TV News LIES

Dear Leqaa,

Ramadan Kareem. I say it with a heavy heart, knowing these words reach you in a place that has tried to strip them of meaning.

It has now been one full year. One year since that dreadful night that marked the beginning of a brutal wave of arrests targeting protesters for nothing more than speaking the truth. Though we have never met in person, I have carried you with me every single day since Noor called me while I was detained in Jena, Louisiana, to tell me that you had been taken. I remember thinking: not again, not another one of us. From that moment, a piece of my heart has been tied to your struggle.

Leqaa, this is your second Ramadan in detention. I need to say that plainly, not as a detail but as a measure of what has been stolen from you. Ramadan is the sound of your mother’s voice calling you to iftar. It is the particular smell of food being prepared with love after a long day of fasting. It is the feeling of breaking bread with family, of praying together, of being held by community in the holiest time of the year.

But they denied you halal food in that facility. They denied you the basic dignity of practicing your faith. Last Ramadan you endured this, and now another has come and found you still caged, still waiting, still being told that your faith, like your grief, is something to be managed rather than honored.

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Teens in Texas mariachi band released from ICE detention after bipartisan backlas

Two teenage mariachi musicians were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after their detention sparked widespread backlash, including from a Republican congresswoman.

The Democratic representative Joaquin Castro of Texas announced the release of the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, on Monday afternoon, sharing photos on social media of the family reuniting.

Two teenage mariachi musicians were released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after their detention sparked widespread backlash, including from a Republican congresswoman.

The Democratic representative Joaquin Castro of Texas announced the release of the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, on Monday afternoon, sharing photos on social media of the family reuniting.

The case has drawn national attention because the brothers had travelled to Washington DC last summer after their high school’s mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Ono, won a state mariachi competition. Their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, had invited them to the House floor, where she celebrated their accomplishment.

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A Maronite parish priest, Father Pierre Al-Rai, was killed and at least five people were injured this afternoon by an Israeli strike on the Christian-majority village of Qlayaa in southern Lebanon. Fr Pierre al-Rahi, had stayed in the village, defying an Israeli order to leave, in order to protect his parishioners.

Three days ago, Father Pierre welcomed the Lebanese government's declaration that any military or security activity outside the authority of the state was illegal - referring to the government's move to ban Hezbollah's armed activity.

In a speech delivered on Friday in front of a church, Fr Pierre said the people of his community defend their land peacefully by remaining on their land. "None of us carries weapons," he said. "The only weapons we carry are peace, love, and prayer."

Today a house in the village was hit by Israeli tank, injuring the husband and wife who lived there. When several neighbours, the Red Cross and Fr Pierre rushed to help them, the house was hit a second time, injuring Fr Pierre and four others. AFP report that the priest died soon afterwards.

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At least 10 people, including two children, were killed and 10 injured in Kharkiv after Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones overnight, officials said.

A countrywide air raid alert was issued at around 3am local time to warn people against incoming Russian projectiles.

Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov said fires were reported as a result of a ballistic missile attack, which killed four civilians and injured 10, including two children.

Explosions were first reported in Kyiv at around 1.30am local time, the Kyiv Independent reported, followed by more blasts at around 1.40am local time.

The attack came hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had visited the eastern front on Friday.

Zelensky said he gave awards to soldiers defending positions near Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces were concentrated in preparation for a spring offensive.

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The ex-Marine who was forcibly removed by police from a congressional hearing for protesting Wednesday said the incident made him “only more determined” to continue his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Brian McGinnis is running as the Green Party candidate in North Carolina’s election to replace outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R). The anti-war activist could be heard shouting, “No one wants to fight for Israel,” as he was pushed out of the hearing room.

“And for the record, I’ve been running long before this, and yes even after breaking my arm standing up for what I believe in,” McGinnis wrote in a post on the social platform X.

“It’s only made me more determined,” he continued. “Anger is real, and so is resolve. Take care.”

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) joined U.S. Capitol Police in pushing McGinnis out of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing room. The retired Marine sergeant resisted by sticking his arm in the exit doors.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a journalist working for local news outlet Nashville Noticias during a March 4 traffic stop in South Nashville, according to an emergency petition filed by her attorneys in federal court.

Attorneys for the journalist, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Flores, wrote in the petition filed March 4 that she was arrested without a warrant. Rodriguez said she was not shown one, according to her petition. One of her attorneys, Joel Coxander of Mira Legal, spoke with an ICE agent who indicated there was no arrest warrant for her at the time of her arrest, the petition states.

The Department of Homeland Security said on March 6 that this is "simply not true" and that it had a valid arrest warrant on Rodriguez. It filed in court March 6 a picture of a crumpled piece of paper dated March 2 titled "Warrant for Arrest of Alien." The paper, which appears to have been signed by an authorized immigration officer, orders the arrest of Rodriguez for removal proceedings.

She is currently detained in the Etowah County Jail in northeast Alabama, according to DHS' court filing.

Rodriguez had a meeting scheduled for March 17 with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations. She frequently reported on stories critical of ICE for Nashville Noticias, the Spanish-language outlet.

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At least eight people died in the United States over two days when tornadoes struck Oklahoma and southern Michigan on March 5 - 6, and the National Weather Service warns more severe weather is possible on Saturday, March 7.

A weather service team is expected to head out on the morning of March 7 to survey damage from a tornado-producing storm that ripped across a 50 mile stretch of southern Michigan on March 6, leaving four dead.

A swath of damage was reported across parts of Cass, Branch and St. Joseph counties, from Edwardsburg through Three Rivers and into Union City, the weather service reported. At least one large, “extremely dangerous” tornado was confirmed in Three Rivers, Michigan, based on preliminary reports from trained storm spotters,

A swath of damage was reported across parts of Cass, Branch and St. Joseph counties, from Edwardsburg through Three Rivers and into Union City, the weather service reported. At least one large, “extremely dangerous” tornado was confirmed in Three Rivers, Michigan, based on preliminary reports from trained storm spotters, emergency officials and public videos, according to the weather

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In an exclusive interview with Drop Site News, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Esmail Baghaei rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that he launched the war because Iran was “going to attack first,” calling it a “big lie.”

“There was no intention on the part of Iran to attack the United States,” he said. “They claim that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States,” Baghaei added. “Did we come to the Gulf of Mexico to target Los Angeles and other U.S. cities? Or did they come 6,500 miles away to Iranian shores?”

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. decided to preemptively attack Iran because the White House knew Israel was going to begin bombing Iran and that Iran would strike back. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

On Tuesday, Trump sought to recast the U.S. rationale and said that he believed Iran was going to launch an attack first. “They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first—I felt strongly about that,” Trump said, charging that the Iranians “were getting ready to attack Israel. They were gonna attack others.”

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