TV News LIES

Ukrainian strikes disrupted power and heating to two major Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, local Russian officials reported Sunday.

The report comes as Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure and U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war have not advanced.

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s top diplomat accused Moscow of deliberately endangering nuclear safety, as he said Russia’s mass drone and missile attack on Friday struck substations that power two nuclear power plants.

And in Russia, the Kremlin spokesman said Moscow intended to honor its obligations under a global nuclear test ban, despite a recent order by President Vladimir Putin to study the possibility of resuming atomic tests.

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A Russian drone slammed into an apartment building in eastern Ukraine early Saturday while many were sleeping, killing four people — three in Dnipro and one in Kharkiv — and wounding 12 others, Ukrainian authorities reported.

The attack in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, was part of a large Russian missile and drone barrage across the country that targeted power infrastructure. It also killed a worker at an energy company in Kharkiv, farther north, a local official said.

A fire broke out and several apartments were destroyed in the nine-story building in Dnipro, the emergency services said. Rescuers recovered the bodies of three people, while two children were among the wounded.

Russia fired a total of 458 drones and 45 missiles, including 32 ballistic missiles. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 406 drones and nine missiles, the air force said, adding that 25 locations were struck.

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Last February, Mohammed Ibrahim — then 15 — was awoken and pulled from his bed by Israeli soldiers, who said he'd been spotted throwing stones in the occupied West Bank.

He's Palestinian-American, and his family splits their time between the Tampa area and a sprawling stone house surrounded by olive trees in this West Bank village.

"Around 3:30 in the morning, they blindfolded him, handcuffed him — they just took him," his mother, Muna Ibrahim, 46, recalls. "Since that day I didn't see my son. I didn't hear his voice."

Mohammed, a U.S. citizen, has been in Israeli prison since then, without family visits or phone calls. In March, he turned 16 behind bars, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

He's one of more than 9,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, detained in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the Gaza war that followed, according to official Palestinian figures.

On Sunday, the Florida teen has a hearing in an Israeli military court. It's his tenth court appointment, according to his father, Zaher Ibrahim, who plans to attend. All of the previous hearings have adjourned without a plea bargain or trial date.

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Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian villagers, activists and journalists on Saturday who had gathered during an attempt to harvest olives near a settler outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, witnesses said.

Two Reuters employees - a journalist and a security adviser accompanying her - were among those injured in the attack by the men who wielded sticks and clubs and hurled large rocks, in an area close to the Palestinian village of Beita.

The area, lying south of the West Bank city of Nablus, has in past years been a flashpoint for settler attacks, which increased across the West Bank after the war in Gaza began two years ago. Such attacks have escalated during this year’s olive harvest, which began in October.

As the number of such attacks has climbed, Israeli and other activists have often joined Palestinians to support them and their right to harvest their olive groves, while also documenting any violence. Activists or local Palestinians often inform journalists of harvesting plans, so they can attend to report, particularly in flashpoint areas, such as outposts.

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NORTHERN GAZA STRIP — It is utterly quiet in a place once known as one of the most densely populated in the world.

The Israeli military took me and a small group of other international journalists inside Gaza on Wednesday, nearly one month into the ceasefire.

It was the first time I had entered Gaza after two years of war.

We stood at the edge of an Israeli military outpost, looking out at what used to be the bustling Shujaiya neighborhood outside Gaza City.

It was the scene of fierce fighting during the war. Now it is a wasteland of destruction.

The tall high-rise buildings not demolished in Gaza City are seen in the far distance. Around them is a vast monochrome expanse as far as the eye can see.

Piles of concrete that used to be homes. Skeletons of schools. Concrete beams standing in the dirt like tall tombstones.

For years before the war, I would enter Gaza every few months, to report for NPR. I remember driving through the Shujaiyeh neighborhood on my way to the center of Gaza City.

Now it is unrecognizable.

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Ukraine could be facing its biggest loss for months, if the key eastern city of Pokrovsk falls to Russian forces. The battle for this strategic point on a big road and rail artery in the Donetsk region has been going on for well over a year.

If Russia's Vladimir Putin were able to claim victory there, three years and 10 months into his full-scale war, he would be a step closer to his goal of controlling Ukraine's entire industrial east - the Donbas, made up of the neighbouring regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

How close is Pokrovsk to falling?

Claims and counter-claims abound, so it is difficult to say.

But we do know Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops in the area, and hundreds of its soldiers have infiltrated the city in the past few weeks, gradually taking over buildings and streets and overwhelming Ukrainian positions.

On Wednesday, Kyiv's General Staff denied its forces in and around the town had been encircled and maintained they were still involved in "active resistance" and blocking out Russian troops. One Ukrainian regiment said it had cleared the city council and posted a video of a Ukrainian flag hung on the building.

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