TV News LIES

A video of an attack on a French Catholic nun and archeological researcher in Jerusalem has caused widespread revulsion and been denounced as a “shameful act” by Israel’s foreign ministry.

In the video, a man runs up behind the nun as she walks down a street and pushes her over with force, so that the victim comes close to hitting her head on a block of stone. After walking away a few paces, the attacker, who appears to be Jewish, returns to kick the nun as she lies on the ground and only stops when a passerby intervenes.

The nun’s face was grazed but she was not reported to be seriously injured. The Israeli police said they had arrested a 36-year-old man, and that the force would “continue to act with a heavy hand and zero tolerance in order to preserve and maintain the proper and safe fabric of life for all ethnicities and religions in the city of Jerusalem”.

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Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron late on Wednesday.

Ibrahim al-Khayyat, 16, was shot in the abdomen by troops during a raid in the al-Hawooz area, according to medics.

Local media said Israeli forces stormed the area with a large number of military vehicles, closed the main road and forced shop owners to shut their businesses.

The raid was accompanied by live gunfire and tear gas fired at residents, resulting in two people being wounded, including al-Khayyat.

The wounded were taken to the Red Crescent hospital in the city, where al-Khayyat was pronounced dead.

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Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has declined to condemn the smashing of a statue of Jesus by a soldier in southern Lebanon earlier this month, according to Army Radio.

The report on Thursday said military officials had asked the Rabbinate, the highest Jewish religious authority in Israel, to issue a statement condemning the incident, which drew widespread criticism.

According to the report, the army requested that the Rabbinate denounce the act as contrary to Jewish law, but no such condemnation was issued.

Instead, the Rabbinate reportedly agreed to coordinate with the military and Israel’s propaganda apparatus, known as hasbara, in handling similar incidents in the future.

The Israeli military did not deny the report.

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Donald Trump has again lashed out at Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying he should focus on “fixing his broken country” and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war – and spend less time “interfering” in Iran.

Trump’s latest outburst came a day after he suggested the US military presence in Germany was being reviewed, with a “possible reduction” of troops under consideration. Then on Thursday, the president was baited into saying he may consider withdrawing troops from other US bases in Europe.

During an Oval Office event for correspondents from partisan, rightwing outlets, Trump was asked if he would consider withdrawing troops from bases in Spain and Italy, over their unwillingness to get involved in his ruinous war on Iran.

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Israel is in crisis. Since October 2023 it has been in a permanent state of war with numerous internal and external foes, from the Palestinians of Gaza to Iranian state and society.

Many politicians, analysts and commentators have seen this as proof of strength. Building on the Israeli far right’s increased usage of the Hebrew trope of "Greater Israel" (Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema), they often talk of a Pax Israelica in the Middle East.  

The term is telling in that it merely replicates the more familiar Pax Americana, for which Israel functions regionally as a bridgehead. If there were any period when the notion of Israel as a regional hegemon remotely made sense, it was the few years following the September 2020 Abraham Accords. Until 7 October 2023.

Since then, the Israeli military has veered from one conflict to another in successive failed attempts to crush its foes.

It decimated Gaza but Hamas is still standing. It famously "decapitated" Hezbollah in Lebanon but the group is back as a guerrilla force resisting Israeli occupation. The drone and missile stocks that former defence minister Yoav Gallant - wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity – claimed were all but destroyed are back in action.

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The US announced on Tuesday, that it will commit up to $100 million toward emergency repairs to the radiation containment system at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after a Russian drone strike severely damaged the structure last year.

In a State Department media note, Washington said the funding would support coordinated G7 efforts “to ensure the continued containment of fissile nuclear material” at the site in northern Ukraine.

The contribution will cover roughly 20 percent of the estimated $500 million needed to restore the New Safe Confinement (NSC) arch, the massive steel structure that seals off Reactor Four, destroyed during the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

“For three decades, the United States and G7 partners have led efforts to secure nuclear material at the Chornobyl plant,” the State Department said, noting that Washington has already contributed more than $365 million toward the construction and maintenance of the NSC.

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