TV News LIES

A federal judge ordered the Justice Department on Friday to return data it seized and obtained in 2017 from a longtime friend of former FBI Director James Comey, concluding that prosecutors had violated law professor Daniel Richman’s constitutional rights and misused his material in their quest to indict Comey.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the material from Richman — an image of his hard drive and files from his iCloud and Columbia University email accounts — was handled with “callous disregard” for Richman’s rights. Prosecutors rummaged through the materials without a warrant as they pursued a slapdash case against Comey, the judge found, calling it a “remarkable breach of protocol.”

However, in a significant concession to prosecutors, Kollar-Kotelly ordered that a copy of all the data the government obtained be deposited with a federal court in Virginia. That provision, the judge said, would ensure that prosecutors could seek to regain access to the materials if they can persuade the court there to do so.

“This Court concludes that although Petitioner Richman is entitled to the return of the improperly seized and searched materials at issue here,” the Clinton-appointed judge wrote, “he is not entitled to an order preventing the Government from ‘using or relying on’ those materials in a separate investigation or proceeding, as long as they are obtained through a valid warrant and judicial order.”

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U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed Saturday that two U.S. service members and one civilian were killed, and several others injured, after a gunman tied to ISIS launched an ambush.

“On Dec. 13, two U.S. service members and one U.S. civilian were killed, and three service members were injured, as a result of an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman in Syria,” CENTCOM wrote on social platform X. “The gunman was engaged and killed.”

“As a matter of respect for the families and in accordance with Department of War policy, the identities of the service members will be withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin have been notified,” the statement continues. “Updates will be provided as they become available.”

Troops were conducting a joint field patrol when they came under fire alongside Syrian security forces near the city of Palmyra, SANA, the government backed news agency, explained in a post on X.

“The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a statement.

“Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” he added.

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At least two people were killed, and eight were injured in a shooting at Brown University's campus in Providence, Rhode Island, according to the city's mayor.

"Sadly, today is a day that the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island prayed would never come," Mayor Brett Smiley said during a news conference on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 13. "We've heard about horrific acts of gun violence and active shooter situations in other places, but not here."

Smiley confirmed the two deaths and said the eight are in critical, yet stable, conditions at Rhode Island Hospital. He advised that the numbers may change as authorities are "still in early hours."

Jack DiPrimio, a 23-year-old student in the university's Master of Public Affairs program, said he was in an academic building listening to music and applying for jobs on his laptop when he received an alert text message to take cover.

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Israel’s security cabinet has signed off on plans to formalise 19 illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, in a move Palestinian officials say deepens a decades-long project of land theft and demographic engineering.

Israeli media reported on Friday that the decision also revives two northern West Bank outposts dismantled during the 2005 “disengagement”.

The Israeli press outlet Ynet claimed the plan “was coordinated with the US in advance”, while Channel 14 said the push came from far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – a settler himself and one of the most hardline figures in Israel’s governing coalition.

Settlement expansion, though illegal under international law, is widely accepted across Israel’s political spectrum.

Palestinian officials condemned the decision, warning that it accelerates Israel’s annexation drive.

Mu’ayyad Sha’ban of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission described it as another step towards erasing Palestinian geography, saying it underscored growing fears about the future of the territory.

Hamas condemned the plan as a dramatic escalation. In a statement, the group said the move “constitutes a dangerous escalation in the annexation and Judaisation project” and reflects a government that “treats Palestinian land as colonial spoils and desperately seeks to entrench a settlement reality, ultimately aiming for complete control over the West Bank”.

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Germany summoned the Russian ambassador on Friday, accusing Moscow of orchestrating a cyberattack on the nation’s air traffic control systems and attempting to meddle in the country’s federal elections earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the German Federal Foreign Office asserted that Russian military intelligence was responsible for “a cyber-attack against German air traffic control in August 2024.” The official also alleged that Moscow had sought to interfere in the February federal elections, aiming to destabilize Germany’s political landscape.

In a statement to AFP, Russia’s embassy in Berlin dismissed the accusations, calling them “baseless, unfounded, and absurd” and denying any involvement of state structures or affiliated hacker groups.

“The objective of these Russian cyber and disinformation operations is unmistakable: to sow division, erode trust, provoke societal rejection, and undermine confidence in democratic institutions,” foreign ministry spokesperson Martin Giese said.

Giese indicated that the cyberattack bore the hallmarks of Fancy Bear, a hacking collective widely believed to operate on behalf of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, advancing Moscow’s political objectives.

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The Trump administration is proposing new rules that would further tighten its grip on who's allowed into the U.S., asking visitors from several dozen countries that benefit from visa-free travel to hand over their social media history and other personal information.

The new conditions were unveiled in a notice from the Department of Homeland Security earlier this week and are open for public comment and review for 60 days before going into effect.

The proposed measure applies to citizens from the 42 countries that belong to the visa waiver program and currently don't require visas for tourist or business visits to the U.S. Those foreign citizens would now have to submit five years' worth of their social media activity to be considered for entry.

They'd also have to provide emails they have used for the past 10 years, as well as phone numbers and home addresses of immediate family members. Officials would also be able to scrutinize IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos.

TVNL Comment:  Tourists should stay away from the US.  This is as insulting as it is racist.  Check out the countries involved.

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U.S. service members — including staff officers and at least one drone pilot — are seeking advice from outside groups, fearing they could face legal consequences for any involvement in the Trump administration's lethal strikes on suspected drug boats.

Over the past three months, the U.S. has blown up more than 20 vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that the administration says were running illicit narcotics. More than 80 people have been killed in the strikes.

The administration says it is taking action to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. It says the strikes are legal and are being conducted under the laws of war, and that President Trump ordered them under his Article II powers as commander-in-chief and in self-defense.

Many legal experts, however, including former military lawyers, contend the strikes against the alleged civilian narcotraffickers are unlawful and amount to murder.

The vast gulf between those two legal views has left some members of the U.S. military in the lurch, worried about potential legal blowback for themselves for taking part in the campaign.

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On a December day when temperatures dipped below 20 degrees, Street Vendor Project staff walked along a busy commercial street in the Bronx, handing out “know your rights” information to vendors selling fruits and vegetables. Several vendors mentioned they were scared after watching videos of immigration raids across the city.

“We used to go around helping vendors apply for permits so they wouldn’t get fined,” said Eric Nava-Pérez, Street Vendor Project’s Spanish-speaking member organizer. “But now, we’re out here distributing immigration rights information.”

As he checked in with various vendors, he asked them if they’d seen any recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and instructed them on when to use the whistles he was distributing. “Blow the whistles as loud as you can if you see la migra,” he said. “Contact us or stop by our office if you have any questions.”

The membership-based organization for street vendors has been traversing immigrant neighborhoods across the five boroughs more than ever over the past few months. Under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration this year, ICE has made 7,488 arrests in New York. Street vendors have been increasingly targeted.

In late October, 14 people, both immigrants and protesters, were detained by agents in Manhattan’s Chinatown after a conservative influencer posted about a “huge group of African illegal immigrants” selling counterfeit goods. A second large-scale operation in lower Manhattan was thwarted in late November after 200 protesters blocked law enforcement vehicles from leaving their garages.

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