Ilhan Omar Highlights 2017 Psaki Tweet Questioning Legality of US Airstrikes in Syria

Several Republican lawmakers reacted positively to news of Thursday’s U.S. airstrikes against facilities used by Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, but there were some rumbles on the left.  Read

No Mention of Khashoggi Murder in White House Readout of Biden’s Call With Saudi King

President Biden had a long-awaited phone conversation Thursday with Saudi King Salman, shortly before the Director of National Intelligence was to release a declassified version of an intelligence report that reportedly found Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – the king’s son and heir to the throne – approved the gruesome killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.  Read

Biden Orders Airstrike ‘Against Infrastructure’ in Syria Used by Iran-Backed Militias

 In the first known such action of the Biden administration, U.S. military forces have carried out “airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said on Thursday evening, confirming that the president authorized the strikes in response to recent attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.  Read

Blinken: US to Run for Human Rights Council Seat; Worst Rights-Abusers ‘Should Not Be Members’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday that the U.S. will run for a seat in the fall and work to improve the body’s membership, saying that the worst rights-violating regimes “should not be members.”  Read

Trump Appeals Facebook’s Decision to Indefinitely Suspend Him

Former President Donald Trump has appealed the suspension of his Facebook account, according to an oversight body that examines content-moderation verdicts by the social media giant. Read

Iran, S. Korea Near Deal to Release Iranian Funds Frozen Due to US Sanctions

South Korea is negotiating an agreement to release billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen because of U.S. sanctions, a deal widely seen as linked to Seoul’s attempts to secure the release of an ethanol tanker and crew seized by regime forces in the Strait of Hormuz early this year.  Read

UN Human Rights Council Gives Maduro a Platform: ‘Your Excellency, You Have The Floor’

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday gave Nicolás Maduro a platform to condemn U.S. sanctions policies, prompting a Republican senator to call on the Biden administration to press for Venezuela’s expulsion from the council and to suspend funding to the U.N. “until we can reassure American taxpayers that they are not funding an organization that turns a blind eye to the atrocities perpetrated by these regimes.”  Read

At Human Rights Council, China Calls US Claims of Xinjiang Genocide ‘Malicious and Politically-Driven’

As the first U.N. Human Rights Council session of the Biden era got underway on Monday, China’s foreign minister took the opportunity to flatly reject U.S. claims that its security actions in the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang amount to genocide.  Read

UN Human Rights Council to Address ‘Systemic Racism’ in US, But Not Abuses in China or Russia

The U.N. Human Rights Council, boosted by the Biden administration’s decision to re-engage, kicks off its first session of the year on Monday with a program that is silent on two pressing situations taking place in two of its most powerful member-states – China’s mass rights violations against minority Muslims in Xinjiang, and Russia’s persecution of the anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny.  Read

Kerry: We’re in the 'Decisive Decade' for Climate; Thanks to Trump, We Wasted 3 Years

Climate change special envoy John Kerry told a prestigious European event at the weekend that “largely because of” President Trump, three of the 12 years which “most scientists” said the Earth had left to act to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change had been “wasted.”  Read

Iran Responds to US Talks Offer: If You Want to Return to Nuclear Deal, First Lift All Sanctions

Three days after the Biden administration declared itself ready to hold talks with Iran and its nuclear deal partners, the regime’s foreign minister indicated Sunday that the U.S. must lift all of its sanctions before any meeting can take place.  Read

Biden Makes 3 ‘Concessions’ to Iranian Regime as Administration Looks to Re-Engage

The Biden administration told the U.N. Security Council Thursday it was rescinding its predecessor’s determination that U.N. sanctions on Iran, terminated under the nuclear deal, had been “snapped back.”  Read

‘Cold War Mentality’: Beijing Irked by China Focus at NATO, Quad, and G7 Meetings

China responded coolly Thursday to being placed in an unwelcome spotlight at meetings this week of NATO defense ministers and the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific “Quad,” charging that it reflected a “Cold War mentality.”  Read

UN Expert Tells Lawmakers US ‘Not Exempt’ From Int’l Obligations to Make Reparations For Slavery

A U.N. expert on racism told a House Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday that reparations for slavery form part of international obligations to eliminate racial discrimination from which the United States was “not exempt.”  Read

