The Arab American News
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Lebanese court removes investigator who charged politicians over Beirut blast
February 19th, 20210 BEIRUT — On Thursday, a Lebanese court dismissed a judge who had charged top politicians with negligence over last year’s Beirut port explosion, infuriating families of victims who said it showed that the state would never hold powerful men to account. Judge Fadi Sawan had led the investigation into one of the largest non-nuclear...
Effort underway to involve underrepresented communities in redistricting
February 18th, 20210 LANSING — The Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) is leading an effort alongside a coalition of partners to provide training and resources to help underrepresented communities give testimony and legislative maps to the new Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC). The MNA is a statewide membership organization...
Trump, Giuliani accused in lawsuit of conspiring to incite Capitol riot
February 16th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Democratic congressman accused former president Trump, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and two right-wing groups of conspiring to incite the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in a lawsuit on Tuesday. The civil lawsuit accuses the duo of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 law passed to crack down on the...
Warren’s Imam Steve Mustafa Elturk to receive interfaith award
February 15th, 20210 WARREN — Imam Steve Mustafa Elturk, president of the Islamic Organization of North America, will receive the Robert A. Bruttell Interfaith Leader Award on Feb. 22. Elturk is a leader of Warren's faith community, where his mosque, the Islamic Organization of North America, is based. He co-chairs the Imams Committee of the ...
Arab Americans continue their efforts for Little Arabia designation in Anaheim
February 13th, 20210 ANAHEIM, CA — There is a roughly four-to-five-mile stretch in Anaheim where you can get Egyptian food, Syrian ice cream, Lebanese cuisine and many flavors from Arab-speaking countries — it is an area that business owners and organizers are hoping to get a special designation. One of the businesses on Brookhurst owned by an...
New options for COVID-19 vaccine sign-up in Michigan
February 12th, 20210 MICHIGAN - Residents who don’t have access to the internet or who struggle to use a computer can now call the Michigan COVID-19 Hotline at 888-535-6136, available Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., for up-to-date information about vaccine eligibility, safety information, and clinic locations Local health departments and hospitals...
UAE’s Hope Probe enters orbit in first Arab Mars mission
February 12th, 20210 DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars reached the red planet and entered orbit on Tuesday after a seven-month, 494 million-km (307 million-mile) journey, allowing it to start sending data about the Martian atmosphere and climate. The Mars program is part of the UAE’s efforts to develop its scientific and...
Blinken stops short of endorsing Trump’s recognition of the Golan Heights as Israel
February 12th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stopped short of endorsing the Trump administration’s recognition of the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, instead noting that the territory was important for Israel’s security. Former President Trump officially granted U.S. recognition of the Golan as Israeli...
Help is available for young people struggling with addiction during the pandemic
February 11th, 20210 In the midst of a pandemic, the drug epidemic persists as health experts say fentanyl is still the leading cause of drug overdoses in Wayne County, while the number one drug of choice for teens is marijuana, followed by alcohol and heroin. As most of us know, substance use is still very prevalent among young people in the country and...
Democrats focus Trump trial on mob’s threat to his fellow Republicans
February 10th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump’s impeachment trial for inciting the deadly siege of the Capitol highlighted through video on Wednesday how members of the pro-Trump mob searched the building for his vice president, chanting: “Hang Mike Pence!” Previously unseen security videos showed the view from...
Harvard Law Review elects first Muslim president
February 8th, 20210 BOSTON — The Harvard Law Review has named a Los Angeles-born Egyptian American as what it believes is the first Muslim president in its 134-year history, elevating him to the top of one of the most prestigious U.S. law journals. Harvard Law School student Hassaan Shahawy said he hoped his election represented “legal academia’s...
Paul M. Abbate named FBI deputy director
February 6th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. – FBI Director Christopher Wray has named Paul M. Abbate as deputy director. As deputy, he oversees all FBI domestic and international investigative and intelligence activities. Abbate most recently served as the associate deputy director. Abbate joined the FBI as a special agent in 1996 and was assigned to the...
