TV News LIES

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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One of the two National Guard members shot in what authorities described as a "targeted" ambush near the White House has died, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.

"Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way. She’s just passed away," Trump said in a Thanksgiving call to service members from Palm Beach, Florida.

"She's just passed away. She's no longer with us," Trump continued. "She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her."

Andrew Wolfe, the other National Guard member who was shot near the White House, remained in critical condition, is "fighting for his life" and was in "very bad shape," according to the president.

The troops were part of a "high-visibility patrol,” about two blocks from the White House, when the shooting occurred, authorities said. The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national from Washington state.

The suspect’s motive has not been determined. He was shot by a nearby National Guard member and remained hospitalized in "serious condition" as of Thursday," according to authorities and Trump.

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Officials have publicly named the two West Virginia National Guardsmen shot near the White House on Thanksgiving Eve.

According to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro at a Thursday, Nov. 27 press conference, the injured members were identified as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe.

NBC Washington reported that Beckstrom is from Webster Springs and Wolfe is from Martinsburg.

The victims have undergone surgery and remain in critical condition, Pirro said. Beckstrom and Wolfe were sworn in less than 24 hours before the attack, Pirro said.

A suspect, officials described as a "lone gunman," is in custody and facing charges in connection with the attack, deemed to be a possible act of terrorism.

Here's what we know so far.

Officials said the two National Guard members were shot near a Farragut West Metro station on Nov. 26. The troops were part of a "high-visibility patrol" at around 2:15 p.m. ET near the corner of 17th and I St. NW, about two blocks from the White House, when the shooting occurred, officials said.

The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal from Washington State, was also shot and subdued by other guard members in the area.

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Israeli forces launched an extensive military assault on the northern occupied West Bank city of Tubas on Wednesday.

Troops stormed Palestinian homes in the early morning hours in the towns of Tammun, Tayasir and Aqaba, turning several houses into temporary military barracks. Residents were forcibly removed from their homes.

Israeli forces also closed roads and erected earth mounds, obstructing the movement of people across the area.

According to local media, Apache helicopters were seen flying over the city, reportedly firing arbitrarily at civilian homes.

Several videos posted online appear to show Israeli forces setting up equipment on the roofs of civilian homes. Additional footage shows troops blocking ambulance crews attempting to reach Palestinians in need.

Due to the intensified military incursion, the Tubas Governorate announced the suspension of work in all governmental and private institutions - including schools - with operations shifting online for the day.

The governor of Tubas said the Israeli army is justifying its latest operation - which he expects to last several days - by claiming it is pursuing wanted Palestinians. He stressed, however, that no such individuals are present in the area.

Israeli Army Radio reported that a military division comprising three brigades is taking part in the Tubas operation. 

In a statement, an Israeli army spokesperson said the military, alongside the Shin Bet intelligence agency and Border Guard forces, is conducting a large-scale campaign to stop what they described as “terrorist activities” in the occupied territory.

He added that the army “will not allow terrorism to take root and will work proactively to thwart it”.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told European allies that the U.S. wants a peace deal before it agrees to any security guarantees for Ukraine, according to a European diplomat and a person with knowledge of the conversations.

That condition has underscored American proposals to Kyiv over the past week, the people said. Rubio, on a Tuesday call with European officials, argued President Donald Trump will negotiate long-term guarantees for Ukraine’s safety, they said, that would ensure Kyiv feels secure.

Ukraine’s leaders have held Western security guarantees as a cornerstone for any feasible deal with Russia, although NATO members have struggled to figure out how to support the war-scarred country either militarily or with intelligence support. Trump has said he won’t invite Ukraine’s leader to the White House until a deal is signed.

The situation is changing rapidly and European allies are scrambling to understand the multiple messages from the administration. Rubio also told European allies that security guarantees for Ukraine are a priority for the administration, and an issue separate from other points of discussion that have already been agreed on, according to a second European diplomat, and the U.S. wants an entire package done quickly.

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The historic Georgia criminal case against President Trump and more than a dozen of his allies for their efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election result has officially come to an end.

"The case is hereby dismissed in its entirety," Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ordered Wednesday.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, moved to end the prosecution against the remaining defendants after he assumed the case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was disqualified by a court late last year.

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"The criminal conduct alleged in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit's prosecution was conceived in Washington, D.C., not the State of Georgia," Skandalakis wrote in his motion to dismiss. "The federal government is the appropriate venue for this prosecution, not the State of Georgia."

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Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, has said it is “surprised and disappointed” by a report that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, could sever all military ties to the organization for being “genderless” and failing to “cultivate masculine values”.

In a draft memo to Congress obtained by NPR, Hegseth criticized Scouting America, which began admitting girls in 2018, for purportedly attempting to “attack boy-friendly spaces”.

“It is no longer a meritocracy which holds its members accountable to meet high standards,” Hegseth wrote.

The US military has provided support to the Scouts for more than a century. But in the memo, Hegseth said: “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”

His proposal, which has not yet been sent to Congress, calls for the Pentagon to pull medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, a gathering of up to 20,000 Scouts at a remote site in West Virginia about every four years. It also looks to prohibit Scouting troops from meeting at military installations in the US and abroad.

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The fate of one French judge is a case study in the west’s long unravelling. Nicolas Guillou cannot shop online. When he used Expedia to book a hotel in his own country, the reservation was cancelled within hours. He is “blacklisted by much of the world’s banking system”, unable to use most bank cards.

Guillou, you see, has been sanctioned by the United States, putting him on a 15,000-strong list alongside al-Qaida terrorists, drug cartels and Vladimir Putin. Why? Because alongside two other judges of the international criminal court pre-trial chamber I, he approved arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Mohammed Deif, the former commander of Hamas’s military wing. Guillou and his colleagues had “actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel”, the US claimed when imposing the sanctions in June. All are now barred from entering the US – but that is the least of the consequences.

The rationale is brutally clear. The rule of law does not apply to the world’s hegemon or its closest allies. This was bluntly spelled out by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who told the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan – himself sanctioned – that the ICC was “made for Africa and thugs like Putin, not democracies like Israel”. The US refused to sign up to the court, clearly fearing that its propensity to commit war crimes in foreign lands would lead to prosecutions. That put Washington in the same bracket as human rights abusers like China, Russia and indeed Israel. Only because Palestine acceded to the court a decade ago does the ICC now have jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory or by its citizens.

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