On Refugee Numbers, Biden Makes 3 Errors in 12 Seconds

In the space of 12 seconds during his CNN town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden made three separate errors when talking about refugee admissions to the United States.  Read

Biden Administration 'Reserves the Right to Respond' to Rocket Attack in Iraq, But Diplomacy First

Facing its first deadly rocket attack targeting Americans in Iraq, the Biden White House said Tuesday it was engaging with Iraqi counterparts amid efforts to determine responsibility and “reserves the right to respond in the time and the manner of our choosing” once attribution is ascertained – but also stressed the “diplomacy is a priority with this administration.”  Read

Almost a Month Since Inauguration, Biden Has Yet to Call Netanyahu; ‘Soon,’ Says Psaki

The fact that President Joe Biden has still not spoken since his inauguration to Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to raise eyebrows, but White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that he would be the first leader in the Middle East to receive such a call, and “soon.”  Read

Calls Grow in Congress to Boycott Winter Olympics Unless They’re Moved From China

The Biden administration has given no indication it would support a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, but the pressure is building – along with warnings from an influential Chinese Communist Party figure that China will “sanction” any country that backs a boycott.  Read

Biden to Take Part in Virtual G7 Meeting As Tensions With China Build

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday will host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders where COVID-19 will be a major focus, at a time when both Britain and the United States are at odds with China over a range of issues, from the pandemic to trade, and from maritime disputes in the South China Sea to Hong Kong and human rights.  Read

Boris Johnson on 'Build Back Better' Slogan Used by Biden & Cuomo: 'We Nicked It From Someone Else'

The Trump campaign last fall accused Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden of plagiarizing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “build back better” slogan in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, but Johnson conceded on Sunday that he had himself “nicked it from someone else before I started using it.”  Read

U.S. Voices ‘Deep Concerns’ About WHO Probe Into Virus Origins

The United States made clear at the weekend it was not taking at face value the early findings of a World Health Organization-convened mission to Wuhan to investigate the source of the coronavirus outbreak, voicing “deep concerns” about the process and the way the findings were made public.  Read

Angered by Reporting on Xinjiang Abuses, China Bans BBC World News

The Chinese government on Thursday announced a ban on BBC World News, a move that came days after Britain revoked the license of a Chinese state-run television – but also after explosive BBC reporting on alleged systemic rapes and torture of Muslim women in internment camps in Xinjiang.  Read

US Alone in Sanctioning Burma, Despite Repeated Vow to Work With ‘Allies and Partners’

The Biden State Department has spoken repeatedly in recent weeks about the high priority it’s giving to consultation with “allies and partners” around the world and the need for coordinated action, but on one of the most pressing foreign policy issues of the day, there is little sign the U.S. and its closest allies are acting in concert, beyond the issuing of joint statements.  Read

Biden and Xi 'Exchange Views on Countering The COVID-19 Pandemic'

President Joe Biden spoke Wednesday by phone to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since becoming president, a conversation which according to the White House included wishes for the Chinese new year on Friday and an exchange of views “on countering the COVID-19 pandemic.”  Read

Under Trump, Christian Refugees Came to US in Greater Proportions – But Far Smaller Numbers

 The Trump administration’s refugee policies led to an increased proportion of Christians among those resettled in the United States – but because overall refugee numbers were reduced so significantly, far fewer followers of the world’s most persecuted religious faith were resettled during the Trump years than previously, advocates told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Wednesday. Read

‘Jury Is Still Out’: US Withholding Judgment After WHO Says COVID Did Not Leak From Wuhan Lab

The Biden administration reacted cautiously Tuesday to the decision by World Health Organization experts investigating the source of the coronavirus to discount the possibility that it leaked from a laboratory.  Read

WHO Investigators Discount Wuhan Lab-Leak Theory, Won’t Pursue It Further

A World Health Organization-convened team of experts investigating the source of the coronavirus ended a four-week visit to Wuhan on Tuesday discounting as “extremely unlikely” the theory that the virus may have leaked from a laboratory in the city.  Read

Biden, Indian PM Modi Agree to Advance the Indo-Pacific Strategic ‘Quad’ Forum Revived by Trump

In a phone call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, President Joe Biden underscored an intent to advance the Indo-Pacific “Quad,” a regional security initiative that is one of the few Trump administration foreign policy projects the Biden administration seems willing to pursue.  Read

