TV News LIES

Donald Trump has again lashed out at Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, saying he should focus on “fixing his broken country” and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war – and spend less time “interfering” in Iran.

Trump’s latest outburst came a day after he suggested the US military presence in Germany was being reviewed, with a “possible reduction” of troops under consideration. Then on Thursday, the president was baited into saying he may consider withdrawing troops from other US bases in Europe.

During an Oval Office event for correspondents from partisan, rightwing outlets, Trump was asked if he would consider withdrawing troops from bases in Spain and Italy, over their unwillingness to get involved in his ruinous war on Iran.

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Israel is in crisis. Since October 2023 it has been in a permanent state of war with numerous internal and external foes, from the Palestinians of Gaza to Iranian state and society.

Many politicians, analysts and commentators have seen this as proof of strength. Building on the Israeli far right’s increased usage of the Hebrew trope of "Greater Israel" (Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema), they often talk of a Pax Israelica in the Middle East.  

The term is telling in that it merely replicates the more familiar Pax Americana, for which Israel functions regionally as a bridgehead. If there were any period when the notion of Israel as a regional hegemon remotely made sense, it was the few years following the September 2020 Abraham Accords. Until 7 October 2023.

Since then, the Israeli military has veered from one conflict to another in successive failed attempts to crush its foes.

It decimated Gaza but Hamas is still standing. It famously "decapitated" Hezbollah in Lebanon but the group is back as a guerrilla force resisting Israeli occupation. The drone and missile stocks that former defence minister Yoav Gallant - wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity – claimed were all but destroyed are back in action.

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The US announced on Tuesday, that it will commit up to $100 million toward emergency repairs to the radiation containment system at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after a Russian drone strike severely damaged the structure last year.

In a State Department media note, Washington said the funding would support coordinated G7 efforts “to ensure the continued containment of fissile nuclear material” at the site in northern Ukraine.

The contribution will cover roughly 20 percent of the estimated $500 million needed to restore the New Safe Confinement (NSC) arch, the massive steel structure that seals off Reactor Four, destroyed during the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

“For three decades, the United States and G7 partners have led efforts to secure nuclear material at the Chornobyl plant,” the State Department said, noting that Washington has already contributed more than $365 million toward the construction and maintenance of the NSC.

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"I'm on your veranda."

That's the text Prossy Muyingo would get each night for years, sent by a 28-year-old standing outside her home in central Uganda.

Immediately, Muyingo would pour a glass of water and, from the sideboard in her living room, fetch a birth control pill and bring it outside.

"She was swallowing [the pill] from my house," explains Muyingo, who served as a community health worker in Mityana District for 12 years. The woman had told Muyingo that she feared her husband would beat her if he knew about the birth control. "The man is ever asking for a child," the woman said to Muyingo. She already had three children and didn't want another one, at least not right now. So she used Muyingo's home as a place to store and take her pills. Muyingo has similar arrangements with many neighbors.

Now all of that has changed.

In September 2025, Muyingo lost her job. Her stipend had been paid for by U.S. foreign aid. Now, she says, instead of providing contraception, she's informally counseling neighbors through unintended pregnancies.

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Amnesty International said that attacks on civilian infrastructure by Israel has continued, after footage showing the destruction of solar panels in southern Lebanon by Israeli bulldozers has surfaced. 

In a post on X, the group said the incident reflects a broader pattern of damage to non-military facilities.

"Amnesty International has previously documented extensive destruction by the Israeli military along Lebanon’s border before and after the November 2024 ceasefire. We called for reparations and the investigation into this for war crimes. So far, neither has appeared," the organisation said.

Amnesty said its previous calls for such incidents to be investigated as potential war crimes have not been acted upon, adding: “Israel must stop the unlawful destruction of civilian property across southern Lebanon.”

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King Charles made a rare address to a joint session of U.S. Congress on Tuesday, leaning heavily into themes of unity, democracy and the pursuit of peace.

In his speech, the king said the two countries should be united in "an era that is, in many ways, more volatile and more dangerous" than the time of his mother's reign.

U.S. President Donald Trump later heaped praise on Charles and the U.K. at a state dinner in the evening, suggesting he and the monarch agreed on his rationale for the war with Iran.

The visit comes as tensions between the U.S. and U.K. have flared over the U.S.-Israeli conflict against Tehran. "We meet in times of great uncertainty," the King told Congress.

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