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U.S. Cancels Contracts Worth $766 Million for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine After ‘Rigorous Review’

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 29, 2025

The Trump administration cancelled two contracts totaling $766 million with Moderna for the development of its mRNA-1018 vaccine for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, citing safety and efficacy concerns identified during its clinical trials, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed.

“After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon told The Defender.

“This is not simply about efficacy — it’s about safety, integrity and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public,” Nixon said.

Moderna first revealed the cancellation of the two awards in a statement published Wednesday. Moderna also announced “positive interim data” from its Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for mRNA-1018.

“While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis,” Moderna said in its statement.

Last year, HHS awarded Moderna $176 million for the late-stage development of the mRNA-1018 vaccine. In the final days of the Biden administration in January, HHS granted Moderna $590 million to accelerate the development of its bird flu vaccine and expand clinical studies for vaccines targeting five other flu virus subtypes.

‘A major policy shift away from dangerous mRNA injection programs’

Some scientists criticized the cancellation of the awards. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response coordinator, told CNN, “The attack on mRNA vaccines is beyond absurd” and that “we will come to regret this” if bird flu starts spreading between humans.

However, epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher called the news “a very positive development” that “marks a major policy shift away from dangerous mRNA injection programs.”

Vermont-based lawyer and farmer John Klar called it a “sensible decision,” noting the seasonal nature of the virus and its waning virulence.

Dr. Clayton Baker, an internal medicine physician, called the contract cancellation “absolutely the right decision.”

“The mRNA gene therapy platform, as demonstrated by the multiple toxicities of the COVID-19 shots, is fundamentally unsafe and should be removed from use altogether,” Baker said.

Baker suggested that the timing of the January 2025 grant, just days before the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, was likely intended to “promote the bird flu panic that was perpetrated by the outgoing administration, in order to derail the new administration.”

HHS told Reuters earlier this year that it would review agreements the Biden administration made for vaccine production. In March, HHS denied rumors that it was considering cancelling funding for mRNA vaccine research.

In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $1 billion plan to combat the spread of bird flu among chickens. The plan included a strategy to develop vaccines for chickens, but not for humans.

According to Reuters, Moderna “has been banking on revenue from newer mRNA shots, including its bird flu vaccine and experimental COVID-flu combination vaccine, to make up for waning post-pandemic demand for its COVID vaccine.” The company “plans to explore alternatives for late-stage development and manufacturing” of its bird flu vaccine.

News of the canceled contracts came just days after Moderna withdrew its application for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its mRNA-1083 combination flu and COVID-19 vaccine.

Last week, Reuters reported that Moderna’s decision to withdraw its application came amid “increased regulatory scrutiny of the vaccine approval process since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the top U.S. health job earlier this year.”

Markets did not immediately react to news of the grants’ cancellation. Moderna shares remained flat during after-hours trading Wednesday, but were up by over 2.6% by press time Thursday.

No human bird flu cases reported in three months

According to Reuters, bird flu has infected 70 people in the past year, mostly farm workers, but “has spread aggressively among cattle herds and poultry flocks.”

In January, a Louisiana man who was hospitalized with the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S. died — the first bird flu-related death in the U.S. and all of North America. However, the man, who was older than 65, had underlying medical conditions, and it remains unclear whether bird flu directly caused his death.

There have been no new human bird flu cases in three months, The Associated Press (AP) reported May 19.

Dr. Meryl Nass, an expert on biological warfare and founder of Door to Freedom, said, “H5N1 was a dangerous virus if you caught it from a chicken years ago.” But it has never spread person-to-person, and has “mutated to cause extremely mild disease in almost all humans that have caught it over the past five to 10 years.”

Nass said this makes a new bird flu vaccine for humans unnecessary. “There is absolutely no reason why the United States needs another bird flu vaccine, and there is even less reason to develop an mRNA vaccine because the platform itself is dangerous.”

Bird flu scare a ‘propaganda campaign’

Mainstream media outlets and many scientists continue to suggest that bird flu poses an imminent threat to humans, in what Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director, former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, and expert on bird flu, called a “propaganda campaign.”

“The messaging has been that bird flu spread from penguins to sea lions, to a western Minnesota goat, to Texas dairy cattle and finally to a dairy farmer with red eyes. It’s been a two-year marketing campaign,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett said the messaging is intended to “manufacture the perception of a need for new mRNA products — despite the absence of long-term safety data.”

Last year, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf warned that a potential bird flu pandemic could have a 25% mortality rate. Jeremy Farrar, Ph.D., then the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, warned that bird flu has an “extremely high” mortality rate for humans and could mutate to pass between humans.

