TV News LIES

Venezuela's acting president on Thursday signed into law an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of politicians, activists, lawyers and many others, effectively acknowledging that the government has held hundreds of people in prison for political motivations.

The approval marks a stark turn for the South American nation, whose authorities have for decades denied holding any political prisoners. It is the latest policy reversal following last month's stunning U.S. military raid in the country's capital, Caracas, to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who proposed the bill late last month, signed the measure into law hours after it was approved by the country's legislature.

She said during the signing that it showed that the country's political leaders were "letting go of a little intolre into law hours after it was approved by the country's legislature.

She said during the signing that it showre into law hours after it was approved by the country's legislature.

She said during the signing that it showed that the country's political leaders were "letting go of a little intolerance and opening new avenues for politics in Venezuela."ed that the country's political leaders were "letting go of a little intolerance and opening new avenues for politics in Venezuela."erance and opening new avenues for politics in Venezuela."

More...

In a statement, the Egyptian government called it a "dangerous escalation aimed at consolidating Israeli control over the occupied Palestinian territories."

Qatar's foreign ministry condemned the "decision to convert West Bank lands into so-called 'state property'," saying it would "deprive the Palestinian people of their rights."

Jordan's foreign ministry said in a statement that the country "strongly condemns the actions of the Israeli government targeting the annexation of occupied Palestinian land, most recently the illegitimate Israeli government decision converting lands in the West Bank into so-called 'state property.' This constitutes a blatant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, underminesthe inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and obstructs the establishment of their independent sovereign state ."

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority called for international intervention to prevent the "de facto beginning of the annexation process and the undermining of the foundations of the Palestinian state."

Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now called the measure a "mega land grab."

More...

Chris Tackett started tracking extremism in Texas politics about a decade ago, whenever his schedule as a Little League coach and school board member would allow. At the time, he lived in Granbury, 40 minutes west of Fort Worth. He’d noticed that a local member of the state legislature, Mike Lang, had become a vocal advocate for using public money for private schools – despite the fact that Lang campaigned as a supporter of public education.

With a little research, Tackett found that Lang had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn, billionaire megadonors whose deep pockets and Christian nationalist views have consumed the Texas GOP. Tackett published his findings on social media, and soon enough, people started asking him to create pie charts of their representatives’ campaign funds. These charts evolved into the organisation See It. Name It. Fight It.

“There’s so many people out there that are so busy with their daily lives, they’re walking past and not even seeing some of these bad things going on,” he says. “So that’s the first step: you have to see this thing.”

Tackett and his wife Mendi, the organisation’s sole members, now live in Fort Worth, where they’re part of a scrappy community of progressives and anti-extremist organizers who are building momentum amid their town’s deeply embedded Christian nationalism. Tarrant county, in which Fort Worth is the largest city, provided a chilling preview of Texas’s gerrymandering efforts, and the county is widely regarded as a hotbed for far-right actors. But most recently, the county was the site of a Democratic victory that sent the Texas Republican party reeling.

More...

Over the span of four years, 50-year-old Fidda Mohammad Naasan and her family have been violently uprooted from their homes and lands in the occupied West Bank, not once but twice. Now, after relocating for a second time they continue to face relentless, daily attacks and abuse from Israeli settlers and soldiers determined to force them off their lands yet again.

The most recent large-scale attack on Naasan’s family took place on December 7. Israelis raided Naasan’s current home in the al-Khalayel area on the edges of al-Mghayyer village in the central West Bank.

“I was sleeping in my room with my 13-year-old grandson next to me. At 1:30 a.m., a group of five settlers raided my room, all masked, carrying pipes. They beat me on my forehead until I lost consciousness,” Naasan told Drop Site News.

Naasan was hospitalized for two days and was forced to undergo cardiac catheterization surgery following heart complications and a severe rise in her blood pressure. Her nephew also suffered cuts to his head and required six stitches.

“While he was beating me, the settler kept shouting: ‘Don’t you want to leave? If you don’t leave we will kill you,’” she recalled. “I lied and told him I would leave just so he would stop beating me.”

Naasan and her family once lived on their ancestral lands in the Wadi Daliyeh area south of Fasayil village in the central Jordan Valley. With a water spring and vast grazing lands, the area is ideal for Palestinian Bedouins who depend on livestock for income. From there, they were driven off their land by settlers to an area near the village of Turmusayya in the central West Bank where they spent the next two years.

More...

Members of Congress will be able to begin reviewing the unredacted version of the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein on Monday morning, according to two sources familiar with the DOJ’s plans.

The review process will take place in person at the DOJ, according to a letter to members of Congress obtained by NBC News. The members will be able to review the material on computers at the DOJ offices but not the physical documents themselves.

The letter states that members can review the documents in person, provided they give the DOJ 24 hours’ notice. The option at this point is only available to members of Congress — and not their staff. They may take notes but can’t bring in any electronic devices, the letter said.

The review will only be of the 3 million files currently available to the public, not the extensive trove of more than 6 million documents in total that the DOJ says it has in its possession.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche promised members of Congress access to the material when he announced the release of all the documents officials planned to make public last Friday.

More...

A Maryland truck driver suffered an “eye stroke” that left him blind, first in one eye and then the other.

A Louisiana woman vomited for weeks before being diagnosed with a brain dysfunction typically caused by a vitamin deficiency.

An Oklahoma real estate agent heard her colon pop as it ruptured while she drove her granddaughter home from a softball game. “My colon blew up. Literally blew up,” she said.

All three have filed lawsuits that blame the popular class of weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which include Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, and they’re part of a growing number of lawsuits alleging the drugs’ makers failed to sufficiently warn of the risk of certain severe injuries.

The suits come as the use of the blockbuster drugs has skyrocketed, embraced by millions of Americans to manage diabetes, lower the risk of heart disease and lose weight. The drugs, which mimic a hormone that slows digestion, triggers insulin and helps people feel full longer, cut America’s stubbornly high obesity rates – for the first time in more than a decade – and show promise in aiding a range of conditions from kidney disease to drug addiction.

More...