TV News LIES

On Thursday, Feb. 5, Ukraine and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange that resulted in the return of 157 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Ours are home – 157 Ukrainians,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, calling the exchange especially significant as it took place after a long pause in swaps. He said those freed included soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service, as well as civilians.

“Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” the president said, thanking everyone involved in organizing the exchange and Ukrainian forces whose actions help sustain Ukraine’s negotiating position.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said the swap was the first prisoner exchange of 2026 and the 71st since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

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A new Guardian investigation has revealed a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

A private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv.

Private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv, the Guardian found – 

Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

Former US officials and immigration lawyers said the flights – and Israel’s assistance in returning Palestinians to the occupied territory – marked a shift in policy driven by the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign.

US officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two recent flights to Israel but, according to ICE, chartered flight costs have ranged between nearly $7,000 and more than $26,000 per flight hour in the past. Aviation industry sources estimated the flights to and from Israel would have cost ICE from $400,000 to $500,000.

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scored twice, and the United States opened the Milan Cortina Games women’s hockey tournament with a 5-1 win over Czechia on Thursday.

Alex Carpenter had a goal and assist, while captain Hilary Knight and Joy Dunne also scored for the Americans, who improved to 8-0 over the Czechs in international play. Aerin Frankel, making her Olympic debut in net, stopped 13 shots.

Barbora Jurickova scored Czechia’s lone goal. She was set up on a breakaway as she exited the penalty box to cut the Americans lead to 3-1 midway through the second period. Klara Peslarova finished with 37 saves in an outing Czechia was out-shot 31-9 through two periods.

The Czechs are making just their second Olympic appearance, and lost to the Americans in quarterfinal round of the 2022 Beijing Games. They are 0-6 against the U.S. in world championship play, including a 2-1 loss in the semifinals in April.

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New documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) reveal that a number of European officials had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, even after he was a convicted sex offender. 

Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. who was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last September over his connection to the disgraced financier, resigned from the House of Lords on Tuesday after emails showed the two communicated in the years following Epstein pleading guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008.

In December 2009, Epstein asked Mandelson, at the time the first secretary of state, via email whether JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon should call Alistair Darling, then the U.K.’s chancellor of exchequer and head of the British treasury, to offer to contribute more money to a small business fund in exchange for a tax reduction during the global financial crisis.

Mandelson replied, “Yes and mildly threaten.”

Starmer said Thursday that Mandelson “portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew” before he appointed him as ambassador to the U.S. But in a 10-page note Mandelson wrote to Epstein in 2003, he called the financier his “best pal.”

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The U.S. has yet to secure funding commitments for its Gaza reconstruction plan as potential donors voice concerns that disagreements over Hamas disarmament could lead Israel to resume full-scale war in the enclave, sources told Reuters.

Hamas laying down its weapons is a key requirement under Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war. It calls for Israel's military to withdraw troops as Hamas disarms and for Gaza's reconstruction to be overseen by a "Board of Peace" chaired by the U.S. President.

Funding withheld over fears of war restarting, sources say
Push for UN, not Board, to run Gaza funds, diplomats say
No major pledges; Gulf, West hesitate

Two sources with direct knowledge of the Board's planning said that countries were hesitant to commit funds to a rebuilding plan unveiled last month by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, until Hamas disarms.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky made a rare reference to Ukraine’s casualty figures on Wednesday – revealing that 55,000 Ukrainian troops are officially listed as killed in action.

“In Ukraine, officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed is 55,000, including both professional soldiers and people who were mobilized,” he said in a pre-recorded interview with France 2, as per Le Monde.

A “great number of people” are also considered missing in action, Zelensky added.

This is the first time Zelensky has commented on Ukraine’s military death toll since February 2025, when he put the figure at 46,000.

On Jan. 27, the US Center for Strategic & International Studies think tank estimated that the total number of military deaths – including all the Ukrainian and Russian soldiers dead, injured, and missing – is approaching two million.

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