Turkey Sentences Another US Consular Employee Accused of Links to ‘Terrorists’

 A Turkish court has sentenced to prison yet another U.S. consular employee accused of links to “terrorists,” threatening to worsen strains in the relationship between the purported NATO allies.  Read

Girl Scouts Congratulates Justice Amy Coney Barrett – Then Reverses After Criticism

The Girl Scouts this week posted on its official Twitter account a tweet congratulating Justice Amy Coney Barrett on her appointment to the Supreme Court – but then took it down after coming under fire from critics who saw it as “a political and partisan statement.”  Read

In Pakistan, Where ‘Blasphemy’ Brings Death Sentence, PM Urges an End to ‘Attacks on Islam and Our Prophet’

As Islamic heads of state line up to criticize France over perceived denigration of Mohammed, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is urging fellow Muslim leaders around the world to work together to confront “Islamophobia,” which he charged “is spreading in European countries where sizeable Muslim populations reside.”  Read

Global Survey Suggests China Is Losing PR Battle Over Coronavirus

The Chinese Communist Party has been waging an aggressive propaganda campaign to promote its narrative about the coronavirus outbreak that emerged in Wuhan late last year, but a new poll suggests that, in two dozen key countries across the globe at least, it’s losing the battle. Read

Ayatollah Tweets: France Allows Mohammed Cartoons But Outlaws Holocaust Denial

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waded into the controversy over “Islamophobia” in France on Wednesday, urging young French citizens to ask President Emmanuel Macron why he approves of cartoons lampooning Mohammed but outlaws Holocaust denial.  Read

Schumer: ‘Generations Yet Unborn Will Suffer the Consequences' of Amy Coney Barrett's Confirmation

 “Generations yet unborn will suffer the consequences” of Amy Coney Barrett’s elevation to the Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, shortly before a majority voted on Monday to confirm the pro-life, conservative judge onto the bench.  Read

Poll: Most Arabs Think Obama Left Mideast Worse Off; Want Biden to Shun His Policies If Elected

A majority of respondents in a new poll of the Arab world – 53 percent – believe the Obama-Biden administration left the Middle East worse off, and want the next American president to take a tough approach with Iran.  Read

‘Expand the Court’: Squad Tweets Outrage Over Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett

The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The vote was 52-48, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) the only Republican to vote “no,” along with every Democrat. Read

Justice Amy Coney Barrett Sworn in: ‘It is the Job of a Judge To Resist Her Policy Preferences’

Justice Clarence Thomas swore in Amy Coney Barrett as the newest associate justice of the Supreme Court on Monday night, shortly after a bitterly-divided Senate voted 52-48 to confirm her, making President Trump the first president since Richard Nixon to appoint three justices in a single term. Read

Turkey’s Erdogan and Macron of France Clash Over Islam, Mohammed Cartoons

Fifteen years after interfaith relations were rocked by the publication in European newspapers of cartoons satirizing Mohammed, the controversy has reared its head again, with mudslinging, boycott calls, and deadly violence.  Read

Nikki Haley Recalls Trump’s Jerusalem Decision: ‘If Not Me Then Who? If Not Now Then When?’

 Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in a weekend speech in Pennsylvania portrayed President Trump as a leader willing to do what he believes to be the right thing and to keep his word, even in the face of opposing advice and decades of precedent, citing as an example his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital against the counsel of most of his national security team. Read

Nikki Haley on Amy Coney Barrett: ‘She Ran Circles Around Them…She’s Got 7 Kids and Does Carpool’

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has a nickname for Judge Amy Coney Barrett: Minivan Justice.  Read

Trump’s Israel-Sudan Deal Erodes Arab League’s Rejection of Israel; Proves John Kerry Wrong

Fifty-three years before the U.S.-brokered decision by Sudan to normalize ties with Israel, its capital was the setting for a landmark Arab summit that laid the foundation for Arab rejection of the Jewish state for the next half century.  Read

Biden Accuses Trump of Legitimizing Kim Jong Un; Trump Says ‘We Don’t Have a War’

President Trump and Joe Biden clashed over North Korea during Thursday night’s debate, with the former vice president accusing Trump of legitimizing Kim Jong Un by meeting with him, while Trump argued that his diplomatic efforts had averted a war predicted by his predecessor.  Read

Vatican Renews Secret Accord With Beijing Regarding Bishops Despite China’s Religious Persecution

Weeks after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appealed to the Vatican to speak out against religious persecution in China, the Holy See on Thursday announced a two-year extension of its controversial secret 2018 agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dealing with how Catholic bishops serving there are appointed.  Read

Biden Says US Must Get to ‘Net-Zero’ Carbon Emissions by 2025; Then Adjusts That to 2050

Joe Biden said during Thursday night’s final presidential debate that American industries must transition to renewable energy sources “to get to ultimately a complete zero emissions by 2025” – that’s a quarter of a century earlier than the target date set in the Paris climate accords. Read

Catholic Bishop, Advocates Urge Vatican to Clarify Pope’s Remarks on Same-Sex Civil Unions

Remarks by Pope Francis defending civil unions for same-sex couples sent shock waves around the Catholic world on Wednesday, with voices on either side of the debate calling on the Vatican to clarify exactly what they mean.  Read

