A Florida man who threatened to kill U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has been convicted
November 11th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. – A 73-year-old man in Venice, Florida, has been convicted of threatening three members of Congress, and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said she was one of the targets. A federal jury found Frank Anthony Pezzuto guilty Wednesday of sending "three separate threatening communications to injure certain members of...
Dingell once again presses U.S. government for Lebanon TPS designation
November 4th, 20210 DEARBORN — As a followup to several requests to the Biden administration to provide temporary protective status (TPS) to Lebanese nationals in the U.S., U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of State this week. "Almost every single day, I hear from neighbors in my district who are desperate to...
U.S. blacklists Israeli hacking tool vendor NSO Group
November 3rd, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Commerce Department added Israel's NSO Group and Candiru to its trade blacklist on Wednesday, saying they sold spyware to foreign governments that used the equipment to target government officials, journalists and others. Positive Technologies of Russia and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE...
Just how does Biden differ from Trump on Palestine?
October 31st, 20210 When Joe Biden was declared the winner in the U.S. elections last November, expectations in Ramallah were high. A Biden administration, compared to the brazenly pro-Israel Trump administration, would surely be much fairer to Palestinians, was the conventional wisdom at the time. Hence, unsurprisingly, Palestinian Authority President...
Despite opposition from U.S. and rights groups, Israel moves ahead with some 3,000 apartheid homes
October 29th, 20211 PALESTINE — Despite objections from the otherwise-aligned U.S. government, and condemnation from Palestine-rights groups, Israel moved forward on Wednesday with plans to build some 3,000 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The move does stand in defiance of the Biden administration's strongest criticism to date of...
Jerusalem’s mayor says he won’t shun U.S. consulate if it reopens
October 26th, 20210 JERUSALEM — Jerusalem's mayor dismissed media speculation on Tuesday that a U.S. consulate for Palestinians in the city would be denied municipal services if the Biden administration reopens it despite Israeli opposition. The rightist mayor, Moshe Lion, also said Washington's plan to reverse the Trump administration's subsuming of...
Dingell introduces legislation to protect foster children, inspired by Amer family
October 26th, 20210 DEARBORN — This week, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell introduced legislation in the U.S. House inspired by the story of a Dearborn family in the 1980s. The legislation, named the Samier Amer Foster Care Improvement Act of 2021, requires state foster care programs to ensure children are prioritized for placement with their relatives and...
Report says communities of color disproportionate targets for certain scams
October 25th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report published by the federal government's consumer affairs watchdog agency shows a disproportionate impact of certain scams which target communities of color. The staff report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) highlight the unique types of consumer problems that these communities face, as well as how...
Colin Powell, not a hero
October 22nd, 20210 — Iqbal Jassat is an acclaimed writer, analyst and commentator and one of the founding members of Media Review Network. This article, edited for style, also appears in the Palestine Chronicle Will Colin Powell be remembered as America’s hero or as a war criminal? Since his death a few days ago, there appears to be a rush to...
Despite official Israeli objection, U.S. pushes ahead with Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem
October 13th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. will push ahead with the reopening of its Palestinian diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, despite repeated objections from top Israeli officials over the development. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the reopening, which is opposed by Israel’s new cross-party power-sharing...
U.S. will open border with Canada to fully vaccinated travelers next month
October 13th, 20210 After a 19-month lockdown on nonessential travel, the U.S. will reopen its borders with Canada and Mexico to fully vaccinated travelers, starting in November Mexico and Canada, as well as Americans themselves, have asked the U.S. government for months to ease restrictions on nonessential travel across borders. Though commercial trade...
Facebook is a public health hazard
October 8th, 20210 — This article by Abdul El-Sayed originally appeared in the newsletter The Incision. It has been edited for style. Subscribe to The Incision here: incision.substack.com On Tuesday, former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen testified before a Senate subcommittee, putting words to what we all knew but couldn’t quite...
