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The US Department of Justice has moved to eliminate rules protecting LGBTQ+ people from sexual abuse in prisons, a shift advocates say is “reckless and dangerous” and will lead to increased assaults behind bars.

A justice department memo issued on Tuesday said “effective immediately”, prisons and jails will no longer be held responsible for violations of standards meant to shield LGBTQ+ people from harassment, abuse and rape. It also directed inspectors to stop auditing facilities for compliance with those protections. The justice department is in the process of seeking formal updates to the rules, the memo said.

The directive relates to regulations under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea), a longstanding federal law which says incarcerated people should be screened for their risk of facing sexual assault when officials place them in housing and that assessments must consider LGBTQ+ status.

Prea, passed unanimously by Congress in 2003, includes standards aimed at addressing the high levels of violence that transgender, gender-nonconforming and queer people face in jails and prisons across the US. Prea applies to all correctional facilities.

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Arafat Qaddous worked construction jobs in Israel.

He was one of around 130,000 Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank with permits from the Israeli authorities to cross the separation wall into Israeli territory as a laborer. With his lawful employment inside the Green Line, which separates the West Bank from Israel, he was able to go back and forth from his hometown of Iraq Burin, near Nablus in the north, to whichever Israeli city offered work.

Before the Covid pandemic, the 51-year-old Qaddous’s work in Israel sustained his wife and five children.

His brother Qusai said Arafat’s living conditions worsened over the years, as work opportunities dried up during the pandemic, his family’s needs grew, and the West Bank’s economy tanked.

“There are hardly any jobs in the West Bank,” Qusai said, “and prices of food and goods are extremely high.”

Things got even worse after October 7, 2023: Israel indefinitely paused Palestinian workers’ permits after Hamas’s attack, and Qaddous lost his permit. So when an opportunity presented itself — a job in Taybeh, inside Israel — he took a chance.

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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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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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Donald Trump said on Friday night that he’s “immediately” terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program seeking to limit deportations that his administration has already repeatedly sought to weaken.

Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community. Many fled the long civil war in the east African country and were drawn to the state’s welcoming social programs.

But how many migrants would be affected by Trump’s announcement that he wants to end temporary protective status could be very small. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.

Congress created the program granting temporary protective status (TPS) in 1990. It was meant to prevent deportations of people to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions.

The designation can be granted by the homeland security secretary and is granted in 18-month increments.

The president announced his decision on his social media site, suggesting that Minnesota was “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.

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