December 7th, 20210MAINE — The City Council of South Portland, Maine unanimously voted on Monday to elect the city’s first Muslim mayor.
Deqa Dhalac, 53, is believed to be the country’s first Somali American mayor. Dhalac won a City Council seat back in 2018, being the only non-White candidate for a Council seat in the Whitest state in the U.S....
October 31st, 20210When 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...
October 26th, 20210JERUSALEM — 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...
October 13th, 20210WASHINGTON, 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...
October 4th, 20210DETROIT — At a recent Detroit NAACP dinner, Governor Whitmer vetoed several bills put forward by the state’s Republicans to add voting measures that imply deep irregularities in the state’s voting procedures.
The bills follow a tumultuous November 2020 election, in which former president Trump falsely claimed there was...
September 23rd, 20210This article also appears in Metro Times Detroit through a partnership with the Race and Justice Reporting Initiative and the Detroit Equity Action Lab at the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. It has been edited for style.
DEARBORN — Dave Serio, a third-generation Sicilian Lebanese American, came to better understand his Arab...
September 20th, 20210ISRAEL — 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...
August 27th, 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
Back in June, well before any of us knew the sordid 20-year American adventure in Afghanistan would come to a crashing end just a few months later, I was asked to...
August 26th, 20210Suicide bombings claimed by ISIS killed dozens at the crowded Kabul airport gates on Thursday, causing havoc and chaos during the final days of the Western airlift of its allies.
Kabul health officials were quoted as saying 60 civilians were killed, including children. Earlier reports said at least 52 were wounded, while witnesses...
August 25th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Overshadowed by events in Afghanistan, the first White House meeting between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was postponed until Friday. The Israeli leader is expected to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran, with few prospects their talks will lead to renewed movement on peace talks...
August 20th, 20210A unique but critical conversation on Israel and Palestine is taking place outside the traditional discourse of Israeli colonialism and the Palestinian quest for liberation. It is an awkward and difficult — but overdue — discussion concerning American Jews’ relation to Israel and their commitment to its Zionist ideology.
For...
August 20th, 20210The Taliban called on Afghanistan's imams to urge unity when they hold their first Friday prayers since the Islamist group seized control of the country, as protests against the takeover spread to more cities on Thursday, including the capital Kabul.
Several people were killed when Taliban militants fired on a crowd in the eastern...
August 17th, 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 Sunday, our wayward 20-year war effort in Afghanistan suffered its final death blow. The Taliban rode the U.S.-manufactured Humvees captured from Afghan...
August 11th, 20210Jonah Goldberg and Michael Ledeen have much in common. They are both writers and also cheerleaders for military interventions and, often, for frivolous wars. Writing in the conservative rag, The National Review, months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Goldberg paraphrased a statement which he attributed to Ledeen with reference...
July 23rd, 20210A plan under Postmaster Louis DeJoy, a nominee of former President Trump, could mean slower mail deliveries for people utilizing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
A part of that plan also raises first-class stamps to 58 cents from its current 55 cents, starting August 29. The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), the federal regulator...
July 8th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman said he held "a great meeting" on Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which they explored strengthening U.S.-Saudi ties and reviewed regional developments.
Prince Khalid, the brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto...
July 6th, 20210The Biden Administration has extended and re-designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Yemen into 2023.
TPS allows individuals from nations experiencing war, natural disasters or extraordinary circumstances to live and work in the U.S. on a temporary basis. Yemen’s TPS status was set to expire on September 3.
The extension...
June 25th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. authorities pursuing a sweeping fraud investigation suspect some 4,000 Iraqis of filing fraudulent applications for resettlement in the U.S. as refugees, and they are re-examining cases involving more than 104,000 others, according to State Department reports reviewed by Reuters.
More than 500 Iraqis already...
June 23rd, 20210CALIFORNIA — The Bay Area’s growing Yemeni community has made strong headways recently, by organizing an effort to secure much needed representation for Yemenis, Arabs and Muslims in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Local Yemeni groups, parents and allied organizations and officials worked towards bringing more...
June 18th, 20210Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as much American as he is Israeli. While other Israeli leaders have made their strong relationship with Washington a cornerstone in their politics, Netanyahu’s political style was essentially American from the start.
Netanyahu spent many of his formative years in the U.S. He lived in...
June 17th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, failed in the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.
This was the third such a challenge to the law shot down by the highest court in the country since the law's enactment in 2010. The latest decision by the Supreme Court will keep intact the law,...
May 1st, 20210U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and its ambassador to Washington on Thursday, and the Israeli officials expressed “deep concern” about Iran’s nuclear activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The meeting in Washington followed talks this week between U.S....
April 30th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden marked his first 100 days in office on Thursday, a day after giving his first speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
The first 100 days have been marked by significant moves, many to dismantle policies enacted by former President Trump.
Significant among those are the delivery of 200...
April 23rd, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Justice Department expects to charge at least 100 more people for taking part in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, signaling prosecutors are far from finished investigating an attack that a judge on Thursday called an act of terrorism.
"Over 400 individuals have been charged in connection with the...
April 21st, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, the U.S. House passed the NO BAN act, or H.R. 1333, which would limit presidents’ authority to suspend or restrict people from entering the country.
The act also prohibits religious discrimination in various immigration-related decisions, such as whether to issue an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa,...
April 14th, 20210WASHINGTON D.C. — In an address to the nation on Wednesday, President Biden announced his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.
"It is time to end America’s longest war," he said. "It is time for American troops to come home."
By doing so, this will end America’s military involvement in the country on...
April 13th, 20210DUBAI — A commercial vessel owned by an Israeli firm was attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Gulf waters, pro-Iran media and an Israeli television channel said on Tuesday.
Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 quoted unnamed Israeli officials as blaming arch-foe Iran for the assault, which it described as a missile...
March 21st, 20210TEHRAN — Iran does not trust U.S. promises on lifting sanctions and will only return to its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal once Washington fully removes the measures, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday.
The administration of President Biden is exploring ways to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that...
