TV News LIES

The State Department issued a terse statement last week saying, "an awareness day is not a strategy." The result is that on December 1, the United States is not commemorating World AIDS Day. It's the first time the U.S. has not participated since the World Health Organization created this day in 1988 to remember the millions of people who have died of AIDS-related illnesses and recommit to fighting the epidemic that still claims the lives of more than half a million people each year.

By contrast, last year former President Joe Biden held a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House with the AIDS Memorial Quilt — with coffin-shaped patches each honoring someone who had died of AIDS-related causes — spread out on the grass. And this year, despite the Trump administration's change of heart, countries around the world are marking the day with proclamations, public health campaigns and commemorative ceremonies.

President Trump has nothing planned for this year and the State Department has instructed employees not to mark the day.

Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the State Department, confirmed the decision not to commemorate the day, writing in a statement that the country is "modernizing our approach to countering infectious diseases" and that "under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing."

Some HIV/AIDS activists reacted with frustration to the news — and with protests.

"I think it's emblematic of an administration that doesn't seem to care," said Mitchell Warren, the executive director of AVAC, a global HIV prevention organization based in the U.S.

The U.S. has consistently been the top financial supporter of the global fight against HIV/AIDS, primarily through President George W. Bush's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which has invested more than $110 billion into the global effort since it launched in 2003.

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An Israeli lawyer has alleged that his Palestinian client is being tortured and sexually assaulted in custody, saying the abuse intensifies each time he visits the detainee.

Speaking in an interview with a known journalist, Samira Mohyeddin, lawyer Ben Marmarelli said his sole client, a Palestinian political prisoner, is subjected to severe mistreatment by Israeli authorities, including repeated sexual violence.

“It’s gotten to the point where he asks me not to come anymore because every time I come, they rape him,” Marmarelli said.

He added that sexual assault, while alarming, is only one part of a broader pattern of abuse. 

“I want to say something about the rape. Everyone talks to me about the rape like it’s the big issue. The rape is not the big issue. The rape is the least of his problems,” he said. “The issue is the conditions of the prisoners, and the rape is just one of the many pieces of the puzzle, which is Israel torturing the Palestinian prisoners.”

Marmarelli said his client has shown him “boot marks on his back,” deep marks on his wrists from tight handcuffs, and “bruises all over his body.” According to him, the sexual assaults occur “once every few weeks” and appear to coincide with his visits.

“Palestinian political prisoners don’t get any visits for years. Their only connection to the outside world is a lawyer’s visit,” he said.

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The ceasefire is broadly holding in Gaza, with Israeli forces inside the strip having pulled back to the so-called "yellow line." Still, renewed Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians last week in response to what Israel alleged was a ceasefire violation by a Hamas gunman.

The bodies of two deceased hostages are still thought to be in Gaza. Israeli authorities have been releasing Palestinian prisoners and the bodies of deceased Palestinians detainees in exchange for the return of hostage remains.

Elsewhere, Israel is continuing strikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement there signed last November. On Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike in the capital Beirut for the first time in several months, killing Hezbollah chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabataba'i.

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A 16-year-old American citizen was freed on Thursday after spending nine months in an Israeli prison.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American teenager from Florida whose case was first exposed by the Guardian in July, was released following a guilty plea and suspended sentence, according to his family. Relatives said he was taken to a hospital for intravenous therapy and blood work immediately after his release, and noted he is severely underweight, pale and is still suffering from scabies contracted during his detention. Ibrahim had lost a quarter of his body weight in detention, his family said.

“Words can’t describe the immense relief we have as a family right now, to have Mohammed in his parents’ arms,” Zeyad Kadur, a close family friend, wrote in a statement, adding the family “has been living a horrific and endless nightmare” over the last nine months.

“Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place,” he said.

Ibrahim was arrested in a raid on his family’s West Bank home in February when he was still 15 years old, with Israeli forces allegedly blindfolding and handcuffing him in the middle of the night. He was charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles, according to court documents reviewed by the Guardian.

The case first gained attention after 20-year-old American-Palestinian Sayfollah Musallet was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in mid-July. While reporting on his story, the Guardian learned that his younger cousin Mohammed Ibrahim had been held since February. No arrests have been made in Musallet’s killing, though Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador, called it a “criminal and terrorist act” and demanded Israel “aggressively investigate the murder”.

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Ten-year-old Rateb Abu Qleiq sat in a rusted chair in front of his tent in Deir al-Balah. As he spoke, he unconsciously swung his right leg, which was amputated just below the knee, back and forth—the stub tracing a short arc in the air. On his lap he cradled a makeshift prosthetic, nothing more than a piece of plastic sewage pipe outfitted with an orange covering secured by a piece of string.

“My leg is gone,” Rateb told Drop Site. “This pipe doesn’t make up for my leg.”
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-child-amputees-makeshift-prosthetics-limbs-israeli-restrictions-hamad-hospital
Rateb was severely wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis earlier this year that killed his mother and brother. His right leg was crushed and had to be amputated. He has undergone five surgeries in his abdomen since the attack.

“I felt sad that I’m no longer like the other kids because my leg was amputated. I don’t know how to play with them. I wish I had a leg so I could play with my friends,” he said.

Desperate to move again, Rateb and his cousin fashioned the prosthetic leg out of a plastic sewage pipe he found in the street. “I don’t want to give up, and my determination is strong. I dream of having a real prosthetic limb,” Rateb said. “If my leg hadn’t been cut off, the first place I’d go is the field to play football. I want to return to our home and have my mom, my dad, and my leg with me.”

“When he first wore it, he was so happy, as if it were his real leg, he would walk on it. But poor thing, because it was made of plastic, it started to hurt his leg. No matter what, it’s still just a sewage pipe,” Rateb’s uncle, Mohammed Abu Qleiq, told Drop Site. “It doesn’t replace a real prosthetic limb, and it doesn’t make up for his leg. But this was the simplest thing we had.”

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The Trump administration has ordered a review of all refugees already cleared to enter the U.S. during the Biden era and may require them to undergo a re-interview, according to a memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services obtained by USA TODAY.

All refugees admitted between Jan. 20, 2021, the day before former President Joe Biden took office, and Feb. 20, 2025 will have their applications re-reviewed even if they were already admitted entry to the U.S., according to the memo, which is dated Nov. 21. Refugees admitted outside that time frame could also be re-reviewed, the memo states.

Refugees who were already admitted also may need to submit to another interview to prove they face "past persecution or a well-founded fear," according to the memo. Refugees whose applications are rejected will have no pathway to appeal the decision, it reads.

Almost 197,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. from 2021 to 2024, an increase from the 118,000 admitted during Trump's first term, but still less than under any other president for the previous half-century, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

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