TV News LIES

The United States Naval Academy fired the commandant of midshipmen, Capt. Gilbert Clark Jr., on Monday due to a “loss of confidence in his ability to effectively lead” the brigade, removing him than his position less than half a year after he assumed the post.

Clark, who assumed the role in June, was axed by Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte.“The naval service maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Naval Academy said Monday.

For now, Clark will be succeeded by Capt. Austin Jackson, currently a deputy commandant of midshipmen, as an interim commandant. 

The school did not provide further details about the reason for the dismissal. The U.S. Navy commonly references “loss of confidence” when firing senior leaders.

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A federal judge on Monday dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

The rulings from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie halt at least for now a pair of prosecutions that had targeted two of the president’s most high-profile political opponents and amount to a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration’s legal maneuvering to install an inexperienced and loyalist prosecutor willing to file cases.

The orders do not concern the substance of the allegations against Comey or James but instead deal with the unconventional manner in which the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was named to her position as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Defense lawyers said the Trump administration had no legal authority to make the appointment. In a pair of similar rulings, Currie agreed and said the invalid appointment required the dismissal of the cases.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials reiterated their intention to block future Palestinian statehood ahead of the United Nations Security Council vote to authorize the U.S. plan for post-war Gaza on Monday.

There are three remaining deceased hostages in Gaza. Israeli authorities have been releasing the bodies of Palestinians in exchange for the return of hostage remains.

The ceasefire is broadly holding in Gaza, with Israeli forces inside the strip having pulled back to the so-called "yellow line." Still, renewed Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians in the past week.

Elsewhere, Israel is continuing strikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and on Sunday launched an airstrike in the capital Beirut. The Israel Defense Forces is also continuing raids in parts of the occupied West Bank.

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As a gerontologist who has helped countless older adulhttps://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5617927-congress-medicare-reform-dangers/ts navigate the Medicare maze, I’ve seen how one enrollment decision can shape someone’s quality of life for decades. That’s why the new legislation before Congress, H.R. 3467, should alarm anyone who cares about protecting older Americans’ health and autonomy. 

The bill, sponsored by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and introduced in May, would automatically enroll new Medicare beneficiaries into the lowest-premium Medicare Advantage plan available in their ZIP code unless they actively opt out. Even more troubling, it would lock them into that plan for three full years, limiting their ability to switch back to traditional Medicare or select a new plan except under narrowly defined hardship circumstances.

At first glance, “auto-enrollment” sounds efficient, with fewer decisions to make at a confusing time. But when you dig deeper, this proposal removes freedom rather than simplifying a decision. Many would find themselves stuck in private insurance plans they never chose, possibly unable to access trusted doctors, specialists or hospitals outside their network. 

Older Americans are far from a uniform group. Their health, medications and financial circumstances vary dramatically. Yet H.R. 3467 assumes everyone will benefit from being placed in the cheapest available plan.

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The world's biggest economy will be conspicuously absent from a meeting of the globe's 20 richest nations this weekend, as the U.S. boycotts the G20 Leaders' Summit hosted by South Africa.

The Trump administration is snubbing the event over false race-based claims and what it considers the summit's DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion -- agenda. Since returning to office Trump has accused the South African government of confiscating white-owned land and allowing the killing of white Afrikaners.

"You know we have a G20 meeting in South Africa, South Africa shouldn't even be in the Gs anymore, because what happened there is bad," Trump said earlier this month.

The government here has repeatedly tried to correct the U.S. administration, to no avail.

Ramaphosa has kept his cool and was taciturn this week, saying: "Their absence is their loss."

Still, it's a huge blow to South Africa on the global stage.

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Brazil's federal police on Saturday arrested former president Jair Bolsonaro over suspicion he was plotting to escape and avoid starting a 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt.

In a dramatic and unexpected twist in the final stage of a long and divisive criminal trial, federal agents entered Bolsonaro's house early Saturday under the order of a Supreme Court Justice to take the former president to the headquarters of the country's federal police in the capital, Brasilia.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the case on Bolsonaro's attempt to keep the presidency after his defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, ordered the preemptive arrest after saying the far-right leader's ankle monitor was violated at 12:08 a.m. on Saturday. His lawyers claimed in a statement that did not take place.

Bolsonaro, 70, who had been under house arrest, was ordered to wear the device after being deemed a flight risk. His aide Andriely Cirino confirmed to The Associated Press that the arrest took place around 6 a.m. on Saturday.

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Ofer Bronchtein was brought to tears as French President Emmanuel Macron delivered his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, recognizing a Palestinian state for the first time.

"Honestly, I cried," he told NPR in an interview in his Paris apartment after his return from New York. "I see it happening in front of me and I see the full room of the General Assembly and everyone is applauding."

Bronchtein says his only regret is that the Israeli delegation walked out of the General Assembly. The Israeli and U.S. governments opposed the move. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders who recognized Palestinian statehood were granting a "tremendous reward" to the Palestinian militant group Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Bronchtein refutes this, arguing it is no reward for a group that never sought a peaceful coexistence alongside Israel.

"I strongly believe that if there had been a Palestinian state before the 7th of October, if the Palestinians had been sovereign to run their lives as they wanted, the 7th of October [attack in Israel] would not have happened," he says.

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Israel’s military on Saturday launched airstrikes against Hamas militants in Gaza in the latest test of the ceasefire that began on Oct. 10, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said five senior Hamas members were killed. Health officials in Gaza reported at least 24 people killed and another 54 wounded, including children.

The strikes, which Israel said were in response to gunfire at its troops, came after international momentum on Gaza, with the U.N. Security Council on Monday approving the U.S. blueprint to secure and govern the territory. It authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security, approves a transitional authority to be overseen by President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

Israel has previously carried out similar waves of strikes after reported attacks on its forces during the ceasefire. At least 33 Palestinians were killed over a 12-hour period Wednesday and Thursday, mostly women and children, health officials said.

One of Saturday’s strikes targeted a vehicle, killing 11 and wounding over 20 Palestinians in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, said Rami Mhanna, managing director of Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The majority of the wounded were children, director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

Associated Press video showed children and others inspecting the blackened vehicle, whose top was blown off.

A strike targeting a house near Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza killed at least three people and wounded 11 others, according to the hospital. It said a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people including a child and wounded 16 others.

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