TV News LIES

The United States has announced it will soon provide in-person passport services at an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The US Embassy in Jerusalem said it would start providing the service for Efrat, located between the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem and Hebron, on February 27.

It will be the first time the US has “provided consular services to a settlement in the West Bank”, according to a US embassy spokesperson quoted by the Reuters news agency.

The embassy said it would plan similar on-site services in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the illegal Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit near Bethlehem, and in cities within Israel, such ⁠as Haifa.

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Israeli settlers vandalized a mosque in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Monday, spray-painting offensive phrases and setting a fire, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Worshippers arriving for the day’s first prayers found the damage and a smoldering fire that spewed black smoke across the entrance of the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in the town of Tell, near Nablus, and stained the ornate doorway.

“I was shocked when I opened the door,” said Munir Ramdan, who lives nearby. “The fire had been burning here in the area, the glass was broken here and the door was broken.”

Security camera footage showed two people walking toward the mosque carrying gasoline and a can of spray paint, and running away a few minutes later, Ramdan said.

The attackers spray-painted graffiti denigrating the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the words “revenge” and “price tag.” In “price tag” attacks, hard-line Israeli nationalists attack Palestinians and vandalize their property in response to Palestinian militant attacks or perceived efforts by Israeli authorities to limit settlement activity.

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The U.S. and Iran are headed to a new round of talks in Geneva aimed at averting a conflict this week—as the U.S. continues to surge military forces to the region in its largest military buildup since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Although talks are scheduled for Thursday, the prospects for a deal that would halt the U.S. drive to war remain fragile. The U.S. has demanded sweeping concessions, including the cessation of all nuclear enrichment on Iranian soil, the end of Iranian support for regional armed resistance movements, and strict limits on the Iranian ballistic missile program—the only meaningful deterrent that Iran was able to employ during its conflict with Israel last year.

In a post on Truth Social on Monday, President Donald Trump wrote, “I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them.”

An Iranian official told Drop Site that Tehran understands the erratic nature of the Trump administration, but believes the position its diplomats are outlining to U.S. negotiators represents an unprecedented effort by Iran aimed at preventing a regional war. The official said Iran is directly addressing U.S. concerns on the nuclear issue with concrete proposals, and asserting a willingness to expand talks to other issues once a deal to avert imminent conflict has been concluded.

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Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.

The president has not made a final determination on any strikes, as the administration prepares for Iran to send its latest proposal this week, ahead of what officials have described as a last-ditch round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.

The president has not made a final determination on any strikes, as the administration prepares for Iran to send its latest proposal this week, ahead of what officials have described as a last-ditch round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

Those talks will be led by Witkoff and Kushner, whose assessment on the likelihood of a deal will shape Trump’s calculus. If there is no deal, Trump has told advisers he is considering limited strikes to pressure Iran and, failing that, a far larger attack to force regime change.

A US official said on Monday that Witkoff was part of the group advising Trump on his decision about how to proceed with Iran and had been involved in all meetings related to the matter.

Trump has received multiple briefings on military options, the people said, including most recently on Wednesday in the White House Situation Room. He has also solicited views from a broad range of officials in the West Wing in recent weeks on what he should do with Iran.

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Volunteer searchers fanned out looking for clues as the hunt for the missing 84-year-old mother of "Today" show cohost Savannah Guthrie entered its 22nd day.

Early on Feb. 22, volunteers gathered in the parking lot of a Tucson, Arizona, Hobby Lobby before beginning an informal search not far from Guthrie's house. The group recovered a backpack that was handed over to deputies.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department later said on Feb. 23 that the backpack found by volunteers does not appear to be a "viable lead," noting that it seems to be a different brand than the one the suspect wore in the doorbell surveillance footage that the FBI previously released. The backpack also "appears to have been outside for much longer than three weeks" and "contained identification of a minor within it," the sheriff's department said.

Authorities had no updates on the investigation as of the morning of Feb. 22, according to Angelica Carrillo, a sheriff's department spokesperson.

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A 23-year-old police officer was killed and 25 people were injured in what authorities described as a terrorist attack in Lviv overnight on Feb. 22, as officials confirmed the detention of a suspected perpetrator.

The blasts damaged a patrol vehicle and a civilian car, and prompted a large-scale response from law enforcement and emergency services.

According to Astra, citing regional authorities and police, the first explosion occurred after patrol officers arrived at a store on Danylyshyna Street following a report of unlawful entry. A second explosion followed when another patrol unit reached the scene.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy described the incident as a terrorist act in a statement issued shortly after midnight.

“Lviv. This was a terrorist attack. At present, 14 injured have been hospitalized. Doctors are providing all necessary assistance. Law enforcement and all relevant services are working,” Sadovyi wrote.

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A Guardian analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the Trump administration’s rhetoric and reality.

Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trotted out a phrase that his surrogates would come to use over and over again: “the worst of the worst.”

The term has become a shorthand justification for the administration’s unprecedented overhaul of immigration enforcement – a relentless campaign the administration claims is focused on arresting and deporting violent criminals.

However, a review of records obtained by the Guardian and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against DHS, raises questions about those claims.

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Mexican drug lord Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, commonly known as "El Mencho," was killed in a military operation, officials announced on Sunday, Feb. 22, the latest victory in Mexico's war on drug cartels amid U.S. intervention threats.

Mexico's defense ministry said a shootout in Tapalpa, Jalisco, left Oseguera seriously injured, and he died during an air transfer to Mexico City. Six other cartel members were killed and two were arrested in the military operation.

"Various weapons and armored vehicles were seized, including rocket launchers capable of shooting down aircraft and destroying armored vehicles," Mexican officials said, adding that the authorities in the United States provided "complementary information."

A former police officer, Oseguera was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, an outfit named for the western state that is home to one of Mexico's biggest cities, Guadalajara. Over a relatively short period of time, the cartel transformed into an international criminal enterprise rivaling former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel, the gang of captured kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, now in a U.S. prison.

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