Headlines

• President Trump Middle East Peace initiative keeps going ahead as the Kingdom of Morocco agreed to normalize relations with Israel, making it the latest in a string of majority-Muslim countries to do so.
• Trump Removes Sudan From Terror Sponsor Blacklist, prompting African Country to Normalize Relations with Israel too. 

Washington DC, Dec.12.– Senior advisor to the president Jared Kushner told reporters shortly after the president’s announcement that Morocco — like other signatories onto the Abraham Accords — will immediately open liaison offices in Israel, start scheduling direct flights from the country to Israel, and foster “cooperation” between companies in both nations.

GOP Complaint Demands House Ethics Committee Investigate Swalwell Amid CCP Spy Report. 

Dec. 11 (Daily Caller News).– Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) spoke at an event in 2013 along with a former staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) who is alleged to have spied for the Chinese government.

The group that hosted Swalwell and Russell Lowe, the Feinstein staffer, was led by Christine Fang, who herself is alleged to have worked as a Chinese secret agent from 2011 to 2015.

Strasbourg, Dec.1.– The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities, entered into force today. The treaty, also known as the Tromsø Convention, after the city in Norway where it was opened for signature, entered into force in respect of ten Council of Europe member states - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, the Republic of Moldova, Sweden and Ukraine. The convention entered into force three months after its ratification by Ukraine, the tenth state to ratify it.

The right to access to official documents held by public authorities is essential to transparency, good governance, freedom of speech and participatory democracy and it facilitates the exercise of other human rights and fundamental freedoms. Access to official documents enables citizens to form an opinion on the state of the society which they live and the governing authorities. It enables citizens’ awareness of public affairs and their informed participation in decision-making processes. It is also very important for free and independent media outlets, journalists and other media actors to have legal and guaranteed access to information and official documents in order to inform the public. The Tromsø Convention provides a framework of legal principles in respect of all these democratic goals and sets out a number of basic guarantees regarding the right to access of official documents.

After fleeing Hong Kong for Taiwan, Lam Wing-kee speaks of the danger the island faces and the ordeal of his detention in China.  

Taipei, Nov29.– Lam Wing-kee leans forward in his chair, answering quickly and sharply to issue a warning to the people of his new home, Taiwan. “Be ready now,” he says.

“We should be more alert as citizens, we should get ready,” says the 64-year-old Hongkonger. “If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place, I feel, is Taiwan.”