TV News LIES

On Sunday, U.N. human rights experts and activists strongly condemned the arrest of American journalist Ali Abunimah in Zurich, Switzerland, citing grave concerns over freedom of speech. Abunimah, the executive director of Electronic Intifada, was arrested by Swiss police on Saturday prior to delivering a speech, as confirmed by the organization.

Swiss authorities later stated that the 53-year-old American was detained due to an entry ban and that additional legal actions under immigration laws were being considered. Irene Khan, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, expressed her dismay at the news, urging Switzerland to thoroughly investigate the case and release Abunimah.

The situation underlined a growing sense of unease over free speech in Europe, a sentiment echoed by Francesca Albanese, U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories. In response, the Swiss Action for Human Rights launched a petition demanding Abunimah's release, while the U.S. mission in Bern has yet to comment.

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The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has ordered a halt to virtually all US foreign aid, but made an exception for funding to Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo to staff at the US state department.

“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved … as consistent with President Trump’s agenda,” said the memo.

The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid – including potentially to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.

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The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday reinstated complaints about how ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and appearances of Kamala Harris on CBS’s 60 Minutes and NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

Last week, then FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the commission was rejecting complaints that “seek to weaponize the licensing authority of the FCC in a way that is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment”. Then, on Wednesday, the FCC said in a series of orders the complaints had been dismissed “prematurely based on an insufficient investigatory record”.

The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks. The complaints name specific stations of the three broadcasters. NBC, Walt Disney-owned ABC and Paramount’s CBS did not immediately comment.

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They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, skin and hair caked in dirt, skeletal. Some struggle to walk and collapse. They blink like moles in the harsh South African sunlight. Some look painfully young.

Operations to rescue hundreds of illegal miners at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, a small mining town about 100 miles Southwest of Johannesburg, started Monday and ended Thursday when rescuers said there was no longer anyone left in the shaft.

In total during the rescue operation, 246 illegal gold miners were brought to the surface alive. Seventy-eight more were brought up dead.

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