The Arab American News
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Both parties pushed Trump toward reckless action on Jerusalem
December 22nd, 20170 By Stephen Zunes President Trump announced on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy would be moved to that multi-ethnic and multi-faith city. No other government in the world formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital or has its embassy...
Trump deepens America’s isolation
December 22nd, 20170 By Rashid Khalidi The brilliant diplomacy over Jerusalem of the self-proclaimed master deal-maker has produced a situation where it is now D. Trump vs. almost the entire world. And in the face of what is likely to be a sweeping defeat for the U.S., Trump and his minions are not taking the reluctance of the world to go along with his...
Education Department cancels student loan debts for 12,900 college fraud victims
December 22nd, 20171 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, the Education Department canceled the student-loan debts of 12,900 people defrauded by defunct Corinthian Colleges, but its announcement that it will give varying amounts of debt relief in the future set off fierce criticism. For-profit higher education provider Corinthian collapsed in 2015 amid...Federal Trade Commission releases National Do Not Call Registry Data Book
WASHIGNTON D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released the latest edition of the Do Not Call Registry Data Book, which includes more information on robocall complaints, new information about the types of calls consumers reported to the FTC and a complete state-by-state analysis. More than 229 million phone numbers in the...
State Department tells refugee agencies to downsize U.S. operations
December 22nd, 20170 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The State Department has told refugee agencies it will sharply pare back the number of offices across the country authorized to resettle people in 2018 as President Trump cuts the number of refugees allowed into the United States. The announcement was made at a Dec. 1 meeting in Washington with State Department...
Barbara Aswad: Mother, social justice advocate, professor
December 22nd, 20170 Barbara Aswad, professor emeritus of anthropology at Wayne State University and advocate for immigrants and low-income Americans, died on November 30, after a brief illness. She was 80 years old. She was born in Kalamazoo, on January 5, 1937, daughter of Robert and Helen Black. She earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the...
Obituary: Women’s hall of famer and activist Marcia Federbush (1934-2017)
December 22nd, 20170 Marcia Federbush, an American Palestine human rights activist for the last 14 years of her life, died on Friday, Dec. 15. Before that, she led the country's first Title IX lawsuit against a university, the University of Michigan, charging that in the 1971-72 academic year, the athletic budget for men was $2,611,196, while it was $0...
Little Caesars Pizza lawsuit dropped after lawyer receives threats
December 22nd, 20172 DEARBORN — An Arab American attorney, Majed Moughni, has dropped his lawsuit against Little Caesars after receiving racists threats directed towards him and his family on social media. Moughni had filed the suits earlier this year, at the beginning of Ramadan, when he alleged that Little Caesar's had been falsely advertising the...
Initiative to end partisan gerrymandering turns in more than 425,000 signatures
December 22nd, 20170 LANSING — Dozens of volunteers with Voters Not Politicians, a volunteer-driven organization focused on ending partisan gerrymandering in Michigan, turned in approximately 180 boxes of petitions with more than 425,000 signatures from each county to the Michigan Bureau of Elections, on Monday surpassing the required 315,654 signatures...
Defying Trump, over 120 countries at U.N. condemn Jerusalem decision
December 21st, 20170 UNITED NATIONS — More than 120 countries defied President Trump on Thursday and voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor. A total of 128...
U.S. House gives final approval to tax bill, delivers victory to Trump
December 20th, 20170 WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Trump for his signature. In sealing Trump’s first major legislative victory, Republicans steamrolled opposition from...
Saudi Arabia intercepts Houthi missile fired toward Riyadh, no reported casualties
December 19th, 20170 RIYADH — Saudi air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the capital Riyadh on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said, the latest attack by a Yemeni group that could escalate a proxy war between the kingdom and regional rival Tehran. There was no immediate report of casualties or damages. The Iran-aligned Houthi...
U.S. vetoes U.N. call for withdrawal of Trump’s Jerusalem decision
December 18th, 20170 UNITED NATIONS — The United States was further isolated on Monday over President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when it blocked a United Nations Security Council call for the declaration to be withdrawn. The remaining 14 council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not...
Lebanon detains Uber driver suspected of murdering British embassy worker
December 18th, 20170 BEIRUT — A Lebanese Uber driver with a previous arrest for drug use confessed to killing a British woman who worked at the British Embassy in Beirut, a senior Lebanese security official said on Monday. A spokesman for Uber said in an email: “We are horrified by this senseless act of violence. Our hearts are with the victim and her...
$10,000 raised for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital
December 15th, 20170 DEARBORN HEIGHTS — On Dec. 15, St. Jude's Children's Hospital received a $10,000 check, the funds for which were raised by Star International Academy's girls volleyball team. The team raised the money during the fourth annual month-long "Crush Cancer" donation drive, which focuses on raising awareness about cancer and the impact the......
Former Dearborn mayoral candidate Tafelski halts vote recount, accepts election results
December 15th, 20170 DEARBORN — Former Dearborn mayoral candidate Tom Tafelski withdrew his petition for a recount a few hours after a recount began at the Dearborn Administrative Center. The Arab American News was informed that in the first three hours of recounting the votes for the November 7 election, Mayor Jack O'Reilly recovered eight additional...
Iraq: More than 7,000 militia fighters lost in war against ISIS
December 15th, 20170 BAGHDAD — The mainly Shi'a Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries have lost more than 7,000 and sustained more than 21,000 injuries during the war against the ISIS terror group since 2014, an Iraqi militia leader has revealed. Qais al-Khazali, the head of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, which is funded and supported by Iran, said that with the...
Syrian top negotiator blames West, Saudis and U.N. for failed Geneva peace talks
December 15th, 20170 GENEVA — Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja'afari accused a Syrian opposition group, backed by Western countries and Saudi Arabia, of sabotaging a round of U.N.-led peace talks that ended in Geneva on Thursday without any results. He said Damascus did not want the talks to fail, but the opposition had put down a precondition...
Nazareth scales down Christmas celebrations in protest of Trump’s Jerusalem decision
December 15th, 20170 JERUSALEM — Nazareth, the Arab city occupied by Israelis, where Jesus is thought to have been raised, has canceled some Christmas celebrations in protest of President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, an official said. Trump announced the move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last week, reversing......
Yemen: Saudi-led coalition air raids kill dozens in Sanaa
December 15th, 20170 SANAA — Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a military police camp in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing at least 39 people and wounding 90 more, including some prisoners, an official and witnesses said. The strike is part of an air campaign by the Western-backed coalition on the Iran-allied Houthis that has escalated...
Study: U.S. weapons given to Syrian rebels fell into ISIS’ hands
December 15th, 20170 WASHINGTON — Sophisticated weapons the U.S. military secretly provided to Syrian rebels quickly fell into the hands of ISIS, a study released Thursday disclosed. The study stated that ISIS's possession of these weapons remains a threat to the forces still operating against the terror group in Iraq and Syria. The arms included......
Trump’s decision crystallizes Palestinians predicament of entrenched American bias
December 15th, 20170 By Mary Turfah Last Wednesday, Donald Trump announced his plans to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as recognition, against that of the world, of Israel's right to Jerusalem as its capital. But the idea that Trump has "endangered" the peace process is misleading because it presupposes the existence of...
What Trump has done: The entire U.S.-Middle East political framework just collapsed
December 15th, 20170 By Ramzy Baroud Now that President Trump has fully adopted the Israeli right wing political discourse on Palestine, the Palestinian Authority is in a very tough spot. "I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Trump said in Washington last Wednesday. The embattled president has......
