TV News LIES

President Donald Trump on Monday agreed to a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada as America’s two largest trading partners took steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.

Arbel Yehoud is achingly close to freedom, but her face is a study of shadow and terror. She is dwarfed by dozens of masked Hamas fighters — and beyond them, a heaving mob of chanting men who surround her and fill the frame. In the next, Yehoud looks up at her captors, pleading. But video suggests they’re on the edge themselves, barely able to hold back the people impeding Yehoud’s dash to safety under the terms of a ceasefire deal.

Cut to photos of her friends and family in Israel, watching the handover live — hands over their mouths, breathless. Yehoud makes it into waiting vehicles, and then to Israel. Cue the government’s images of her joyous reunion with her parents.

The visuals out of Israel and Gaza during recent hostage-for-prisoner swaps were part of a choreographed battle of optics waged in parallel to the 16-month ground war between Israel and Hamas. Each side uses the light and shadow of images to make themselves look virtuous and strong — and each other monstrous and weak. It’s propaganda. But some images also tell the truth: The chaos during Yehoud’s release in Gaza on Thursday, for example, reflected the fragility of the ceasefire deal that took effect Jan. 19.

More...

• Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy hinted that both sides would have to make concessions to end the war – which could include Kyiv giving up land occupied by Russia. After recently returning from a visit to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg told Fox News that “both sides will give a little bit”. Zelenskyy “has already indicated he will soften his position on land,” the retired lieutenant general said, adding that Putin “is going to have to soften his positions as well”. But the Ukrainian president’s communications adviser dismissed Kellogg’s intervention. “We haven’t seen Mr Kellogg’s full interview … But if his plan is just a ceasefire and elections, it is a failed plan – Putin won’t be intimidated by just those two things,” Dmytro Lytvyn told journalists.

• Trump’s threat of sanctions has left Vladimir Putin “rattled” and concerned about the Russian economy, British prime minister Keir Starmer has said ahead of an informal European defence cooperation meeting in Brussels on Monday. Starmer said it was necessary to “see all allies stepping up – particularly in Europe” when it comes to inflicting economic harm on Russia, and argued it would help bring about peace by ending the Ukraine war sooner. “President Trump has threatened more sanctions on Russia and it’s clear that’s got Putin rattled,” Starmer said ahead of the trip. “We know that he’s worried about the state of the Russian economy.”

The Trump administration has stepped up its attack on Venezuelans living in the US under temporary deportation protections, revoking the right to stay of more than 300,000 people.

Now Trump has targeted a subset of that Venezuelan immigrant community who entered the TPS program in 2023, obtaining the right to remain in the US until at least April. Having revoked their protections, the Trump administration is giving that group of more than 300,000 Venezuelans just 60 days before they become vulnerable to deportation.

A further 250,000 Venezuelans who arrived in 2021 have TPS protections until September. Their position beyond that date must now be considered to be in severe jeopardy.

More...

 

 

 

US business leaders are offering a mixed reaction to the steep trade tariffs that Donald Trump’s administration has imposed on Canada, Mexico and China, as the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal called it “the dumbest trade war in history”.

Donald Trump hit Canada and Mexico with a 25% tariff on imports, and China with 10%, on Saturday in a move that launched a new era of trade wars between the US and three of its largest trading partners. The tariffs against Canada tax oil and energy products at 10%.

Trump said on his own Truth Social social media platform that he had used emergency powers to issue the tariffs, due to come into effect on Tuesday, “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl”.

The Journal said the moves “reminds us of the old Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend”, adding that with the exception of China “Mr Trump’s justification for this economic assault on the neighbors makes no sense.”

More...