In December 2024, Dr. Leana Wen, the former commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department and a professor of public health at George Washington University, said the outgoing Biden administration had not done enough to address bird flu and criticized the lack of availability of a bird flu vaccine.

After the start of Trump’s second term and the implementation of funding cuts to government health agencies, mainstream media reports suggested the cuts were placing the public at risk of a worsening bird flu outbreak.

In February, Reuters reported the cuts “disrupted the U.S. response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens,” resulting in “anxiety among federal health staff that critical information about bird flu will not be disseminated in a timely manner or at all.”

In April, USA Today reported that cuts affecting the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine “will hamper the FDA’s ability to respond to animal disease outbreaks, including bird flu, and protect public health.”

Also that month, virologists from 40 countries published a report in The Lancet urging the Trump administration to prepare for a bird flu pandemic, according to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 1999 established Gavi. The Gates Foundation holds one of the four permanent seats on Gavi’s board and continues to heavily fund the organization.

According to the AP, “experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped” in the last three months. The report suggests that infections potentially aren’t being detected, that immigrant farm workers may be afraid to be tested, and that efforts to find bird flu cases were “weakened by government cuts.”

Baker said such scenarios are unlikely to account for the lack of recent bird flu cases. “What does this say about the severity of the illness in humans? It says that the illness is either mild or entirely asymptomatic and that there’s no need for a vaccine for an asymptomatic condition.”

U.S. ‘poured a king’s ransom’ into bird flu vaccine development

Nass said that the FDA has already licensed three vaccines for H5N1 and that “there have been dozens of experimental bird flu vaccines that were never taken to licensure. The U.S. government “has already poured a king’s ransom” into funding these vaccines, even though bird flu has never spread between humans.

Baker said that instead of funding new bird flu vaccines, the U.S. government should “stop the gain-of-function style manipulation of bird flu into a bioweapon, which takes place at the Kawaoka lab at the University of Wisconsin and the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, as well as at other labs.”

Gain-of-function research increases the transmissibility or virulence of viruses and is often used in vaccine development. Earlier this month, Trump issued an executive order pausing gain-of-function research in the U.S. for 120 days while a new regulatory framework is developed. The order also ended U.S. funding for such research in some countries.

“Gain-of-function research produces human pathogens, the process is driven by fear in the media, and then proprietary vaccines are presented as the solution,” Baker said. “It needs to end.”

Recently, there have been growing calls among scientists for a moratorium or ban on mRNA vaccines, including a petition pending before the FDA.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

May 29, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Greenland eyes Chinese investment amid ‘new world order’

RT | May 27, 2025

Greenland is weighing the possibility of inviting Chinese investment to develop its mining sector in light of tensions with the US and limited engagement with the EU, the island’s business and mineral resources minister, Naaja Nathanielsen, told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

An autonomous territory of Denmark, Greenland holds vast but hard-to-exploit reserves of minerals such as gold and copper. Foreign capital is essential for developing the resources, yet recent geopolitical tensions have made it difficult to secure reliable partnerships.

“We are trying to figure out what the new world order looks like,” Nathanielsen said, adding that Greenland was “having a difficult time finding [its] footing” in evolving relationships with its Western allies.

The Arctic island signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on mineral development during President Donald Trump’s first term. However, according to Nathanielsen, it’s coming to an end. The government in Nuuk had tried, unsuccessfully, to renew it during the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Following Trump’s return to office in January, Greenland hoped to revive discussions of renewing the memorandum. Instead, the US president talked about purchasing the island and refused to rule out using military force to assert US sovereignty over it.

Nathanielsen called such statements “disrespectful and distasteful,” adding that Greenland “has no wish to be American.”

China has shown interest in the Arctic’s mineral wealth, including oil, gas, and minerals. It has invested in Russian energy projects and has expressed interest in Greenland’s mining sector. No Chinese companies, however, are currently operating active mines in Greenland, although one firm holds a minority stake in an inactive project.

According to Nathanielsen, Chinese investors might be holding back because they don’t want “to provoke anything.”

“In those terms, Chinese investment is of course problematic, but so, to some extent, is American,” she said.

Greenland would prefer closer cooperation with the EU, which aligns more closely with its environmental priorities, the minister said. However, the bloc’s engagement has been slow, with only one project, led by a Danish-French consortium, currently in development. The mine is expected to begin operations within five years.

At present, Greenland has two functioning mines: one for gold, operated by the Icelandic-Canadian firm Amaroq Minerals, and another for anorthosite, a light-colored industrial rock, managed by a subsidiary of Canada’s Hudson Resources.

