Biden, Again, Misleads on Trump Pressing China to Let US Experts In After Outbreak

Joe Biden in Tuesday’s presidential debate accused President Trump, again, of not asking China to allow U.S. health experts to visit Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – a claim that has been debunked.  Read

Biden Tries to Distance Himself From Democrats’ Progressive Wing: ‘My Party Is Me’

One of the messages Joe Biden seemed eager to get across during Tuesday night’s combative presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio was that he is his own man, not beholden to the left wing of the Democratic Party.  Read

Wiesenthal Center Slams Jewish Democratic Group’s Ad: ‘Beyond Contempt’ to Link Trump to Nazi Era

The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Tuesday slammed a Jewish Democratic organization for a campaign advert juxtaposing footage of President Trump with images from the Nazi era, calling the move “beneath contempt” and urging the group to withdraw the ad.  Read

China Blocks Wikipedia Publisher From Observer Status at IP-Protection Agency, Citing Taiwan Issue

 China has blocked an application by the non-profit foundation that publishes Wikipedia to serve as an observer at a U.N. specialized agency that promotes the protection of intellectual property (IP), after complaining that its websites contain “disinformation” regarding Taiwan. Read

After Twitter Criticism, AOC Bails Out of Event Honoring Yitzhak Rabin

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to withdraw from an event marking the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin drew criticism at the weekend, with the granddaughter of the slain Israeli prime minister accusing her of “populism,” and a pro-Israel Democratic organization calling the move disrespectful to Israel and to “peacemakers.”  Read

Cuba: Don’t Question the Appropriateness of Abusive States Sitting on UN Human Rights Council

A Cuban U.N. diplomat on Thursday tried to shut down a non-governmental organization speaker for pointing to the incongruity of Venezuela’s Maduro regime being a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.  Read

China Accuses US of Spreading ‘Political Virus’ After ‘Disgusted’ US Ambassador Slams Beijing

The widening gulf between the United States and China was starkly on display at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday, as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft accused the Chinese Communist Party of withholding cooperation and lying to the world about the coronavirus outbreak, which emerged there late last year before causing havoc across the globe.  Read

YouTube Shuts Down U.S. University Livestream Event With Palestinian Hijacker

YouTube on Thursday stymied a controversial attempt by San Francisco State University academics to provide a platform for a Palestinian woman who hijacked two aircraft of behalf of a terrorist group decades ago, interrupting the live stream “for violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.” Read

UN Gives Global Platform to Maduro, As UN Rights Council Discusses Brutality by His Regime

On the same day as a U.N.-mandated independent fact-finding mission presented a report in Geneva alleging massive human rights abuses by the socialist regime in Venezuela, the U.N. General Assembly in New York gave a global platform Wednesday to Nicolás Maduro, a man who almost one-third of the world’s governments do not recognize as president, and who last March was indicted in the U.S. for narco-terrorism, with a $15 million reward offered for his arrest.  Read

Trump to UN: Hold Beijing Accountable for ‘The China Virus’

 President Trump used his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to urge the world body to hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic, accusing Beijing of having “unleashed this plague onto the world.”  Read

Turkey Demands Legal Action Against Greek Newspaper Over Headline Telling Erdogan to ‘F*** Off’

Turkish state prosecutors, acting in line with a complaint from the Islamist government, have launched a criminal investigation into a Greek newspaper for publishing a page-one headline inviting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – in Turkish and English – to “f*** off.”  Read

Iranian FM on Avenging US Killing of Soleimani: ‘The Book Is Not Closed’

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif said on Monday “the book is not closed” on the death of Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, implying that the regime still intends to avenge his killing in a U.S. drone strike early this year.  Read

Refugee Admissions in FY 2020 Well Below Trump’s Record-Low Cap; Biden Eyes Significant Increase

With fewer than ten days of the fiscal year to go, the Trump administration has admitted just 10,233 refugees into the United States since October 1 last year – 56.8 percent of the record-low cap of 18,000 admissions in FY 2020, which it set last fall.  Read

US Alone on Iran? ‘We Don’t Need a Cheering Section to Validate Our Moral Compass’ Says Ambassador

Senior members of the Trump administration on Monday dismissed the notion that the U.S. should feel isolated at the United Nations over its reimposition of sanctions against Iran, characterizing its actions as good for the U.S., and the world.  Read

AOC: Reproductive Rights, Climate ‘On the Line’; McConnell ‘Playing With Fire’

Reproductive rights, labor rights, the right to healthcare, and “our climate” are on the line in the looming battle over the Supreme Court vacancy, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday night.  Read