China Ignores Biden’s 'Don't-Mean-It-As Criticism' Comment About Xi Not Being 'Democratic'

Chinese officials and state media outlets on Monday studiously ignored President Biden’s remark about Chinese President Xi Jinping not having a democratic “bone in his body,” even as they picked apart the rest of his brief comments about China in a CBS News interview aired on Sunday.  Read

Khamenei’s ‘Irreversible’ Stance: US Must Lift Sanctions First; Biden: ‘No’

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on Sunday that Iran’s definitive – and “irreversible” – position on returning to compliance with the nuclear deal is that the U.S. must first lift all sanctions. Only once that step has been verified, he said, would the regime resume its commitments under the 2014 agreement.  Read

Biden to Re-Engage With UN Human Rights Council, Which Rejects Reform Efforts

The Biden administration looks set in the coming days to re-engage with the U.N. Human Rights Council, reversing its predecessor’s shunning of a body whose membership includes some of the world’s most egregious human rights violators.  Read

Biden Sets Stage For Largest Number of Refugee Admissions in Three Decades

President Joe Biden signaled on Thursday that the United States will in the next fiscal year aim to admit the largest number of refugees in almost three decades.  Read

Amid Souring Relationship, State Dep’t Rejects Turkish Accusations of Coup Involvement

The State Department on Thursday rejected allegations by a senior Turkish government minister that the United States played a role in an abortive coup attempt in 2016, an accusation providing a further indicator of a deeply afflicted relationship between the U.S. and its purported NATO ally.  Read

African Women to Biden: Please Don’t Fund Abortion in Africa

President Joe Biden’s refunding of organizations that carry out or advocate for abortion around the world has prompted appeals by pro-life African women – stop imposing abortion on our pro-family, pro-faith culture by financing the activities of giant abortion providers.  Read

China Rejects Claims of Mass Rape in Xinjiang Camps; Women Are ‘Actors Giving False Information’

New accounts of systemic rape, abuse, and torture of Muslim women in Chinese internment camps are prompting outrage around the world, but a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing claimed Wednesday that some of the women making the claims were “actors spreading false information,” and pointed to the support China’s policies in Xinjiang have won from dozens of countries at the United Nations.  Read

US Calls Burma Takeover a Military Coup; China Calls For Non-Interference

The Biden administration determined swiftly on Tuesday that the military takeover in Burma constitutes a coup – with statutory implications for U.S. aid – shortly after China called on the international community to “avoid escalating tensions and complicating the situation.”  Read

China ‘Shocked’ By Embassy Staffer’s ‘Wuhan Bat’ T-Shirt Logo

China’s hypersensitivity about the origins of the coronavirus causing COVID-19 was illustrated again at a foreign ministry briefing in Beijing this week, when a spokesman lashed out at Canada over reports claiming that a staff member at the Canadian Embassy last year ordered a custom-made T-shirt with a design supposedly linking Wuhan and bats.  Read

First Muslim Country’s Embassy in Jerusalem Edges Closer to Opening, As Israel, Kosovo Cement Ties

Israel and Kosovo on Monday signed an agreement formalizing full diplomatic relations, the outcome of a Trump administration-brokered deal that will see the small Balkan nation become the first majority-Muslim country to establish its embassy in Jerusalem.  Read

Senior Chinese Official to Biden Administration: Rock-Bottom Relations Are Trump’s Fault

A senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official on Monday night called for an improved relationship with the U.S. after what he called the “misguided policies” of the Trump administration, offering areas of “win-win cooperation” but also warning that China’s “core interests” – such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang – impact the sentiments of 1.4 billion Chinese and “constitute a red line that must not be crossed.”  Read

Coup in Burma: Biden Administration Warns it Will ‘Take Action Against Those Responsible’

The Biden administration warned Burma’s military late Sunday that the U.S. will “take action against those responsible” after a military takeover threw the southeast Asian nation’s slow transition towards democracy into disarray.  Read

China’s Foreign Ministry: WHO’s Expert Team in Wuhan Is Studying, Not Investigating

As a World Health Organization team probing the origins of the coronavirus pandemic prepared to visit food markets in Wuhan at the weekend, China’s foreign ministry again revealed its sensitivity over claims that it mishandled the outbreak its early stages, pushing back at the notion that the process constitutes an “investigation” at all.  Read