TV News LIES

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has accused President Trump of fabricating a story that she "begged" him for a photo at the G7 summit, in a stunning public break between the two leaders once considered allies.

"Donald Trump's statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned," Meloni said in a video posted on X Friday. "I don't ‌know why ⁠the president of the United States behaves like this toward his own allies. After all, it is not the first time."

She added: "I can only say it's a shame he doesn't show the same resolve toward with the enemies of the West and toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating. But there is one thing he should remember: Italy and I do not beg."

Meloni was responding to comments Trump allegedly made during a phone interview with an Italian journalist. NPR has not been able to independently verify what Trump said.

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President Trump unveiled the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One plane on Friday, saying it will fly “further and faster” than any other model of presidential plane.

Trump toured the renovated Boeing jet at Joint Base Andrews in  Maryland.

“There will never be one like this. This is very unique. This is considered the world’s most luxurious plane,” the president said. “When it was built, it was built at a level that will probably never be seen again.”

The plane features a new color scheme — red, white, gold and navy blue, a change from the two-toned lighter blues. It features the presidential seal on the left side and has a massive waving American flag on its tail.

The aircraft, designated by the Air Force as VC-25B, is expected to be a “bridge” aircraft in use between the aging Boeing 747-200s that have been used for more than two decades and the two new Boeing planes that were expected in 2024 but won’t be ready until 2028.

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Thursday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels was defined by a “window of opportunity” for Ukraine, pointing to a new wave of concrete pledges of military assistance from allied countries.

According to Ukrinform, several allies – including Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Norway, Lithuania, Denmark, Luxembourg, Croatia, Sweden and Iceland – have now committed hundreds of millions of dollars into the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, which finances purchases of US-made military equipment for Ukraine.

“Window of opportunity – I think this is the main topic today,” Rutte said, adding that additional “assistance focused on Ukraine’s priorities will help increase pressure on Russia and force them to sit down at the negotiating table and eventually join serious negotiations to stop this terrible war.”

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Kyiv came under repeated Russian attacks in the early hours of Thursday,  as ballistic missile threats were followed by a new wave of strike drones, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s Air Force initially warned of a “ballistic threat from the north,” prompting air alerts in Kyiv and several other regions. Authorities urged residents to move to shelters and remain there until the all-clear.

The first missile threat was briefly lifted at 12:58 a.m., but at 1:22 a.m. the military again declared a missile danger. Shortly afterward, the Air Force reported several ballistic missiles heading toward the capital and Poltava region.

A series of powerful explosions was heard in Kyiv at around 1:24 a.m. Explosions were also reported in Poltava. a city in central Ukraine.

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Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African jazz pianist deemed his country's equivalent to Mozart by Nelson Mandela, died Monday in his adopted home of Germany after a short illness. He was 91 years old.

"Abdullah passed away peacefully with South Africa and its people in his heart," his partner, Marina Umari, said in a statement. "His love for his country never wavered, no matter where in the world he found himself."

In an extraordinarily accomplished career that spanned eight decades, Ibrahim helped bring bebop stylings to South Africa, and he bonded with Duke Ellington, who produced one of his early, influential recordings. In his later years, he became an idol and an inspiration to new generations of jazz pianists.

Abdullah Ibrahim was born Adolph Johannes Brand in 1934. His mother was a pianist at their church, and he began taking piano lessons at the age of 7. By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally — billed as Dollar Brand — and in the late '50s formed a group, the Jazz Epistles, that featured trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In January 1960, the group recorded Jazz Epistle Verse One, the first jazz album by an all-Black South African jazz ensemble.

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Ukraine has come under a massive Russian missile and drone attack with waves of explosions echoing through the capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Monday morning as air raids killed at least five people across the country.

Among targets hit in the sustained wave of strikes were the city’s historic Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most significant religiMore...ous sites, as well as residential buildings across the city.

Footage from the Perchersk Lavra, a Unesco world heritage site, showed towering flames licking up towards its domes. Six people were reported injured.

“[T]he roof of one of the holiest places in the Christian world – the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra – is burning,” Metropoliton Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, wrote on X.

Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister, posted a picture of the monastery building in flames and wrote: “A brutal assault on our people ‌and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values.

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