‘Every Arrow in Our Quiver’: Pelosi Doesn’t Rule Out Another Impeachment Drive

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday did not rule out the possibility of another impeachment push, referring to the responsibility “to use every arrow in our quiver” when asked about ways to prevent a Supreme Court nominee confirmation this year.  Read

Update: LA County Says it Won’t Send Deputies to Jewish Homes at High Holidays to Enforce COVID Policy

 Los Angeles County has informed a legal organization representing an orthodox rabbi that it will not dispatch law enforcement officials to private homes to enforce a coronavirus health measure that prohibits “having a meal with extended family and friends for a religious or cultural holiday.”  Read

In LA County, Mass Outdoor Protests Are Kosher; Indoor Rosh Hashanah Meals With Friends Are Not

As Jews around the world prepare to mark Rosh Hashanah on Friday, an Orthodox rabbi in California plans to meet with another family in his congregation “in accordance with millennia-old tradition,” in defiance of a Los Angeles County coronavirus restriction that bars Jews from observing the High Holidays with other families inside private homes.  Read

Biden: ‘Imagine If He Had Said Something’ About Virus in State of the Union (He Did)

Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden suggested on Thursday night that President Trump had said nothing about the emerging coronavirus outbreak during his State of the Union address early this year.  Read

UN Sanctions Against Iran Loom – in Trump Administration’s View, At Least

The Trump administration expects all U.N. sanctions on Iran, including an arms embargo, to come back into effect this weekend, and officials have signaled that announcements are imminent on how the U.S. will enforce them.  Read

70 Percent of House Democrats Vote Against Anti-Semitism Measure

 Seventy percent of House Democrats voted on Wednesday against a Republican-sponsored amendment to include anti-Semitism as a form of discrimination in programs that receive federal funding.  Read

Kerry in 2016: ‘There Will Be No Separate Peace Between Israel and the Arab World'

 During his last weeks as President Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry made an categorical prediction about the Middle East: Arabs will not pursue a “separate peace” with Israel in absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Read

Trump Pledges Speedy Vaccine Roll-Out, Starting as Early as October; December at the Latest

President Trump said Wednesday distribution of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to prioritized recipients could begin as early as next month, but by November or December at “the latest,” and suggested a speedier rolling-out to the broader population than that suggested earlier in the day by CDC Director Robert Redfield.  Read

Netanyahu at Historic WH Signing Ceremony: ‘Let Us Put All Cynicism Aside’

As President Trump on Tuesday presided over first diplomatic agreements between Israel and Arab nations in 26 years, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged naysayers to “rise above” political divides and to “put all cynicism aside.”  Read

Courting Latino Voters, Biden Plays Hit Song ‘Despacito’ (It Means ‘Slowly’)

 Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden prefaced his remarks at a Hispanic Heritage Month campaign event in Florida on Tuesday night by playing an excerpt on his phone of the 2017 Spanish-language hit song “Despacito,” grinning and swaying to be beat as he did so.  Read

‘So Cynical,’ Pompeo Says of Pelosi Calling Historic Israeli-Arab Deals a ‘Distraction’

On the eve of the White House signing of historic accords between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday repudiated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s jibe that President Trump’s  progress in the Middle East is a “distraction” from the coronavirus crisis.  Read

UN Human Rights Council Is Urged to End Impunity for Repressive China

As the U.N. Human Rights Council began a new session on Monday, it faces growing calls to confront China, a country that has been a perennial fixture on the Geneva-based body yet has escaped censure for human rights violations at home.  Read

Of 18 Countries With Most COVID Deaths, US Is Doing Better Than 7, Worse Than 10

The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population but more than 20 percent of the total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19, CNN’s Jake Tapper declared on Sunday.  Read

Biden Wrong About North Korea’s Nuclear Capability, Sanctions Under Trump

 President Trump’s approach to North Korea has led to the regime being “closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before,” Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden said in an interview late last week, suggesting also that the current president has eased economic pressure on Pyongyang.  Read

Biden Misleads on Trump Administration’s Attempts to Get US Experts Into China Early On

 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in an interview Thursday suggested that President Trump had not pressed sufficiently for China to allow U.S. health experts to visit early on during the coronavirus outbreak, at a time when Biden said he and others were “insisting that they go in.”  Read

Hailing Mideast Progress, Trump Says His ‘Natural Instinct’ Is Peace, Not War

President Trump on Thursday portrayed himself as a Middle East peacemaker, pointing to breakthroughs between Israel and Arab states, looming U.S. troop drawdowns, and apparent signs of progress in Afghanistan.  Read

