TV News LIES

One man was killed when US troops in north-east Syria returned fire after their convoy came under attack near a checkpoint manned by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday.

At one point in the standoff, a Russian army convoy also arrived at the scene in an apparent attempt to mediate the rare confrontation involving US and Syrian fighters.

A Pentagon spokesman said US-led coalition forces were conducting a patrol near the town of Qamishli when they encountered a checkpoint occupied by pro-government forces.

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Three prosecutors in Roger Stone's criminal case abruptly resigned from the case on Tuesday after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce the recommended sentence for the longtime Trump associate.

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it was pulling back on its request to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison after President Donald Trump blasted the sentencing proposal as "a miscarriage of justice."

The revised recommendation doesn't ask for a particular sentence but says the one that was recommended earlier "does not accurately reflect the Department of Justice’s position on what would be a reasonable sentence in this matter."

Update: The lead prosecutor was the fourth and last on the team to also withdraw from the Stone case. This DOJ interference after the filing of sentencing requests is unheard of.

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A Holland America Line cruise ship on Tuesday was refused entry to Thailand over fears of coronavirus. This is the fifth port to deny the ship to dock despite no cases of the virus having been confirmed on board the ship.

Holland America Line tweeted Monday that its MS Amsterdam ship would be disembarking in Bangkok for travelers to head home, but on Tuesday the Thai health minister refused the ship’s entry.

“I have issued orders. Permission to dock refused,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reportedly said in a Facebook post.

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A Rhode Island priest who sought to ban pro-choice lawmakers from receiving communion has suggested abortion is worse than child abuse.

“We are not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make it a comparison between pedophilia and abortion,” the Rev Richard Bucci told local TV station WJAR. “Pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone and this does.”

The priest made headlines last week after posting a list of 44 state lawmakers who would be barred from communion because of their support for reproductive rights.

The note in the Sacred Heart church community bulletin included lawmakers who voted for the state’s Reproductive Privacy Act, which formally adopts into state law the 1973 US supreme court ruling legalizing abortion, also known as Roe v Wade.

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The year-old programme involves around 10 state employees. The cost savings are so large that the insurance program can pay for each patient’s flight, give them a $500-per-trip bonus and still save tens of thousands of dollars.

One participant, 62-year-old teacher Ann Lovell, said she saved as much as $2,400 by travelling from Salt Lake City to San Diego and then crossing the border, in order to refill a prescription for arthritis medication.

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As student debt continues to climb, President Donald Trump on Monday released a budget for 2021 that would slash many of the programs aimed at helping borrowers.

Student loan spending would be cut by $170 billion in Trump’s plan, titled “A Budget for America’s Future.” The reductions include “sensible annual and lifetime loan limits” for graduate students and parents and the end to subsidized loans, in which the government covers the interest for borrowers who are still in school or experiencing economic hardship.

It would also reduce the number of repayment options for borrowers and nix the popular, if challenged, public service loan forgiveness program.

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“The closest we’ll get to making this available will be early next year, or later,” Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, said on “Squawk Box.”

“It still requires a lot of testing to see if these vaccines are safe and then see if they work,” he added.

The controversial International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC), which gives the Trump administration advice on international big game hunting, has disbanded, according to a government court filing.

The Friday filing on behalf of the Interior Department said that the IWCC "ceased to exist" in December when its two-year charter expired.

"The Council will not meet or conduct any business again, it can no longer be renewed, and there [is] no plan to establish another committee with a similar mission or scope in the future," the document said.

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