KOENIG

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein confirmed on Wednesday that coronavirusgreen passports are on their way.

"Two weeks after the second shot, a person who was vaccinated will receive a green passport," he said during a Labor, Welfare and Health Committee meeting on Wednesday, speaking of the document which is intended to prove that its holder has been vaccinated and will give those who have it certain benefits and freedoms.

Edelstein said that while he could not yet give all the details of how the passports would work, he could confirm that "it will free people from isolation [requirement]" and it would "allow [people] to enter places that will still be restricted to other populations."

President Donald Trump early Wednesday told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that it's "too soon to give up" on the election after the Kentucky Republican congratulated "President-elect Joe Biden" from the Senate floor.

"Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot)," Trump tweeted to McConnell. "Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!"

Trump's comments were shared with a news report from The Daily Mail about Republicans turning on McConnell after his floor speech. 

The Health Ministry is expected to recommend restrictions on the commercial sector that will start next week and last for five weeks, rather than the previously reported three weeks, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The ministry expects Israel to reach 2,500 daily coronavirus infections as a weekly average — its benchmark for reimposing restrictions — late next week, the report says, citing senior ministry sources.

Since the restrictions will leave the education system open in low- and medium-infection zones, the restrictions will have to last for more time because the presumed drop in infections that follows will likely be slower, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry completed a major, unprecedented air defense exercise this month, which tested the abilities of the country’s three tiers of missile defense systems against a variety of aerial threats, officials said.

In the drill, which the ministry deemed a glowing success, the various air defense detection systems and batteries were required to communicate with one another and intercept several types of targets, including rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles and — critically — cruise missiles simultaneously.

A forensic audit of the presidential vote tally by Dominion Voting Systems software used in Antrim County, Michigan, showed a more than 68% error rate, with auditors claiming the system intentionally creates the errors so the machine can "adjudicate" them and change the results.

"We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results," the audit report prepared by Allied Security Operations Group read.

"The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors. The electronic ballots are then transferred for adjudication. The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail."

President Trump: Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family...

A broad swath of 12-18 inches of snow is projected to fall from northwestern Virginia and northeastern West Virginia to part of northern Maryland, south-central and eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, southeastern New York state and southern New England.

Within this area, some places can pick up a 24-inch snowfall amount with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 30 inches.

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The United States on Monday formally removed Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, 27 years after putting the country on its blacklist, the US embassy in Khartoum announced.

The move accompanies Sudan’s recent normalization of ties with Israel, which was brokered by Washington. Sudan confirmed in October that it had agreed to the deal in exchange for being removed from the US terror blacklist, acknowledging for the first time the existence of linkage between the two, which it had previously denied.

“The congressional notification period of 45 days has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating rescission of Sudan’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is effective as of today (December 14), to be published in the Federal Register,” the US embassy said on Facebook.

In the context of his effort to improve Palestinian relations with the Arab countries, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas began a two-day visit to Qatar, where he met on Monday with the country’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Abbas’s visit, the first since November 2019, comes in the aftermath of the normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. 

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani earlier this month ruled out the possibility that his country would normalize its relations with Israel. “Right now, I don’t see that the normalization of Qatar and Israel is going to add value to the Palestinian people,” he said.

The Health Ministry is planning to issue those who are vaccinated against the coronavirus a “green passport” that will grant a waiver of restrictions applied to curb the virus outbreak, top officials told media in a round of interviews on Sunday.

Among the rights for holders will be access to cultural events and eating at restaurants, and the right to not quarantine after exposure to a diagnosed virus-carrier, they said. It will be issued two weeks after a person gets the second of the two shots required for the coronavirus. 

Polls have shown that anywhere from 50 percent and 75% of Israelis say they will refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine shot, apparently out of fears that the rush to produce an inoculation may have compromised its safety. Israel is readying to begin a mass inoculation program next week, with the first vaccinations reportedly to be administered this coming Sunday.

More Israeli-Arab normalization deals will follow the one arrived at with Morocco over the weekend, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday in Jerusalem when he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

“The momentum is now on the side of the peacemakers,” O’Brien said adding that, “others will follow because the way of peace is far better than the way offered by terrorists... and radical clerics.”

The US-brokered deal with Morocco, is the fourth one to fall under the rubric of the Abraham Accords. Israel has ratified two normalization deals, one with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and is working on finalizing details with Sudan.

