TV News LIES

President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to sidestep the United Nations through his new Board of Peace appears to have inadvertently backfired after major world powers rejected U.S. aspirations for it to have a larger international mandate beyond the Gaza ceasefire and recommitted their support for the over 80-year-old global institution.

The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his plan for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s ambitions have expanded to envisioning the board as a mediator of worldwide conflicts, a not very subtle attempt to eclipse the Security Council, which is charged with ensuring international peace and security.

The board’s charter also caused some dismay by stating Trump will lead it until he resigns, with veto power over its actions and membership.

His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tried to ease concerns by saying the board’s focus right now is only on the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire plan.

“This is not a replacement for the U.N., but the U.N. has served very little purpose in the case of Gaza other than the food assistance,” Rubio said at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

More...

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that will open the nation’s oil sector to privatization, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

Lawmakers in the country’s National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day, less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital.

As the bill was being passed, the U.S. Treasury Department officially began to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil that once crippled the industry, and expanded the ability of U.S. energy companies to operate in the South American nation, the first step in plans outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day before. The moves by both governments on Thursday are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela.

“We’re talking about the future. We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children,” Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez proposed the changes in the days after U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.

More...

Israeli forces carried out a number of raids and assaulted many Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, with at least 130 Palestinians temporarily detained since Tuesday night, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Israeli forces shot 20-year-old Mohammad Rajeh Nasrallah during a military raid into the town of Ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, and Nasrallah was pronounced dead Wednesday due to the severity of his wounds. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers stormed Palestinian land near the town of Turmus Aya, close to Ramallah, and uprooted at least 200 olive trees, according to the Wafa news agency.

A major settler attack began Tuesday evening in al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta, with at least 40 settlers assaulting residents, torching property, and blocking ambulances from reaching the wounded, according to Drop Site contributor Jasper Nathaniel. The attack has left many Palestinians injured as emergency medical access remains obstructed; no casualty figures have yet emerged.A major settler attack began Tuesday evening in al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta, with at least 40 settlers assaulting residents, torching property, and blocking ambulances from reaching the wounded, according to Drop Site contributor Jasper Nathaniel. The attack has left many Palestinians injured as emergency medical access remains obstructed; no casualty figures have yet emerged.

More...

Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Wednesday announced a new leader for a nascent small air defence branch within the Air Force.

Reporting to Pavlo Yelizarov, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Colonel Yevhenii Khlebnikov will direct a newly designed air defense group meant to “analyze, counter and anticipate future threats,” Fedorov wrote on social media.

The Ministry of Defense described Khlebnikov as bringing both frontline experience and leadership qualities to the table, having served in Air Force anti-aircraft missile units and having worked within the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the development of air defence.

Specifically,  Khlebnikov led the use of Bayraktar drones during the defense of Kyiv and the region of Chernihiv in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion, and took part in planning the operation to liberate Zmiinyi (Snake) Island of “Russian warship go f@#k yourself” fame.

More...

Spain's government announced Tuesday it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization, the latest way the country has bucked a trend toward increasingly harsh immigration policies imposed in the United States and much of Europe.

The extraordinary measure will be implemented by expediting a decree to amend immigration laws, according to Spanish Minister of Migration Elma Saiz, bypassing a similar bill that has stalled in parliament. Eligible immigrants will be granted up to one year of legal residency as well as permission to work.

In contrast to other nations that have moved to restrict immigration and asylum, many emboldened by the Trump administration's policies, Spain has moved in the opposite direction with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his ministers often extolling the benefits of legal migration to the country's economy and aging workforce.

Spain "will not look the other way," Saiz told journalists during a press conference. The government is "dignifying and recognizing people who are already in our country," she said.

More...

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent attempted to enter Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis, but was turned back by an employee, prompting an official complaint to the US embassy in Quito, the country’s foreign ministry said.

The Tuesday incident came as ICE and other federal agencies continue their aggressive campaign of arresting people in Minnesota’s largest city suspected of being in the United States illegally, despite outrage over the deaths of two US citizens in the operation dubbed “Metro Surge”.

“This morning, the Ecuadorian consul in Minneapolis reported that, at around 11.00am, an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attempted to enter the Consulate premises,” Ecuador’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Tuesday evening.

“Consulate officials immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular headquarters, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were at the consular headquarters at that time,” the statement continued.

In response, Ecuador’s foreign minister “immediately submitted a note of protest to the US Embassy in Ecuador so that acts of this nature would not be repeated at any of Ecuador’s consular offices in the United States”.

More...