D.H.S. Says Deported Professor Attended Hezbollah Leader's Funeral
The Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that it had deported a Brown University professor and doctor with a valid visa because they said she attended a Hezbollah leader's funeral in February during a trip to Lebanon.
When questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers upon her return to the United States, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who is Lebanese, 'openly admitted' her support for the leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to a Homeland Security spokeswoman. Dr. Alawieh was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday.
'A visa is a privilege not a right,' the spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to The New York Times. 'Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is common-sense security.'
The department did not say how it knew that Dr. Alawieh had attended the funeral, which was held in a sports stadium and attracted tens of thousands of people. It also did not respond to questions about whether Dr. Alawieh has been accused of a crime or immigration violation.
Stephanie Marzouk, a lawyer representing a member of Dr. Alawieh's family, did not respond to an interview request on Monday.
Late on Sunday, a team of lawyers from the firm of Arnold & Porter, who had been set to represent the family, withdrew from the case, telling the court their decision was made 'as a result of further diligence.'
The federal judge overseeing the case decided to postpone a hearing in the case on Monday after Ms. Marzouk requested more time to prepare. She represents Dr. Alawieh's cousin, Yara Chehab, who brought the case first to try to stop the government from deporting Dr. Alawieh, and then to seek her return to the United States.
Michael Sady, an assistant United States Attorney, filed a new motion in the case on Monday morning, according to the court docket. That filing and others have been sealed.
Dr. Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by Ms. Chehab.
The judge in the case, Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours' notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But at that time she was apparently already aboard a plane that was sitting on the tarmac in Boston, about to take off for Paris on her way to Lebanon.
According to the court docket, the government said on Monday that it was not aware of Judge Sorokin's order when Dr. Alawieh's plane took off. But Clare Saunders, one of the lawyers who was initially involved in the case, said in an affidavit filed over the weekend that she was at the airport Friday evening and had informed Customs and Border Protection officers of the judge's order before the flight departed. Ms. Saunders is with Arnold & Porter, the firm that withdrew from the case on Sunday night.
Dr. Alawieh graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2015. Three years later, she came to the United States, where she held medical fellowships at the Ohio State University and the University of Washington, and then worked as a resident at Yale.
While she was in Lebanon visiting relatives, the American consulate issued her an H1-B visa, the kind for foreign workers with specialized skills. Before that, she had a J-1 visa, a type used by some foreign students.
A spokesman for Brown University, Brian Clark, said, 'We continue to seek to learn more about what has happened.'
There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh's area of specialty, transplant nephrology. Foreign-born physicians play an important role in the field, according to experts.
Fear over immigration status could 'harm the pipeline even more,' said Dr. George Bayliss, who works in the Brown Medicine kidney transplant program with Dr. Alawieh.
Her patients included individuals awaiting transplants and those dealing with the complex conditions that can occur after a transplant, Dr. Bayliss said. He called Dr. Alawieh 'a very talented, very thoughtful physician.'
He also said he had not discussed politics with her.
In a letter on Sunday to members of the university community, Brown's administration advised foreign students to 'consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the U.S. Department of State.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Wall Street Journal slams Vance's foreign student stance as ‘false choice'
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board on Friday slammed recent comments by Vice President Vance on foreign students as a 'false choice' amid tensions between the Trump administration and higher education institutions. In an interview on Newsmax's 'Greg Kelly Reports' late last month, Vance said that an 'idea that American citizens don't have the talent to do great things, that you have to import a foreign class of servants and professors to do these things, I just reject that.' The Journal noted Vance's comments in a Friday opinion piece, alongside other comments in which he said 'we invest in our own people' and that he believes 'that's actually an opportunity for American citizens to really flourish' when it comes to international student visa restrictions. 'This is a classic false choice. Of course the U.S. has talent and should invest in it. But welcoming foreign students doesn't hinder Americans,' the editorial board said in their piece. 'The cold, hard numbers show that too few Americans are pursuing STEM fields to meet the future needs of business and government. Of all U.S. bachelor's degrees, biology and engineering fields make up about 13%,' they added. Earlier this week, limits were placed on foreign student visas at Harvard University by President Trump. 'Admission into the United States to attend, conduct research, or teach at our Nation's institutions of higher education is a privilege granted by our Government, not a guarantee,' Trump said in a Wednesday proclamation restricting the visas. In recent months, the Trump administration has targeted multiple higher education institutions over alleged inaction on campus antisemitism and policies around transgender athletes. 'Does the Trump Administration want to stop illegal immigration, or nearly all legal immigration, including foreign students? The evidence is growing that it wants the latter, which will sharply reduce the human capital the U.S. needs to prosper,' the Journal editorial board wrote. The Hill has reached out to Vance's office for comment.