TV News LIES

Israel is set to keep Al-Aqsa Mosque closed through the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and beyond, Middle East Eye has learnt.

Sources familiar with the occupied East Jerusalem mosque’s affairs said Israeli authorities informed the Islamic Waqf, the body responsible for administering the site, of the decision in recent days.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, was closed by Israeli authorities earlier this month, citing the “security situation” amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The unprecedented closure, particularly during the month of Ramadan, has been condemned by Palestinians as the latest attempt by Israel to exploit security tensions to impose further restrictions and consolidate control over Al-Aqsa.

This has been the first Ramadan since Israel seized East Jerusalem in 1967 that Palestinians have been unable to perform Friday prayers at the mosque.

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Ukrainian forces struck a major Russian microelectronics factory in Bryansk with Storm Shadow cruise missile air-launched missiles, damaging a facility that produces critical components for Russia’s missile systems, Ukraine’s military said.

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the strike on the Kremniy El Group plant, describing it as part of a broader campaign to reduce Russia’s military-industrial capacity.

“Kremniy El is a critically important link in the chain of production of Russian ‘high-precision’ weapons,” the General Staff said in a statement.

“The plant specializes in discrete semiconductor devices and integrated microchips that serve as the ‘brains’ and ‘nervous system’ of modern weapons.”

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Officials in Cuba reported an island-wide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a "complete disconnection" of the country's electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed.

It was the third major blackout in Cuba over the past four months.

Tomás David Velázquez Felipe, a 61-year-old resident of Havana, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. "What little we have to eat spoils," he said. "Our people are too old to keep suffering."

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Three Tennessee teenagers have filed a class action lawsuit against Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, alleging its large language model powered an app that was used to make nonconsensual nude and sexually explicit images and videos of them when they were girls.

"Like a rag doll brought to life through the dark arts, this [AI-generated] child can be manipulated into any pose, however sick, however fetishized, however unlawful. To the viewer, the resulting video appears entirely real," reads the complaint. "For the child, her identifying features will now forever be attached to a video depicting her own child sexual abuse."

While the perpetrator didn't use xAI's chatbot, Grok or the social media platform X (also owned by xAI), the lawsuit claims that the perpetrator relied on an unnamed app that used xAI's algorithm, citing law enforcement.

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Israel’s announcement on Monday of a ground campaign in new areas of southern Lebanon is fuelling fears of a prolonged occupation among hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese.

Concerns intensified after Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, drawing comparisons with Gaza, warned displaced Lebanese forced from their homes would not be allowed to return until the safety of Israelis near the border was guaranteed, remarks that appeared to suggest the presence of Israeli troops could become prolonged.

Israel’s announcement on Monday of a ground campaign in new areas of southern Lebanon is fuelling fears of a prolonged occupation among hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese.

Concerns intensified after Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, drawing comparisons with Gaza, warned displaced Lebanese forced from their homes would not be allowed to return until the safety of Israelis near the border was guaranteed, remarks that appeared to suggest the presence of Israeli troops could become prolonged.

“Hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite residents of southern Lebanon who have evacuated or are evacuating their homes in southern Lebanon and Beirut will not return to areas south of the Litani line until the safety of northern residents is ensured,” Katz said in a statement. ‘‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to destroy the terror infrastructure in the contact villages near the border in Lebanon,” he added, “just as was done against Hamas in Rafah, Beit Hanoun and the terror tunnels in Gaza”.

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At least 200 US troops have been injured in the US-Israeli war on Iran, a US military spokesperson said on Monday.

“Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 200 US service members have been wounded,” US Central Command spokesperson Cpt Tim Hawkins told the Guardian via email.

“The vast majority of these injuries have been minor,” said Hawkins, adding that 180 troops have since returned to duty. He did not elaborate when asked follow-up questions about what types of injuries service members sustained or their causes.

ABC News previously reported that injuries included burns, shrapnel wound, and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), citing an unnamed US official. Out of the 200 injured, at least 10 military personnel have been “seriously wounded”, Hawkins previously told the outlet.

As of Monday, 13 service members have been killed in the US war with Iran. Six crew members died last week when a US military refuelling plane crashed in western Iraq.

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A federal judge on Monday blocked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to vaccine policy, including the reduction of the recommended childhood immunizations and his remaking of a key vaccine advisory panel.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden appointee, granted a motion by the American Academy of Pediatrics for a preliminary injunction against the reduced childhood immunization schedule earlier this year, along with the remaking of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, invalidating all votes made by the committee since.

Murphy found that the reconstitution of the ACIP last year failed to abide by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. He also found that the CDC bypassing the ACIP when changing the childhood immunization schedule was both a “technical, procedural failure” and “an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee.”

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Hyundai is recalling nearly 70,000 of its 2026 Palisade SUVs while an investigation into the death of a young child continues, the carmaker announced Friday.

The recall, which includes the Palisade Limited and Calligraphy trims, is tied to a defect with the family-friendly second and third-row power seats.

The seats may not detect that a person is sitting there when they fold, Hyundai warned, adding that the second row is built to tilt and slide with the touch of a button.

“Hyundai is aware of a tragic incident involving a Palisade,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “While Hyundai does not yet have the full details and the incident is still under investigation, a young child lost her life. Hyundai extends its deepest sympathies to her family.”

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