DNI Ratcliffe: Iran Using Americans’ Voter Info to ‘Intimidate’ Voters and ‘Damage President Trump’

 The Iranian regime is behind spoof emails sent to Americans, “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Wednesday night. He added an assurance that despite claims to the contrary in the emails, “your votes are secure.”  Read

Trump Gets a Preview of Having His Mic Muted

Two days before a presidential debate in which the nominees’ microphones will controversially be muted at times, President Trump had a small foretaste on Tuesday night when he lost sound during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Read

Michael Moore: Getting Rid of Trump Will ‘Make Us Beloved Around the World’

Filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore said on Tuesday night that just the act of removing President Trump from power will make Americans “beloved around the world.”  Read

Education Dep’t: Top Universities Are Not Disclosing Foreign Funding – Including From Dubious Sources

Some of America’s most prestigious universities are failing to meet statutory obligations to disclose billions of dollars in funding from foreign sources – including some in countries hostile to the United States, such as Russia and China – according to the Department of Education.  Read

Brennan, Clapper, Hayden Give Cover to Biden, Say Hunter's Emails Look Like Russian Disinformation

 More than 50 former intelligence officials, including some harsh public critics of President Trump, have signed a statement expressing their view that the Hunter Biden email revelations published by the New York Post and casting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a dim light have “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”  Read

Trump's Latest Foreign Policy Achievement Involves Sudan; Could Also Advance Israeli-Arab Peace

Another foreign policy achievement weeks before the election?  President Trump tweeted Monday that the U.S. will remove Sudan from its list of state-sponsors of terrorism, once Khartoum pays $335 million as agreed to U.S. terror victims. As a kicker, Sudan may then become the third Arab country in two months to normalize relations with Israel.  Read

Int’l Observers Monitoring US Election Include Some From Autocracies

More than half of the members of a 30-strong international monitoring team deployed by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to observe the U.S. election come from countries that are ranked “not free” or “partly free” in an annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties in the nations of the world. Read

Iran Hails End of Arms Embargo as Victory Over US; Pompeo Reiterates Sanctions Warning

In line with the timetable set by the Obama administration and its Iran nuclear accord partners, the U.N. embargo on conventional arms transactions with Tehran expired on Sunday, prompting celebration from the regime and claims of a victory over the United States, but both an appeal and a warning from the Trump administration that those who enter into such deals will expose themselves to U.S. sanctions. Read

Biden Says He Followed ‘The Science’ and Experts on Wearing Masks ‘From March On’

 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Thursday night that he was wearing protective masks “from March on,” at a time when “the science” and experts like National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci were calling for such precautions against coronavirus infection.  Read

Biden: Americans Will Know My Stance on Packing the Court ‘Before They Vote.’ Millions Already Have

 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Thursday night that he will make public his position on increasing the size of the Supreme Court before Election Day, indicating that it would depend on how the rest of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation process is “handled.”  Read

‘Ideologically Driven’: Pompeo Challenges Social Media Platforms on Censorship of Biden News Reports

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took Twitter and Facebook to task on Thursday for limiting access to New York Post reporting linking Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to his son’s lucrative business dealings abroad, saying that “it can’t be the case that they can choose a political viewpoint and decide whether they’re going to allow that information to be on their network.”  Read

Judge Amy Coney Barrett Does Not Hate Puppies

 Judge Amy Coney Barrett does not hate puppies, the Senate Judiciary Committee and America learned on Wednesday. The disclosure came as Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked the Supreme Court nominee a series of questions evidently designed to poke fun at Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who had just confronted Barrett on her positions on a range of issues from racial discrimination to climate change. Read

Cruz Blasts Twitter, Facebook For Censoring Story Linking Joe Biden to Burisma

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote to the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, asking why their platforms had chosen to censor a New York Post story reflecting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a poor light, calling the move an “obvious and transparent attempt” to influence the forthcoming election.  Read

‘The Inmates Are Running the Asylum’: UN Hands Human Rights Council Seats to China, Russia, Cuba

Human rights advocates chalked up a partial victory in New York on Tuesday when Saudi Arabia failed to win a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. But despite a strong lobbying effort China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan were ushered onto the world body’s top human rights watchdog for three-year terms beginning January 1. Read

Critics Pile On After Barrett Uses Term ‘Sexual Preference.’ Biden Has Used It, Too

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett upset some Democratic senators and LGBT activists during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing by using the term “sexual preference,” wording that critics called “offensive.”  Read

Per Capita COVID-19 Death Rate in October: US Among the Lowest in the Hemisphere

As a proportion of the national population, the United States has accounted for fewer deaths attributed to the coronavirus this month than any other major country in the Western Hemisphere except for Canada, although still more than those in Western Europe. Read

Trump: 'Biden Had a Bad Day,' 'We Have Somebody Running Who’s Not 100%'

 President Trump came out guns blazing against Joe Biden during his first post-coronavirus diagnosis campaign trip to Florida on Monday, comparing his Democratic challenger’s mental acuity unfavorably with those of autocratic leaders presidents have to contend with.  Read

