TV News LIES

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s has accused its owner of being part of a movement of “corporate butt kissing” of Donald Trump and says management blocked the ice-cream brand from producing a flavour in support of peace in Gaza.

Ben Cohen told the Guardian that Unilever was pursuing a “corporate attack on free speech” by blocking the development of a special flavour in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is understood the flavour had been approved by Ben & Jerry’s independent board and first mooted about a year ago.

Magnum, the group’s ice-cream arm, confirmed it had not gone ahead with the board’s suggestion for a Palestine product this summer.

Cohen has mounted a “Free Ben & Jerry’s” campaign to persuade Unilever to sell the brand to a group of socially minded investors who he says have pledged to allow it to continue its “social mission.”

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The Trump administration has revoked the visa for Wole Soyinka, the acclaimed Nigerian Nobel prize-winning writer who has been critical of Trump since his first presidency, Soyinka revealed on Tuesday.

“I want to assure the consulate … that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature, told a news conference.

Soyinka previously held permanent residency in the United States, though he destroyed his green card after Donald Trump’s first election in 2016.

Soyinka speculated that his recent comments comparing Trump to the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin might have struck a nerve and contributed to the US consulate’s decision.

According to a letter from the consulate addressed to Soyinka, seen by Agence France-Presse, officials have cancelled his visa, citing US state department regulations that allow “a consular officer, the secretary, or a department official to whom the secretary has delegated this authority … to revoke a nonimmigrant visa at any time, in his or her discretion”.

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A group of potentially diseased lab monkeys escaped after a vehicle crash on a main interstate highway in Mississippi.

A truck carrying rhesus monkeys was involved in a wreck on Interstate 59 on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Facebook post from the Jasper county sheriff’s department.

The monkeys, which came from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, were infected with several viruses including hepatitis C and Covid-19, according to the department, thus posing a potential health risk to humans.

“The monkeys are approximately 40lbs, they are aggressive to humans and they require [personal protective equipment] to handle,” read the department’s social media post.

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The US military killed 14 people and left one survivor in more strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Monday, as the Trump administration continued to expand its campaign beyond the Caribbean.

The latest strikes mean the US has now attacked at least 13 vessels and brought the officially acknowledged death toll to 51 people since the campaign began at the start of September.

Hegseth did not provide geographic details beyond saying that the strikes took place in the eastern Pacific, in international waters. Last week, the administration started targeting boats on the western side of the Americas after initially focusing on boats off the coast of Venezuela.

The four boats were hit on Sunday in three strikes, Hegseth said in a social media post announcing the matter. His said the boats were “known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics”. He also acknowledged there was a survivor.

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The Republican-led US Senate has passed a measure that would terminate Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Brazilian imports, including coffee, beef and other products, in a rare bipartisan show of opposition to the president’s trade war.

The vote passed 52-48. The resolution was led by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, and seeks to overturn the national emergency that Trump has declared to justify the levies.

“Tariffs are a tax on American consumers. Tariffs are a tax on American businesses. And they are a tax that is imposed by a single person: Donald J Trump,” Kaine said in a floor speech.

The US Senate has approved a bipartisan effort to stop Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports from Brazil. In a rare show of working together, senators passed the measure on Tuesday night. But it is certain to stall in the US House – and if the measure were to reach the president’s desk, it would likely meet Trump’s veto.

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The Trump administration remains barred from deploying the national guard in Portland, Oregon, following a federal appeals court ruling.

The ninth circuit court of appeals agreed on Tuesday that it would rehear a case over the president’s authority with a broader court of 11 judges. The appeals court also vacated a ruling from a three-judge panel last week that sided with the Trump administration.

The order is the latest development in a long legal saga over whether Donald Trump has the authority and justification to deploy national guard forces in Portland. The Oregon city has had about 200 federalized guard members in limbo since late September when Trump attempted to mobilize in response to months of protests there.

The federal government has argued that federal officials working at the ICE facility in south Portland were under attack, while city and state officials argue that local officers have control of the situation.

In defiance of Trump’s characterization of Portland as “war ravaged”, locals have been sharing videos of the city’s lush hiking trails and thriving food scene, and drawing up plans for Emergency Naked Bike Ride against “the militarization of our city”.

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The Pentagon has pulled key protections for its civilian personnel, directing managers to move with “speed and conviction” to fire underperforming workers, according to a memo issued one day before the U.S. government shut down.

“Supervisors and human resources (HR) professionals are directed to act with speed and conviction to facilitate the separation from Federal service of employees performing unsuccessfully,” states a Sept. 30 memo signed by the Pentagon’s top personnel policy officer, Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata.

It also warns that managers will be held accountable if they don’t address “poor employee performance.”

The new guidelines, which became public Tuesday, have sparked fears that they could be used to push out anyone at the Pentagon who doesn’t agree with or toe the line on the Trump administration’s programs.

It’s unclear how many employees may have been fired since the memo took effect. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

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Israeli planes launched strikes in Gaza on Tuesday after Israel accused the militant group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, the latest test of a fragile deal brokered earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump.

At least nine people were killed in the strikes, including four in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood and five in a car targeted in Khan Younis, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, the latest violence in a three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office saying he had ordered immediate "powerful attacks."The statement did not give a specific reason for the attacks but an Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave that is under Israeli control.

"This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire," the official said.

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