May 27, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

MEPs urge Brussels to cut all funding for Budapest

RT | May 23, 2025

Over 20 members of the European Parliament have urged the European Commission to immediately freeze all EU funding to Hungary as a means of putting pressure on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. The demand comes as the bloc’s foreign ministers prepare to weigh potential sanctions, including a suspension of Budapest’s voting rights.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin and Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath, 26 MEPs accused Hungary of “violating EU values and EU laws.” They cited four specific actions, including a March law that effectively bans pride parades in Hungary, a move consistent with Orban’s rejection of “LGBT ideology.”

The lawmakers also blasted proposed Hungarian legislation that would tighten oversight of political organizations receiving foreign funding, which critics argue would suppress “civil society.”

The MEPs alleged that Budapest’s policies indicate that all EU funding for Hungary risks being misused and that a full freeze would be “proportionate” under the circumstances.

Hungarian MEP Csaba Domotor pushed back against the accusations, arguing that the targeted organizations serve foreign interests with grants they receive from the EU, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and the recently defunded US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Hungary has repeatedly faced EU criticism for its conservative social policies, which don’t align with the bloc’s pro-LGBT agenda, and regulations requiring more transparency from foreign-funded organizations.

Budapest has also clashed with Brussels over support for Kiev and anti-Russian sanctions. Orban has warned that admitting Ukraine into the European Union risks drawing the bloc into the ongoing military conflict and called the European Commission’s plans to end all imports of Russian energy by the end of 2027 “absolute insanity.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that such a move would sharply increase energy prices across the EU, seriously undermine member states’ national sovereignty, and harm European businesses.

Some EU officials, including Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, have advocated for stronger action, such as triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty to strip Hungary of its voting rights. Relevant proceedings against Hungary were launched in 2018.

The EU’s General Affairs Council, which is comprised of foreign and European affairs ministers from member states, is scheduled to discuss Hungary’s Article 7 case for the eighth time next Tuesday, according to the official agenda.

May 23, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Putin outlines results Moscow seeks in Ukraine

RT | May 18, 2025

Russia is seeking to achieve “lasting and sustainable peace” by eliminating the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, President Vladimir Putin has said, in an extract of an interview released by Russia 1 TV on Sunday.

In a clip posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on Telegram, Putin stated that Russia has “enough strength and resources to bring what was started in 2022 to its logical conclusion” while accomplishing Moscow’s key goals.

Russia wants to “eliminate the causes that caused this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people in those territories that we always talk about,” he added.

The president was apparently referring to Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, which overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining Russia in referendums in 2014 and 2022.

People in these former Ukrainian territories “consider Russian to be their native language” and see Russia as their homeland, he said.

Commenting on the ongoing diplomatic engagement with the US to settle the conflict, Putin acknowledged that “the American people, including their president [Donald Trump] have their own national interests.”

“We respect that, and expect to be treated the same way,” he added.

Putin’s remarks come on the heels of the first direct Russia-Ukraine talks since 2022. As a result of Turkish-mediated negotiations in Istanbul, both sides agreed to exchange lists of conditions for a potential ceasefire, conduct a major prisoner swap, and discuss a follow-up meeting. The Kremlin has not ruled out direct talks between Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky if the ongoing peace efforts result in progress and firm agreements.

Following the talks, US President Donald Trump announced he would hold a phone call with his Russian counterpart on Monday, which would focus on trade and resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Istanbul negotiations with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who welcomed the results of the talks.

May 18, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Russia, Ukraine prepare for peace by getting ready for war

By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | May 17, 2025 

May 16 will stand out as a turning point, for good or bad, in the Ukraine conflict. The main thing is, Russia-Ukraine ‘peace talks’ have resumed in Istanbul and will hopefully carry forward the threads of the draft agreement negotiated in March 2022. But caveats must be added. The fact that it took Turkish President Recep Erdogan three hours to persuade Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to green light the negotiations speaks for itself. 

On the other hand, Zelensky showed remarkable flexibility by violating his own presidential decree banning any such negotiations on the part of Ukrainian officials other than himself with Russian officials. Turkey showed again that it remains a significant influencer in the Ukraine conflict. 

The result was an extraordinary spectacle. Reports mention that the Russian delegation had not one but three meetings, in fact — with a Turkish-American team followed by a Turkish-American-Ukrainian team and culminating in an exclusive huddle with the Ukrainian team. 

