TV News LIES

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced what it described as a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, hailing it as an economic triumph. But critics and nuclear experts have raised concerns around safeguards to prevent Riyadh from developing a nuclear weapon.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, the Minister of Energy His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, signed the agreement. The announcement noted the deal is a “123 agreement,” adhering to U.S. federal law requiring the partner country to meet nonproliferation and security objectives.

The administration said the nuclear cooperation agreement lays the groundwork for a “decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation.”

“The 123 agreement provides great access for American companies in the Saudi nuclear energy program, benefiting American industry, workers, and supply chains while helping to meet Saudi energy needs,” the administration said in its statement.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapaty will become the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ending days of speculation amid the country’s deepening military leadership crisis.

“I am grateful to Oleksandr Syrsky and to every one of our soldiers for Ukraine’s strong front-line positions. I am grateful to Mykhailo Drapaty for precisely this kind of outlook,” Zelensky said.

“A significant path has been walked, Ukraine’s defense continues, and every soldier deserves proper respect,” Zelensky said. “I am grateful to Oleksandr Syrsky and to every one of our soldiers for Ukraine’s strong front-line positions,” he continued.

Zelensky credited Syrsky with securing key wartime results, including the defense of Kyiv, the Kharkiv counteroffensive operation, and the Kursk operation.http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/administrator/index.php?option=com_content&task=add#

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Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, acknowledged on Tuesday he does not have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, but urged US federal authorities to do so if the Israeli prime minister visits the US later this year.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said in a video posted to social media.

Mamdani said he believes the international criminal court warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest over alleged war crimes is justified, but admitted that he lacks the legal authority to enforce it.

“My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the international criminal court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here,” Mamdani said. “It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.

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During the U.S.-Iran talks in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland in late June, Iranian negotiators sent a private message to Vice President JD Vance through an intermediary. The Iranians warned Vance that the continued presence of President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would undermine the chance of turning the June 17 framework into an enduring deal, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site.

The Iranian official spoke to Drop Site on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. In the message, according to the official, Iran conveyed to Vance that the pair were more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the negotiations to profit in financial markets than they were in reaching a deal. Iranian negotiators also expressed concern about repeated leaks from Kushner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (A U.S. official told Axios that since the negotiations began, Witkoff and Kushner “talk almost every day to Netanyahu” and the head of Mossad.)

In the weeks leading up to the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the official said, Iran presented written documentation to mediators of what it characterized as evidence that “individuals close to President Trump” were abusing the Iran war and diplomatic developments to manipulate financial markets. “Even before the Islamabad talks kicked off [in April], we had already sent multiple messages to Trump through the Pakistanis, warning them about [Witkoff’s] overall destructive role in the previous negotiation,” the Iranian official said.

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Hamas has elected Khalil al-Hayya as the new head of its political bureau, placing one of the movement’s most experienced negotiators at the centre of its leadership during a period where Gaza is still facing Israeli genocide and the region faces a renewed war.

The movement announced the result on Monday after an internal ballot of the leadership in which Hayya secured 35 votes, narrowly defeating Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas abroad and a former political bureau chief, who received 34, according to Al Jazeera Arabic Palestine bureau chief, Walid Al Omari.

The vote completed a leadership process that began in May after Hamas failed to settle the contest in its first round.

Hayya, who is based in Qatar, succeeds Yahya Sinwar, who took charge after Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024. Israeli forces killed Sinwar during fighting in Rafah three months later.

In the months that followed, Hamas relied on a five-member interim council led by Mohammed Darwish, the head of its Shura Council, to manage its political affairs and oversee negotiations.

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A former United Nations investigations chief has accused the International Criminal Court’s executive body of subjecting Prosecutor Karim Khan to a “stitch-up” in their decision to suspend him from office over misconduct allegations.

Ben Swanson is a former UN assistant secretary-general and deputy head of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), and has previously served as director of the OIOS Investigations Division. 

Over the past year, he has submitted four expert's opinions commissioned by Khan's legal team to the 21-member bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), criticising the manner in which the investigation into misconduct allegations facing the prosecutor was conducted, and the subsequent handling of the process by the bureau.

In his latest submission on 28 June, obtained by Middle East Eye through independent sources, Swanson denounced the 8 June decision by the bureau, which suspended the prosecutor after concluding by a majority that he committed “serious misconduct”. 

The bureau’s decision departed from the unanimous conclusion of a panel of three judges it appointed, which in March concluded that the facts presented in the UN investigation "do not establish misconduct or breach of duty under the relevant framework".

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