TV News LIES

From regulating the price of chicken to levying fees on cigarettes, Hamas is seeking to widen control over Gaza as U.S. plans for its future slowly take shape, Palestinians in Gaza say, adding to rivals’ doubts over whether it will cede authority as promised.

After a ceasefire began last month, Hamas swiftly reestablished its hold over areas from which Israel withdrew, killing dozens of Palestinians it accused of collaborating with Israel, theft or other crimes. Foreign powers demand the group disarm and leave government but have yet to agree who will replace them.

Now, a dozen Palestinians say they are increasingly feeling Hamas control in other ways. Authorities monitor everything coming into areas of Gaza held by Hamas, levying fees on some privately imported goods including fuel as well as cigarettes and fining merchants seen to be overcharging for goods, according to 10 of the Gaza residents, three of them merchants with direct knowledge.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the media office of the Hamas government, said accounts of Hamas taxing cigarettes and fuel were inaccurate, denying the government was raising any taxes.

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Ukraine’s army said on Saturday it struck a Russian oil refinery in the Ryazan region near Moscow, as “part of efforts to reduce the enemy’s ability to launch missile and bomb strikes”. Explosions and a large fire were observed at the site, said the military. Ryazan is located about 200km (125 miles) south-east of Moscow.

Russian officials often do not admit such attacks have succeeded, and the Ryazan governor, Pavel Malkov, adopted the standard line that Ukrainian drones were shot down but debris happened to hit the target. “Falling debris caused a fire on the premises of one enterprise,” Malkov said. A wave of 25 Ukrainian drones attacked the region, Malkov said.

Officials in southern Ukraine said four people were killed by Russian attacks on Saturday. Prosecutors in the Kherson region said “three civilians are known to have been killed” in the village of Myklitskyi and the city of Kherson. The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Federov, said a Russian attack killed one person.

The US will not lift sanctions on Serbian oil company NIS unless Belgrade terminates the firm’s majority Russian ownership, Serbia’s energy minister said on Saturday, warning that her country faced “difficult” decisions. Washington sanctioned Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) as part of its crackdown on the Russian energy sector. Analysts say Serbia is on the brink of a winter energy crisis with its lone oil refinery facing a potential shutdown.

Serbia’s energy minister, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, said the US wanted a “complete change of Russian shareholders” to be negotiated by 13 February before lifting sanctions. NIS is 45% owned by Gazprom Neft, which has been targeted by US sanctions. Neft’s parent company, Gazprom, has transferred its own 11.3% stake in NIS to another Russian firm, Intelligence. The Serbian state holds nearly 30% of NIS, with the rest owned by minority shareholders. Handanović suggested the Serbian government was looking at a possible Russian takeover of NIS and would hold a special cabinet meeting about it on Sunday.

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The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will arrive in the northern Caribbean on Sunday as tensions with Venezuela grow, according to a U.S. military official. The carrier will join 15,000 service members, including 2,000 Marines aboard an amphibious assault ship.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR the "table is being set" for possible military action. Administration officials are continuing to hold high-level meetings with members of Congress and foreign leaders amid ongoing military exercises.

It remains unclear, however, if President Trump will use military force against Venezuela. The U.S. has conducted 20 strikes on boats in the region so far, saying they were ferrying drugs trafficked from the country. In August, the U.S. government set a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

But officials told NPR that the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford, which was pulled from the Mediterranean Sea, could be just another pressure tactic on Maduro, who has put his own forces on high alert.

On Friday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, "I sort of made up my mind" about whether to launch an attack.

"I can't tell you what it is," he said, "but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in."

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A U.S. proposal to provide a United Nations mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be established board that would temporarily govern the territory and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.

The Chinese and the Russians — two veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council — have called for the “Board of Peace” under President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan to be removed from the resolution entirely, according to four U.N. diplomats briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.

In the latest draft released late Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. maintains the language around the board while providing further commitment to Palestinian self-determination. although the language remains weak.

While some of the responses to the U.S. proposal reflect typical negotiations between countries — with detailed back-and-forth and revisions in language — the objection to the transitional board indicates that wide gaps have emerged between some members of the U.N.’s most powerful body and the U.S. following more than two years of war.

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Heavy rain across the Gaza Strip on Friday has drenched many tents where displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

A crew from NHK's Gaza office has found flooded roads in a wide area of Gaza City in the north and muddy water surrounding tents there.

In an area near the central city of Deir al-Balah, residents were using shovels to pile up mounds around their tents to prevent the inflow of rainwater.

As the rainy, cold winter will soon arrive in the enclave, a local NGO has asked Israel to open all crossings to allow the delivery of needed shelter materials.

It says items needed to survive winter are slow in arriving even after the ceasefire took effect last month.

One resident said it is unbearable to see his child freezing due to lack of a blanket and a mattress. The resident called for support with essentials like tarps and blankets.

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A “massive” Russian attack on Kyiv has killed at least six people with more than 30 others injured, according to the head of the Kyiv city military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

More than 40 people had to be rescued as a result of the overnight assault into Friday, Ukraine’s emergency services added, with fires or damage to residential buildings reported in most of the Ukrainian capital’s 10 districts.

A separate Russian drone attack on Chornomorsk, a coastal city in the south, killed two people on Friday, according to Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper. Seven others were injured in the strike.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that the Kyiv barrage was “a wicked attack” which killed several and injured dozens, including children and a pregnant woman. He said “about 430 drones and 18 missiles were used in the strike, including ballistic and aeroballistic missiles. This was a deliberately calculated attack aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure.

“The main target of the attack was Kyiv, and strikes also hit Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa regions,” he added.

Earlier, Kyiv police said an elderly woman was killed, while a 10-year-old boy was among the injured.

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