TV News LIES

US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack defended the Syrian government on Tuesday after Israeli air strikes targeted the Abu al-Duhur military air base in northern Syria, calling it an "unnecessary escalation". 

"The Al-Sharaa government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel," he wrote on X. 

"We are deeply concerned," he added. "[This] does not advance regional stability." 

Israel has not confirmed it was behind the attack, but Barrack said it was responsible.

His comments followed a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Istanbul, Turkey, one day earlier.

The Syrian government condemned the attack and said eight strikes hit the runway of the defunct air base in the early morning hours of Tuesday, local time. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes followed a visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield in recent days "as part of efforts to reactivate it".

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, Aug. 18 that Kyiv and Brussels are working on finalizing a Drone Deal, following talks on bilateral defense and diplomatic cooperation.

Zelensky detailed the meeting in a statement on Telegram, saying that he held discussions with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévot, covering nearly all areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the two countries.

“I expect that we will be able to implement what we discussed, and that protection against Russian strikes will increase,” Zelensky said, adding that “Ukraine is also ready to share its experience and expertise and to support partners who have stood with us since the start of the war.”

Zelensky praised Belgium for allocating more than €1.1 billion (roughly $1.3 billion) in support to Ukraine already disbursed this year, along with Belgium’s backing of Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida on Tuesday suspended an ally from his role as Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller — the same day the clerk was arrested on child sex abuse charges.

Michael Caruso, 67, has been charged with kidnapping; lewd or lascivious molestation; lewd or lascivious exhibition; luring or enticing a child; and child abuse (mental injury). The news comes a year after DeSantis appointed Caruso — who served in the Florida House of Representatives for seven years — to his clerk role in August 2025. Caruso had also just filed paperwork in February to run for reelection this November.

“Early this morning, with substantial assistance from FDLE [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] and local law enforcement, Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso was arrested on charges related to child sexual abuse,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said Tuesday morning. “The investigation is ongoing, and we will provide more information to the public at the appropriate time.”

In October 2025, the father of the child, who was under the age of 5, saw the child engage in inappropriate behavior with his brother (placing his genitalia on his brother’s face), according to the affidavit for the arrest warrant, which was included in a document published by DeSantis.

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The Palestinian American whose home in the occupied West Bank has been besieged by Israeli settlers for over a week traveled to his property on Monday to join other family members who have been defending it.

The standoff, in the village of Qusra, has seen groups of settlers surround several Palestinian houses and prevent residents from leaving. The United States has condemned the siege and the Israeli military has deployed troops it says are there to maintain order.

The siege of Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers comes as violence in the West Bank has soared in recent months. The settlers, emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government, have ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and villages, harassing residents and setting homes, mosques and fields ablaze.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 87 Palestinians so far this year, according to Palestinian health officials. Palestinians have killed three Israelis, including two who were killed during clashes in the West Bank village of Tell last month.

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In Florida's primary election, Republican incumbent Rep. Cory Mills lost his race in the 7th congressional district. That's according to a race call by The Associated Press.

Mills, running for his third term, lost to his main Republican challenger, former local television news anchor Ryan Elijah who won by about 12 percentage votes.

Mills is the latest lawmaker in a recent string of congressional members facing scandals and allegations of domestic abuse while running for elected office. The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation this year over allegations that Mills assaulted a former girlfriend and also violated campaign finance laws.

NPR reached out to Mills' office for a response to those allegations but did not hear back. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Mills' campaign signs feature "Trump Endorsed" in big letters across the top, and though President Trump did endorse him in February, he left Mills out of a number of endorsements posted on social media running up to Tuesday's primary election.

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Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis.

Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor.

If he wins the November election, as he is expected to do in the conservative stronghold, Donalds would become the first Black governor in any southern US state.

So confident was Donalds of victory that his television advertisements in the weeks leading to the primary ignored his Republican challengers and focused on former Republican congressman David Jolly, who secured the Democratic party’s nomination on Tuesday.

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Thirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions.

Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews – and end partnerships deemed problematic – by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian.

“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said in a news release from Monday.

The Pentagon said the reviews are intended to protect taxpayer-funded research from unauthorized technology transfers, intellectual-property theft and exploitation by foreign adversaries.

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In an upset for the Democratic establishment, progressive Angie Nixon won the party’s US Senate primary in Florida, beating former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman.

Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had significantly less funding going into the primary – with $975,000 to Vindman’s $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics.

Vindman served on the national security council in Donald Trump’s first term and became a well-known whistleblower and witness in the president’s first impeachment, centered on Trump pressuring Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, to investigate Joe Biden.

Democrats have their sights set on upsetting Republican Ashley Moody in the US Senate general election. Moody, picked by DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio when he became secretary of state last year, won what was almost a token primary election to run in November to serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s term.

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