“Peace deals are becoming a regular event,” O’Brien joked. There is speculation that Oman and Indonesia would be next.

It's been nearly five years since New York City has seen more than a foot of snow in one storm, when Central Park recorded its biggest snowstorm on record with 27.5 inches in January 2016. That streak may come to an end by the middle of this week, with the New York metro area in — or near — the bullseye for more than a foot of snow.  

And it won't be just New York. Much of the densely populated parts of the Northeast stand to see a walloping of heavy snow as a major nor'easter takes aim. Some cities may pick up more than a half a season's worth of snow in 24 hours.

Conservative groups plan protests against the presidential election results nationwide on Saturday, including a Washington rally headlined by President Donald Trump's recently pardoned former national security adviser.

Organizers Stop The Steal, which is linked to pro-Trump operative Roger Stone, and church groups urged supporters to turn out to "Jericho Marches" and prayer rallies. These are planned at Washington's National Mall and in the capitals of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, where Trump's campaign has questioned vote counts.

Hunter Biden requested in 2017 that keys be made for his new "office mates," listing his father, President-elect Joe Biden, Jill Biden and his uncle, Jim Biden, for space he planned to share with an "emissary" for a chairman of a Chinese energy company, according to an email obtained by Fox News. 

The Sept. 20, 2017 email, obtained by Fox News, shows Hunter requesting keys for Joe and Jill Biden, along with his uncle, Jim Biden, to the general manager, Cecilia Browning, at the House of Sweden -- a building in Washington, D.C., which contains multiple office suites, as well as a number of embassies. 

“[P]lease have keys made available for new office mates: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Jim Biden,” said the email, with the subject “507.” 

Retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said Friday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to turn away a lawsuit from Texas and 17 other states challenging the election results in four battleground states on the justification that they didn’t have standing to bring the suit indicates the court just didn’t want to get involved.

Appearing on Newsmax TV’s ''Stinchfield,'' Dershowitz agreed with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who indicated that Texas did have standing, saying they ''get the better of the argument,'' but that the court just didn’t want to deal with what may be perceived as political.

''This Supreme Court decision sends a message,'' Dershowitz said. ''The majority included the three justices appointed by President [Donald] Trump, and they all said, 'We’re not going to hear the Texas case. We’re not going to get involved in this election.'

''I think this sends a message. It’s not a legal message, but it’s a practical message: the Supreme Court is out of this game.''

Texas on Friday morning filed a "reply brief" with the Supreme Court as it asks the tribunal to hear its lawsuit that aims to essentially nullify the presidential elections in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin -- putting the ball in the justices' court to issue an order in the case. 

The "briefing stage" of Supreme Court litigation consists of the first party, in this instance, Texas, asking the court to hear the case. Then opposition briefs are filed by those on the other side of the case. Then the first party is allowed to file a "reply brief," which Texas did Friday morning. 

"Defendant States do not seriously address grave issues that Texas raises, choosing to hide behind other court venues and decisions in which Texas could not participate and to mischaracterize both the relief that Texas seeks and the justification for that relief," the Texas brief says of the opposition briefs filed by Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia Thursday.

The United States is considering investing up to $3 billion in Moroccan institutions, The New York Times reported Thursday, a day after Rabat agreed to normalize its ties with Israel.

Morocco is seen to have negotiated a major diplomatic win out of the US as part of the normalization deal, convincing Washington to recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region.

The Times reported that Morocco could also have had a powerful financial incentive to sign the deal. Citing a senior Trump administration official and two Moroccan officials, the report said that the International Development Finance Corporation, a US government body formed last year by President Donald Trump, was considering investments worth up to $3 billion earmarked for Moroccan banks and hotels, as well as for a renewable energy company belonging to King Mohammed VI of Morocco himself.

ISTANBUL—When Russia single-handedly brokered an agreement last month to stop fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, the Kremlin granted an important concession to Turkey, allowing Ankara to monitor its implementation.

Turkey’s strong military support for Azerbaijan was a reality the Kremlin couldn’t ignore, said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“What can I tell you,” he said on Russian television when asked about Turkey’s broader role in the Caucasus days after fighting stopped last month. “It’s a geopolitical fallout from the downfall of Soviet Union.”