TV News LIES

John Sterling, whose voice became synonymous with the New York Yankees, has died at the age of 87.

Sterling, a native New Yorker, started broadcasting Yankees games on radio in 1989 and continued until he retired in 2024. During that span, he called 5,420 regular-season games and 211 in the postseason. He rarely missed a game and worked 5,060 consecutive games between 1989 and 2019. During one memorable game in 2023, he was hit by a foul ball during a broadcast and returned to work the next day.

“We are devastated to hear about the passing of John Sterling, a WFAN and Yankees radio icon whose voice was synonymous with an entire generation of Yankee fandom,” WFAN Sports Radio said in a statement.

Sterling’s career coincided with an era of immense success for the Yankees: he was on the call when the team won five World Series titles. He was known for his passion, knowledge and exclaiming “The Yankees win!” after victories.

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New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and other local officials on Monday condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after federal officers dragged a man out of a hospital building where he had been taken following an arrest, prompting a crowd of protesters to gather outside, where they clashed with police.

The incident over the weekend has also drawn scrutiny from critics questioning the New York police department’s response at the scene, in relation to New York City’s sanctuary laws, which bar local police from assisting federal immigration authorities in civil immigration enforcement.

The incident unfolded on Saturday night outside the Wyckoff Heights medical center in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, where dozens began gathering after reports that ICE officers had brought in a man they had detained.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, said in a statement on Sunday that agents had been conducting “a targeted enforcement operation” in Brooklyn that “resulted in the arrest of Chidozie Wilson Okeke”, a Nigerian citizen. The agency said he had overstayed a tourist visa and also had been previously arrested for assault and drug possession, though it did not provide further details.

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The Department of Homeland Security is closing an office responsible for investigating misconduct and abuse in the immigration detention system, according to an internal email to DHS employees obtained by HuffPost.

The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman is in the process of removing all its public signage and ending its inspections, according to the email.

The office’s public-facing website, which advised the families and attorneys of detainees on how to file complaints, was down as of Monday afternoon. Even basic informational webpages explaining the office’s responsibilities appeared to have been taken offline.

The email attributed the closure to a lack of funding in the Homeland Security appropriations bill that ended the recent shutdown, though the text of that bill does not require the closure of the ombudsman’s office.

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The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is under threat of falling apart after President Trump declared that the U.S. would “guide” vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in an effort he called “Project Freedom,” to begin Monday.

In response, Iran’s armed forces said they would not allow passage to American combat forces or commercial ships without their authorization.

Tehran’s forces opened fire on U.S. warships and commercial vessels on Monday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) head Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters. He said American forces returned fire and destroyed six small Iranian boats.

Cooper would not say whether the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran had ended.

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When you hear about a massive human trafficking and prostitution sting — 266 arrests in one Florida county — you expect disturbing details. But what stands out here isn’t just the scale. It’s who some of these people are, and what that says about a bigger pattern.

Among those arrested: Craig Long, a self-described MAGA influencer with more than half a million followers. Someone who built a platform around political commentary and proximity to power.

“He’s an influencer. He moves in big circles even with the president. This is a photograph of him with the president and his son not long ago.” That’s Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. He didn’t stop there: “Well there you go, you got arrested in a human trafficking sting. Influence that for a while.”

And he’s not the only one raising eyebrows.

Another man highlighted by investigators, in the same sting operation, Ryan Yates, has a history that connects to something much bigger: the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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The Supreme Court on May 4 reinstated mail-order access to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone, a temporary decision that gives the justices more time to consider the issue.

The court intervened after the Food and Drug Administration was ordered on May 1 to revive a requirement that doctors prescribe the drug only after an in-person exam. It was the first time access to mifepristone had been significantly curtailed during years of litigation over the drug, which was first approved in 2000.

At the request of drugmakers, Justice Samuel Alito paused until May 11 the restrictive ruling by a lower court while the full court decides what the rules for mifepristone should be as Louisiana challenges expanded access.

“This ruling is not final − keep watching,” Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “Getting abortion pills through telehealth has been a lifeline for women since Roe v. Wade was overturned. There is no reason people shouldn’t be able to get mifepristone at a pharmacy or through the mail.”

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An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, their lawyer said on Sunday.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish national of Palestinian origin, and Thiago Avila, a Brazilian national, were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday and brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestine activists aboard the Global Sumud flotilla were taken to the Greek island of Crete.

According to the Brazilian embassy, Avila said he had been subjected to torture, beatings and mistreatment in Israeli detention.

During a monitored visit in which he was separated by glass and unable to communicate freely, embassy officials observed visible marks on his face. He also reported significant pain, particularly in his shoulder.

Abu Keshek was "subjected to torture and severe abuse while detained aboard the military vessel prior to transfer", the Global Sumud flotilla said, citing eyewitness testimony.

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For decades, two irreconciliable narratives about Israel and its motivations have existed in parallel. 

On the one side, an official western narrative portrays a plucky, besieged "Jewish" state of Israel, desperate to make peace with its hostile Arab neighbours. Even to this day, that story dominates the political, media and academic landscape. 

Time and again, or so we are told, Israel has held out an olive branch to "the Arabs", seeking acceptance, but is always rebuffed. 

A largely unspoken subtext suggests that supposedly irrational, bloodthirsty, Jew-hating regimes across the region would have completed the Nazis’ exterminationist agenda but for the West’s humane protection of a vulnerable minority.

It presents Israel as an ethnic supremacist, highly militaristic state - armed by the US and Europe - bent on expansion, mass expulsions and land theft.

On this view, the West implanted Israel as a colonial military outpost, there to subdue the native Palestinian population, and terrorise neighbouring states into submission through relentless and overwhelming displays of force. 

Palestinians cannot make peace, or reach any kind of accommodation, because Israel pursues only conquest, domination and erasure. No middle ground is possible.

The proof, note Palestinians, is Israel’s long-standing refusal to define its borders. As its military power has grown decade after decade, ever more extreme political agendas have surfaced, demanding not just Israel’s takeover of the last remnants of the Palestinian territories it illegally occupies but expansion into neighbouring states like Lebanon and Syria.

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