TV News LIES

The Israeli military suspended a battalion of reservist soldiers on Monday, days after it detained a CNN crew in the West Bank village of Tayasir.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent, and his team were in Tayasir on Thursday reporting on attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians when soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Netzah Yehuda unit intervened. One of the soldiers placed Cyril Theophilos, a CNN photojournalist, in a chokehold, brought him to the ground and damaged his camera, the network reported. The crew members were detained for about two hours.

In an article published Saturday on CNN’s website, Diamond wrote that the incident “laid bare the settler ideology motivating many of the soldiers who operate in the occupied West Bank — and the ways in which soldiers frequently act in service of the settler movement.” Soldiers from the unit, including the one who assaulted the cameraman, asserted that all Palestinians are terrorists and that the West Bank belongs exclusively to Israel, Diamond wrote.

The IDF took a rare step this weekend, condemning the battalion over the incident — even before announcing its suspension.

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Syrians in Damascus took to the streets after Friday prayers, staging pro-Palestine protests against Israel’s latest measures targeting Palestinian held in Israeli jails and the continued closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans condemning Israel’s actions, calling for the liberation of Al-Aqsa and expressing solidarity with Palestinian detainees.

The rally formed part of a wider wave of protests across Syria, as anger grows over Israel’s policies towards Palestinians and its continued wars in the region.

Thousands have taken to the streets nationwide, condemning a new law under Israel’s apartheid legal system allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners - a measure that does not apply to Jews - as well as the continued occupation of Syrian territory.

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The conviction of two leaders of the Palestine solidarity movement, Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, and Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, for breaching police conditions as organisers of a peaceful Palestine protest has been widely seen as a direct assault on the right to protest.

But it’s far from the only case of its kind. In fact state overreach is causing confusion in the UK court system, as it struggles to cope with hundreds of cases brought under the Public Order Act and anti-terrorism legislation.

The tsunami is the result of a wave of demonstrators being charged with offences linked to their participation in pro-Palestine protests since October 2023, compounded by the proscription of Palestine Action last year.

In some cases, courts are simply refusing to convict. A number of pro-Palestinian activists have been found not guilty, either fully or on key charges. Other cases have been dismissed or ruled unlawful.

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Russia has provided Iran with satellite intelligence on more than 50 Israeli energy grid targets to assist in ongoing strikes, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in an interview with the Associated Press.

The data shared by Moscow covers approximately 50 to 53 sites, all of which are part of Israel’s civilian infrastructure with no military purpose, Zelensky stated. He drew a direct parallel between these actions and Russia’s long-standing campaign against Ukraine’s power and water systems.

“Of course, all the experience Russia gained during the war against Ukraine is being passed on to Iran,” Zelensky said, as reported in President’s official Telegram channel on Sunday, April 5. He noted that this cooperation mirrors the earlier transfer of Shahed drone technology, which Russia has since rebranded and modernized for its own use.

The disclosure comes at a major diplomatic juncture, as Zelensky warns that a prolonged war in the Middle East is shifting global priorities away from Kyiv and diverting critical Western air defense resources, such as Patriot missiles. Ukraine remains heavily dependent on these US-made systems to counter daily Russian aerial barrages.

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Dozens of paramedics in bright red uniforms shuffle around a coffin. The victim is one of their own.

Youssef Assaf, a volunteer paramedic with the Lebanese Red Cross, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on March 9, while on a rescue mission in Majdal Zoun, southern Lebanon. His funeral drew hundreds of first responders, marching in a seaside procession in the Mediterranean city of Tyre, his mother's cries heard over the shuffle.

Lebanon's government says at least 54 health workers are among more than 1,400 people killed by Israel during the current invasion. Some human rights groups say first responders are being targeted — something Israel denies.

Whenever Red Cross ambulances rush to the scene of any attack, they send their coordinates to United Nations peacekeepers, who then notify Israel.

They followed that protocol on March 9, when Assaf got out of his ambulance at the scene of an air strike to assist the wounded — and was hit by another attack. After his killing, the Red Cross' director of emergency medical services, Alexy Nehme, says he sent a message back through that same mechanism to Israel, "as a complaint and a question. Why? Why us?"

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An 18-wheel fuel tanker crashed into another vehicle, toppled power lines, then burst into flames outside Fort Worth early Sunday morning, according to local authorities.

The truck was carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline at the time of the collision.

“The driver of the 18-wheeler was trying to do everything he could to keep the gas from draining into the parking lot of the Valero gas station when it lit off,” said Craig Trojacek, a Fort Worth fire department spokesperson.

Firefighters doused the flame with water and built dams of sand to contain the fuel runoff, according to CBS News. It took about six hours to put out the fire and clean up the area.

The driver was hospitalized with burns, Trojacek said, and is in critical condition.

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A man employed by the US defense contractor V2X has been killed in a drone attack on Erbil airbase, amid concerns from colleagues that they are being placed in harm’s way and pressured to remain in Iraq despite security risks, five sources said.

The worker, from Kenya, died in a night attack in his sleeping quarters on the base on 24 March. Another five workers were injured. They are from Kenya and India, and are among a group of about 45 workers employed by V2X who have remained on the base. One of the workers is in a critical condition with severe burns, sources said.

“The company has messed up here bad,” said a source speaking on the condition of anonymity. “He didn’t have to die. The company thought it was more important to keep the mission going rather than get people to safety.”

V2X has almost 300 employees in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, who are mainly American, Indian and Kenyan. Other US defense contractors active on Erbil’s military base, including Lockheed Martin and Amentum, evacuated their staff several weeks ago, according to V2X workers interviewed, who question why efforts have not been made to repatriate them. Lockheed Martin and Amentum did not respond to requests for comment.

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday said that those who push to not “engage” with popular Twitch streamer and left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker “will cost us future elections.”

“The lesson of the last election is we’ve got to be out there. We’ve got to engage. It’s a complex, messy, multiracial democracy. I will defend my views, but the people who are saying, ‘Don’t engage,’ will cost us future elections,” Khanna told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”

Piker, who has a history of making controversial statements, is often critical of both Democrats and Republicans in his streams. He is also a notable critic of Israel and Zionism.

According to a Politico report from last month, multiple notable Democrats, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), rejected the idea of joining Piker on his stream when asked by the outlet.

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