TV News LIES

The firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who received widespread criticism for her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, was celebrated Thursday by the sexual predator’s surviving victims, who have long felt Bondi could be more transparent about their cases.

Marina Lacerda, one of the survivors, shared a news article about Bondi’s firing on her Instagram stories, writing, “WE KNEW IT WOULD COME DOWN TO THIS.”

She also shared a satirical reel from the Instagram account @mermaidmamamaggie that poked fun at all the names Bondi had redacted from the Epstein files.

“What? You’re firing me,” the comedian said in the reel, posing as Bondi talking to President Donald Trump. “But I’ve done everything you’ve asked, sir. I’ve ignored the facts, buried the evidence, and I even learned how to say ‘no comment’ in five different tones of panic.”

Amanda and Sky Roberts — the family of Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year — said in a statement to independent journalist Aaron Parnas that they hope Bondi “has the courage” to “do right by survivors.”

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, to step down from the post and retire immediately, a Pentagon official told The Hill on Thursday.

The Army did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The Pentagon confirmed George’s retirement, who served as the Army’s 41st chief of staff.

“The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” Pentagon chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement.

The Army’s current vice chief of staff is Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who was previously Hegseth’s military aide, will serve as the acting chief of staff, a Pentagon official told The Hill.

“General LaNeve — a generational leader — will help ensure the Army revives the warrior ethos, rebuilds for the modern battlefield and deters our enemies around the world,” Hegseth said of LaNeve in January.

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Palestinians across the occupied West Bank observed a general strike on Wednesday in protest against a new Israeli law allowing the execution of prisoners, as international condemnation mounted.

Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called for the strike, describing the legislation as a “dangerous escalation” against Palestinians.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/general-strike-leaves-west-bank-streets-empty-over-death-penalty-bill
“This criminal law will not break the will of our people or the determination of our prisoners, but will instead strengthen our resolve to continue the struggle for their freedom and legitimate rights,” it said in a statement.

The Knesset approved the bill in its final readings on Monday by 62 votes to 48, despite international calls to abandon it.

The legislation has drawn widespread criticism for violating the right to life and for its potentially discriminatory application.

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Leading lawyers and legal experts have called on the governing bureau of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to uphold the findings of a judicial panel that cleared the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, of wrongdoing following a sexual misconduct complaint.

The 21-member bureau of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties (ASP) is set to convene again on Monday for the third time to discuss its response to the report by three senior judges and the next course of action in the long-running saga, which has sidelined Khan since he took indefinite leave in May 2025.

Speaking to Middle East Eye ahead of Monday’s meeting, Khan’s lead counsel, Sareta Ashraph, said the process followed by United Nations investigators and judges had been “gender-competent” after a number of civil society groups called on the bureau to reject the panel’s findings.

Other legal experts voiced confidence in the competence and experience of the three-judge panel in their handling of the highly sensitive and complex case.

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The Supreme Court sided with a Christian counselor on Tuesday in her free speech challenge to Colorado’s ban on counselors attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the 8-1 majority, said lower courts used too lenient a standard in upholding the ban.

The law regulates counselors’ speech in an attempt to silence a certain viewpoint, Gorsuch wrote.

“Fortunately, that is not the world the First Amendment envisions for us,” the justice wrote.

The court’s decision is poised to have ripple effects across the country, with more than 20 states having enacted similar measures. But two of the court’s liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, signaled that states that write more tailored laws could still prevail.

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An Israeli court has drawn criticism after closing an investigation into the death of a Palestinian teenager in custody, despite finding indications he had been starved prior to his death.

Walid Ahmad, a 17-year-old from the occupied West Bank, died in Israeli custody in March 2025, six months after he was detained for allegedly throwing stones, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Judge Ehud Kaplan ruled the case should be closed, stating there was no proven link between Ahmad’s deteriorating physical condition, such as severe weight loss and infection, and the immediate cause of his death. Details of the ruling emerged on Tuesday after a gag order was lifted.

Nadia Dakka, a human rights lawyer who has followed the case, criticised the decision as reflecting a narrow legal approach that fails to address the broader conditions contributing to detainees’ deaths.

Dakka said the ruling highlights the difficulty of establishing criminal responsibility in cases involving systemic abuse.

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He has buildings, institutions, government programs, warships, currency, and now Donald Trump is getting an airport that bears his name even as he looks forward to a towering Trump presidential library in Miami.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, signed a bill on Monday saying the Palm Beach international airport was being renamed to the President Donald J Trump international airport.

Trump’s family business filed a trademark application for the airport name in February. If approved, the name change would take effect on 1 July.

The Florida airport is the latest in a series of buildings, institutions, government programs, navy battleships, national parks passes and even money to be named after the US president.

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Israeli forces blocked two senior Catholic leaders from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in occupied East Jerusalem to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch, and Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, were stopped en route to the church.

The leaders had attempted to enter privately without any ceremonial procession or public gathering, but were refused access.

The church bodies said this was the first time in centuries that the heads of the Catholic Church had been prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday Mass at the Holy Sepulchre.

“This incident is a grave precedent, and disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem,” they said.

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