TV News LIES

In Melekino, near Russian-occupied Mariupol, Russian soldiers who refuse to fight (refusniks) have reportedly been held for months in a basement.

The independent Russian outlet Astra, citing sources, reports that a soldier from Buryatia – identified under the assumed name “Yegor Kharin” for safety – arrived in Melekino in June 2025 and was immediately taken to the basement of an abandoned construction site.

Melekino, a resort village on the Sea of Azov about 20 kilometers from Mariupol, has been under Russian control since 2022. Astra says the unfinished building is the 24th such detention site it has identified since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.

“Darkness, gloom, no air, damp, cardboard boxes, pallets, bottles,” is how Kharin described the basement.

According to him, soldiers there said they had been held for eight months, sometimes a year.

“Those who left their unit without leave (AWOL), deserters, and non-deserters – they put all them there,” he said.

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A US judge on Wednesday morning blocked the deployment by the federal government of national guard troops in Los Angeles and ordered the guard returned to the control of the California governor, a court filing showed.

The Trump administration is being challenged in federal court over its authority and ratio

In a historically rare move, the Trump administration federalized California’s national guard in June, dispatching about 4,000 troops in response to protests in the city over immigration raids, despite opposition from the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who quickly filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state.

Newsom called the move unprecedented and illegal, and the case has been unfolding in the courts for months.

On Wednesday, the US district judge Charles Breyer rejected the Trump administration’s claim that recent protests against aggressive enforcement by the federal immigration authorities amounted to a rebellion.

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nale for continuing to maintain command over the national guard troops it deployed to the city earlier this year.

In a historically rare move, the Trump administration federalized California’s national guard in June, dispatching about 4,000 troops in response to protests in the city over immigration raids, despite opposition from the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who quickly filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state.

Newsom called the move unprecedented and illegal, and the case has been unfolding in the courts for months.

On Wednesday, the US district judge Charles Breyer rejected the Trump administration’s claim that recent protests against aggressive enforcement by the federal immigration authorities amounted to a rebellion.

Health professionals are noting a surge in a norovirus called “winter vomiting disease,” which spreads through contaminated food and water.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors wastewater surveillance testing, which has indicated that the virus is spreading earlier and faster than usual.

Reported cases, particularly in Louisiana, Michigan and Indiana, have been surging since October. California, Alabama, Texas and Florida have also been flagged for pockets of outbreaks.

Each year, there are about 2,500 reported norovirus outbreaks in the U.S., according to the CDC.

A variant of norovirus known as GII.17 has begun to raise concerns for health professionals after cases spiked. In 2024, the GII.17 mutation was responsible for about 75 percent of outbreaks, per the health agency.

Prior to that, the GII.4 strain dominated norovirus outbreaks for more than three decades.

“When new strains emerge, people are exposed to a strain that they have not previously been exposed to, and hence are more likely to get infected,” Lee-Ann Jaykus, a professor in the department of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences at North Carolina State University, told Newsweek.

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Democratic lawmakers and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expressed concern Wednesday that the seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker by the U.S. could further increase tensions between the two countries, while other GOP senators said they were awaiting more information.

“It sounds a lot like the beginning of a war,” Paul told NewsNation’s Hannah Brandt on Capitol Hill.

The libertarian senator, a frequent critic of the Trump administration’s posture towards Venezuela, added that it is not “the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries and beginning wars.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Conn.) echoed Paul’s worries, telling NewsNation that while he does not know the details of the incident, he is “gravely concerned that [Trump] is sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.”

Coons, the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, noted that he has not received a detailed briefing on the administration’s plans for a potential war with Venezuela, the path forward or how to manage risks.

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The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid a monthslong buildup of military forces surrounding the country, President Trump confirmed on Dec. 10.

"As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela," Trump said at a meeting at the White House.

"Largest one ever seized, actually. And other things are happening."

Trump declined to provide additional details about the tanker to reporters and said the administration would be releasing more information at a later time.

The president added, “It was seized for a very good reason.”

Asked by a reporter what happens to the oil on the tanker, Trump said: “You’re a good newsman. Just follow the tank.”

“I assume we’re going to keep the oil,” Trump said.

“You see the result, and I guess they probably released the pictures by now – pretty soon,” Trump said. “You’ll discuss that with the appropriate people later on.”

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On July 20, around ten masked men raided the Palestinian hamlet of Ibsiq in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. They arrived in a two car convoy, dressed in Israeli military-issue fatigues, and carried assault rifles fitted with green laser pointers.

While their vehicles blocked the road, they stormed into a cluster of homes. At gunpoint, they forced a Palestinian family to their knees and warned them they had 48 hours to evacuate Area C and go to Area B—referring to technical designations of control in the West Bank under the Oslo Accords. Area C is under full Israeli control and Area B is technically under Palestinian civil administration but shares security control with Israel. The masked men said they would “return and burn the community down,” if the family did not evacuate to Area B.

I had been staying with an elderly Palestinian couple for five days in Ibsiq to document settler violence amid rising threats against the community. As the men approached, I asked one of them who he was. They looked like soldiers, but the vehicles in which they arrived had yellow civilian license plates. These masked assailants were members of the hagmar— settler reservist militias formally attached to the Israeli army and tasked with “security” in West Bank settlements.

The men dragged me behind a fence where four of them beat me until I required hospitalization. They stole the phone of an International Solidarity Mission activist who tried to record the attack.

My host, Abu Safi, who was 84, had little choice but to leave his home after that raid by the hagmar. The family packed up their belongings accumulated over decades in the house and moved to a nearby location in Area B. Abu Safi died of a heart attack soon afterwards.

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Hamas on Tuesday called for more international pressure on Israel before the militant group moves forward with the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, with a Hamas leader saying it wants Israel to open a key border crossing, cease deadly strikes and allow more aid into the strip devastated by the two-year war.

The demand came as Israel’s government says it is ready to move into the next and more complicated phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire agreement, while calling on Hamas to return the remains of the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza as envisioned in the deal.

Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’ political wing, called for the “full implementation of all the terms of the first phase” before moving forward, including an end to what he called the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes in the majority of the territory still controlled by Israel.

Israeli airstrikes and shootings in Gaza have killed at least 376 Palestinians since the ceasefire took hold on Oct. 10, according to Palestinian health officials.

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