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...
Biden ready to return to Iran nuclear deal; lifts Trump-era sanctions
February 19th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration, through Secretary of State Antony Blinken, affirmed on Thursday it is willing to come to the negotiation table with Iran over a return to a nuclear accord, if Tehran came into full compliance with the deal. The Iran Nuclear Deal, first struck in 2015, is aimed at preventing the country...
Israel indicates it may not engage with Biden on Iran nuclear deal
February 16th, 20210 TEL AVIV — The Biden administration and Israel seem to have embarked on an uncertain and rocky relationship, in contrast to what the country's right-wing government enjoyed with former President Trump. More friction arose this week, with Israel throwing cold water on U.S. hopes to engage with the country on the topic of Iran and its...
No phone call: Some speculate Netanyahu “ghosted” by Biden
February 12th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Though it took former President Trump a mere two days after his inauguration to call Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden is yet to do so. Biden has called many world leaders in the first three weeks of his presidency, including leaders of Russia, China, France, Japan and more. Israeli diplomats and...
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...
“Freedom is never voluntarily given”: Palestinian boycott of Israel is not racist, it is anti-racist
February 11th, 20210 Claims made by Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang in a recent op-ed in the Jewish weekly, “The Forward”, point to the prevailing ignorance that continues to dominate the U.S. discourse on Palestine and Israel. Yang, a former Democratic presidential candidate, is vying for the Jewish vote in New York City....
Our mutual fight: The case against Pakistani normalization with Israel
February 6th, 20210 The Pakistani government should never, under any circumstances and no matter the pressure, normalize with Israel. Doing so is not only dangerous — as it will embolden an already vile, racist, violent apartheid Israel — but it would also be considered a betrayal of a historic legacy of mutual solidarity, collective affinity and...
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...
Lebanese filmmaker and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim shot dead
February 5th, 20210 BEIRUT — Activist, publisher and filmaker Lokman Slim was found dead in a car in Southern Lebanon on Thursday. Slim died from four bullets in the head and one in the back. Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer suggested he had been murdered because of his ardent criticism of Shi’a Hezbollah. He was last seen after visiting a poet...
Biden seeks to raise refugee cap to 125,000
February 4th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, President Biden said he seeks to raise the annual refugee cap to 125,000, an increase that will take place in the beginning of October. Biden made the announcement during a speech at the U.S. State Department. Biden also said he would approve an executive order that would restore the U.S. refugee...
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...
U of M doctor brings cystic fibrosis awareness to Egypt
January 31st, 20210 ANN ARBOR — Doctors in Egypt weren’t aware of the prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in their country until the efforts of a University of Michigan professor brought the disease to light. CF is genetic disease that causes chronic and fatal lung infections and interferes with digestion. Doctors have been testing newborns for CF...
The “insurrection” and its discontents: “American exceptionalism” revisited
January 31st, 20210 History is being written in the United States today. Even the most pessimistic about the prospects of American democracy have rarely ventured out this far while offering a bleak analysis of America’s future, whether in terms of political polarization at home or global standing abroad. As shocking and, certainly, telling as the images...
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......
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...
Biden issues mask, quarantine order for travelers coming to the U.S.
January 21st, 20210 WASHINGTON D.C. — In an executive order issued by President Biden, masks and quarantines will be required for travelers coming to the United States. In the order, Biden is requiring masks be worn in airports, on airplanes, buses and other forms of transportation and people who arrive into the U.S. from other countries are required...
President Biden takes sweeping actions on Muslim Ban, DACA, COVID
January 20th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Biden followed through with some of his big sweeping day-one promises, shortly after his inauguration as president on Wednesday, Jan. 20. President Biden signed 15 executive actions, including ending the travel ban put in place by former President Trump on people from a list of Muslim-majority countries....
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......
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...
International year in review: Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen
January 14th, 20210 The following is a year in review for the top international news that we covered in 2020. Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen. Protests in Lebanon over deepening economic crisis Authorities in some of the most populous areas of Lebanon cracked down on mass protest by Lebanese expressing their frustration......
2021: Palestine’s chance of fighting back
January 12th, 20210 2020 will go down in history as the year that terminated the American-sponsored “peace process.” While 2021 will not reverse the monumental change in the U.S. attitude and objectives in Palestine, Israel and the Middle East, the new year presents Palestinians with the opportunity to think outside the American box. The previous...
In Trump’s final days, Netanyahu orders more settler homes built
January 11th, 20210 JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered construction plans advanced on Monday for some 800 Jewish settler homes in the occupied West Bank, anchoring the projects in the final days of the pro-settlement Trump administration. Palestinians condemned such construction as illegal. The timing of the move appeared to be......