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a 'mobile security crisis'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash — it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalism. The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user. The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China's government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past. Foreign hackers have increasingly identified smartphones, other mobile devices and the apps they use as a weak link in U.S. cyberdefenses. Groups linked to China's military and intelligence service have targeted the smartphones of prominent Americans and burrowed deep into telecommunication networks, according to national security and tech experts. It shows how vulnerable mobile devices and apps are and the risk that security failures could expose sensitive information or leave American interests open to cyberattack, those experts say. 'The world is in a mobile security crisis right now,' said Rocky Cole, a former cybersecurity expert at the National Security Agency and Google and now chief operations officer at iVerify. 'No one is watching the phones.' U.S. authorities warned in December of a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign designed to gain access to the texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. 'They were able to listen in on phone calls in real time and able to read text messages,' said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the senior Democrat on the Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, created to study the geopolitical threat from China. Chinese hackers also sought access to phones used by Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance during the 2024 campaign. The Chinese government has denied allegations of cyberespionage, and accused the U.S. of mounting its own cyberoperations. It says America cites national security as an excuse to issue sanctions against Chinese organizations and keep Chinese technology companies from the global market. 'The U.S. has long been using all kinds of despicable methods to steal other countries' secrets,' Lin Jian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said at a recent press conference in response to questions about a CIA push to recruit Chinese informants. U.S. intelligence officials have said China poses a significant, persistent threat to U.S. economic and political interests, and it has harnessed the tools of digital conflict: online propaganda and disinformation, artificial intelligence and cyber surveillance and espionage designed to deliver a significant advantage in any military conflict. Mobile networks are a top concern. The U.S. and many of its closest allies have banned Chinese telecom companies from their networks. Other countries, including Germany, are phasing out Chinese involvement because of security concerns. But Chinese tech firms remain a big part of the systems in many nations, giving state-controlled companies a global footprint they could exploit for cyberattacks, experts say. Chinese telecom firms still maintain some routing and cloud storage systems in the U.S. — a growing concern to lawmakers. 'The American people deserve to know if Beijing is quietly using state-owned firms to infiltrate our critical infrastructure,' U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich. and chairman of the China committee, which in April issued subpoenas to Chinese telecom companies seeking information about their U.S. operations. Mobile devices have become an intel treasure trove Mobile devices can buy stocks, launch drones and run power plants. Their proliferation has often outpaced their security. The phones of top government officials are especially valuable, containing sensitive government information, passwords and an insider's glimpse into policy discussions and decision-making. The White House said last week that someone impersonating Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, reached out to governors, senators and business leaders with texts and phone calls. It's unclear how the person obtained Wiles' connections, but they apparently gained access to the contacts in her personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles' number, the newspaper reported. While most smartphones and tablets come with robust security, apps and connected devices often lack these protections or the regular software updates needed to stay ahead of new threats. That makes every fitness tracker, baby monitor or smart appliance another potential foothold for hackers looking to penetrate networks, retrieve information or infect systems with malware. Federal officials launched a program this year creating a 'cyber trust mark' for connected devices that meet federal security standards. But consumers and officials shouldn't lower their guard, said Snehal Antani, former chief technology officer for the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command. 'They're finding backdoors in Barbie dolls,' said Antani, now CEO of a cybersecurity firm, referring to concerns from researchers who successfully hacked the microphone of a digitally connected version of the toy. Risks emerge when smartphone users don't take precautions It doesn't matter how secure a mobile device is if the user doesn't follow basic security precautions, especially if their device contains classified or sensitive information, experts say. Mike Waltz, who departed as Trump's national security adviser, inadvertently added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a Signal chat used to discuss military plans with other top officials. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols set up in his office so he could use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, the AP has reported. Hegseth has rejected assertions that he shared classified information on Signal, a popular encrypted messaging app not approved for the use of communicating classified information. China and other nations will try to take advantage of such lapses, and national security officials must take steps to prevent them from recurring, said Michael Williams, a national security expert at Syracuse University. 'They all have access to a variety of secure communications platforms,' Williams said. "We just can't share things willy-nilly.'
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Prices of eggs and gas are down. Does Trump deserve credit, or is something else going on?