FDA advisors to meet this month to discuss COVID shot for children ages 5-11
October 7th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed Oct. 26 for its panel of outside advisers to meet and discuss the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 5. If approved by that advisory panel, children ages of 5- 11-years-old, numbering around 28 million, will begin receiving the two-dose...
Congress avoids partial government shutdown, but debt crisis still looms
September 30th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Back-to-back Senate and House votes averted a partial shutdown of the federal government on Thursday, but a political dispute continues over how to raise the government’s borrowing cap before the U.S. risks a potentially catastrophic default. The legislation keep the government funded through Dec. 3 and was...
Biden to get COVID-19 booster on Monday as additional doses roll out
September 27th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden will receive a COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, the White House said days after his administration green-lighted a third shot of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine in certain populations. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week backed an additional dose of the Pfizer......
House passes Democrat-introduced bill for $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome
September 23rd, 20211 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome "missile defense system" on Thursday. The vote came days after some Democrats successfully managed to get it removed from a stopgap spending bill, but then was introduced as stand-alone bill by another Democrat. The...
Netanyahu suggests on Facebook that Biden fell asleep meeting new Israeli PM
September 20th, 20210 ISRAEL — Israel's former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested in a Facebook video posted on Sunday that President Biden had fallen asleep when meeting the new Israeli leader, Naftali Bennett, last month. A Reuters fact check previously debunked the idea that Biden dozed off, after social media users shared a video clip of......
7 in 10 Americans say country should cater to other languages, survey finds
September 19th, 20210 A recent survey set out to ask whether Americans believe they should cater to languages other than English. Survey takers at Preply, an online educational platform, knew that the diversity in language and cultures in the U.S. enriches its society, but that differences in language can also sometimes serve as cultural barriers between...
How to update Apple devices to correct flaw targeted by Israeli spyware company
September 16th, 20210 Apple users were alerted this week of a serious security flaw that was being exploited by an Israeli spyware company. The flaw allowed Apple devices to be hacked using technology developed by the Israeli spyware company, which infect phones by sending an image without needing the user to actually click on anything, making it particularly...
Minnesota mosque bomber sentenced to life in prison
September 14th, 20210 MINNESOTA — Federal prosecutors announced on Monday a life sentence of 53 years for Emily Claire Hari, 50, formerly Michael Hari, for the 2017 bombing of the Dar al-Farooq (DAF) Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Hari had established a terrorist militia group called “The White Rabbits” in Clarence, Illinois and recruited...
The “9/11 effect”: 20 years of evolving U.S. policy targeted an entire population
September 11th, 20210 Twenty years later, the Muslim community in the U.S. and abroad is reflecting on the legacy of U.S. response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The tragedy and trauma of the surreal attacks of that day are coupled with two decades of domestic and foreign policy that deeply changed the relationship between the U.S. government,......
Muslim Americans 20 years later
September 10th, 20210 — This article by Abdul El-Sayed originally appeared in the newsletter The Incision. It has been edited for style. Subscribe to The Incision here: incision.substack.com Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on that fateful day. We...
Tlaib, Dingell-led appeal for Lebanon TPS sees 70 cosigners
September 8th, 20210 DEARBORN — As Lebanon's humanitarian crisis worsens, some lawmakers are seeking protection against removal for the Lebanese nationals in the U.S. Last month, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) spoke to The Arab American News about a letter they were circulating among colleagues in the House to urge......
On propaganda and failed narratives: New understanding of Afghanistan is a must
September 6th, 20210 For 20 years, two dominant narratives have shaped our view of the illegal U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and neither one of these narratives would readily accept the use of such terms as “illegal”, “invasion” and “occupation.” The framing of the U.S. “military intervention” in Afghanistan, starting on...
An unvaccinated teacher infected half a class in California, CDC says
September 3rd, 20210 MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA — A report published by the CDC details a case of an unvaccinated teacher who infected half a class of students with COVID-19 just by reciting a story for them unmasked. The report made headlines this week as schools went through a tense decision process to allow full in-person learning, but with many......
