TV News LIES

An Israeli settler arson attack on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation, as a wave of intensified violence against Palestinians continues unabated across the area.

Israeli settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, near Salfit in the north of the West Bank, around dawn on Thursday, local residents told Al Jazeera.

Photographs taken at the scene showed racist, anti-Palestinian slogans sprayed on the walls of the mosque, which was damaged in the blaze. Copies of the Quran – the Islamic holy book – were also burned.

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs condemned what it said was a “heinous crime” that highlights “the barbarity” with which Israel treats Muslim and Christian holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Separately, two Palestinian children were killed on Thursday when Israeli forces opened fire during a raid in the town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.

The violence comes amid a record-setting number of Israeli settler and military attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank so far this year, with many of the assaults taking place in the context of the 2025 olive harvest.

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The US state department has announced that it will designate four European self-described anti-fascist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, as the Trump administration broadens its campaign against what it portrays as an international wave of leftist violence.

In a public statement on Thursday, the state department said it would designate Antifa Ost in Germany, the Italy-based International Revolutionary Front, and two organisations in Greece – Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense – as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists … conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western Civilization through their brutal attacks”.

The designation was the first time that “antifa” groups had been deemed a foreign terrorist threat, allowing law enforcement to use more aggressive techniques to oppose them. It also could extend to those deemed leftist supporters of the groups in the United States, allowing federal authorities to use similar surveillance and financial oversight tools against US citizens.

“Groups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, ‘anti-capitalism’ and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas,” the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he received a letter from President Trump on Wednesday asking him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases, with no ruling yet delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.

In a speech to the Israeli parliament in October, Mr. Trump urged Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, telling the gathered lawmakers: "By the way, that was not in the speech, as you probably know! But I happen to like this gentleman right over here [Netanyahu], and it just seems to make so much sense."

"This morning, President Isaac Herzog received the attached letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, calling on him to consider granting a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," Herzog's office said in a statement, adding that the president could not initiate a pardon based on the American leader's request alone.

In his letter, Mr. Trump said he was writing to Herzog at a "historic time, as we have, together, just secured peace that has been sought for at least 3,000 years."

"I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister," it added. "While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli Justice System ... I believe that this 'case' against Bibi ... is political, unjustified prosecution."  

Netanyahu has long been known by the nickname Bibi.

Mr. Trump also framed his request for Netanyahu's pardon as something his Israeli counterpart deserved for working with the White House to reach the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, saying: "Now that we have achieved these unprecedented successes, and are keeping Hamas in check, it is time to let Bibi unite Israel by pardoning him, and ending that lawfare once and for all."

He and his wife Sara are accused in one case of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods including cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors. He is also accused of attempting to negotiate more favorable coverage from two Israeli media outlets in two other cases.

TVNL Comment:  Birds of a feather should be imprisoned together.

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Ukrainian soldiers are fighting tense battles in the country’s east where Russian forces have exploited dense fog on the frontline to expand their efforts to capture more territory.

Top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said the Russian army overran three settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Ukrainian units are locked in “grueling battles” to repel the thrust.

Dense fog and weather conditions have allowed Russian troops to infiltrate Ukrainian positions in Zaporizhzhia.

The fiercest battles are still in the besieged Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, he said.

This comes as Ukrainian forces pulled back from several positions in the southern Zaporizhzhia region amid heavy fighting and adverse weather.

Russia is taking advantage of the weather to advance in small groups, moving on foot or motorcycles, with the adverse weather preventing Ukrainian forces from deploying drones against them.

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Venezuela said late Tuesday that it is launching a “massive deployment” of nearly 200,000 soldiers in response to the U.S. sending its largest aircraft carrier into the waters near Latin America and rising tensions between the two countries.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said officials were placing “the entire country’s military arsenal on full operational readiness,” with preparations including the “massive deployment of ground, aerial, naval, riverine and missile forces.”

Padrino said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro directly ordered the massive deployment as part of the special operation, with land, air, naval and reserve forces to carry out war drills through Wednesday to “optimize command, control and communications” and ensure the country’s defense.

He said the move was in response to the “imperialist threat” posed by the U.S. buildup of warships and troops in the Caribbean Sea.

The Venezuelan military exercises also will reportedly involve the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian reserve force created by former President Hugo Chávez.

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A suicide bomber struck outside the gates of a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday, detonating his explosives next to a police car and killing 12 people, Pakistan's interior minister said, the latest in an uptick in violence across the country.

Witnesses described scenes of mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, which also wounded 27 people. The blast was heard for miles away and came at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending court hearings.

A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group, claimed responsibility for the attack. But shortly after, Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander from the group, sent WhatsApp messages insisting they had not made any such claim.

His group quit the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, after the head of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was killed in a blast in Afghanistan in 2022. Though some members recently rejoined TTP, others keep their distance, indicating continuing differences among the insurgents.

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