The ‘bilateral’ Russian-Ukrainian negotiations reportedly touched on the topics of ceasefire options in the Ukraine conflict; a major prisoner exchange; a potential meeting between Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin; an agreement in principle to hold a follow-up meeting and so on. 

The Ukrainian media reported that the Russian side repeated their demands for Kiev’s forces to vacate the remaining parts of the four eastern and southern regions that Moscow has annexed. Ukraine of course rejected the demand. Indeed, these talking points at the Istanbul meeting would have been a plateful for a meeting that lasted only for an hour and forty minutes. 

Turkiye has joined as a stakeholder, as the pacemaking in Ukraine provides an opportunity for it to work closely with the US, which could have positive fallouts for the two main discords that put strains on it in the recent years — Syria and the Kurdish problem. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has taken a historic decision on May 12 to give up armed struggle and dissolve itself, which opens the possibility to end decades of political violence in Turkiye. The ‘peacemaker president’ in the White House can help Ankara to mediate a Kurdish settlement. 

Turkiye has promoted the US’ normalisation with the Islamist government in Damascus. Trump’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday alongside the lifting of Washington’s sanctions against Syria, which shake up the geopolitics of the Middle East, will bring Turkiye and the US on the same page. 

Notably, all this is happening against the backdrop of a ‘westernist’ tilt in the Turkish foreign policies during the past year following Erdogan’s re-election as president. Traditionally, the equations between Trump and Erdogan remained cordial and friendly. Suffice to say, Trump can expect Erdogan’s cooperation in the peacemaking in Ukraine talks, where the Turkish leader’s excellent equations with Zelensky are an added factor, which was on display in Ankara yesterday. 

Erdogan held Zelensky’s hand through thick and thin. The high-tech Turkish drones supplied to Ukraine, which are to be manufactured locally,  will significantly boost Kiev’s military capability. Turkiye, as the inheritor of the Ottoman legacy, is home away from home for an influential Tatar community. Tatar language is an Oghuz language descended from Ottoman Turkish. In fact, Turkey has refused to recognise Crimea as part of Russia. Ukrainian Defence Minister, a close associate of Zelensky, is an ethnic Tatar.   

Moscow understands all this. Putin hastened to put behind the friction in Russo-Turkish relations in the downstream of the regime change in Syria last December to reach out to Erdogan on May 11 to discuss the direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. The Kremlin readout said Erdogan “expressed his full support for Russia’s proposal and emphasised his willingness to provide a venue for the talks in Istanbul. The Turkish side will offer all possible assistance in organising and holding talks aimed at achieving sustainable peace… The leaders have also expressed mutual interest in further expanding the bilateral ties in trade and investment and, in particular, implementing joint strategic projects in energy.”

Erdogan is a difficult interlocutor to handle but Putin has been largely successful in keeping the relationship stable and (mostly) predictable. The Turkish factor can be a game changer if at some point Zelensky ceases to be the captive of the CoW4 (the four European musketeers of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ — Britain, France, Germany and Poland.) Trust Erdogan to shift gears to an activist role. 

On the whole, Russia has scored a diplomatic victory insofar as its initiative on ‘Ukraine direct talks without preconditions’ has found acceptability with Trump. The format of yesterday’s talks implied a resumption of the Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul in 2022. Putin manoeuvred brilliantly to scatter the game plan of the CoW4 which strove to pull aside Trump incrementally and become party to continuing the war in Ukraine. 

The CoW4 felt encouraged lately by a certain perception that Trump  may impose draconian sanctions if Russia lacked sincerity of purpose. But so far, Trump has remained engaged with Putin. Last week, Trump stated that a breakthrough in the Ukraine conflict will be possible only out of a summit between him and Putin. Suffice to say, the dramatic happenings in Turkey yesterday signify a setback to the CoW4. 

The leader of the Russian delegation and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (who also headed the Russian team at the talks in Istanbul in 2022) has told the media that Moscow is “satisfied” with the results of the talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev. 

That said, Moscow will not let down its guard either. Putin held a briefing session on May 15 with the permanent members of the Security Council, Russia’s highest policymaking body, to deliberate on the upcoming Istanbul talks, which was attended by the members of the Russian negotiating group. The Kremlin readout stated that Putin “set tasks and charted the negotiating position” of the Russian delegation in Istanbul.

On the other hand, the Kremlin also asserted simultaneously that no matter the talks in Istanbul, Russia’s military operations in Ukraine shall continue. With immaculate timing, Putin chose May 15 to also make the stunning announcement of the appointment of Colonel-General Andrey Mordvichev (nicknamed “General Breakthrough”) as the Commander of the Russian Ground Forces. 