International Criminal Court rules it has jurisdiction over Palestinian Territories
February 5th, 20210 AMSTERDAM - The International Criminal Court ruled on Friday that it has jurisdiction over war crimes or atrocities committed in the Palestinian Territories, paving the way for a criminal investigation, despite Israeli objections. Judges said their decision was based on jurisdictional rules in the Hague-based court’s founding...
Biden ends U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, says war “has to end”
February 4th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, President Biden declared a halt to U.S. support for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen, demanding that the more than six-year war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, “has to end.” Biden also named veteran U.S. diplomat Timothy Lenderking as the U.S. special...
‘He invited us’: Accused Capitol rioters blame Trump in novel legal defense
February 2nd, 20210 Emanuel Jackson, a 20-year-old Washington area man, was caught on video using a metal bat to strike the protective shields wielded by police officers as they tried to fend off rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Jackson, awaiting trial in federal court on assault charges, is now adopting a novel legal defense: Seeking to pin......
Moderate U.S. Republican senators urge Biden to compromise on COVID-19 plan
January 31st, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Sunday, a group of 10 moderate Republican U.S. senators urged Democratic President Biden to reconsider his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, saying they wanted a meeting to discuss a compromise that they said could win swift bipartisan support. In a letter to Biden, Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski...
U.N. chief to foreign forces: ‘Leave the Libyans alone’
January 30th, 20210 NEW YORK — On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for thousands of foreign fighters and mercenaries to immediately leave Libya, with Guterres demanding that they “leave the Libyans alone.” Libya has been divided since 2014 between the internationally recognized Government of National......
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is 66 percent effective globally
January 29th, 20210 Johnson & Johnson said its single-dose vaccine was 72 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in the U.S., but a lower rate of 66 percent was observed globally in the large trial conducted across three continents and against multiple variants. In the trial of nearly 44,000 volunteers, the level of protection against moderate and...
In locked-down Lebanon, protester killed in night of unrest
January 28th, 20210 TRIPOLI — A man was killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday in clashes between security forces and protesters angry over a strict lockdown that has cut off livelihoods in a collapsing economy. Omar Taybah, 30, was hit by a bullet overnight, according to a local hospital that treated him, a security source and...
Trump impeachment trial put off until early February
January 23rd, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The leaders of the U.S. Senate agreed on Friday to push back former President Trump’s impeachment trial by two weeks, giving the chamber more time to focus on President Biden’s legislative agenda and Cabinet nominees before turning to the contentious showdown over Trump. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,...
First big suicide attack in Baghdad in three years kills at least 32
January 21st, 20210 BAGHDAD — ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing in three years, authorities said, describing it as a possible sign of the reactivation of ISIS. ISIS claimed early on Friday that two of its men blew themselves up in Tayaran......
Democrats take narrow control of U.S. Senate as three new members sworn in
January 20th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday when Vice President Kamala Harris swore in three new members to give the party a narrow grip on both houses of Congress as well as the White House for the first time in a decade. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Alex Padilla of...
Lebanon’s COVID-19 spike overwhelms battered hospitals and exhausted doctors
January 18th, 20210 BEIRUT — COVID-19 patients wait on pavements outside hospitals in Beirut, where emergency rooms are packed and intensive care beds full. Inside, exhausted healthcare workers are succumbing themselves — doctors at one hospital, asking not to be named, said around 40 percent of staff were sick or in isolation. Countries......
Dearborn native Robert Saleh hired by Jets, becomes NFL’s first Muslim head coach
January 15th, 20211 DEARBORN — The New York Jets hired San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh to be their new head coach, making him the first Muslim to run an NFL sideline, the team announced Thursday night. "We've reached an agreement in principle with Robert Saleh to become our head coach," the Jets said in a statement. Saleh has...
Top U.N. officials urge U.S. to revoke blacklisting of Yemen’s Houthis, warn of famine
January 14th, 20210 NEW YORK — On Thursday, three top United Nations officials all called on the United States to revoke its decision to designate Yemen’s Houthis a foreign terrorist organization, warning it would push the country into a large-scale famine and chill peace efforts. U.N. Yemen mediator Martin Griffiths, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock and......
