Supreme Court says American Muslims on No-Fly List for refusing to spy can sue FBI
December 10th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that American Muslims who were placed or kept on the No-Fly List in retaliation for refusing to spy on their communities may sue individual FBI agents for interfering with their freedom to practice their religion. Muhammad Tanvir originally filed the lawsuit in...
FDA scientists say Pfizer vaccine is “highly effective” as outside panel meets Thursday
December 8th, 20200 U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists have endorsed the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine ahead of a committee meeting of outside experts and the FDA's eventual use authorization, the health sciences publication STAT reports. Specifically, reviewers have said the two-dose vaccine is shown to be “highly...
U.S. Congress confronts COVID-19 aid hurdles as funding deadline looms
December 7th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan effort in Congress to deliver a long-awaited infusion of COVID-19 relief to U.S. families and businesses remained hung up on Monday due to differences over aid to state and local governments and business liability protections. A group of lawmakers from the Democratic-led House of Representatives and...
Trump’s lawyer Giuliani tests positive for COVID-19
December 6th, 20200 President Trump's top ally and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19, while he travels the country challenging results of an election Trump lost by most accounts. News of the former New York mayor having contracted the virus came from the outgoing president himself. Trump tweeted that his lawyer had "tested...
U.S. government ordered to reinstate protections for “Dreamers”
December 5th, 20200 In a rebuke to President Trump’s administration on Friday, a judge ordered the U.S. government to reopen to first-time applicants a program that protects from deportation and grants work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who live in the United States unlawfully after arriving as children. The action by U.S. District Judge...
Trump attacks his ally AG Barr over unwillingness to declare voter fraud
December 4th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A key, longtime ally of outgoing President Trump dropped a bombshell this week, in yet another setback for Trump to convince courts and a majority of the American public that the Nov. 3 elections were rigged against him. U.S. Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Department of...
COVID’s second wave underscores the threats facing disabled Americans
December 1st, 20200 The second wave of COVID-19 has arrived with a vengeance. But there's hope on the horizon. Pfizer and Moderna just announced their experimental vaccines proved more than 90 percent effective in clinical trials. People in the highest risk categories — namely, healthcare workers and those with chronic illnesses and disabilities —...
Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers seek fast approval of $908 billion COVID-19 relief
December 1st, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled a $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill aimed at breaking a months-long deadlock between Democrats and Republicans over new emergency assistance for small businesses, unemployed people, airlines and other industries during the pandemic. The measure has not yet...
Republicans turn to Biden transition as Trump’s legal options dwindle
November 29th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senior U.S. Republicans said on Sunday a transition to a Joe Biden presidency looks inevitable as President Trump questioned whether the Supreme Court would even hear any of the challenges his campaign has vowed to pursue. Trump’s comments in a telephone interview with Fox News Channel came as Republican Senator...
“Truth is lost” as Michigan’s immigrant communities hit with misinformation on closed platforms
November 28th, 20201 Closed messaging apps popular among Michigan’s immigrant communities and those with families living abroad are crawling with misinformation. It is a hard problem to capture. Closed and encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp make it cheap and easy for users to send texts and make phone calls. But, many of the app’s group...
“Total reset” is wishful thinking: The daunting task of reordering U.S. foreign policy
November 28th, 20200 A new term has imposed itself on the conversation regarding the impending presidency of President-elect Biden: “The Total Reset.” Many headlines have already promised that the Biden presidency is ready to “reset” U.S. foreign policy across the globe, as if the matter is dependent solely on an American desire and...
Suspected Iranian nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh assassinated near Tehran
November 27th, 20200 TEHRAN — An Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb program was killed in an ambush near Tehran on Friday that could provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency. The military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...
America’s pandemic response: A national and global failure
November 25th, 20200 The COVID-19 pandemic has produced staggering levels of suffering and loss. It has caused more than 250,000 deaths in the United States while devastating the national economy. In addition, our failure to respond effectively has damaged America’s standing in the world. Every day, it seems, we set new records for infections and...
COVID mutation will not increase transmissibility, affect vaccine efficacy
November 25th, 20201 LONDON — A peer-reviewed scientific study published on Wednesday says known mutations of the SARS-CoV-2, or coronavirus, do not increase virus transmissibility. Researchers also say the mutations do not pose a threat to vaccine efficacy. Viruses mutate, or change, constantly and some, like the flu, mutate more than others. The...
U.S. officials plan to release 6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in first distribution
November 24th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. officials said on Tuesday they plan to release 6.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide in an initial distribution after the first one is cleared by regulators for emergency use. Officials from the government’s Operation Warp Speed program told reporters that states and other jurisdictions had been......
First Americans could get COVID-19 vaccine by mid-December, top health official says
November 22nd, 20200 The first Americans could receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as 24 hours after the FDA grants approval, which would kick off the largest inoculation campaign in U.S. history starting in mid-December. “Within 24 hours from the approval, the vaccine will be moving and located in the areas where each state will have told us where they...
Trump continues desperate assault on Michigan election
November 20th, 20200 In yet another desperate move to overturn election results in Michigan, President Trump invited Michigan Senate Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield to the White House on Friday. Though the contents of what will be discussed at the meeting were not announced, it is clear that certification of statewide......
Future of American democracy: On inequality, polarization and violence
November 18th, 20200 In January 2017, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s Democracy Index downgraded the state of democracy in the United States from “full democracy” to “flawed democracy.” The demotion of a country that has constantly prided itself, not only on being democratic but also on championing democracy throughout the world, took...
Netanyahu has “warm” convo with Biden, calls him “president-elect”
November 17th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Biden had a “warm conversation” with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Tuesday. Netanyahu referred to Biden as president-elect in a statement after the talk. Netanyahu had acknowledged and congratulated Biden’s electoral victory early on, but had refrained from calling him president-elect...
Trump asked for options for attacking Iran last week, but held off
November 16th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump, with two months left in office, asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site last week, but ultimately decided against taking the dramatic step, a U.S. official said on Monday. Trump made the request during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday with his top national security aides,...
We can stop COVID-19: Moderna vaccine success gives world more hope
November 16th, 20200 Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine is 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial, the company said on Monday, becoming the second U.S. drugmaker to report results that far exceed expectations. Together with Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, which is also more than 90 percent effective, and......
Recounts, outstanding votes, lawsuits unlikely to help Trump flip results
November 13th, 20200 More than a week after Nov. 3 elections, the campaign of President Trump has yet to accept results, particularly from battleground states where his opponent, Joe Biden, has been projected to be the winner. An ABC News analysis shows that Biden’s total lead in those states ensures that any of the strategies employed by the campaign...
While Trump refuses to concede, prominent Republicans acknowledge his election defeat
November 13th, 20200 By Thursday evening, the likelihood of President Trump conceding to President-elect Joe Biden remained unknown. Those close to the current president have given major news networks a glimpse into the turmoil brewing in the White House. Trump has pushed ahead with hopes of overturning results in battleground states where Biden leads by......
U.S. government partners with pharmacy chains to increase COVID-19 vaccine access
November 12th, 20200 The U.S. government is partnering with regional pharmacy chains and independent community pharmacies to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines whenever they are made available, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Thursday. The partnership will cover about 60 percent of pharmacies throughout the 50 U.S. states,...
Republicans urge Trump to allow Biden access to briefings as U.S. election challenges sputter
November 12th, 20200 On Thursday, more Republican lawmakers said the Trump administration should allow Joe Biden to receive intelligence briefings, in a tacit acknowledgement the Democrat may soon occupy the White House despite the president's refusal to concede. Most Republican officials and lawmakers have publicly supported President Trump's effort to......