Gen. Mordvichev has a tough reputation as the commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army of Russia’s Southern Military District, which was heavily involved in the devastating 2022 siege of Mariupol, and in the Battle of Avdiivka in 2023-2024, a turning point in the conflict in Ukraine. Gen. Mordvichev’s appointment comes amidst reports claiming that Russia is preparing to launch a major new offensive in Ukraine. Ukraine claims that over 600,000 Russian troops are presently deployed in Ukraine.

But then, Zelensky is also moving on a dual track. Ukraine’s Finance Minister Sergeii Marchenko, 43, told a high-level panel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development annual meeting on March 14 in London, “To prepare for peace, you have to get ready for war. We have to plan. You may call me a cynic, but actually I’m just a Finance Minister.”  

May 17, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia-Ukraine talks conclude – media

RT | May 16, 2025

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have ended, with the two delegations departing from the venue and press statements being prepared, a TASS source has said.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, stated that Friday’s talks at Dolmabahce Palace had focused on a prisoner exchange and versions of a potential ceasefire, according to RBK-Ukraine.

A potential meeting between Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin was also reportedly raised, and Umerov added that an update on possible new negotiations would be shared soon.

He also stated that both delegations had agreed to an exchange involving 1,000 prisoners from each side. Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, also confirmed that an exchange is being prepared.

Medinsky added that Kiev had requested a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, and that Moscow has taken note of the proposal. He stated that overall, the Russian delegation was satisfied with the outcome of the talks and is ready to continue contacts.

According to Medinsky, Russia and Ukraine will each present their detailed vision of a possible ceasefire, after which the negotiations will continue.

The talks had been expected to begin on Thursday, after Putin suggested resuming the negotiations which had been broken off in Istanbul three years ago.

The Russian team waited for the Ukrainian delegation to arrive for an entire day, although Zelensky only named his delegation on Thursday evening.

Moscow and Ukraine last held direct talks in April 2022. Following initial reports that an agreement had been reached, Kiev unilaterally withdrew from the talks. Putin later blamed Western interference and, in particular, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had reportedly urged Kiev to “just continue fighting,” for derailing the peace process.

Russia, which had withdrawn its forces from the outskirts of Kiev as a goodwill gesture, later accused Ukraine of backtracking, saying it had lost trust in kiev’s negotiators.

May 16, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

‘Travesty of justice’: Iranian student self-deports after weeks in US custody

A file photo of Alireza Doroudi, who was detained by US immigration officials in March 2025.
Press TV – May 9, 2025

An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama has been forced to self-deport after six weeks of detention over unsubstantiated charges as the US administration ramps up pressure on foreign students and immigrants.

Alireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of US President Donald Trump’s widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 480 kilometers from where he lived with his fiancée, Sama Bajgani, in Alabama.

The State Department accused Doroudi at the time of posing “significant national security concerns,” with Doroudi’s lawyer, David Rozas, saying the US government had not offered any evidence to support the claim.

Rozas said Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama who entered the United States legally in January 2023 on a student visa, had decided to self-deport and stop fighting deportation after the judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave him until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi bond.

Bajgani said he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.

Describing her fiancé as a “nerd” and “a really big thinker” who spent long days in the lab, Bajgani said Doroudi does not deserve what happened to him and now the life they built in Alabama is over.

“I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,” she said. “All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.”

In a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a “pure injustice.”

“I didn’t cause any trouble in this country,” he said. “I didn’t enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.”

Rozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney, underlining that the authorities had denied his client due process and forced him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.

“I’m absolutely devastated and I think it’s a travesty of justice,” Rozas said. “The government has provided no evidence in the record that Mr. Doroudi poses any national security threat.”

More than 1,000 international students across the US have had their visas or legal status revoked since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials.

They included some who took part in mass rallies across the US academic facilities in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts, was detained in March over accusations by the Department of Homeland Security of engaging “in activities in support of Hamas” after writing an opinion piece.

The article called on Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” and to “disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”

Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi have also been placed under detention in relation to their alleged support for Palestine.

Like in Doroudi and Ozturk’s cases, the federal government has relied on vague claims that Khalil and Mahdawi pose “national security threats” to justify detaining them despite their status as legal residents.

May 9, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

As India and Pakistan edge toward full-scale war, Kashmir braces for the fallout

By Fatemeh Fazli | Press TV | May 7, 2025

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have once again reached a boiling point, following India’s most extensive missile strikes yet into Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The death toll continues to climb alarmingly, with some reports putting the figure at 26, with several others injured, marking one of the bloodiest military escalations in the region in recent memory.

