TV News LIES

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appears to have dropped his demand that a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security include money for ICE and Border Patrol, accepting a deal he disparaged as unacceptable only days earlier.

If Johnson lets the House pass the bill, it will mean the end of a seven-week shutdown that’s caused many DHS workers to miss multiple paychecks. It’s a significant retreat for Johnson and House Republicans, though it also means Democrats could soon have little leverage in the push for reforms at the two immigration enforcement agencies.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced they would be “fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security” through two separate tracks, one a long-term budget process and the other a more immediate appropriation. President Donald Trump seemed to endorse the plan in a post on his website.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian released a letter addressed to “the people of the United States of America” on Wednesday, hours before President Trump is scheduled to address the nation about the U.S. military’s ongoing operations against Iran.

“Today, the world stands at a crossroads,” Pezeshkian wrote in a letter posted on the social platform X.

“Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before,” the Iranian official continued. “The choice between confrontation and engagement is both real and consequential; its outcome will shape the future for generations to come.”

The conflict has now stretched into a fifth week, after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 amid nuclear deal negotiations. The strikes have taken out several key Iranian leaders, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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We have liftoff!

NASA's long-awaited return trip to the moon's orbit launched on Wednesday, April 1 as crowds of people watched in awe to see the Artemis II mission take off in Florida.

The Orion capsule lifted off at about 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four astronauts on board are now in orbit around the Earth on their historic mission to orbit the moon, though not land on this trip.

“We are going for all humanity,” astronaut Jeremy Hansen said seconds before lifting off.

NASA Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson responded to Hansen and the other three astronauts that they're taking with them "the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation.”

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The world’s leading football governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, are facing several legal cases and increasing public pressure over their policies toward Israel, including a case before the International Criminal Court accusing their presidents of aiding and abetting war crimes, complaints over violations of anti-discrimination rules, and outrage over their positions regarding Palestine.

Last week, FIFA announced it would take no action against Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in response to a complaint filed by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) in 2024. FIFA had opened two investigations into the Israeli Football Association (IFA)—one regarding Israeli settlement club teams being allowed to play in competitions organized by the IFA, and another into allegations of discrimination by the IFA.

On the former, FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee determined no action should be taken because “the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law.”

The controversial decision ran counter to findings by the International Court of Justice, UN Security Council resolutions, and international law experts who all say Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

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Leading lawyers and legal experts have called on the governing bureau of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to uphold the findings of a judicial panel that cleared the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, of wrongdoing following a sexual misconduct complaint.

The 21-member bureau of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) is set to convene again on Monday for the third time to discuss its response to the report by three senior judges and the next course of action in the long-running saga, which has sidelined Khan since he took indefinite leave in May 2025.

Speaking to Middle East Eye ahead of Monday’s meeting, Khan’s lead counsel, Sareta Ashraph, said the process followed by United Nations investigators and judges had been “gender-competent” after a number of civil society groups called on the bureau to reject the panel’s findings.

Other legal experts voiced confidence in the competence and experience of the three-judge panel in their handling of the highly sensitive and complex case.

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Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon is drawing parallels with its 1982 campaign, and could prove even worse as it becomes more protracted, European officials told Middle East Eye.

For many Lebanese, the broad scope of Israel’s military campaign in recent weeks already recalls its 18-year occupation of the south of their country, which ended after years of confrontation with Hezbollah forced Israeli troops to withdraw in 2000.

This time, Beirut has taken unprecedented steps that include opening the door to direct engagement with Israel.

"But the Israelis do not seem to care about any of this," a European official with knowledge on the matter said.

As in the past, Israeli officials have made clear they have a military plan for southern Lebanon and intend to carry it out, he added.

Tel Aviv viewed the offer as too little, too late – given Beirut’s inability to rein in Hezbollah since the end of the last war, in November 2024.

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A Russian Antonov-26 military plane crashed while flying over the Crimean peninsula, killing 29 people, the TASS news agency reported Wednesday, quoting Russia’s defence ministry.

“On 31 March at around 18:00 Moscow time, contact was lost with the An-26 military transport aircraft whilst it was on a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula,” the defense ministry said.

“The search and rescue team has located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft. According to reports from the scene, the six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” the ministry said.

According to the same source, no signs of external impact were found on the wreckage, suggesting that a technical failure was the likely cause of the crash at this stage.

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A federal judge delivered a serious setback to President Donald Trump Tuesday in long-running civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that evidence produced so far in the litigation brought by police officers and Democratic lawmakers indicated that Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that day was political in nature and not subject to the immunity the Supreme Court has found for a president’s official acts.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

The 79-page ruling, years in the making, follows numerous efforts by Trump to scuttle the lawsuit by claiming he is protected by presidential immunity from liability for his actions on the day of the Capitol Riot and in the weeks leading up to that event.

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