TV News LIES

The latest round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have ended without a breakthrough, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC.

According to the official, the session lasted for nearly three and a half hours and took place in two separate buildings in Doha.

Messages and clarifications were exchanged between the two sides through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, but no progress was achieved.

The official added that talks are expected to resume on Monday, as mediators plan to hold separate meetings with each delegation in an effort to overcome the obstacles and narrow the gaps between the two sides.

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Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones over the weekend, forcing shutdown of airports in Moscow and throwing Russian air travel in disarray.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) yesterday.

The Ukrainian drone attack caused flight disruptions at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions.

Russia also fired large-scale drone strikes on Ukraine yesterday, injuring three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast.

The continuing onslaught comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced deals with his European allies and a leading US defence company that would allow Kyiv to scale up drone production to “hundreds of thousands” more this year.

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NEAR THE NETZARIM CORRIDOR, Gaza Strip —  What does it take to get food today in Gaza? It involves a perilous journey that I took myself.

I faced Israeli military fire, private U.S. contractors pointing laser beams at my forehead, crowds with knives fighting for rations, and masked thieves — to get food from a group supported by the U.S. and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF.

Every day since the group began offering food on May 26, thousands of hungry Palestinians seeking food at these sites have been wounded and hundreds have been killed by Israeli military fire, according to Gaza health officials and international medical teams in Gaza. Many others have returned empty-handed after crowds grabbed all the food.

This is the story of what I witnessed from inside what GHF calls a "Secure Distribution Site."

The United Nations calls the food program a "death trap."

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A trembling ceasefire has brought a pause to what had become the familiar sounds of explosions over Tehran. I was born in 1988, a year before the Iran-Iraq war came to an end. For my generation, war was something that belonged to the past – an impossible event, until this summer.

For 12 days, we lived in the capital under incessant Israeli attacks, and what we saw has changed us for good: dead neighbours, buildings gutted and worry – endless, deep-etched worry – on the faces of people.

There is comfort in speaking of “the Iranian people” as though we are one unified bloc. But like most societies, Iranians hold divergent views. When fighting first broke out, there were people who were glad to see a foreign power targeting the widely disliked Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) top brass, at least in the beginning. But others – though dissidents themselves – deeply resented the idea of foreign invasion. Some hardliners saw this war as a messianic mission to be carried through to the bitter end; others were numb to what was happening.

But as the news filled with footage of civilian casualties, and the attacks grew harsher and less targeted, different social factions began to unite around the notion of watan, homeland. Patriotism gained new currency, and national pride was on most lips. Scenes of solidarity – whether lasting remains to be seen – abounded: landlords cancelling rent in light of the crisis; people outside Tehran hosting those fleeing the capital; no rush to grocery stores, no chaos, no panicked evacuations.

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Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.

Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 killings within the span of a month in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and as Palestinians try to reach aid at distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it first began operations in late May.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

In a message to The Associated Press, Shamdasani said that of the total tallied, 509 killings were “GHF-related,” meaning at or near its distribution sites.

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An 83-year-old retired priest has been arrested for defying a newly enforced ban on pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action, just hours after the group was formally outlawed by the UK government.

The Reverend Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, was detained for holding a placard that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” She was among more than 27 people arrested on Saturday for acts of defiance against the proscription.

Parfitt’s arrest has sparked widespread outrage on social media. One user called it “the march of authoritarianism & crackdown on freedom of speech & expression,” while another questioned whether it was now illegal to call her “a hero.”

Her friend, Jerry Hicks, demanded her release, stating: “She is against genocide & that’s not a crime.”

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