TV News LIES

In February 2024, just over three months into Israel’s war on Gaza, U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked an internal cable intended for wider distribution among senior officials in the Biden administration that warned northern Gaza had turned into an “apocalyptic wasteland,” according to Reuters.

Lew and Hallett reportedly blocked the cable, which described the consequences of Israel’s assault in harrowing detail, because they believed it lacked balance.

The cable was drafted by U.S. Agency for International Development staffers and was based on a two-part humanitarian fact-finding mission by a small United Nations team that visited the area on January 31 and February 1, 2024.

I was part of that mission.

Northern Gaza had been under a total siege for over three months when we were eventually allowed to enter in January 2024. We moved through Gaza City, Beit Lahia, Jabaliya, and Beit Hanoun.

What we found was an endless horizon of destruction. People were living under plastic sheeting or in the rubble of buildings. Schools had been destroyed. In parts of Beit Hanoun, the entire area had been depopulated and decimated. There was a deadly shortage of clean drinking water, food and access to healthcare.

More...

Ukraine is enduring the most severe strain on its energy system since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with freezing temperatures, sustained missile and drone strikes, and the loss of local generation in Kyiv creating what one energy analyst described as a uniquely dangerous phase for the country’s power and heating networks.

A cascading electrical disruption over the weekend – which energy officials said was triggered by load imbalances and weakened transmission links – forced emergency power cuts across parts of the capital, even as Moscow publicly floated what it called an “energy ceasefire.”

Speaking at a Media Center Ukraine briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 28, Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, said the capital is now being supplied almost entirely from outside the city – a task he called “a complex technical challenge even in peacetime,” made far more difficult by ongoing damage to transmission networks.

“This is the hardest stretch of the war for Kyiv’s energy system,” Kharchenko said, warning that the next several weeks of winter cold would be critical.

More...

Immediately after a US border patrol agent shot two people in Oregon last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the targets were “vicious” gang members connected to a prior shooting and alleged they had “attempted to run over” officers with their vehicle.

In the weeks since, key parts of the federal government’s narrative have fallen apart.

The events took place on the afternoon of 8 January, one day after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

According to a DHS press release and social media posts issued the following day, border patrol agents were conducting a “targeted” stop of a vehicle in Portland occupied by two members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang. Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, a woman in the passenger seat, had been “involved” in a Portland shooting last year, the agency wrote.

During the border patrol stop, the driver, Luis Niño-Moncada, “weaponized their vehicle against” officers, DHS said, prompting an agent “to defend himself and others” by shooting the occupants. Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest, Niño-Moncada was hit in the arm and both were hospitalized, then taken into federal custody, DHS noted. The agents were uninjured.

More...

A federal judge issued a last minute reprieve on Feb. 2, blocking President Donald Trump's attempt to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants in the U.S.

The status, which allows about 350,000 Haitians to legally live and work in the United States, had been set to expire on Feb. 3. It includes about 30,000 Haitians in central Ohio and another 15,000 in Springfield.

U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Ana Reyes issued a ruling postponing the effective date of the Trump Administration's cancellation of TPS for Haitians. The extension is a result of a case filed in July in that court.

The TPS status for Haitian immigrants previously was extended by a federal court from a Sept. 3, 2025, expiration date to Feb. 3. The status can be granted to immigrants from countries where there is ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, epidemics or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.

More...

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters.

“I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen.

“The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she added.

The former Georgia representative recently resigned from Congress, after airing concerns over the future of health care premiums and the war in Gaza, citing fractures within the GOP and falling out with Trump and MAGA, despite years of loyal support for the president.

On Wednesday, she said the people who truly benefit from backing Trump are financial benefactors, telling Iversen: “Those are the people that get the special favors. They get the government contracts, they get the pardons, or somebody they love or one of their friends gets a pardon.”

More...

Bad Bunny has become the first Latin artist to win album of the year in the 68-year history of the Grammy Awards, at a ceremony where dozens of stars railed against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

The shape-shifting musician beat Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar to win the night's top prize for his sixth album, Debí Tirar Mas Fotos, a personal and powerful exploration of Puerto Rico's musical history.

The 31-year-old, who will headline next week's Super Bowl half-time show, dedicated the award to immigrants who "leave their home, land, their country, to follow their dreams".

British singer Olivia Dean, who was named best new artist, also used her speech to defend immigrants.

"I'm up here as the granddaughter of an immigrant," said the singer, whose grandmother Carmen was part of the Windrush generation.

"I'm a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. We're nothing without each other."

Stars including Kehlani, Gloria Estefan and Billie Eilish also spoke in support of immigrants, while many musicians wore badges reading "ICE out" on the red carpet.

More...

A federal judge declined to compel federal officials to preserve all evidence in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, voicing confidence Monday that court intervention isn’t needed.

“Plaintiffs identify reasonable concerns regarding Defendants’ ability and willingness to preserve and maintain the integrity of the evidence in their possession related to Mr. Pretti’s shooting,” wrote U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, “but in my judgment, the record as it stands today largely addresses these concerns and does not justify a continuing preservation order.”

Minnesota and Hennepin County went to court after federal officials turned local and state personnel away and refused to share evidence in the Pretti investigation.

Tostrud has yet to decide whether the evidence must ultimately be turned over, but his new ruling means he won’t immediately intervene as the lawsuit moves forward. Tostrud is an appointee of President Trump.

A Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, in Minneapolis last month. He became the second U.S. citizen to die at the hands of federal agents during Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, fueling outrage and demands from Democrats to change immigration enforcement.

More...

Lawmakers are back in court after an earlier legal victory, challenging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after its secretary, Kristi Noem, issued a second order seeking to limit their ability to make unannounced visits to immigration detention facilities.

Members of Congress last month won their lawsuit after challenging a June DHS policy seeking to require them to give seven days notice of any intended visit.

The lawmaker’s latest filing accuses DHS of having “secretly reimposed” the policy in an order signed by Noem last Thursday.

“On Saturday, January 9—three days after U.S. citizen Renee Good was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis—three members of Congress from the Minnesota delegation, with this Court’s order in hand, attempted to conduct an oversight visit of an ICE facility near Minneapolis,” the filing states, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Only upon showing up at the facility were they informed Noem had again tried to impose the policy, they stated.

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) is the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit, which is joined by 11 other Democrats, including the ranking members on the House oversight, judiciary and homeland security committees.

More...