TV News LIES

A federal judge in North Carolina conditionally agreed to cancel former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming court appearance on charges of threatening President Trump at his request and with the government’s support.

Comey asked to call off the hearing because he already made an initial appearance in Alexandria, Va., last week over the allegations. He said that federal criminal procedure rules provide “for an initial appearance in the singular.”

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said she would cancel the initial appearance if Comey files a waiver for the hearing in the district by Friday. She said the hearing would proceed as scheduled if no waiver is filed.

In Comey’s initial request, his attorneys said he would be willing to execute any necessary waiver “to give the Court additional comfort if the Court so desires.”

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The Pentagon said the U.S. military launched "self-defense strikes" on Iranian targets Thursday after "unprovoked" attacks from the Islamic republic on U.S. Navy vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

No U.S. assets were struck by Iranian attacks, but U.S. forces hit Iranian military facilities behind the attacks, U.S. Central Command, the arm of the U.S. military overseeing operations in the Middle East, said in a statement. The agency added it does not want to see an "escalation" of the fighting. 

"U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces," the statement said. "CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces."

Iranian state media reported the U.S. struck Iranian ports on Qeshm Island and the city of Bandar Abbas. The two sites are located near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says they launched attacks on U.S. Navy assets after American forces tried to seize an Iranian oil tanker. U.S. forces on Wednesday struck an Iranian oil tanker, disabling the vessel.

The White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for information. The apparent resumption of hostilities comes as President Donald Trump says progress is being made in negotiations as Tehran reviews a U.S. framework for peace talks.

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The US military fired on an Iranian-flagged oil tanker on Wednesday, shortly after Donald Trump issued a fresh ultimatum to Tehran, telling it to accept a deal to end the war or face a new wave of US bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”.

The US fighter fired several rounds and “disabled the tanker’s rudder” as it attempted to breach the US’s blockade of Iranian ports, US Central Command said in a social media post.

The attack came after the US president’s social media announcement – the latest in a rapid series of dramatic and often contradictory changes in policy amid unconfirmed reports of progress in stalled negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

“Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is perhaps a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform, referring to the military operation he launched with Israel against Iran in February.

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House Democrats have asked the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to publicly announce that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, arguing that Washington must end decades of ambiguity over the issue amid the conflict with Iran.

In a letter sent on Monday, 30 Democrats wrote that it was unsustainable for Donald Trump to collaborate with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on a military campaign against Iran – with the stated goal of preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon – without publicly acknowledging the US ally’s possession of the bomb.

“We are, in the fullest sense, fighting this war side by side with a country whose potential nuclear weapons program the United States government officially refuses to acknowledge,” reads the letter, which was led by the Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro.

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios. We do not believe we have received that information.”

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The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is under threat of falling apart after President Trump declared that the U.S. would “guide” vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in an effort he called “Project Freedom,” to begin Monday.

In response, Iran’s armed forces said they would not allow passage to American combat forces or commercial ships without their authorization.

Tehran’s forces opened fire on U.S. warships and commercial vessels on Monday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) head Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters. He said American forces returned fire and destroyed six small Iranian boats.

Cooper would not say whether the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran had ended.

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Iran has submitted a 14-point response to the U.S. proposal to end the conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency and the state-owned media organization Press TV.

Key points of the plan include a demand to resolve all issues and end the war within 30 days, instead of observing a two-month ceasefire as the U.S. had proposed. Other demands listed by the Iranian outlets include guarantees against future military aggression, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iran's periphery, an end to the naval blockade, the release of frozen Iranian assets, payment of reparations, the lifting of sanctions, an end to fighting in Lebanon, and a new mechanism governing the Strait of Hormuz.

NPR has not independently verified the contents of the proposal. An Iranian official said Friday that the document had been handed to Pakistan, but did not disclose its terms. President Trump on Saturday said he is reviewing the new proposal, according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. previously presented Iran with a 15-point framework demanding, among other things, the complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear program.

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