Graphic images circulating on social media platforms depict scenes of chaos and commotion, with wounded civilians, including children, being rushed to overwhelmed hospitals in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and parts of Punjab.

In Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, residents recalled the terror that unfolded after a barrage of missiles pounded the city. One local said they scrambled to the hills surrounding the city as a deafening barrage of missiles lit up the night sky.

Codenamed Operation Sindoor, the Indian Army announced that it had struck nine sites, labeling them “terrorist infrastructure” scattered across Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

It claimed to have targeted the bases of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, which is based in Pakistan and has been responsible for several terrorist incidents in India and Indian-administered Kashmir.

In response, the Pakistani military offered its own account, stating that Indian forces had launched 24 missiles at six separate locations, resulting in the deaths of at least 26 individuals.

The strikes were followed by intense cross-border shelling along the volatile de facto boundary, which has been the scene of minor and major skirmishes between the two sides for decades.

This dramatic escalation follows closely on the heels of a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, a serene hill resort in Indian-administered Kashmir, where more than two dozen tourists from India’s southern states were gunned down last month.

The attackers reportedly emerged from forest cover and targeted only male tourists, leaving women unharmed, a chilling crime that sent shockwaves across India and the world.

India was quick to blame Pakistan for orchestrating the attack. Islamabad, however, denied any involvement, insisting no credible evidence had been presented, a position that gained traction among observers worldwide even as the terrorist attack itself drew widespread condemnation.

This is not the first instance of such clashes souring relations between the estranged neighbors, and it likely won’t be the last. Their hostility and mistrust run deep, rooted in the painful legacy of the 1947 partition of British India, a wound that continues to fester.

In the decades since, India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars, waged proxy battles, and engaged in countless skirmishes, each confrontation widening the rift and reinforcing mutual suspicion, despite their intertwined histories, cultures, languages, and cuisines.

Yet, amid the hostility, ordinary people on both sides of the border have consistently voiced their opposition to war. They speak the same tongue, prepare the same meals, and see each other not as enemies but as long-lost kin separated by politics and pride.

In particular, the war-weary people of Kashmir, who have seen nothing but war and violence all these years, have paid the highest price for the hostility between the two South Asian countries.

There have been some genuine efforts at reconciliation in the past. Some governments in New Delhi and Islamabad did make attempts to thaw relations, most notably during the era of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf even proposed a popular “four-point solution” to the long-festering Kashmir dispute. Vajpayee, in turn, championed a peace initiative grounded in empathy, as evident in his memorable April 2003 speech delivered in the heart of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir.

But that fragile hope was shattered in November 2008 when coordinated terrorist attacks paralyzed Mumbai, India’s financial capital. Carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants based in Pakistan, the attacks dealt a severe blow to the peace process.

Subsequent tragedies – the 2016 terrorist attack in the town of Uri in Kashmir that killed 18 Indian soldiers, and the 2019 suicide bombing in Pulwama that claimed the lives of 28 Indian military personnel – further deepened the divide, derailing any diplomatic momentum.

India blamed Pakistan on both occasions, even though Islamabad feigned ignorance. After the Uri attack, India responded with “surgical strikes” deep inside Pakistan.

These incidents unfolded under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose tenure has been marked by increased militarization of the Kashmir conflict.

In a controversial move in August 2019, Modi’s government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special autonomy.

While Indian officials have since claimed that peace and normalcy have returned to the region, the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, killing at least 28, belies such assurances, including those from Home Minister Amit Shah.

In January, Shah asserted that the Modi administration had dismantled terrorism in the Kashmir valley and eradicated its underlying ecosystem. Just months prior, in September 2024, Modi himself promised that the BJP would turn Jammu and Kashmir into a “terror-free haven for tourists.”

But the events in Pahalgam shattered that illusion. The militants emerged from the forests and opened fire on unarmed tourists while no security personnel were anywhere in sight.

The attack set off ripples far beyond the valley. In the days that followed, Kashmiri students across India were harassed and scapegoated by right-wing groups demanding revenge for the slain tourists.

Ironically, the most vocal condemnation came from Kashmir itself. Locals filled the streets in protest. Even pro-independence groups denounced the attack, and a moment of silence for the victims was solemnly observed at the Jamia Masjid, the region’s largest mosque.

Now, with war drums beating once again, it is the people of Kashmir, caught in the crosshairs of two hostile nations, who stand to suffer most. The fragile peace in the region has been shattered and the economy will also be affected with a drop in tourists visiting Kashmir.

