TV News LIES

A federal judge has ordered the National Park Service not to interfere with a liberal organization’s display of an “86-47” flag at its ongoing demonstration near the National Mall, rejecting the contention that the phrase was meant as a coded call for violence against President Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss issued a two-week restraining order Monday at the request of Accountability Now USA, which has been protesting Trump for months at a site in front of the federal courthouse on Constitution Avenue.

Moss concluded that the group intended to advocate for Trump’s removal from office via impeachment, and that “86” is not an unambiguous call to political violence — and certainly not the kind of “imminent” violence that would be necessary to justify restrictions on speech.

“The Court does not doubt that political violence is on the rise and that it poses a grave threat not just to the targets of the threats but to the country as a whole.re But the enormity of that problem does not change the meaning of Plaintiff’s speech, which by any reasonable measure merely advocated for the President’s impeachment and removal from office — that is, ‘to throw [him] out,’” Moss wrote.

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Settlements totaling more than $1.5 million have been reached so far with people who lost their jobs over social media posts that were critical of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination.

The free-speech cases in Florida, Tennessee and Indiana highlight a growing debate surrounding the First Amendment, political discourse and social media.

It’s “not surprising to see this flurry of settlements,” Aaron Terr, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s director of public advocacy, told USA TODAY. “I think the size and frequency of these settlements shows that violating the First Amendment is expensive.”

USA TODAY reported a little more than two weeks after Kirk was killed, at least 50 people had lost their jobs in the education sector alone. A Reuters investigation also found that 600 people were fired across the private sector for posts they shared about Kirk.

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The Trump administration signaled it is retreating from a heavily criticized $1.766 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that was designed to compensate Americans who said they were unfairly prosecuted during the Biden and Obama presidencies.

The Justice Department on June 1 said it would stop working on the fund after a federal judge temporarily blocked its creation.

Slammed by critics as "slush fund" for President Donald Trump's allies, the effort faced bipartisan opposition in Congress and became an obstacle for Republican leaders to pass a bill aimed at boosting immigration enforcement.

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday, May 29 temporarily ordered the Trump administration not to take further action creating or operating the fund, including transferring any federal dollars or considering any claims. A court hearing is set for June 12 in a case brought by opponents, including a prosecutor who tried cases against people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Israeli forces killed at least eight people, including three women, in air strike on southern Lebanon, according to the country's Health Ministry.

In a statement, the ministry said the attack on the town of Deir Zahrani in the Nabatieh district left 19 others wounded, including five children and six women.

“The massacre committed by the Israeli enemy in a raid on the town of Deir Zahrani, Nabatieh district, at dawn on Sunday… resulted in eight martyrs, including three women, and 19 wounded, including five children and six women,” the ministry said.

Germany warns over Israel's advance into southern Lebanon.

erman Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul has voiced concern over Israel's expanding ground offensive in southern Lebanon, warning that further escalation could deepen an already volatile crisis.

"The Israeli army's advance further into southern Lebanon is cause for serious concern," the statement said, adding: "Any further escalation will exacerbate the already tense situation and trigger new waves of displacement within Lebanon."

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Among the delegation was Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, alongside Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and 13 members of the Knesset.

Smotrich has called for Gaza to be emptied of its Palestinian population and for the destruction of the besieged enclave.

Middle East Eye reported in May that the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court had filed a secret arrest warrant application for Smotrich over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

MEE understands that the charges against Smotrich include forced displacement as a crime against humanity and war crime, the transfer of Israel’s own population as a war crime, and persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity.

Addressing attendees, Smotrich said the parade "reminds me of the Jerusalem Flag March", an ultra-nationalist procession through Jerusalem's Old City and Muslim Quarter on Jerusalem Day where participants have often chanted "Death to Arabs" and while attacking Palestinian and Christian residents.

Eliyahu, another member of the delegation, has previously called for nuclear weapons to be used against Gaza's pre-genocide population of 2.1 million Palestinians.

He has also advocated starving Palestinians in the besieged enclave, declaring that "there is no problem bombing their food and fuel reserves. They should starve."

The Israel Day Parade has long been a fixture of New York's political calendar and is often viewed as a test of political loyalty to Israel among elected officials.

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Could it be that Israel’s 30-year narrative about Iran - one that persuaded US President Donald Trump to wage a criminal and disastrous war of aggression - was always a fiction, an invention cooked up in Tel Aviv? 

Far from Tehran posing an existential danger to Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed for decades, might Israel’s real fear be that a stronger Iran would undermine its unique leverage over Washington, threatening its status as the region’s sole - and unmonitored - nuclear power? 

Might large parts of the globe be facing economic meltdown simply so that Israel can remain the Middle East’s top dog - an unaccountable apartheid state committing genocide against the Palestinian people and ethnically cleansing southern Lebanon?

We got a definitive answer last week, care of the New York Times. It is an uncompromising yes to all of these questions. 

The newspaper reported that Netanyahu not only mis-sold Trump on the idea of quick regime change in Iran following a short “shock and awe” bombing campaign. He also identified to the White House who was going to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader.

Extraordinarily, according to the Times, Netanyahu named the man for the job as former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The aim at the start of the air campaign was for Israel to kill Khamenei, then liberate Ahmadinejad from house arrest by striking the guards who were confining him. 

Presumably, Ahmadinejad was then supposed to storm the citadel and seize the keys to the palace. But only Khamenei’s assassination went according to plan.

Ahmadinejad, who had reportedly been consulted on the scheme beforehand, is believed to have been injured in the Israeli strike near his home. He got cold feet, possibly suspecting he was being set up for assassination too, and went into hiding. His current whereabouts and medical condition are unknown.

More...https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israeli-claims-about-iran-threat-were-always-lie-now-we-have-proof

The EU is exploring emergency interventions to its maritime trade restrictions, moving to temporarily freeze the price cap on Russian crude oil to prevent global energy market disruptions from handing an unintended financial windfall to the Kremlin, Bloomberg reported.

Last year, the EU established a dynamic, automatic mechanism designed to continuously squeeze Russian oil revenues. The rule mandates that every six months, the price cap must be recalculated and legally set exactly 15% below the prevailing average market price of Russia’s benchmark Urals crude.

The current price ceiling is fixed at $44.10 per barrel, with the next formal adjustment scheduled for late summer. Under this restriction, European maritime firms are legally barred from providing vital logistics, shipping, or insurance services for any vessel carrying Russian oil sold above the threshold.

However, the war in Iran and the physical closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz have induced severe instability across global energy networks, causing international crude prices to skyrocket.

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Israeli forces have captured a medieval castle in southern Lebanon which dates back to the Crusader era and raised their flag on the strategic mountaintop, part of Israel's deepest military push into Lebanon in 26 years.

Video showed the Israeli flag fluttering from atop the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle while black smoke billowed from the nearby town of Arnoun. The rapidly expanding Israeli operation, including a swathe of destroyed villages, suggests Israeli forces are planning an extended presence in the region.

Israel previously held the castle during an 18-year-old long military occupation that ended in 2000. A quarter-century later the Israelis are still fighting Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran.

In recent days, Israel has rushed in ground troops and intensified air strikes — while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to "crush" Hezbollah — despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that is officially still in place.

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