Susan Rice: Trump ‘Sat on His Behind While We Died’

President Trump “lied to the American people about the magnitude of the [coronavirus] threat, and sat on his behind while we died,” former Obama administration national security advisor Susan Rice said on Thursday.  Read

Chinese Communists Reject US Ambassador’s Op-Ed, Suggest He Make ‘Substantive Revisions’

China’s ambassador to Washington is a frequent guest on U.S. television and op-ed pages, but when the U.S. ambassador in Beijing submitted an op-ed this week to People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party organ rejected it.  Read

In Coming Weeks, US Troop Levels in Iraq to Drop by 42%, and in Afghanistan by 47%

The U.S. military will in the coming weeks almost halve the number of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander in the region, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, confirmed on Wednesday.  Read

Palestinians Fail to Get Arab League to Condemn Israel-UAE Accord

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday failed to get Arab League foreign ministers to condemn the Israel-United Arab Emirates agreement, one week before the historic accord is formalized at a White House signing ceremony.  Read

Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Faces Boycott Calls for Filming in Xinjiang and Thanking CCP

 Disney’s newly-released “Mulan” has run into a storm of international criticism over the revelation that some scenes were filmed in China’s Xinjiang region – where the filmmakers thanked Chinese Communist Party bodies, including the propaganda department and a public security bureau.  Read

U.S. University Gives a Platform to Palestinian Terrorist Who Jeopardized Hundreds of Lives

 A woman who hijacked two aircraft of behalf of a Palestinian terrorist group a half century ago has been invited to take part in a virtual panel discussion hosted by a San Francisco State University department this month.  Read

Kamala Harris Now Describes Mask-Wearing As a ‘Standard,’ Not a ‘Mandate’

 Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Sunday backed away from presidential running mate Joe Biden’s call for a national mandate for Americans to wear face masks as a protective measure against COVID-19 infection, describing mask-wearing instead as a “standard.”  Read

It Took 46 Years For First 2 Muslim-Majority Nations to Recognize Israel, Less Than a Month For the Next 2

It took more than four decades for the first two Muslim-majority countries to recognize and normalize ties with Israel, and now that number has doubled in less than a month, with Kosovo’s decision to follow the United Arab Emirates in taking the step.  Read

‘What Animal Would Say Such a Thing?’ Trump Rejects Claims He Called Fallen Soldiers ‘Losers’

 President Trump on Thursday night hit back at an article alleging that he called fallen American soldiers “losers” and “suckers,” saying the magazine’s anonymous sources – if they “really exist” – were “low-lives” and “liars.”  Read

Poisoning of Putin Critic: Merkel Under Pressure to Scrap Divisive Russian Gas Pipeline

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long shrugged off U.S. calls to end a controversial gas pipeline project with Russia, but now pressure is coming from within her own party, amid anger over the alleged poisoning of a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin.  Read

Joy Reid Fails to Defuse ‘Islamophobia’ Controversy; No Apology, As CAIR Expected

 MSNBC host Joy Reid sparked controversy this week with comments comparing Trump supporters to radicalized Muslims, but although the Council on American-Islamic Relations was expecting an on-air apology on Wednesday night, it was left empty-handed. Read

Pompeo: ‘No Nation Will Match Us’ on Vaccine Delivery; Process Must Be ‘Science-Based,’ Not Political

 No country will match the United States when it comes to ensuring that a coronavirus vaccine, once available, is disseminated around the world, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday. Read

Ayatollah Decries ‘Filthy Zionist Agents of the US – Such as the Jewish Member of Trump’s Family’

Lashing out at the U.S.-brokered Israel-UAE agreement, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a speech on Tuesday seemed particularly offended by the role played by President Trump’s son-in-law, who is Jewish.  Read

Pompeo: Trump ‘Isn’t Just Going to Turn the Other Cheek’ on China’s Misbehavior

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s candid criticism of the Chinese government has made him a target of personal vitriol, but on Tuesday he shrugged off the heated rhetoric, attributing it to President Trump’s unwillingness to “turn the other cheek.”  Read

Trump: ‘Some Very Stupid Rich People’ Are Funding Elements Involved in Unrest

President Trump has depicted corporations that have pledged money to elements involved in unrest on American streets as weak, naïve, and deluded. Read

US Vetoes UN Resolution That Does Not Require Countries to Take Back Their Foreign Fighters

 President Trump has long expressed exasperation at European governments’ reluctance to repatriate captured ISIS fighters who are their citizens, and on Monday that frustration led to the U.S. veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution that failed to address the issue. Read