TV News LIES

Last week, we learned of the decision of the Texas A&M University board of regents to end women’s and gender studies programs as well as the teaching of “divisive concepts” such as race. A&M was not the first university to do this. Florida’s New College made the move in 2023. Other red state legislatures have passed similar requirements and their public universities (in North Carolina, Ohio and Kansas) have followed suit.

The move to cancel gender studies is explicitly justified as a way to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order of last year titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. That document makes “the biological reality of sex” a matter not of science but of law.

Until this week’s latest dump of the Epstein files by Trump’s justice department, I hadn’t seen the connection between the two. But now it’s as clear as day. The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds, whether they actually slept with the women on offer or simply shared Epstein’s fantasies in order to gain influence or funding.

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A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.

US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who are currently in countries outside Venezuela, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegally expelled from the US last March.

Boasberg added that the US government should cover the travel costs of those who wish to come to the US to argue their immigration cases.

Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, is one of the men affected and he spoke exclusively to the Guardian on Thursday by telephone from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, where he has lived since being released from detention in El Salvador.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/14/venezuelan-illegally-deported-return-fears
“I would like to go back to the US to defend myself in court and prove that I am not a member of the Tren de Aragua [gang] – but what happens if they detain me and I have to live through another nightmare?” Muñoz Pinto said.

He has no criminal record in any country. He was an engineering student in Venezuela and fled in 2024 after being beaten by police while protesting against the dictatorship there, first to Colombia and then north. He had an appointment in the US to request asylum under the Biden administration but instead was arrested and accused of being a member of the dangerous Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua because he had some tattoos, despite no evidence being presented of actual gang connections.

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At least a half-dozen top officials in the current Trump administration have connections to Jeffrey Epstein, according to an NBC News review of some of the over 3 million documents the Justice Department has released.

The degree to which each individual was connected to Epstein varies significantly, from a single email to years of communications. President Donald Trump, who had a lengthy relationship with Epstein, is mentioned thousands of times in the files. Trump has never been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein, and has said he parted ways with him in the mid-2000s because he was a “creep.” He has also denied any wrongdoing.

During a testy oversight hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi on whether any current administration officials have been questioned by the Justice Department about their ties to Epstein.

"I'm stunned that you want to continue talking about Epstein," Bondi replied while sidestepping the question.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump praised Bondi's appearance at the Senate hearing and claimed that the files provide "conclusively" that he "has been 100% exonerated."

Some officials from previous Democratic administrations have appeared in the files — including former President Bill Clinton, his former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler.

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The cancellation of the official House delegation to the annual Munich Security Conference has drawn pushback from Democrats who still plan to attend, even as it’s upended a decades-long tradition of robust bipartisan participation in the high-profile global policy forum.

A House leadership aide told The Hill that cancelling congressional delegations (CODEL) is standard operating procedure during the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

But House Democrats have sharply criticized Republicans for the cancellation, arguing that attending the conference is critical to restoring the United States’ standing with allies amid the Trump administration’s aggressive foreign policy approach.

“Because of the Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, because Republicans refuse to make any compromises or any changes to ICE after the deadly murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, we have a shutdown, and therefore, we cannot go on official CODELS. I’ve decided, along with a number of my Democratic colleagues, to go anyway,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said in a video statement on Thursday.

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died after being poisoned with a rare "dart frog toxin," the United Kingdom's Foreign Office said in a statement released Feb. 14.

The announcement comes two years after Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony. The UK and several other European countries including France, Sweden and Germany accused Russia of orchestrating the poisoning.

"Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia," UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said. She was speaking during an appearance at the Munich Security Conference, which runs through Feb. 15.

"Russia saw Navalny as a threat," Cooper said in Germany, where she met with Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya. The Russian government has not sent a delegation to Munich for the annual security and defense forum. Russia's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a comment on the poisoning allegation.

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Former President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 interview that a video President Donald Trump posted that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, decried by many as racist, was part of a shameless "clown show."

Obama made the comments after podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen said in the interview that a series of messages from White House officials, such as the video posted by Trump and administration officials labeling people who died at the hands of ICE agents as "domestic terrorists," showed a level of cruelty that would have been disqualifying in earlier political times. He asked Obama how the country can come back from that discourse.

"It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction," Obama said. "But as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness."

"There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office," Obama added.

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Israeli fire kills one and wounds several in Gaza: One Palestinian was killed and at least ten others were wounded by Israeli forces on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. Mohammed Dabbash was killed by Israeli army fire in Al-Zarqa area northeast of Gaza City. Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers advanced near the Kuwait roundabout east of Gaza City, opening heavy fire and injuring at least ten Palestinians along Salah al-Din Street, where Palestine Red Crescent Society crews evacuated three wounded under gunfire.

Palestinian paramedic dies in Israeli detention: Hatem Rayyan, a Palestinian paramedic who was detained by Israel on December 27, 2024, during the siege of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, died inside Israel’s Naqab Prison. The Prisoners’ Media Office said his death “brings the number of identified martyrs from the prisoners movement since October 2023 to 88, including 52 prisoners from the Gaza Strip,” describing it as part of “a systematic killing policy and enforced disappearance targeting Palestinian prisoners.”

Trump to launch Gaza reconstruction fund and Stabilization Force at first “Board of Peace” meeting: President Donald Trump will unveil a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction fund for the Gaza Strip and outline plans for a United Nations-authorized International Stabilization Force at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace on February 19 in Washington D.C., Reuters reports. Delegations from at least 20 countries will attend the gathering, with several states reportedly prepared to contribute “several thousands” troops. The meeting is also expected to include briefings on the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza—the Palestinian body designated to assume day-to-day governance from Hamas.

Whistleblowers say CPJ cancelled its annual index to protect Israel: Whistleblowers told The Electronic Intifada that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) scrapped its annual Impunity Index because Israel was set to rank number one. The index—published annually since 2008 and regularly referenced in UN reports—measures countries where journalists are deliberately killed and killers go unpunished. The 2024 edition, covering killings through 2023, ranked Israel second. The 2025 index, reflecting 2024 amid record killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, would have pushed Israel to the top of the list.

Since the index is calculated as a 10-year rolling rate relative to population, Israel would have been ranked near the top, if not number one, for many years to come, the whistleblowers said. They alleged donor and board pressure played a role. In response to Electronic Intifada, CPJ denied that donor considerations play any role in its decisions with respect to Israel or any other country.

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President Donald Trump will announce a multi-billion dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a U.N.-authorized stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace next week, two senior U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Delegations from at least 20 countries, including many heads of state, are expected to attend the meeting in Washington, D.C., which Trump will chair on February 19, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Trump signed documents in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23 establishing the Board of Peace. The board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza plan.

While regional Middle East powers, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western U.S. allies have been more cautious.

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