TV News LIES

FIFA has said it will not act against Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, but fined the Israeli FA (IFA) over discrimination. 

At the 2024 FIFA Congress, the Palestinian FA (PFA) demanded Israel be suspended from the global game over the war in Gaza and that FIFA act against Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, which prompted FIFA to seek ‘independent’ legal advice.

On Thursday, following a meeting of the FIFA Council, the world governing body dismissed the PFA and its argument that Israel violates FIFA statutes by letting teams from settlements in the West Bank play in the national league, saying: “FIFA should take no action given that, in the context of the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the FIFA Statutes, the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law.”

However, in 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank, is unlawful.

The Court noted that it “considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful. This illegality relates to the entirety of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967.”

More...

Israel's largest refinery, Haifa, has confirmed it was affected by an Iranian missile strike that hit infrastructure "essential to its operations" on March 20, and is in the process of restoring production.

A statement from Bazan Group, which operates the 197,000 barrels/day Haifa refinery, said the facility was damaged by an attack on March 19, which hit its electricity infrastructure and an area near one of its administrative buildings.

Additionally, "essential" equipment located outside the complex and owned by a third-party operator was taken offline, it said, without providing further details on the infrastructure hit.

The external damage was discovered overnight after attacks across northern Israel, the Bazan statement said, adding that returning the equipment to normal operations could take "a few days".

More...

When an Israeli settler killed dozens of Palestinian worshippers during Ramadan at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, the shock reverberated far beyond Hebron.

The massacre marked a tragic turning point for the sacred site in the occupied West Bank and its Islamic identity.

In its aftermath, Israel tightened its grip, consolidating control over the mosque and imposing ever-escalating restrictions on Muslims.

Now, 32 years on, the atmosphere inside the mosque feels bleaker than ever.

Hosni al-Rajbi, 74, was one of the 125 Palestinians who were wounded during the massacre but survived. Today, he resolutely continues to pray at the ancient site, propped up by a wooden cane.

Pausing in a covered alleyway as he leaves the mosque, Rajbi says Ramadan night prayers this year are weighed down with an anguish about the fate of the mosque, Hebron and Palestine.

The strain felt by the community is even worse than after the massacre three decades ago, he says.

Barely any worshippers are able to reach the mosque because of Israeli restrictions and harassment.

More...

Switzerland has moved to suspend new approvals for arms exports to the United States amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, citing its long-standing policy of neutrality and legal restrictions under domestic export controls.

In a statement on Friday, the Swiss government said "exports of war materiel to the US cannot currently be authorised", pointing to Washington’s involvement in an "international armed conflict" in the Middle East.

It added that "the export of war materiel to countries involved in the international armed conflict with Iran cannot be authorised for the duration of the conflict".

The decision formalises a position already in practice. Swiss authorities noted that since the beginning of the war on 28 February, "no new licences have been issued for exports of war materiel to the US".

The measure applies specifically to new orders for arms and ammunition, effectively pausing fresh approvals while the conflict continues.

More...

Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, signed an order to forcibly evacuate children living on roughly 30 of the streets in the city of Sloviansk most vulnerable to Russian shelling on Friday.

Sloviansk is just 13 km (8 miles) from the front line. Russia controls roughly 80 percent of the Donetsk region.

“Saving lives is the most important thing. Especially the lives and health of children who are not able to make decisions and leave on their own,” Filashkin said in a Telegram post.

“The order has been submitted for approval to the Coordination Headquarters for Evacuation Measures and Effective Response to Mass Displacement of the Population, established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine,” he added.

More...

Towering flash floods and an imminent dam failure in the northern part of Oahu triggered evacuation warnings in Hawaii on Friday, as the state continued contending with a powerful storm this week.

The waters came on quickly in the middle of the night, and videos on social media captured inundated streets and cars being swallowed by the muddy floodwaters.

As heavy rains continued to batter Hawaii, the Wahiawā dam on Oahu had water pouring over its spillway at 1,500 gallons a second on Friday morning. Oahu Emergency Management warned that the dam “may collapse or breach at any time”.

Honolulu officials told residents in an emergency message to leave the area downstream of the dam. More than 5,500 people were under evacuation orders.

More...

A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion.

If state prosecutors decide to move forward with the murder charge brought by local police against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a 2019 law banning most abortions.

The arrest warrant charging Moore with murder uses language that echoes the law, saying police determined that Moore had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe”.

“No one should be criminalized for having an abortion,” Dana Sussman, senior vice-president of the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice said in a statement, calling Moore’s case “an unprecedented murder charge for an alleged abortion”.

More...

Former FBI Director James Comey has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in Miami as part of the ​U.S. Justice Department's investigation into former officials who ‌have previously probed and prosecuted President Donald Trump, CBS News and Axios reported on Thursday, citing sources.

The investigation has produced more than 130 ​subpoenas since cranking up last year, and targets ​top officials who worked under former presidents Barack Obama ⁠and Joe Biden, Axios reported.

The Justice Department did not ​immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative of ​Comey could not be reached. Comey's attorneys declined to comment to CBS News.

Reuters reported late last year federal prosecutors were preparing grand jury subpoenas ​to investigate Obama-era intelligence officials who produced an assessment ​that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election that Trump won.

More...