Author: Reporter

Straw hats, cross-body bags, and collapsible chairs: These are just some of the essentials Muslims bring to the Hajj pilgrimage. Spiritually, the five-day Hajj is awe-inspiring for the faithful, an experience they say brings them closer to God and to the entire Muslim world. Physically, it is grueling. Pilgrims walk outdoors for hours in broiling heat around holy sites in Mecca and the surrounding desert. They are caught in unimaginable and overwhelming crowds, all trying to get to the same place. Barriers directing the traffic mean that if you miss your turn, you might walk hours more to get...

For the first time in over a decade, 270 Syrians traveled on a direct flight from Damascus to Saudi Arabia for the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage on May 28, the Syrian Transportation Ministry said. The development is part of an ongoing thaw in relations between Damascus and Riyadh, which days ago appointed Saudi Arabia’s first ambassador to war-torn Syria since severing ties in 2012. Syria was readmitted to the 22-member Arab League in 2023, after it had been suspended from the group for more than a decade over President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2011. Most...

Donald Trump, the criminally convicted ex-president, adjudicated rapist, and documented pathological liar, used the word “horrible” in talking about Milwaukee during a closed-door meeting on June 13 with GOP congressmen. The city will host the Republican National Convention, where Trump will accept the Republican nomination next month. The comment, verified by several people in the room who spoke afterward, was first reported by Punchbowl News while the meeting was in progress. The disparaging comment immediately drew disagreements from those there about what Trump meant. Several congressmen who support Trump and attended the meeting argued he was referring to the...

Inside his Delaware headquarters, President Joe Biden’s campaign is signaling it will incorporate Donald Trump’s recent felony conviction as a core element of the Democratic incumbent’s reelection message. But in nearby battleground Pennsylvania, a state that could decide control of Congress and the presidency this fall, Democrats are far from certain that Trump’s criminal record matters to voters at all. “It’ll have an effect, but a fairly small effect,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said of Trump’s recent 34 felony convictions in the New York hush money case. “I don’t think we can count on it. We’ve got to...

Each June, the people of Waubeka venerate perhaps the nation’s most enduring symbol, celebrating Flag Day, a holiday that escapes the notice of many Americans. But this unincorporated Wisconsin town about 35 miles north of Milwaukee takes the day seriously. After all, it lays claim to being the birthplace of Flag Day, thanks to a tenacious teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. Here are some things to know about the obscure flag-waving holiday. WHAT IS FLAG DAY? Flag Day commemorates June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress determined the composition of the nation’s banner: “Resolved, That the flag of the...