Reports suggest at least 10 civilians have already died in Indian-administered Kashmir due to cross-border shelling along the Line of Control since last night. It will only get worse.

With both India and Pakistan in possession of nuclear weapons, the specter of full-scale war between them is not just terrifying, it’s potentially apocalyptic.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has issued a dire warning, saying it was “gravely concerned” about the rising tensions and cautioning that a nuclear exchange could result in “millions of immediate deaths in the region and have global consequences.”

As has been the case far too often, the true victims of this decades-old conflict remain the people of Kashmir, who are straddling both sides of a fragile, blood-soaked border.

Fatemeh Fazli is a PhD candidate in Indian Studies at the University of Tehran.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Released captive: I felt safer in Hamas captivity than in Israel

MEMO | May 6, 2025

A former Israeli captive has admitted that she felt more safe and protected in Gaza than in Israel, the Hebrew Maariv newspaper reported yesterday.

Mia Schem, 23, was released as part of a prisoner swap deal in November 2023.

Earlier this month, Schem identified herself as the plaintiff in a previously reported rape case against a famouse personal trainer in Tel Aviv, who is a prominent figure on social media and has several celebrity clients, including a former prime minister.

According to the paper, Schem alleged that the rape took place in her home, using a date rape drug, and that she does not remember many of the details.

Israeli media outlets reported that the suspect in Schem’s case had lied in a polygraph test, yet he was released from custody due to lack of evidence. They also accused Schem of lying in search of limelight.

A court placed a complete gag order on the investigation including the identities of the parties involved.

According to official reports, while thousands of sexual harassment and assault cases are reported each year, almost nine out of ten rape cases are closed without charges.

A report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centres, Israel Police opened 6,405 investigations into rape cases in 2023, however, 81 per cent of them were closed without an indictment while charges were filed in only 16 per cent of cases. Two per cent of the remaining cases ended in a conditional settlement.

May 6, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

HHS, NIH Launch $500 Million Project to Develop Universal Vaccines to Protect Against ‘Pandemic-Prone’ Viruses

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 1, 2025

The Trump administration is investing $500 million into research that will use an existing, traditional vaccine technology to develop vaccines that protect against multiple strains of “pandemic-prone viruses,” according to a joint press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The investment will fund in-house development of universal vaccines for influenza, coronaviruses and multiple strains of viruses like H5N1 avian influenza and coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV.

The new research program, Generation Gold Standard, appears to be a revamp of the Biden administration’s Project NextGen, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story.

Project NextGen, a $5 billion effort to fund new COVID-19 vaccines, was the successor program to Operation Warp Speed, a partnership between HHS and the U.S. Department of Defense. Several Project NextGen studies have been halted in recent weeks.

“Generation Gold Standard is a paradigm shift,” said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. “It extends vaccine protection beyond strain-specific limits and prepares for flu viral threats — not just today’s, but tomorrow’s as well — using traditional vaccine technology brought into the 21st century.”

HHS said the platform is adaptable for future use against RSV or respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumovirus and parainfluenza.

The project will focus on producing vaccines from chemically inactivated whole viruses, which is how flu viruses were made in the past, the WSJ reported.

According to the joint press release, researchers will develop the “next-generation, universal vaccine platform,” using a mechanism called a beta-propiolactone (BPL)-inactivated, whole-virus platform.

Dr. Meryl Nass expressed some skepticism about the announcement. “This holy grail in vaccinology has been sought for decades, so far unsuccessfully,” she told The Defender.

Nass said that BPL technology has been used in vaccine development for at least 70 years, and its value in producing vaccines is not a new discovery.

“The press release fails to tell us how this method is suddenly going to produce the holy grail that has long been sought of a universal flu or corona pandemic vaccine,” Nass said.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher from the McCullough Foundation also advised caution in interpreting the announcement. Hulscher said:

“These BPL-inactivated whole-virus vaccines represent a return to more traditional technology — likely offering broader and more durable protection than the narrow, spike-only focus of mRNA shots.

“However, it’s important to remember that any injectable product delivering toxic antigens — even if inactivated — can still result in serious adverse events, especially if distributed at scale without rigorous long-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.”

HHS confirmed Wednesday that going forward, all vaccines will be required to undergo placebo-controlled trials.

‘A transparent vaccine platform will change the pharmacology world’

Other experts said that although it remains unclear at this point how this proposed vaccine development will play out, the news is encouraging because it directs payments to government researchers rather than to Big Pharma.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Senior Scientist Karl Jablonowski said the news that the agencies were committed to transparency was encouraging. Because of how private industry funds regulators, there has been an “inherent conflict” in vaccine development for some time, he said.

