TV News LIES

In an extraordinary article published on 7 April, the New York Times described how Donald Trump decided to go to war with Iran. It is highly unusual for the White House Situation Room to be used for in-person meetings with foreign leaders. But this time, the Situation Room was not just used for a meeting with a foreign leader. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin, Netanyahu took over the presentation space, backed on a screen by the leader of the Mossad as well as Israeli military officials.

As the New York Times describes the scene, “Arrayed visually behind Mr. Netanyahu, they created the image of a wartime leader surrounded by his team.” The article makes it clear that Netanyahu’s “hard sell” of a quick war was pivotal to the US president’s decision to partner with Israel in attacking Iran.

This article is unusual in recent mainstream media about the war, which typically avoids mention of the role of Israel in Trump’s decision. Here is one example, from a journalist I admire. When it comes to Russia, Rachel Maddow has been forthright and heroic on the topic of foreign influence on US policy. But in a 28 February MS Now episode, Follow the Money, devoted to exploring Trump’s reasons for going to war with Iran, Maddow exhibits diminished virtue on this topic.

In it, she asks the listeners to consider the question: “Who wants Iran bombed off the map and for their own reasons, who are Iran’s rivals and enemies?” Maddow’s subsequent discussion suggests that it is the Gulf Arab states that are primarily responsible, who, she says, “appear to have rented the services of the United States military”. Maddow’s February discussion of the causes of Trump’s decision to go to war, in hindsight, with the information provided by the New York Times article, should raise alarm bells for those concerned for the status of democracy and a free press.

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President Donald Trump recently slammed CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell, calling her a “disgrace,” during an interview on “60 Minutes” on Sunday. Experts in politics and journalism discussed Trump’s history of disparaging female journalists — and why it’s crucial that journalists continue to hold leaders accountable.

O’Donnell began the sit-down by saying she was glad Trump was safe and by asking how he was doing following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. The interview began to sour when O’Donnell read aloud part of a note from the man suspected of opening fire on the dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C.

“The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it,” O’Donnell said. “He writes this quote: ‘Administration officials, they are targets.’ And he also wrote this: ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ What’s your reaction to that?”

Trump hit back by saying he knew O’Donnell was going to read the alleged note, “because you’re horrible people.”

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A group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are pushing a bill to fund the construction of a secure 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House and say the project is essential to national security after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday.

Graham and his allies say the cost of the project would be offset by national park user fees and customs fees, and that the bill would authorize the construction of national security-related infrastructure below the ballroom, including an annex for the Secret Service.

“It’s very difficult to have a bunch of important people in the same place unless it’s really, really secure. The times in which we live are unusual. I’ve been up here for a while now, I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today,” said Graham, who was first elected to the House in 1994.

He noted that in addition to President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who are second and third in the presidential line of succession, were at the dinner Saturday when a 31-year-old man armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives tried to break into the ballroom before being tackled by Secret Service personnel.

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King Charles III and Queen Camilla landed in the United States on Monday, April 27, kicking off the first state visit by a British monarch since 2007.

The four-day state visit, touted as a celebration of America's 250th anniversary, will be the king's first U.S. trip since his 2022 coronation. The royal pair is set to spend time at the nation's capital, including a formal state dinner at the White House and an address to a joint session of Congress, before venturing to other nearby states.

Their packed schedule includes a ceremonial stop at the memorial dedicated to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, as well as sightseeing in the Appalachia region, USA TODAY previously reported.

Charles and Camilla's visit is being framed as a chance to repair a rift between two countries with historically deep ties. Tensions have risen in recent months between the United States and the United Kingdom governments over a slew of topics, like the United States' joint war in Iran, the administration's tariffs and ongoing disagreements over theNATO military alliance.

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Federal aviation officials on April 27 said they were investigating after North Dakota state Rep. Liz Conmy and another individual were the killed in a small plane crash in Minnesota.

The April 25 crash, which involved a Beech F33A aircraft, took place shortly before noon in a suburb of Minneapolis, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The North Dakota’s Democratic-NPL Party confirmed Conmy's death in a post on social media. The lawmaker, 67, lived in Fargo and was the mother of four children.

"We are completely heartbroken and gutted by the loss of Representative Liz Conmy. Her death is a profound loss for our state," the party wrote in a post on X. "As a lawmaker, she championed public education, the environment, and transparency."

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Iran’s foreign minister returned to Pakistan on Sunday for peace talks, despite US President Donald Trump calling off his envoys’ planned trip to Islamabad. 

Abbas Araghchi will again meet Pakistani officials to convey "Iran's positions and views on the framework of any understanding to completely end the war".

Tehran's foreign minister was in Islamabad a day earlier, after which he travelled to Oman, while other Iranian envoys had headed back to Tehran "to consult and obtain the necessary instructions on issues related to ending the war", according to the Isna news agency.  

Before Saturday's Iran-Pakistan meetings in Islamabad, the White House had announced that Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had planned to leave for Pakistan to engage in negotiations.

But Trump later told Fox News he had cancelled the trip, stating there was no point "sitting around talking about nothing".

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US naval forces intercepted a Russian “shadow fleet” vessel in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, April 25, as Washington intensifies its military enforcement of sanctions against Iranian energy exports.

The vessel, identified as the Sevan, was intercepted by a US Navy helicopter operating from the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91). According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the Sevan is one of 19 shadow fleet vessels sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for transporting billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil, gas, propane, and butane to foreign markets.

The ship is currently under US military escort and is following instructions to return to Iran.

CENTCOM reaffirmed that the US military is fully implementing the blockade of all vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports. Since the start of the operation, US forces have successfully diverted 37 vessels.

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Police in Virginia used a technique called geofencing to tap into Google's databases to find out who was near the scene of a bank robbery in the town of Midlothian, where a robber pulled out a gun and subsequently fled with $195,000.

Geofencing allows the government to draw a virtual fence around a geographic area where a crime was committed. After that, the government seeks a warrant — not to search a home or office, but to require a tech company to search its data to identify any of its millions of users who were within the geofence line at the time of the crime.

The technique is under legal scrutiny because of the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches of people, their homes, papers, and effects, unless police obtain a warrant issued by a neutral magistrate, and unless the search is aimed at obtaining specific evidence of a crime.

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