TV News LIES

Lawyers with the Department of Justice on Thursday agreed to unilaterally withdraw a series of subpoenas that sought to compel New York Times journalists to testify about their sources and to access their phone records. 

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would quash the subpoenas if the Department of Justice refused to withdraw them. 

"It's a matter of basic compliance with the law," Judge Subramanian said.

Attorneys for the New York Times were in court Thursday to fight a series of grand jury subpoenas they allege were an attempt to retaliate against and intimidate reporters whose work angered President Donald Trump. 

Lawyers for the newspaper had asked the judge to quash the subpoenas, which sought to compel the journalists to testify about their sources, as well as access the phone records of the reporters and some of their family members. 

Sean Buckley, the chief counsel to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that prosecutors would return to the judge if they decide to seek new subpoenas in the future. 

"Upon further consideration, the government is prepared unilaterally to withdraw the subpoenas at this time," he said.

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The charred shell of the Al-Masri family home in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City was still smoldering on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the Israel military bombed it, killing Firas and Salsabeel al-Masri and their four children—Faryal, Salma, Amira and Naim—as they slept.

The airstrike came without warning in the middle of the night, destroying the upper floor of the simple two-story structure and setting it ablaze. “We were asleep in the middle of the night, at around 2 a.m. or so, when we heard a huge explosion,” Abu Youssef Al-Masri, the children’s grandfather, told Drop Site as he stood in front of the partially collapsed home. “We realized the house had been struck. The house collapsed and caught fire.”

The fire spared nothing inside, family belongings burnt to ash lay among broken cinder blocks, the walls that remained standing blackened with soot.

“The house burned completely. It was my brother’s home—he, his wife, and their four children. Burned until it was charred. My brother’s entire family has been erased,” Mohammed Al-Masri, the brother of Firas, said. “They burned before our eyes and we couldn’t do anything.” He spoke standing at the graveyard where the family of six were buried on Tuesday afternoon.

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One of the most intimidating aspects of modern US relations with the Arab and Muslim world is Washington's insistence that all Arab and Muslim-majority countries normalise relations with the state of Israel as a reward for its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

These demands have intensified since the US and Israel launched their war of aggression against Iran in February. Washington's long-standing push for Saudi normalisation continues unabated, as does its pressure on Qatar, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, and Indonesia, among others, to follow suit.

More recently, the US succeeded in bringing to power a new Lebanese government that has gone as far as supporting Israel's occupation of Lebanese territory by signing an agreement last month recognising the "sovereignty" of the genocidal state.

Which Israel, and which borders, are these Arab and Muslim-majority countries required to recognise?

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According to the reporting, US President Donald Trump approved one of the landmark policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, granting Riyadh a 30-year civilian nuclear deal that could allow uranium enrichment in the kingdom.

Israeli politicians took to social media to voice their concerns regarding the agreement, with some stating that it harms Israel's security interests and signals yet another failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Saudi Arabia's civilian nuclear programme will end with nuclear weapons and will lead to a frantic arms race throughout the entire Middle East," said Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing opposition Yisrael Beytenu party.

"The State of Israel must state clearly and unequivocally: we will strongly oppose this," Lieberman added, urging Israeli action in the US Congress to block the deal.

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After a week of nationwide protests over the direction of Ukraine's military strategy in the ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian military has a new armed forces commander, Mykhailo Drapatyi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named Drapatyi to replace military chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, whom he fired late Tuesday.

"There is a difficult task ahead, so we are not making loud promises," Drapatyi wrote in a Facebook post after his appointment was announced. "We are working with responsibility for our decisions and for the people who hold the front line and help Ukraine stand firm."

The 43-year-old major general, widely viewed as a reformer, takes the reins at a time of political and military transition in Ukraine. He is also the face of a younger, post-Soviet generation of military leaders in Ukraine who are adapting more quickly to a tech-focused approach to the battlefield.

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A three-year-old girl landed in the intensive care unit earlier this month after a rattlesnake bit her while she was trying to grab an Amazon package.

Addy, the young girl, ran out with her mother on 13 July to pick up a package dropped over the gate to their home in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles.

“Tragically, a southern pacific rattlesnake was hiding under the brown padded envelope and bit Addy’s left hand,” her father, Manny Barajas, wrote in a fundraising campaign note.

Addy’s mother, Lynn, took the girl to meet first responders at a nearby grocery store parking lot, who took her to hospital and administered a dose of anti-venom. The hospital then transferred her to another facility with a pediatric ICU, where she received two more doses of anti-venom, according to Barajas.

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A modelling scout who recruited women for Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home near Paris, French officials have said.

Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation by the prosecutors specialising in human trafficking in France, accused of rape and other charges. His name appeared in more than 1,000 documents in the US Department of Justice Epstein files that were declassified earlier this year.

Siad was one of several French men accused of aiding Epstein to traffic and abuse women. He had not yet been questioned by investigators, but had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to give his version of events.

He was found dead in his home on Monday evening. An investigation to determine the cause of death has been opened and an autopsy is to be carried out.

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The US House of Representatives passed a $1.15tn defense policy bill in a near-party-line vote on Wednesday, after Democrats refused to back the measure amid the war with Iran and Donald Trump’s push to impose new restrictions on voting nationwide.

A key plank of the president’s plan to spend $1.5tn on the military in the 2027 fiscal year, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed the Republican-controlled chamber by a 216-212 vote, with all but six Democrats opposing its passage. Seven House Republicans broke ranks to oppose the measure, which now goes to the Senate.

The NDAA is a mammoth bill with effects across the armed services, and Congress passes it each year with bipartisan margins. This year’s version includes pay raises of 5-7% for the military, as well as the codification of the name “Department of War” for the Pentagon. The bill’s large overall cost is itself a key feature, which top House Republicans say is necessary to make generational investments in the armed forces.

“For the first time in 40 years, we’ve been presented a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence. This topline begins to reverse the damage caused by decades of underinvestment in the US military,” Mike Rogers, the House armed services committee chair, said before the vote.

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