TV News LIES

Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon is drawing parallels with its 1982 campaign, and could prove even worse as it becomes more protracted, European officials told Middle East Eye.

For many Lebanese, the broad scope of Israel’s military campaign in recent weeks already recalls its 18-year occupation of the south of their country, which ended after years of confrontation with Hezbollah forced Israeli troops to withdraw in 2000.

This time, Beirut has taken unprecedented steps that include opening the door to direct engagement with Israel.

"But the Israelis do not seem to care about any of this," a European official with knowledge on the matter said.

As in the past, Israeli officials have made clear they have a military plan for southern Lebanon and intend to carry it out, he added.

Tel Aviv viewed the offer as too little, too late – given Beirut’s inability to rein in Hezbollah since the end of the last war, in November 2024.

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A Russian Antonov-26 military plane crashed while flying over the Crimean peninsula, killing 29 people, the TASS news agency reported Wednesday, quoting Russia’s defence ministry.

“On 31 March at around 18:00 Moscow time, contact was lost with the An-26 military transport aircraft whilst it was on a scheduled flight over the Crimean Peninsula,” the defense ministry said.

“The search and rescue team has located the crash site of the An-26 aircraft. According to reports from the scene, the six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” the ministry said.

According to the same source, no signs of external impact were found on the wreckage, suggesting that a technical failure was the likely cause of the crash at this stage.

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A federal judge delivered a serious setback to President Donald Trump Tuesday in long-running civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that evidence produced so far in the litigation brought by police officers and Democratic lawmakers indicated that Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that day was political in nature and not subject to the immunity the Supreme Court has found for a president’s official acts.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

The 79-page ruling, years in the making, follows numerous efforts by Trump to scuttle the lawsuit by claiming he is protected by presidential immunity from liability for his actions on the day of the Capitol Riot and in the weeks leading up to that event.

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Lawyers for the man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk have asked to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled in May, saying they need time to review an enormous amount of material and a bullet analysis that could contribute to his defense.

Tyler Robinson’s defense team said in recent court filings that an analysis from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency, could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered during an autopsy to the rifle found near the scene. The FBI is running additional tests, according to court documents.

The agency’s report has been kept private, but attorneys have cited snippets in other public filings that say the results were inconclusive.

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A federal judge on Tuesday halted construction on President Trump’s White House ballroom project.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said that no statute “comes close” to granting Trump the authority he claims he has to execute the $400 million project, barring construction from continuing until Congress authorizes its completion.

“The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families,” Leon wrote. “He is not, however, the owner!”

The Trump administration has appealed the decision.

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A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS, ruling it unconstitutional under the First Amendment because it targeted the broadcasters based on their speech. The decision was welcomed by the networks, while the White House signaled it may appeal.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss issued a March 31, 2026 ruling that the Trump administration cannot enforce the executive order cutting federal funding to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

The executive order, signed by President Donald Trump in May 2025, directed federal agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to terminate all funding for NPR and PBS, and the corporation was dissolved in January 2026.

Judge Moss found the order violated the First Amendment because it lacked neutral criteria and singled out the two broadcasters for the content of their speech.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration “looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue” and called the ruling “ridiculous.”

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When Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, New York State resident Ellen Robillard briefly looked into getting Canadian citizenship. Her mother, after all, was born in Nova Scotia.

As a Democrat, Robillard was despondent at the election results, but she abandoned the idea after realizing that her young son wouldn’t be eligible for citizenship under a law that barred Canadians born abroad from passing their citizenship to children if they were also born outside Canada.

In 2023, however, the Canadian courts ruled that law unconstitutional and the changes to eligibility came into effect in December, suddenly opening up a pathway to Canadian citizenship for many Americans at a time of political upheaval, violence and uncertainty in the US.

Robillard, 52, is applying for citizenship with her son now that the first-generation rule has been scrapped.

Since criteria for citizenship expanded with the passage of Bill C-3 of Canada’s Citizenship Act, millions of Americans have become eligible to claim Canadian citizenship. The amendment reverses a “first-generation” limit imposed by Canada’s Conservative government in 2009.

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President Donald Trump moved to exert federal control over voter rolls and mail-in ballots with an executive order that cracks down on a form of voting he frequently criticizes, even as he used it to cast his own ballot this year.

The move escalates the president's bid to place new restrictions on voting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake. The action was swiftly condemned by Democrats and voting rights groups, who said it interferes with state election administration and makes it harder for people to vote.

Trump's order requires the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with the Social Security Administration to create lists of voting-age U.S. citizens who are residents of each state and transmit them to state voting officials at least 60 days before an election.

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