TV News LIES

Significant shortages of bread and essential supplies, including food and fuel, have returned to the Gaza Strip as Israel continues to tighten restrictions on the entry of goods and aid.

In recent days, Palestinians in the enclave have been forced to queue for hours to obtain subsidised bundles of bread from the few bakeries still operating, each costing three shekels (around $1).

Free bread distributed by aid groups remains scarce and out of reach for many.

Residents also report rising vegetable prices, while eggs, chicken and meat have nearly disappeared from the market.

Sabreen Abu Ouda, a 45-year-old resident of Gaza City, said her family of 11 receives just one bundle of 10 loaves twice a week.

“When we receive a bag of bread, what does it amount to? One loaf per person? That is not enough, and we go days without bread,” she told Middle East Eye.

“As for vegetables, by God, we have not bought any since the end of Ramadan (on 18 March). We simply cannot afford their rising prices.”

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Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, an award-winning international journalist, has been detained for over a month by the Kuwaiti authorities following social media posts related to the Iran war, campaigners say.

The 41-year-old, an American-born Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 2 March while visiting family in Kuwait. He has been arbitraily detained since then with limited access to his lawyer.

The reasons for Shihab-Eldin’s arrest remain unclear, but the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that it came after he made a series of social media posts related to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The posts included footage of a US fighter jet crashing into a US air base in Kuwait. The CPJ emphasised that he had shared publicly available footage and images.

The press freedom organisation added that Shihab-Eldin is likely charged with spreading false information, harming national security, and misusing his mobile phone - which it says are routinely used against independent journalists by the Kuwaiti authorities.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Tuesday signed a Joint Declaration on Enhanced Defense and Security Cooperation, deepening bilateral ties in air defense, drones, electronic warfare, maritime security and joint defense production.

Zelensky said the agreement marked the first step toward what he described as a “drone deal” with Norway.

“As we speak now, many Shaheds are in Ukrainian skies, and missiles may also be used. So we must keep our air defense supplied,” he said, referring to ongoing Russian attacks after a strike earlier in the day on Dnipro that killed and injured civilians.

Under the agreement, Norway will support the production of drones in Ukraine, while Ukraine will share data, information and knowledge with Norway. Ukrainian drones will also be produced on Norwegian territory.

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he war in Gaza has hardened positions in the Middle East and around the globe. But two men, an Israeli and a Palestinian, say that after that war began in 2023, they became like brothers. It is a brotherhood born out of trauma and one recounted in their forthcoming book, The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land.

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon lived parallel lives. Both ran travel agencies and believed that travel and education could bring societies closer together. They first met a decade ago over tea in Jerusalem, where Abu Sarah, a Palestinian, was born, and they stayed in touch over the years on Facebook.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel that took place on Oct. 7, 2023, changed everything.

Inon's parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were among the more than 1,100 people killed in that attack. Militants killed them at their home in Netiv HaAsara, near Israel's border with Gaza.

Inon was in northern Israel that day. In the aftermath, he says it was Abu Sarah who reached out and saved him "from falling down into the trauma, into the pain, drowning in this ocean of sorrow and agony."

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A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors

Every state that has so far enacted the compact has Democratic electoral majorities, including California, New York and Illinois. But legislation has been introduced in enough states to reach the 270-elector threshold, including swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The legislation relies on two provisions of the US constitution, which would face intense legal scrutiny if and when the compact comes into force. Article II, section 1 of the constitution authorizes each state to appoint electors “in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct”. The constitution does not require states to even have a vote for president, never mind delegating those electors as a state’s voters choose.

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When the Democratic party’s governing body adjourned its meeting on Saturday in New Orleans, supporters of Palestine and an end of the genocide in Gaza had few reasons to celebrate. The Democratic tinmajority of the party’s voters with distinctly negative views of Israel.

Last summer, a Quinnipiac Poll found that 77% of Democrats agreed that “Israel is committing genocide”. Last month, an NBC poll found that 67% of Democrats felt more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis, compared with 17% who felt more sympathetic to Israelis.

But the DNC continues to operate as if fully sealed off from the party’s voters on such matters. When the national meeting got under way on Thursday, the party’s resolutions committee proceeded to quickly discard a pair of resolutions critical of Israel.

One urged “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory” as well as “pausing or conditioning US weapons transfers to any military units credibly implicated in violations of international humanitarian law”. Another included opposition to “military actions that endanger civilians or exacerbate repression” in Iran.

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The US Department of Justice has requested that a federal appeals judge overturn convictions for members of far-right groups Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who were previously found guilty of seditious conspiracy in connection with the violent siege of the US capitol in 2021.

Jeanine Pirro, the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney for the District of Columbia, signed separate motions on Tuesday to vacate convictions for a slew of individuals, including the Proud Boys’ leaders Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs as well as Stewart Rhodes, a former attorney who founded the Oath Keepers’ militia.

The filings represent the latest move the Trump administration has made to absolve the January 6 rioters, a group composed largely of the president’s supporters who stormed the US capitol in a desperate attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump.

Several members of the two far-right groups were later sentenced to prison for their attempted roles to obstruct a peaceful transfer of power. The lengthiest prison term was given to Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, who faced 22 years behind bars.

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The US military said it killed four more people in a boat strike in the eastern Pacific ocean on Tuesday, marking the third deadly attack on vessels in the region in four days.

The US Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the killings in a social media post, claiming, without providing evidence, that the men killed were “narco-terrorists”.

The US military’s boat strikes have now killed at least 174 people since September.

Military officials have consistently alleged that the targets of its lethal boat strikes were “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” but have not presented intelligence or specific details about the individuals to support those assertions.

Legal experts and human rights advocates have repeatedly condemned the strikes as extrajudicial killings that violate US and international law, saying the military cannot execute civilians whom it accuses of crimes.

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