UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council demanded that Israel halt settlements in Palestinian territory, after the United States refrained from vetoing a resolution condemning its closest Middle East ally. In a rare and momentous step, the United States instead abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.

USA - Congressional Democrats issued scathing statements aimed at the Obama administration over the US's abstention from a Friday UN Security Council vote demanding Israel stop building settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

ISRAEL - Israel will not abide by the UN Security Council’s demands for Tel Aviv to halt its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian lands, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” the statement from the PM’s office said, according to Reuters. The Obama administration “failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN,” and what is even worse, “colluded with it behind the scenes,” the statement added. In order to “negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution,” Israel is looking forward to working with President-elect Trump and with “all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike.” Earlier, the Israeli ambassador to the council, Danny Danon slammed the vote as a “victory for terror, a victory for hatred and violence.” “Who gave you the right to issue such a decree, denying our eternal rights in Jerusalem?” he added.

USA - Barack Obama actually did it.  Despite enormous pressure from the government of Israel, President-elect Donald Trump and members of his own party in Congress, Barack Obama decided to stick a knife in Israel’s back at the United Nations.  On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for a “two-State solution based on the 1967 lines” and that shockingly states that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity”. 

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has hit out at the rampant federalism of the European Union, saying many countries within the bloc feel uninvolved in key sovereign decisions. While claiming it was “up to Europeans” to decide what was best for them, he claimed the European Union had stricter control on member states than the Soviet Union’s supreme council. It comes after the Russian president was accused of plotting the downfall of the bloc, with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev accusing the nation of dividing Europe to conquer it. “They have more decisions made in Brussels than the Supreme Council in the Soviet Union did so its a high level of federalisation.”

USA - President-elect Donald Trump boasted about his wealth during his campaign. Now he’s surrounding himself with people who have similarly unimaginable riches. Collectively, the wealth of his Cabinet choices so far is about five times greater than President Obama’s Cabinet and about 34 times greater than the one George W Bush led at the end of his presidency. And Trump still has four more key advisory spots left to fill. The net worth of the Cabinet Trump had selected as of Monday was at least $13.1 billion, based on available estimates, or more than the annual gross domestic product of about 70 small countries.

USA - A new study by economists from Harvard and Princeton indicates that 94% of the 10 million new jobs created during the Obama era were temporary positions. The study shows that the jobs were temporary, contract positions, or part-time "gig" jobs in a variety of fields. Female workers suffered most heavily in this economy, as work in traditionally feminine fields, like education and medicine, declined during the era. The research by economists Lawrence Katz of Harvard University and Alan Krueger at Princeton University shows that the proportion of workers throughout the US, during the Obama era, who were working in these kinds of temporary jobs, increased from 10.7% of the population to 15.8%.

UK - The Prince of Wales has warned that the rise of populist extremism and intolerance towards other faiths risks repeating the “horrors” of the Holocaust. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s religious Thought for the Day slot, the prince delivered an outspoken attack against religious hatred and pleaded for a welcoming attitude to those fleeing persecution. He said: “We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive to those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s. My parents’ generation fought and died in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and inhuman attempts to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.”

RUSSIA - In a year-end speech to his top military officers on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threw down the gauntlet, declaring that the Russian military, emboldened by recent adventures in Syria and Ukraine, is ready to defeat any country that dares challenge it. “We can say with certainty: we are stronger now than any potential aggressor,” he proclaimed. “Anyone.”

CHINA - A Chinese auto glass tycoon has caused a stir by shifting part of his empire to the United States and setting up a factory in Ohio, citing high taxes and soaring labour costs at home. Cao Dewang's $600-million investment comes after Donald Trump threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator and slap 45 percent punitive tariffs on Chinese imports to protect American jobs. The 70-year-old tycoon's decision to open a glass factory in the eastern American state of Ohio in October - a rare case of jobs being exported from China to the US - triggered an outpouring of criticism on social media.

MIDDLE EAST - The Islamic State published the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States and called on its adherents to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted late-night Wednesday in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group.

USA - Earth is being blasted by a flare soaring from a hole in the sun’s atmosphere – and it’s bringing huge geomagnetic storms with it. The super-fast stream of solar wind hit the Earth’s magnetic field just in time for the winter solstice on Wednesday. And it’s whipped up a “moderately” strong geomagnetic storm that could last for several days, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Geomagnetic storms are behind the awe-inspiring natural phenomenon the Northern Lights. But they can prove devastating to human civilisation as we know it, experts have warned.

USA - A Texas court is expected to make a decision before New Year’s Day on one of President Obama’s newest transgender mandates, which would require doctors to provide transgender treatment for kids who desire it. That treatment would be required under Obama’s federal rule even if the physician is convinced it would harm the child. The case was brought by the Becket Fund on behalf of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Franciscan Alliance and the states of Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The new rule is to apply to more than 900,000 physicians – nearly every doctor in the US.

GERMANY - It is no secret that Islamists consider the Germans as a bunch of cowards. “You love life, we love death”, they continue to repeat. Because wherever they look, the combatants of Allah see only people and governments only too ready to capitulate.

USA - Thanks to the election of Donald Trump, most Christians in America are feeling really good about the future, but it is another story entirely in much of the rest of the world. A Christian persecution watchdog group called Aid to the Church in Need released its “Religious Freedom in the World” report for 2016 a few weeks ago, and their conclusion was that the persecution of Christians globally is becoming much worse.