TV News LIES

The United States interdicted a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, two sources familiar with the raid told USA TODAY on Dec. 20, just days after President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

The sources identified the vessel as the Centuries, which maritime records show is a Panama-flagged oil tanker. The ship is not under U.S. sanctions, the sources said. Marine traffic trackers showed the Centuries was off the coast of Venezuela in the waters of Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island.

The Centuries is a 333-meter-long oil tanker that last docked in Singapore in October, according to vessel tracker Maritime Optima. Its reported seizure would mark the second time in recent weeks that the United States has seized a tanker near Venezuela and comes amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region. The seizure was first reported by Reuters.

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Dr. Kade Goepferd watched the Trump administration's moves on Thursday to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth with "a mix of sadness and frustration."

Goepferd, who is the founder of Children's Minnesota Gender Health Program, says that for the medical community, nothing has changed about the evidence supporting gender-affirming care that could justify the government's actions.

"There's a massive propaganda and disinformation campaign that is selectively targeting this small population of already vulnerable kids and their families," Goepferd says.

Federal health officials said many times at Thursday's announcement that their actions were driven by science and evidence, not politics or ideology. They frequently praised a report published by the Department of Health and Human Services in November. It concluded that clinicians who provide medical care to help youth transition have failed their patients and emphasized the benefits of psychotherapy as an alternative.

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When 10-year-old Bayan Al-Ankah was fatally shot in the head by the Israeli military while in a displaced persons camp in Gaza last week, according to her family, she became one of several hundred Palestinians killed during a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Mediators Qatar and Egypt worry that the truce is threatened by near-daily Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The continued viability of the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza hinges on two crucial next steps: the deployment of an international force in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.

But countries involved in this key phase of the ceasefire are still debating fundamental details about how to proceed — and the U.S. goal of having international forces in Gaza by early 2026 faces challenges.

A U.S. State Department document this month obtained by NPR lays out the Trump administration's vision for the international troops: to be "supporting the demilitarization of Gaza, dismantling terrorist infrastructure" and "decommissioning weapons used by terrorists."

But many countries say they will refuse to send troops to confront Hamas over its weapons.

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Republican US representative Elise Stefanik – a staunch ally of Donald Trump who calls herself “ultra-Maga” – is ending her campaign for New York governor and will not seek re-election to Congress.

Stefanik wrote on X: “It is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York”.

Once considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor, Stefanik’s race became more complicated after Bruce Blakeman, the executive of Nassau county, entered the race. If she did manage to win the primary, she would have faced a tough battle to unseat New York’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul, who has been polling far ahead in a state where Democrats far outnumber Republicans.

The state’s Republican chair, Ed Cox, said the party respected Stefanik’s decision and endorsed Blakeman. “Bruce Blakeman has my endorsement and I urge our state committee and party leaders to join me,” Cox said in a prepared statement. “Bruce is a fighter who has proven he knows how to win in difficult political terrain.”

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The US military launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on US personnel, two US officials said on Friday.

The attacks come after Donald Trump vowed to hit back after an attack last weekend in Syria by a suspected Islamic State member.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the strikes as a large-scale response that included targets across central Syria.

Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the US was inflicting “very serious retaliation”.

US Central Command said the strikes hit more than 70 targets across central Syria, adding that Jordanian fighter jets supported the operation.

Syria reiterated its steadfast commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring that it has “no safe havens on Syrian territory”, according to a statement by the foreign ministry.

Two US Iowa national guard members and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military. Three other US soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

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The latest tranche of files related to Jeffrey Epstein include more photos of the wealth adviser with rich and powerful people from all over the world.

The files released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19 are in addition to previous releases from the House Oversight Committee, and a batch that USA TODAY received from the nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets.

Some of the records reviewed by USA TODAY are photos with no date, location, or other context. Other records are emails released in batches.

The names include a former president, famous entertainers, businessmen, and a former prime minister.

Former President Bill Clinton appears in multiple photos either with Epstein associates or with young women.

In one picture, a woman whose face is blacked out sits on the 42nd president's lap. Another photograph shows an unidentified person with their face blacked out along with Clinton in a hot tub. The former president is also seen in a picture swimming with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking and who women have accused of participating in their abuse.

Clinton rode on Epstein's private jet 26 times, according to a Business Insider analysis of flight logs.

Gates McGavick, a Justice Department spokesman, posted a Dec. 19 message on X that included the hot tub photo of Clinton in the hot tub with an unidentified person.

Clinton rode on Epstein's private jet 26 times, according to a Business Insider analysis of flight logs.

Gates McGavick, a Justice Department spokesman, posted a Dec. 19 message on X that included the hot tub photo of Clinton in the hot tub with an unidentified person.

"Beloved Democrat President," McGavick said in the post. "The black box is added to protect a victim."

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Republican lawmakers support President Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile military campaign against Venezuela, including lethal U.S. strikes against suspected drug smuggling boats and seizing sanctioned oil tankers coming to and from the South American country.

But there’s one step they aren’t willing to endorse, at least so far: a military invasion involving land-based troops.

“I don’t think having troops on the ground in Venezuela is a good idea,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told HuffPost. “Putting pressure, in terms of the sanctions on the oil — a lot of that oil has already been sanctioned, as you know — I think it’s fine.”

“My views haven’t changed about landing ground troops or offensive operations in Venezuela. I’m not a forcible regime change guy,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) noted.

But the questions surrounding the legality, strategy and wisdom of Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela and its president-turned-dictator Nicolas Maduro, have so far not resulted in significant Republican pushback against the administration’s approach, even as rumors swirl of further escalations and potential pushes for outright regime change.

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