“The NIH could only promise transparency on a wholly government-owned product and process, as most of what transpires in private pharmaceutical companies lies beyond a citizen’s freedom of information rights,” Jablonowski said. “A transparent vaccine platform will change the pharmacology world.”

The Generation Gold Standard project includes research on a universal flu vaccine co-developed by NIH flu vaccine researchers Drs. Matthew Memoli and Jeffery Taubenberger, according to the WSJ. It will also research another universal flu vaccine and universal coronavirus vaccines.

CHD CEO Mary Holland said that the announcement was “interesting,” given that it doesn’t direct payments to Big Pharma and in light of the HHS announcement yesterday that all new vaccines will have to be tested against a placebo.

Clinical trials for universal influenza vaccines are scheduled to begin in 2026, with U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval targeted for 2029.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

May 4, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Israeli officials head to Paris to ‘influence US position’ on Iran talks

The Cradle | April 18, 2025

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea traveled to Paris for a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff, which will focus on the current nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.

“Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer secretly flew to Paris to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks on the Iranian nuclear issue,” three Israeli sources told Hebrew outlet Walla on 18 April. Axios reported that Barnea will also be participating.

“Israel wants to clarify its positions and try to influence the American position in the talks,” the Walla report added.

One source cited in the report said that Witkoff is looking to negotiate a deal in which Tehran agrees to no longer enrich uranium.

According to three sources speaking with Iran International, Iran proposed during the last round of talks the idea of a cap on its uranium enrichment – as was the case in the 2015 nuclear deal under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 during his first term.

The report says the proposal includes Iran temporarily lowering enrichment to 3.67 percent – the level from the 2015 deal. In exchange, Washington would allow Tehran to access frozen assets and export oil in the first phase.

Phase two would see the US lift additional sanctions and block the “snapback” mechanism, which allows for the immediate reimposition of sanctions on Iran by the UN Security Council, according to the report. Iran would, in exchange, allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resume inspections of nuclear sites, including “surprise” inspections.

Witkoff called on Iran to end its enrichment and said the president has ordered a “tough deal,” contradicting an earlier statement signaling US openness to a cap on Iranian uranium enrichment.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on 16 April that the Islamic Republic’s enrichment of uranium is “non-negotiable.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened a bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities if a deal is not reached in the current talks, which are coinciding with his continued “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions on Iran.

Tehran has demanded an end to US pressure and threats, and says talks will continue in an indirect manner.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump recently “waved off” an Israeli proposal for a joint attack on Iran.

“I wouldn’t say ‘waved off,’” Trump said in response. “I’m not in a rush to do it. If there’s a second option. I think it would be very bad for Iran, and I think Iran is wanting to talk. I hope they’re wanting to talk. It’s going to be very good for them if they do. Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s pretty simple,” he added.

Israel has for years been devising plots for a large-scale attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Tel Aviv has recently said that the only US–Iran deal it would find acceptable is one that completely eliminates Tehran’s nuclear program.

The next round of US–Iran talks will be held on 19 April in Rome.

April 18, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

Iran’s FM in Russia to ‘consult on matters of common concern’

Press TV – April 17, 2025

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is visiting Moscow to “consult on matters of common interest and concern” with Russian officials, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says.

Baghaei on Thursday described Russia as a “strategic partner”, emphasizing that mutual ties between Tehran and Moscow are anchored in solid grounds of “mutual understanding” and common interests.

“Iran-Russia’s excellent bilateral relations are based on solid grounds of ‘mutual understanding’ & ‘respect’ as well as ‘shared interests’ of the two nations,” he wrote on the X social media platform.

Heading a diplomatic delegation, Araghchi traveled to Moscow Thursday to deliver a written message from Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Baghaei said.

The previously planned visit is taking place at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, within the framework of continuous consultations between the two countries as strategic partners, Baghaei added.

During his stay in Moscow, Araghchi will hold talks on bilateral relations, regional and international developments, and the recent indirect talks between Iran and the US.

His visit comes ahead of the second round of talks between the US and Iran on Saturday after they held “positive” indirect negotiations in the Omani capital on Tehran’s nuclear program and the removal of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

President Putin was scheduled to meet Araghchi later Thursday, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told state media.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russia was ready to do “everything” in its powers to help find a diplomatic resolution to the standoff between the United States and Iran.

Russia has issued calls for calm after US President Donald Trump last month appeared to threaten to bomb Iran if it did not agree to a new nuclear agreement.

April 17, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

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