1/12/21

 * Kim Jong-un’s growing nuclear wish-list for North Korea spells trouble for Joe Biden Pyongyang has spelled out its desire for long-range nuclear missiles and a nuclear submarine. It's part of a strategy to force the US into accepting a nuclear North Korea, and there will be no easy solutions for the new president.

* EU warns Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 20% ‘a matter of deep concern’ Union says Iranians undermining diplomacy surrounding 2015 nuclear pact, looks forward to working on issue with Biden’s incoming administration.

* Survey: Over 50% of Israelis say democracy in 'serious danger' A low 17% of respondents think social solidarity exists today.

* Jared Kushner briefed Jake Sullivan on Trump's Middle East policy Jared Kushner has briefed incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the Trump administration’s Middle East policies, David Friedman, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel, told a closed hearing in the Israeli parliament on Monday.

* New School in Judean Hills Trains Priests for Third Temple Yoni Tzadok is running an unusual school in the mountains of Judea to prepare for the Third Temple.

* From ‘Dangerous Fantasy’ to Reality in Seven Years: EU Reveals ‘Uniformed Service’ Less than seven years after British Eurosceptics were laughed at for expressing concerns about a coming European Union army, the bloc has revealed the official uniform of its new ‘standing corps’, as the first of 10,000 recruits prepare to deploy to the field.

* Inside Israel’s social media campaign to woo the Middle East Working in close quarters, surrounded by maps of the Middle East, a small team based in Israel’s foreign ministry are focusing their sights on the Arab world.

* Media: Israel Must Be Denigrated for Its World-Beating Vaccination Programme The same negative policy [by the press and many purported human rights groups] extends to other major benefits that Israel has brought to the world, including scientific innovation, medical technology and life-saving intelligence.

* Is Turkey’s Procurement Of Russian S-400 Missiles Really Comparable To Greece’s Past Procurement Of S-300s? Turkey invariably insists that opposition from the United States and NATO over its controversial purchase of advanced Russian S-400 air defense missile systems is hypocritical since neighboring Greece never received such scrutiny for its past procurement of older S-300 missiles.

* No Going Back: U.N. Chief Guterres Promises ‘Rebuilt’ World in Coronavirus Wake Out with the old, in with the new. That was the mantra U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres espoused as he promised the world will never be the same again in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.