TV News LIES

Rep. Eric Swalwell announced on Sunday, April 12, that he is suspending his campaign for California governor after several women accused him of sexual assault and misconduct.

"I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made - but that's my fight, not a campaign's," the Democratic congressman said in a statement on X.

The announcement comes after several prominent Democrats withdrew their support for the congressman and called on Swalwell, the leading Democratic frontrunner in the polls, to drop out of California's gubernatorial race. Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reported that a woman who previously worked in Swalwell's district office accused him of two non-consensual sexual encounters.

CNN also reported that three other women made sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell. He has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them "absolutely false" and vowing to fight them.

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Colman Domingo wrapped up his first "Saturday Night Live" episode with an emotional closing speech, though viewers watching live didn't get to see it.

At the end of the April 11 episode of "SNL," the "Euphoria" star, 56, got reflective about the significance of hosting the NBC sketch show for the first time. He was joined on stage by Brazilian singer Anitta, the night's musical guest.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2026/04/12/colman-domingo-snl-goodnight-speech-cut-off/89580543007/"Tonight is for all the little boys in inner cities, all the little girls in small corners of Brazil," Domingo said. "Tonight is for the dreamers. Tonight is for the people who bring light into the world, especially Lorne Michaels and this beautiful cast."

He added, "Thank you to the band. Thank you to everyone who came, to come together in a dark room and just laugh, when we need more laughter in the world. This has been an epic night, and we want to send you away with a big ol' kiss and love, and to love on each other. Thank you so much to every single one of you in this building."

Viewers watching on NBC missed nearly all of Domingo's speech, as the broadcast suddenly ended and cut to commercial just a few words into his remarks. It's common for "SNL" goodnights to not air in their entirety because the show has run out of time and reached the end of its programming slot, though the cutoff isn't always as abrupt as it was with Domingo's episode.

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Ritaj Abdulrahman Rihan was practising the subtraction of four-digit numbers during a maths lesson in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Her teacher had given the pupils an exercise and asked them to solve it.

Ritaj wrote down the questions, but the space left for her answers remained blank - stained instead with her blood.

The nine-year-old Palestinian girl was shot in the head by Israeli forces stationed nearby while attending class alongside around 40 other pupils at Abu Ubaida Bin al-Jarrah School on Thursday.

She was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead before her parents could say goodbye.

The family had been living in a makeshift tent after their home was destroyed in Israeli attacks. Despite this, they insisted on keeping Ritaj in school, walking about 1km to and from classes each day.

She was their first child.

“I wanted her to learn and go to school like any other child around the world. We indeed have another four-year-old child. But Ritaj was our first child, our first joy,” Abdulrahman said.

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Ukraine successfully conducted its 72nd prisoner exchange on Saturday, April 11, bringing home 182 citizens from Russian captivity just ahead of the Orthodox Easter holiday. The swap resulted in the release of 175 military personnel and seven civilians, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the return of the defenders in a social media post, noting that the group includes warriors from the Armed Forces, National Guard, and Border Guard Service. “Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” Zelensky stated. “Finally, they are home. It is a matter of principle for us to return everyone from Russian captivity.”

A major highlight of this exchange was the return of 25 officers, a group the Russian side had previously categorically refused to include in negotiations. More than half of the freed defenders were captured during the siege of Mariupol, while several National Guard members taken prisoner during the occupation of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) in the early days of the invasion were also released.

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In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the "delusion of omnipotence" that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.

History's first U.S.-born pope didn't mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo's tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified war in religious terms.

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money!" Leo said. "Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!"

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US vice-president JD Vance left Islamabad on Sunday after failing to reach a deal with Iran after a marathon 21 hours of negotiations.

Vance cited shortcomings in the talks, saying that Iran had chosen not to accept American terms, including to not build nuclear weapons.

“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” Vance said.

“So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear what our red lines are.”

Vance said he spoke with US president Donald Trump at least half a dozen times during the talks, and one of the most significant points of difference between the two sides had been around the development of nuclear weapons.

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When Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced that the US and Iran, along with their allies, had agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday night, he made clear that the truce applied “everywhere including Lebanon”. But hours later, the Israeli government insisted that the deal did not include halting its attacks on Lebanon, which had become one of the deadliest fronts of the regional war instigated by the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.

By Wednesday afternoon, Israel had launched its largest and most destructive attack on Lebanon in years, killing at least 300 people and wounding more than 1,100. Dozens of Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on 100 targets across Lebanon within 10 minutes, with the Israeli military claiming it was targeting Hezbollah “command centers” in an operation it called “Eternal Darkness”. But Israeli warplanes leveled several buildings in crowded residential neighborhoods of Beirut, spreading panic in the Lebanese capital and overwhelming hospitals with hundreds of casualties. Israel also continued bombing Lebanon’s infrastructure, destroying the last remaining bridge that linked southern Lebanon to the rest of the country.

Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon could unravel the two-week ceasefire even before negotiations between the US and Iran, which are expected to start on Saturday in Islamabad. Iranian leaders are accusing the US of failing to uphold the truce and threatening to back out of it unless Washington restrains its ally. “The U.S. must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on Twitter/X on Wednesday. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

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The U.S. military has launched operations to begin de-mining the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday.

Centcom said in a social media post highlighted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that two Navy guided-missile destroyers began “setting conditions” for this mission on Saturday morning.

The USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy have previously operated in the Arabian Gulf to help clear the strait of sea mines set by Tehran, according to Centcom.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Centcom Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in the post.

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