Beijing: Elon Musk’s Satellites Are Threatening the Safety of Our Space Station

For the second day running, China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday complained that Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites nearly collided with Beijing’s new space station twice earlier this year, and threw in a denial that orbiting Chinese junk was posing any risks to space flight.  Read

‘Moment of Crisis’ in Eastern Europe: Biden and Putin to Speak Again; Second Time in Three Weeks

As a year marked by a late escalation in tensions between Moscow and the West draws to a close, Presidents Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak by phone on Thursday, amid the Kremlin’s stepped-up demands for an end to what it sees as threats posed by NATO.  Read

Russia: Our Opposition to Further NATO Expansion Covers Sweden and Finland Too

The Kremlin has reiterated that it regards the further expansion of NATO into former Soviet countries as a “life and death” matter, but Moscow is also making clear that it objects to Sweden and Finland, nations that were not part of the USSR, joining the alliance.  Read

Chinese Think Tank: US to Blame For Coronavirus Pandemic

Almost two years after the World Health Organization officials asked China for urgent details about reported cases of a “viral pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan, a purportedly independent Chinese think tank has published a report blaming the United States for the once-in-a-century coronavirus pandemic.  Read

Tiananmen Massacre Statue Removed; Artist Says ‘Hong Kong Has Become a Brutal Place Without Laws’

Days after the most troubling election in Hong Kong since its handover to China, the University of Hong Kong in an unannounced overnight operation removed a sculpture which for two decades has marked the Chinese Communist Party’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.  Read

FDA Approves First Antiviral COVID-19 Treatment Pill For At-Home Use

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday granted emergency use authorization (EUA) in the U.S. for the first antiviral pill against COVID-19 – a product whose makers say can reduce the chance of hospitalization or death by almost 90 percent in patients most likely to get severe disease.  Read

Religious Freedom Commissioners, Targeted by China, ‘Will Not be Silenced’

Responding to Beijing’s decision to impose sanctions on four of its members, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Tuesday it would “not be silenced,” while its vice chair called the move “an act of desperation” on the part of a “genocidal” regime.  Read

Blinken: Exiting Iran Deal Among ‘Worst Decisions Made in American Foreign Policy in the Last Decade’

Decrying the hurdles  facing the effort to get the Iran nuclear deal back on track, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that he sees the Trump administration’s withdrawal from it in 2018 as “one of the worst decisions made in American foreign policy in the last decade.”  Read

Ten Times More Nicaraguans Encountered on SW Border in Two Months Than in All of FY 2020

 U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded almost half as many “encounters” with illegal Nicaraguan migrants on the southwest border in the first two months of Fiscal Year 2022 as it did for the entire FY 2021 – and ten times more encounters than for the entire FY 2020.  Read

US Ready For Dialogue With Russia, With Conditions; Poland Warns About Putin’s ‘Blackmail’

Amid simmering tensions over security in eastern Europe, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told his Russian counterpart Monday that the U.S. was ready to engage in dialogue but that it must be “based on reciprocity and address our concerns about Russia’s actions, and take place in full coordination with our European allies and partners.”  Read

Is Ilhan Omar Anti-Semitic, ‘Affiliated With’ Terror Groups? GOP Lawmaker’s Words Ruled Out of Order

During Tuesday night’s sometimes combative House debate over a bill to create a special envoy on “Islamophobia,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was called out after accusing the bill’s author of being anti-Semitic and of being “affiliated with” terrorist groups.  Read

Iranian Newspaper Publishes Map of Israel Dotted With Presumed Missile Targets

At a time of tension over troubled talks about Iran’s nuclear program, a pro-regime newspaper on Wednesday published a map of Israel covered in markers – presumably meant to symbolize missile targets – and a warning that Iran is “more than capable of hitting them [Israelis] from anywhere.”  Read

House Passes Bill Creating ‘Islamophobia’ Special Envoy—Without Defining ‘Islamophobia’

The House of Representatives late on Tuesday night passed a bill to create a special envoy on “Islamophobia,” after a sometimes heated debate in which Republicans criticized the legislation for failing to define the concept.  Read

Blinken: US ‘Actively Engaging With Allies and Partners on Alternatives’ to Diplomacy With Iran

The Biden administration is continuing to seek a diplomatic option to the Iran nuclear deal issue but, with the European parties to the agreement warning that time is running out, the U.S. is “actively engaging with allies and partners on alternatives,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.  Read

Russia Drafts Legal Documents Barring NATO Expansion; Warns of Confrontation if Demands Are Ignored

 Russia is drawing up draft legal guarantees that NATO will not expand further to the east or deploy weapons in Ukraine or any other country neighboring Russia, the Kremlin said on Monday.  Read

Russia Vetoes Attempt to Link Climate Change to UN Security Council’s ‘Peace and Security’ Mandate

An attempt by the U.N. Security Council to pass what would have been the first-ever standalone resolution linking climate change and the council’s primary mandate of maintaining international peace and security was torpedoed Monday by Russia.  Read

