TV News LIES

Two Israeli political heavyweights on Sunday said they would join forces in upcoming elections in a shared effort to unseat longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021. They now plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett.

“The move is intended to unite the bloc, put an end to internal divisions and focus all efforts on winning the critical upcoming elections,” Lapid’s Yesh Atid party said in a statement.

Bennett and Lapid scheduled a joint news conference later on Sunday.

The 2021 coalition agreement ended 12 years of Netanyahu rule. Bennett served as prime minister for the first year until their coalition fractured. Lapid then held the top job as caretaker prime minister for the final six months until new elections brought Netanyahu back to power.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bennett-lapid-effort-to-unseat-netanyahu_n_69ee3933e4b0f3a433cb770b?origin=home-latest-news-unit

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President Trump on Sunday criticized CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell for reading the reported manifesto of the suspected gunman at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, calling the veteran reporter a “disgrace.”

“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump told O’Donnell in a “60 Minutes” interview taped Sunday afternoon, later calling her “disgraceful.”

Trump appeared on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” to discuss Saturday’s shooting at the annual WHCA dinner. Shortly after the dinner began, a heavily armed man ran through security at the Washington Hilton, where he exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officials before being apprehended.

Trump, Cabinet members, lawmakers and other high-profile White House officials were evacuated from the ballroom, and the dinner was ultimately canceled.

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Israel has continued its attacks on southern Lebanon, hours after ceasefire between the two countries was extended for a further three weeks.

The Israeli military on Friday said it had “eliminated” six Hezbollah fighters in an exchange of fire in the area of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Health Ministry also reported that two people were killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern area of Touline.

The attacks mark the latest violations of a ceasefire that began on April 16 after weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group.

Israeli forces also remain stationed in southern Lebanon, after establishing a so-called “yellow line” in the region, similar to an Israeli military measure in the besieged Gaza Strip.

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Iran has inflicted more “extensive” damage to US bases and equipment in the Middle East since the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing sources.

The report said that the damages from Iran’s retaliatory strikes against US military bases in seven Middle Eastern countries were “far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair.”

Iran has hit dozens of targets, including warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, runways, high-end radar systems, and dozens of aircraft, the report said.

The Pentagon has not detailed the extent of the damage to US military bases publicly, according to the report, with US Central Command declining to comment on battle damage assessments.

According to the report, some Republican lawmakers privately expressed their dissatisfaction with senior Pentagon officials for refusing to provide information on the extent of the damage or a cost estimate for repairs.

“No one knows anything. And it’s not for lack of asking,” one congressional aide was quoted by NBC News as saying. “We have been asking for weeks and not getting specifics, even as the Pentagon is asking for a record high budget.”

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Palestinians began voting in local elections on Saturday, April 25, marking the first time in nearly two decades that the process has included the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control in 2007, Reuters reported.

The vote is currently limited to the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where voter turnout has been reported as active. The Palestinian Authority (PA), based in the West Bank, views the inclusion of the city as a symbolic step toward re-establishing its governance over the territory.

Western diplomats and regional governments, including European and Arab states, have expressed support for the PA’s return to Gaza as part of a broader path toward national elections and a future independent Palestinian state.

According to preliminary data, more than one million Palestinians are eligible to participate in the local elections across the territories, with approximately 70,000 registered voters in Gaza. The process is being monitored as a test for transparency and accountability reforms recently initiated by the PA.

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New York officials are suing the Trump administration to recover more than $73 million in highway funding, in a fight over noncitizens’ access to commercial drivers licenses.

It’s the latest of several battles between the federal government and New York over transportation — with courts repeatedly smacking down the Trump administration’s attempts to hold back funding over policy disputes.

State Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul filed the suit in federal court Friday. They’re looking to recover funds the fed- eral Department of Transportation is withholding over licenses and permits it says were illegally issued. The state argues that it's done nothing wrong, and that the licenses at the heart of the issue were issued in compliance with both state and federal regulations.

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The Trump administration is making it easier to deport immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

A new precedent decision published Friday by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) says being a DACA recipient is not enough reason to provide relief from deportation.

A three-judge panel of appellate immigration judges sided with Department of Homeland Security lawyers who appealed a decision from immigration judge Michael Pleters terminating removal proceedings for Catalina "Xóchitl" Santiago, citing Santiago's active DACA status. They sent the case back to a different immigration judge for review.

Although the decision does not mean Santiago will be immediately deported, it potentially weakens DACA protections for hundreds of thousands of others.

Santiago's case gained national attention after she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers while boarding a domestic flight at the El Paso airport in August. She was placed in immigration detention until a federal judge granted her release last October. She has been fighting the threat of deportation in the immigration court system since.

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Middle school students in Mississippi acted quickly to halt their school bus from crashing after their driver passed out while on a highway, prompting the operator to declare: “They saved my life.”

The bus in question had just left the Hancock middle school in the Mississippi community of Kiln on Wednesday when the driver, Leah Taylor, suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness.

Students on the bus leapt into action, with sixth-grader Jackson Casnave, 12, grabbing the wheel after noticing the bus had started to swerve. “I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave told the Associated Press. “I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.”

Another sixth-grader, Darrius Clark, attempted to help by stepping on the brakes as the bus gained speed. “And then, so she passed out again and then the bus started rolling forward, and I mean it started gaining speed so I didn’t know it had air brakes – so when I clicked the brakes it about threw me out the windshield,” Clark said.

The two students managed to slow the bus and maneuver it into the median and park it. Clark’s sister, 13-year-old Kayleigh, called 911 and said she could barely hear the operator as so many students were screaming. “I was scared,” she recalled. “But also I had to help.”

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