President Donald Trump ran on promises to bring down prices for Americans. Today, prices of eggs and gas are down from their peaks of the past few years. Can he take credit? Nope, experts say. In both cases, prices were expected to come down as external factors abated. There's no compelling, recently implemented federal policy that had much impact on either commodity. First, let's look at the numbers. A year ago, the average national price of a gallon of unleaded gas was $3.47, according to AAA, and $4.88 a gallon in California. So far this month, the average price is $3.14 a gallon nationally and $4.77 in California. (Gas prices are higher in California for a combination of reasons, including regulatory issues, the special type of gas required to be sold here, and the highest gasoline taxes in the country.) • Got money questions? Here's how to send them to our California budgeting advice columnist. Doug Johnson, a spokesperson for AAA Northern California, said gas industry experts predicted prices were going to come down this year 'no matter who would've won the 2024 election.' Egg prices have fluctuated a lot since the most recent bird flu outbreak began in 2022. A year ago, the average price of a dozen eggs was $2.35. Prices skyrocketed from $2.11 in October to an all-time high of $8.17 a dozen in March. As of this week, the average price has dropped to $2.54 a dozen — only 8% higher than a year ago — and is likely to continue dropping as bird flu detections decline. 'Eggs have come down 400%,' Trump declared, wrongly, in a White House interview on Fox News. Going from $8.17 to $2.54 would work out to a 68.9% decrease. 'Price of eggs has dropped 61% since Trump took office,' declared Fox Business in a piece comparing January and June egg prices. A headline on the right-wing news and opinion site Daily Caller said, 'Grocery Prices See Biggest Drop In 5 Years As Trump's Policies Take Effect.' But, again, experts say Trump's policies aren't driving the price decreases. So what actually is behind them? Why gas prices have come down in California Gas is down 13 cents a gallon just from last week in the Bay Area, said Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for cost comparison website GasBuddy. That's more than the drop we've seen at the national level — only 2 cents compared with the previous week. Most of the recent drop here is because refinery issues in California have begun to resolve, De Haan said. However, refinery repairs are ongoing, so the decline may be only temporary, he added. Though Trump ran on 'drill, baby, drill' and his administration has discussed opening public lands for oil and gas drilling, federal policy takes a long time to work its way to the price at the pump, De Haan said. 'It really takes years for those types of policies to have a broad significant impact,' he said. Both California and national gas prices are up from January, when Trump took office. Why eggs are getting cheaper again Though the current bird flu outbreak, now in its third year, is not over, it's not as bad as it was at the start of 2025. Detections of bird flu in commercial and backyard flocks have decreased by a lot, which is part of the reason egg prices have dropped, said Daniel Sumner, a professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis. This isn't the first time bird flu has hit chicken farms in the United States. The most recent outbreak was in 2015. Like ebola, bird flu is endemic, Sumner said: Somewhere in the world, there's always a wild bird that is carrying the virus. What's different about this outbreak is how long it's lasted. Often, like many pandemics humans have faced before, an outbreak hits and then fades away. That hasn't been the case yet with this incidence of bird flu. Bird flu was first detected in a flock in Dubois, Ind., in February 2022. A year ago, when eggs were $2.35 a dozen, there were 12 confirmed bird flu detections in the U.S. The virus was detected more frequently in commercial and backyard flocks throughout late 2024 and early 2025: 16 in October, 62 detections in November, 122 in December, a peak of 133 in January. When bird flu is detected in a flock, even if it's found in only one chicken, industry practice dictates that the entire flock should be culled — agriculture-speak for killed. Some of those flocks consist of thousands, even millions, of birds. That has translated into a grim toll: More than 174 million poultry, including commercially farmed chicken and backyard flocks, have died or been killed because of bird flu, according to a CDC estimate. The abrupt drop in supply contributes to price increases. However, only 12 instances of bird flu were detected in May 2025, according to the USDA, and the agency said it hasn't been detected in any flock in California since February. Members of the Trump administration laid out a number of potential policy changes to tackle the bird flu epidemic: increasing imports, boosting biosecurity and exploring vaccination. Sumner dismissed the foreign imports as 'publicity' and said the other suggestions haven't been put into effect at a broad scale since Trump took office. 'There have been no significant changes to egg policy,' he said. The other two pieces of the pricing puzzle relate to how grocery stores get eggs to put on the shelves and how egg demand works compared with other products. Grocery stores typically have contracts with specific farms to get their eggs, Sumner said. If the egg farmer can't perform — in other words, if they have no eggs to sell because they've culled their herd because of an outbreak — the contract usually lets the retailer find another source for eggs. So grocery store chains have been able to use alternative providers. At the same time, farmers that did have to cull their herds have now had enough time to restart their flocks: Chickens can begin laying eggs when they're around 4 months old. Egg demand is typically known as inelastic — it doesn't change much. That's because there aren't a ton of good substitutes for eggs, Sumner said. Though bird flu can hit a flock of chickens being raised for meat as easily as it can hit a flock of egg-layers, we haven't seen the same price surge in chicken breasts and thighs as we have for eggs. Sumner said to think of the difference like this: If chicken meat goes up in price, grocery shoppers will swap in pork, beef, beans, tofu or other protein sources. But it's tricky to find a suitable one-to-one substitute for eggs in a baking recipe or an omelette. That's part of why shoppers have been so sensitive to the price of eggs. That said, persistent high prices have curbed some of America's appetite for eggs. A recent report on the egg market from the USDA described consumer demand as 'lackluster' and 'sluggish.' People have found alternatives. This year, Sumner said, his grandchildren's Easter eggs were the plastic variety.
