TV News LIES

Thirty-five countries signed a convention in the Netherlands on Tuesday, Dec. 16, establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine to address damage caused by Russia’s invasion.

“In the Hague, together with 34 states and the European Union, and on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelensky, I had the honor of signing the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine. Thirty-five is a record number of states. This is a historic step,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.

The convention stipulates that the commission will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset said the creation of the Register of Damage for Ukraine in 2023 marked the first step of an international compensation mechanism, according to Ukrainian media reports.

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Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.

The move comes amid an escalating campaign by the Trump administration against Maduro that has included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed dozens of people.

Last week, US forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast that was traveling across the Caribbean. The tanker was thought to be loaded with about 2m barrels of Venezuela’s heavy crude, according to the New York Times. The Venezuelan government accused the US of “blatant theft” and described the seizure as “an act of international piracy”, further heightening tensions between the two countries.

In a post on social media on Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.

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Ukraine has launched a new, previously unreported “Sub Sea Baby” underwater drone and sank a Russian Kilo-class submarine in the Novorossiysk port, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The SBU did not specify the date and time of the attack.

In a Monday press release, the SBU said “a Russian submarine of the class 636.3 ‘Varshavyanka’” was struck and “suffered critical damage and was actually put out of action.”

Footage released with the announcement shows multiple Russian warships docked at Novorossiysk, with the surfaced submarine at the pier as an explosion sends up splashes nearby.

The SBU estimated the submarine’s cost at about $400 million, rising to as much as $500 million to replace due to sanctions, and said it can carry up to four Kalibr cruise missiles used in attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“This class of submarine is also known as the ‘Black Hole’ due to the hull’s ability to absorb sound and remain inaudible to sonar,” the SBU said of the destroyed submarine.

The SBU said it was a joint operation with the Ukrainian Navy.

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President Donald Trump took aim at another media outlet on Monday by filing a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC.

Trump’s suit follows threats he’s made against the British broadcaster over the editing of its documentary program Panorama.

In an episode of the program that aired about a week before the 2024 election, Panorama had spliced together clips of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse ahead of the January 6 insurrection.

This past November — following a letter from Trump’s lawyers — BBC apologized to the president for the edit, but pushed back on claims that it constitutes defamation.

In a suit filed in federal court in Florida this week, Trump alleges that the BBC’s documentary was an attempt to interfere in the 2024 election and advance a “false” and “disparaging” depiction of him.

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U.S. envoys arrived in Berlin Sunday morning for another round of talks intended to secure a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were spotted in downtown Berlin by a photographer for German news agency dpa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days.

"Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace — a political agreement to end the war," Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation late Saturday.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia's war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces, and security guarantees for Ukraine.

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