TV News LIES

U.S. military contractors need at least three years to replenish stockpiles of three key weapons systems used heavily in the Iran war, according to an analysis released Wednesday, adding to concerns that American forces would have limited firepower in any future conflict with China.

The weapons systems are Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are used to strike targets deep inside enemy territory, and Patriot and THAAD interceptors that defend against incoming missiles and drones.

“The United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in its new report, provided to The Associated Press. “The time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern.”

China has a stated goal of ensuring its military is capable of taking Taiwan by force if necessary by 2027, which experts see as more aspirational than a hard deadline. But Chinese President Xi Jinping warned this month that if Washington mishandles its relations with the self-governing island, the U.S. and China could end up clashing or even in open conflict.

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The U.S. military intercepted and shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones and struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Hill on Wednesday. 

Bandar Abbas is a port city on the southern coast of the nation, located on the Persian Gulf.

The Iranian drones posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway that the Iranian regime has effectively choked off.

“These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the U.S. official said. 

The strikes come as President Trump maintained on Wednesday that Iran wants to strike a deal but offered a few details of what’s in the potential deal to end the war in the Middle East.

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The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the U.S. like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodríguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, the official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision.

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Canada has entered into talks to buy Saab’s GlobalEye early warning jets, which are based on Canadian-made Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft. The deal is projected to support 3,000 jobs in Canada’s aerospace and defense sector.

Canada picked Saab over Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail jets, which have been plagued by cost overruns. Another option would have been the Aeris X made by L3Harris.

“The first job of the government is to keep Canadians safe. Our government is protecting Canadians and supporting our Allies with an approach that transforms defence procurement,” Carney said in a statement. “With our new strategy, we are building our economy and creating careers in the skilled trades, science and engineering. The GlobalEye procurement will help us secure our North and build our economy at once.”

GlobalEye is equipped with powerful active and passive sensors, able to provide long-range detection and identification of objects at sea, air and on land.

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The segment at the center of Alfonsi's reported comments, "Inside CECOT," examined the infamous anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Human rights groups condemned the maximum-security facility for its dangerous conditions, and the prison has served as a symbol in President Donald Trump's controversial immigration enforcement.

A CBS spokesperson said the story was halted because it needed additional reporting. The segment eventually aired on Jan. 18 with added comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, details of the criminal records of those deported, and additional reporting on one with tattoos, the network said in a statement shared with USA TODAY.

Alfonsi, 53, said in an email to multiple news outlets, including Reuters, that she learned that CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss cut the segment not because of an editorial decision but "a political one."

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A bipartisan group of 35 federal judges asked a federal court in Florida to reopen the legal case between President Donald Trump and the Internal Revenue Service and investigate whether the two parties' out-of-court settlement was an act of fraud against the court.

"The Court was deceived," the 24-page motion reads, adding that the settlement "commandeers the contrived sum of $1.776 billion from the United States Treasury, to be handed out to recipients chosen by a commission effectively controlled by the President."

Trump effectively sued the government that he leads when he filed suit against the IRS and Treasury Department in January seeking $10 billion in damages over the agency's past leak of his tax returns.

Voluntarily withdrawing the lawsuit meant the judge assigned to the case, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, did not rule on the case's merits ‒ nor did the judge weigh in on the settlement that plaintiffs reached with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney.

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THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Bill will be brought before cabinet for government approval later, with the aim of enacting it before the Dáil summer recess.

The long-awaited bill was first proposed by senator Frances Black in 2018 and would ban trade from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee will later seek government approval and aims to meet this summer deadline.

A department spokesperson remarked that Ireland has “continually advocated for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians”.

However, the spokesperson added that it is “clear from the actions of the Israeli government, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, that they have no intention of reaching a peaceful resolution”.

The spokesperson added that it “remains the government’s preference that collective action would be taken at EU level” and that McEntee is “continuing to actively pursuing this”.

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Israel has built more than 25 kilometers of earthen barriers inside Gaza since the “ceasefire,” according to an analysis by Forensic Architecture—physically dividing Gaza along the line of Israeli control and further corralling Palestinians into less than half of the enclave.

In the more than seven months since Hamas and Israel signed a ceasefire agreement that was supposed to end Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza and set the stage for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops, Israel has instead been fortifying military bases in the eastern part of the territory it controls and constructing a physical barrier walling off Palestinians from most of the Gaza Strip, according to the research, which draws on satellite imagery and other data.

As part of the October 2025 deal, Israeli troops withdrew to the “yellow line” that runs roughly parallel to Gaza’s coastline and cuts off large chunks of territory at the northern and southern ends of the enclave, giving Israel control of 53% of the Gaza Strip. Since then, they have encroached further west and now effectively control over 60% of the territory. In January, Drop Site News first published findings by Forensic Architecture that showed Israel had begun constructing berms—large, raised mounds of earth—to create a physical separation between the area it controls and the area the Palestinian population has been forced into.

The latest findings show that the berms have been extended to create a mostly unbroken wall. Much of the berm runs west of the yellow line, going even deeper into Palestinian territory. In places like Jabaliya, the Israeli military has created a “buffer zone” along the yellow line, destroying everything in a 300 meter vicinity and creating an effective no man’s land west of the line.

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