in May reached up to $29bn. The MQ-9 Reaper drone is being gradually phased out by the US military, although General Atomics continues to produce it for foreign customers.

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