1 Reported Death: Cautious Assessment of Omicron Variant As ‘Mild’ Seems to Be Accurate

Preliminary findings on the relatively mild effects of the omicron variant of the coronavirus appear to be holding up, even as scientists stress that more data are needed.  Read

Blinken: ‘Hard to See’ Gas Flowing Through Nord Stream 2 If Russia Renews Aggression Against Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday that any renewed aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine could mean he will not see gas flowing through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  Read

Nations at Risk of Russian Aggression Tell Biden: Don't Let Putin Divide Us

President Biden’s proposal to discuss the Kremlin’s concerns about NATO with Russia and four key NATO allies is unsettling eastern flank allies, who are most at risk of potential Russian aggression.  Read

Republicans: If a Special Envoy Is to Monitor and Combat ‘Islamophobia’ It Needs to Be Defined

A bill to create a special envoy to monitor and combat “Islamophobia” ran into Republican opposition in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, as critics pushed for amendments to define the phenomenon – and some were themselves accused by Democrats of Islamophobia. Read

Biden: US and Allies Will Discuss With Russia Its ‘Concerns Relative to NATO Writ Large'’

The U.S., Russia, and “four of our major NATO allies” plan to hold high-level meetings soon “to discuss the future of Russia’s concerns relative to NATO writ large,” President Biden said on Wednesday.  Read

Pakistan, a Close Ally of Beijing, Backs Out of Biden’s Democracy Summit

Pakistan has decided to skip President Biden’s “summit for democracy,” announcing on the eve of the two-day virtual event that it believes that it and the U.S. “can engage on this subject at an opportune time in the future.”  Read

Psaki Twice Sidesteps Issue of Moving Winter Olympics From China

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday sidestepped a question on whether President Biden would support the International Olympic Committee moving the 2022 Winter Olympics out of China, saying only that she was not aware that relocating the games was an option being considered.  Read

White House: Additional Nord Stream 2 Sanctions Won’t ‘Change the Behavior of President Putin’

President Biden waived sanctions against Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany earlier this year, and on Tuesday -- amid a Russian military build-up near Ukraine -- the Biden White House downplayed the significance of those waivers.  Read

US Not Seeking ‘Direct Use of American Military Force’ in Ukraine, Official Says Ahead of Putin Call

The United States is not seeking a situation in Ukraine that would entail “the direct use of American military force,” a senior administration official said ahead of Tuesday’s morning’s scheduled video call between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Read

With 59 Days to Go, WH Announces Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Olympics Over CCP Rights Abuses

After more than ten months of consideration and consultation with “partners and allies,” the Biden administration on Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights record.  Read

Five African Countries Affected by Biden’s Travel Ban Have Reported No Omicron Cases

Of the eight countries in southern Africa affected by President Biden’s travel proclamation, as of Sunday five still have no confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.  Read

Kremlin: Putin Wants Biden’s Written Guarantee on Halting NATO’s Eastward Expansion

Ahead of a scheduled video call between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss the Ukraine crisis, the Kremlin says Putin will seek written guarantees that NATO will not expand further eastward.  Read

Blinken Sounds a Pessimistic Note on Iran Talks After IAEA Reports More Nuclear Deal Violations

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday sounded his most pessimistic note to date about the likelihood of reaching an agreement to bring Iran and the U.S. back into the 2015 nuclear deal, a Biden administration foreign policy priority.  Read

Controversial Vaccination Policies Spread, Limiting Public Access for the Unjabbed

As the issue of vaccine mandates roils politics in the United States, health fears compounded by the latest variant of the coronavirus are prompting some governments in Europe and elsewhere to go beyond employment-related mandates and introduce controversial restrictions on the right of the unvaccinated to engage in numerous aspects of public life.  Read

At Hanukkah, Israel and US Condemn UN Text Omitting Jewish Links to Judaism’s Holiest Site

As Jews around the world celebrate a holiday marking the rededication of the Jewish Temple almost 2,200 years ago, the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution that refers to the Jerusalem hilltop where that Temple stood – the holiest site in Judaism – solely by its Islamic name.  Read

Envoy For Ousted Afghan Gov’t Hails ‘Principled’ Deferral of Decision on Taliban Request for UN Seat

A United Nations committee on Wednesday deferred a decision on whether the terrorist group that seized power in Kabul over the summer should be allowed to represent Afghanistan at the world body.  Read

NATO Chief Pledges ‘High Price’ for Russian Aggression, But Also Notes Ukraine Is a Non-Member

 Any further Russian aggression against Ukraine will “come at a high price,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday. But when asked if the alliance would respond militarily, he focused on deterrence, and alluded to the fact that Ukraine isn’t covered by NATO’s collective defense guarantees. Read

Biden on COVID Travel Bans: ‘Unlike Trump, I Don’t Shock Our Allies’

 “Unlike Trump, I don’t shock our allies,” President Biden said on Tuesday, when asked whether he would coordinate with U.S. allies in the event he plans to announce further travel restrictions related to the new “omicron” variant of the coronavirus.  Read