Biden Rules Out Providing F-16 Fighters to Ukraine, As Debate Picks Up in Europe

President Biden on Monday ruled out providing F-16 fighters to Ukraine, after reports that some Department of Defense officials are pushing for U.S. jets to be sent to Kyiv to bolster its defenses against the Russian invasion.  Read

In Israel, Blinken Condemns ‘All Those Who Celebrate’ Terrorist Attacks

Following a weekend marked by jarring celebrations in Palestinian areas over the murder of seven Israelis near a Jerusalem synagogue, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on arrival in Israel on Monday that the U.S. condemns those who celebrate “acts of terrorism that take innocent lives.”  Read

Ahead of UN Human Rights Review, Pakistan Tightens Its Already Draconian Blasphemy Laws

 Pakistan will on Monday undergo a mandatory U.N. Human Rights Council review of its human rights record, two weeks after lawmakers passed legislation to toughen what are already arguably the world’s harshest blasphemy laws.  Read

Iran Plays Down Attack Amid Speculation Israel Targeted its Missile or Drone Facilities

 The Iranian regime on Sunday played down the scale of an unclaimed drone attack on a military installation in Isfahan, a central city that houses key missile, drone, nuclear, and other military-related facilities.   Read

Ilhan Omar: ‘I Wasn’t Aware of the Fact That There Are Tropes About Jews and Money’

Defending herself against allegations of a pattern of anti-Semitic statements, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Sunday that since a controversy blew up over comments she made in early 2019, she had been on a learning journey.  Read

Jordan, Recipient of Billions in US Aid, Still Won’t Extradite Terrorist Linked to Murder of Americans

Almost a decade after the Department of Justice filed charges against a Jordanian woman in connection with a 2001 bombing in Jerusalem in which U.S. citizens were killed, she remains at large because Jordan, a major recipient of U.S. aid, refuses to extradite her.  Read

‘This World Is Gone Mad’: UN Envoy Draws Fire Over Tweet Thanking Hezbollah Terrorist for a Briefing

 The U.N.’s top envoy in Lebanon has attracted a firestorm on Twitter after posting a tweet thanking a senior official in the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah for a discussion “on issues of priority for Lebanon.”  Read

North Korea, Nigeria, and Islamic Nations Top the List of Most Dangerous Countries for Christians

Nigeria accounted for 89 percent of verified religiously-motivated killings across the world during the 12-month period ending last September, a year marked by a serious deterioration across many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, according to Open Doors.  Read

Scottish Leaders Fume as UK Gov’t Blocks Bill Making Legal Gender Change Easier

The British government on Monday took the unusual step of blocking a law passed by the Scottish parliament. The law removes a requirement that people wanting to change their legal gender must have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.  Read

Calls Grow in Europe for an End to Iran Nuclear Deal

The Iranian regime’s weekend execution of a former senior official accused of spying for Britain is adding fuel to calls for tougher action in Europe. Lawmakers are pressing for action, including designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. Read

Turkey’s Erdogan Maintains Rigid Stance on NATO Hopefuls; US Lawmakers Gear Up to Oppose F-16 Sale

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday reiterated his unyielding stance on ratifying NATO membership for Sweden and Finland, a key issue driving congressional opposition to Biden administration plans to sell fighter jets to Ankara.  Read

Rep. Ayanna Pressley: ‘We Don’t Need This Select Committee’ on Chinese Communist Party

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said Thursday she voted against a measure this week creating a bipartisan select committee on the security, economic, and technological challenges posed to the U.S. by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because it will “embolden anti-Asian rhetoric and hate.”  Read

State: ‘We Will Not Normalize' Relations With the Assad Regime, Nor Should Others

 The State Department on Thursday restated U.S. opposition to the normalization of relations with Syria's Assad regime, acknowledging that the issue has led to differences with some U.S. allies and partners in the region.  Read

Taliban’s Shari’a-Based Crackdown on Women Continues, Despite Pleas to Change Course

Amid a continuing series of “troubling” new restrictions on Afghan women, the United Nations continues efforts to plead with the Taliban to reverse course, but with little evident progress as the fundamentalist group reiterates that its controversial actions are based on Islamic law (shari’a).  Read

Chinese Gov’t Accuses House Speaker of New McCarthyism, ‘Ugly History’

A Chinese Communist Party newspaper hit back Thursday at the establishment of a House select committee on the challenges posed to the U.S. by the CCP, accusing Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of emulating his namesake who led Senate investigations into allegations of communist infiltration in the federal government in the 1950s.  Read

Mexican President Thanks Biden for Not Building ‘Even One Meter of Wall’ Along Southwest Border

Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday praised President Biden for not having built “even one meter of wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border, noting that it is a situation that “the conservatives don’t like.”  Read

65 Democrats Vote Against Republican-Established, Bipartisan Select Committee on China

 The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to establish a bipartisan select committee focused on the multiple challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), almost three years after the then-Democratic majority withdrew from an earlier initiative, leaving Republicans to go it alone.  Read

Hunter Biden Documents Case: DOJ Says It’s ‘Not Trying to Hide the Ball’

A Department of Justice lawyer told a federal court in Colorado on Monday that the DOJ was “not trying to hide the ball” in its response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents dealing with Hunter Biden’s business activities in China, Russia, and Ukraine.  Read

Israel Targets PA Funding, Including ‘Pay to Slay’ Stipends; State Dep’t Calls Moves Unhelpful

The Biden administration on Monday characterized Israel’s withholding of funds from the Palestinian Authority an unhelpful unilateral step, even though the U.S. itself opposed the Palestinian action that prompted the retaliatory Israeli move.  Read

Jordan Skips US-Israel-Arab Meeting As Its Lawmakers Lash Out at Jewish State

 As nations involved in the widening circle of Israeli-Arab cooperation meet in Abu Dhabi on Monday, the glaring absence of Jordan is highlighting again a deep hostility towards Israel in the kingdom, a U.S. ally and leading recipient of U.S. financial assistance.  Read

Iran’s President Takes Issue With Biden’s ‘Patch on Our Jeans’ Comment

 Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday seized on an unusual phrase used by President Biden recently to launch a fresh verbal attack on the United States, accusing it of exposing a colonialist and cruelly oppressive (“pharoanic”) spirit.  Read

Goodbye Turkey, Hello Türkiye? State Department Complies With Erdogan’s Name Change Request

 Six months after the United Nations acceded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s request that it start calling Turkey “Türkiye,” the State Department said Thursday it has decided to do the same.  Read

Zelenskyy Rejects Putin’s Ceasefire Proposal: ‘They Want to Use Christmas as a Cover’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday contemptuously dismissed President Vladimir Putin’s call for a 36-hour ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas, voicing deep skepticism about the Kremlin’s motives that was shared by the U.S. State Department.  Read

‘A Show About Nothing’: Israeli Envoy Derides UN Emergency Meeting on Minister’s Temple Mount Visit

 Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that when he heard it was holding an emergency meeting on a government’s minister’s “quiet, orderly and uneventful” visit to the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – he thought world peace had broken out.  Read

Iran Warns France of a ‘Decisive and Effective Response’ to Cartoons Insulting the Ayatollah

The Iranian regime on Wednesday condemned the publication in France of a collection of provocative cartoons lampooning supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would not accept the insult to “sanctities” and to Iran’s national and religious values.  Read

‘Significant Public Interest’: Legal Bid to Get DOJ to Release Hunter Biden Material Inches Ahead

A Colorado law firm’s two-year attempt to have the Justice Department provide documents relating to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China, Russia, and Ukraine comes before a judge again next week, after the plaintiff argued that there was “significant public interest” in the records being released.  Read

UN Human Rights Council in 2023: ‘Like Naming Al Capone and His Gang to Fight Organized Crime’

Seventeen years after it was created as the United Nations’ foremost human rights body, the Human Rights Council begins 2023 with its smallest contingent yet of free democracies, prompting a leading U.N. watchdog to liken the situation to “naming Al Capone and his gang to fight organized crime.”  Read

Israeli Cabinet Minister’s Low-Key Visit to Temple Mount Enrages Muslims, Dismays State Dep’t

It was all over in 13 minutes, but an early morning, no-media visit Tuesday by Israel’s controversial new national security minister to the most hotly-contested religious site in Jerusalem attracted angry reactions from Islamic governments, while the U.S. State Department declared itself to be “deeply concerned.”  Read

Three Years After Wuhan Outbreak, Countries Are Again Screening Arrivals From China

Three years after the novel coronavirus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, began racing across the globe, governments are grappling with how to deal with another surge of cases in that country, believed to be omicron subvariants. Read

UN Votes to Refer Israeli ‘Occupation’ to Int’l Court of Justice, But With Only Minority Support

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new government was handed an incoming swipe by the U.N. General Assembly on the last working day of 2022, although the critical resolution passed with an unusually small number of member-states’ support.  Read

2023 Begins: Deadly Ukrainian Strike on Russian Troops; Putin Invokes ‘Moral and Historical Truth’

In what may be the deadliest strike yet on its armed forces since invading Ukraine, Russia’s defense ministry says 63 personnel were killed when Ukrainian forces used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to target a building housing soldiers in the occupied Donetsk region.  Read