TV News LIES

President Volodymyr Zelensky honored soldiers, medics, energy workers and other civilians with state awards on Ukrainian Statehood Day, personally presenting the Order of the “Golden Star” to the mother of a fallen Hero of Ukraine who received the title posthumously.

Zelensky announced the ceremony in a statement on Wednesday, listing former Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, French Ambassador to Ukraine Gaël Veyssière, historian Natalia Yakovenko, writer and serviceman Illarion Pavliuk, and publisher Anton Martynov among those decorated.

“On the occasion of Ukrainian Statehood Day, I honored our people whose work helps Ukraine hold its ground and preserve our independMore...ence,”  Zelensky said, adding that “Ukraine stands on the people who defend, rescue, rebuild, and work for it every day.”

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Polish fighter jets intercepted a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea and forced it to withdraw, in what Warsaw described as another attempt by Moscow to probe NATO’s air defenses.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced this on Tuesday, calling the situation “another Russian provocation over the Baltic Sea.”

“I remind you. It is Russia that is the aggressor,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding that the aircraft was “gathering intelligence on the defense systems” and that “Russia is testing the Alliance’s readiness in this way.”

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When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Alina Holovko, a resident of Dnipro, spent her days organizing volunteers to assemble Molotov cocktails as Russian forces threatened to reach the city. She and other volunteers founded Dobra Sprava, a humanitarian organization that evacuates civilians from frontline communities.

In the early months of the war, those evacuation drivers were overwhelmingly men, making repeated trips into cities such as Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Siversk and later Bakhmut. But as the war dragged on and Ukraine’s military demanded more manpower, many of those volunteers were mobilized into the armed forces.

More than four years of war have steadily reduced the pool of experienced civilian volunteers. A July 2026 CSIS analysis estimated R

ussia had suffered roughly 1.4 million battlefield casualties and Ukraine between 525,000 and 625,000 since the full-scale invasion.

An April 2026 Human Rights First report found that the trend extends beyond Dobra Sprava, documenting that volunteer groups across eastern Ukraine are turning to women to conduct evacuations as experienced male volunteers are mobilized or lost to Russian attacks.

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Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" to playing Holly Hunter's husband in "The Piano," has died. He was 78.

In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor's social media page.

His death was "sudden and unexpected," the statement said, adding that he "remained cancer free" when he died. A cause of death wasn't specified.

"Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life," his family wrote.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday vowed to "dismantle" the International Criminal Court and urged other countries to join the effort as the Trump administration significantly escalates its campaign against the global institution.

Rubio accused the ICC of "waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles," but with "the force of so-called international law."

The administration's ire against the ICC goes back to President Donald Trump's first term, when it targeted the ICC for seeking to investigate alleged war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan. The second Trump administration has imposed a slew of sanctions against ICC officials for their attempts to investigate the US and Israel.

However, the State Department-led, "whole-of-government campaign" to dismantle the ICC is a significant escalation, particularly as it seeks to pressure countries around the world to join and threatens potential cuts to US assistance for those who don't.

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Two people were killed and several others injured after at least two shooters exchanged gunfire amid crowds of roughly 13,000 people at Canada’s biggest Latin street festival in Toronto on Saturday, police said.

A total of six people were shot, and several suspects are believed to be at large after the shooting at the Salsa on St. Clair festival, Toronto Police Service Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said at a news conference late Saturday.

Both of the deceased victims were men, Barredo said, while the four injured victims were taken to hospitals with “serious injuries.” Investigators have cordoned off three crime scenes and recovered two firearms, but there is no ongoing threat to the public, he added.

“This seemed to be an exchange of gunfire between two individuals targeting each other,” Barredo said, adding the shooting “indiscriminately put vast numbers of people in danger.”

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