Biden in 1983: Packing the Supreme Court ‘a Bonehead Idea’

 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden continues to refuse to tell voters ahead of Election Day whether he supports increasing the size of the Supreme Court, but 37 years ago he called past proposals to add justices to the bench a “bonehead idea.”  Read

As Abusers Line Up to Join UN Human Rights Council, Dissidents Urge Countries to Withhold Support

Dissidents from four countries with poor human rights records are appealing to U.N. member-states not to elect them onto the Human Rights Council this week.  Read

International Effort to Find Virus’s Origin Stalled by China

 One hundred and forty-three day since World Health Organization member-states passed a resolution calling for the WHO to work with other agencies to identify how the coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan was able to jump from animals to humans, China has yet to agree upon an international team of experts to visit China to carry out that crucial work.  Read

Pelosi, Raskin to Relaunch Bill Creating Commission to Determine President’s Unfitness For Office

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans on Friday to relaunch a legislative push to create a body of mostly medical appointees empowered to determine whether a sitting president of the United States is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”  Read

Pence: ‘China IS to Blame for the Coronavirus’

Vice President Mike Pence did not mince words when the moderator during Wednesday night’s debate in Utah noted that President Trump had again blamed China for the coronavirus outbreak. Pence declared categorically that China is to blame, and said the administration was “going to hold China accountable for what they did to America.”  Read

‘Dramatic Contrast’: Pence Versus Harris on Abortion

Neither Vice President Mike Pence nor Sen. Kamala Harris answered directly when asked during Wednesday night’s debate in Utah how they would like to see their own state respond in the event of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. But they made their sharply conflicting views on abortion very clear. Read

As ISIS Pair Go on Trial, DoJ Warns Terrorists: ‘You Will Be Pursued to the Ends of the Earth’

As two Muslim Londoners accused of having key roles in ISIS’ hostage-taking and killing of four Americans in Syria made a first court appearance in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday, a senior Department of Justice official warned terrorists everywhere: “You will never live in peace. You will be pursued to the ends of the earth.”  Read

Islamic, Communist, and Other Autocratic Regimes Back China's Treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang

Twenty Islamic states at the United Nations on Tuesday joined two dozen others, including communist and autocratic regimes, in a show of support for China’s policies in Xinjiang province, where -- according to the United States and others -- more than a million Uyghurs and other minority Muslims have been incarcerated in re-education camps.  Read

NATO Chief: Turkey’s Russian-Made S-400 Missiles Pose Risks to Allied Aircraft

 NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey on Monday to find “alternative solutions” to its deployment of an advanced Russian missile defense system, noting that the controversially acquired S-400s “can pose a risk to allied aircraft and can lead to U.S. sanctions.”  Read

Biden: I’d Respond to SCOTUS Overruling Roe v. Wade by Making It ‘the Law of the Land'

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Monday that if a conservative Supreme Court moved to overrule the Roe v. Wade – the court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion – he as president would work for legislation making the right to an abortion the law of the land.  Read

China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia on Track to be Ushered Back Onto UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations has confirmed the names of most of the candidates running for seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council in elections tentatively set for next week, and the expected return of the likes of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba will draw attention once again to the justification given by the Trump administration in 2018 for its decision to withdraw.  Read

National Security Advisor: Trump Sent Me to Tell The Russians in Person Not to Meddle in the Election

 White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he met with his Russian counterpart late last week, and secured a pledge that Moscow will not interfere in the U.S. election. Read

Chinese Communist Party Editor Mocks Trump, Then Deletes Tweet and Pens Self-Righteous Article

The editor-in-chief of a major Chinese Communist Party newspaper posted a mocking tweet Friday about President Trump’s positive coronavirus test result, then deleted it, before publishing an article in his tabloid expressing the “hope that Chinese people restrain themselves when they comment on Trump’s infection.”  Read

Another Rocket Attack in Iraq Adds to Tensions After US Warns It May Shut Embassy

 The Iraqi government says it’s taking steps to enhance security in Baghdad’s “Green Zone” and the city’s international airport following a U.S. warning that it could close its embassy there because of rocket attacks by Iran-sponsored Shi’ite militia, but a fresh rocket attack 200 miles north of the capital has raised the temperature further.  Read

State Dep’t Defends Heavily-Criticized, Record-Low Limit on Refugee Admissions

Amid criticism over the Trump administration’s move to set a new record-low limit of 15,000 refugee admissions in fiscal year 2021 – reducing the annual ceiling for the fifth consecutive time – the State Department said Thursday the proposal reflected a “continuing commitment to prioritize the safety and well-being of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” Read

Pompeo Prods Vatican to Confront Beijing Over Persecution, Refutes Any Link to Election

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that his urging of the Vatican to denounce religious freedom violations in China may be linked in some way to the forthcoming election. Read

Trump Administration in FY20 Admitted the Fewest Refugees in 40+ Years; Sets New Record-Low Ceiling of 15,000 For FY21

Fiscal year 2020 ended overnight with the smallest number of refugees resettled in the United States in more than 40 years, and the Trump administration setting a cap on 15,000 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2021.  Read