Relations between Jordan and Iran have been icy since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Relations worsened further after Amman expressed support for the overthrow of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad in the early 2010s, which Iran supported diplomatically and militarily, and amid Jordan's warm ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has alleged that his country has been attacked by Iranian-made drones.

Abdullah II said, speaking to CNN on Sunday:

"Unfortunately, Jordan has been attacked by drones that have come out that are Iranian signature that we have to deal with."

Asked when these attacks took place, the king said that they occurred "in the past year or so." He did not provide any additional information, such as who was using the drones or what they targeted, but went on to urge Amman's American allies to discuss a range of security matters with Iran.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician-turned-congressman, says he's "terrified for our country" in the wake of President Joe Biden's disastrous town hall this week — and that he doubts whether the commander in chief has the cognitive ability to make it through a full term.

"He's completely LOST it!" Jackson (R-Tex.) tweeted Saturday, along with a video clip — recorded this week — in which Biden bizarrely answered a reporter's question about defunding the police by claiming that Republicans accuse him of "sucking the blood out of kids. Needs a cognitive exam NOW!" Jackson posted.


Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., says the president isn't inspiring confidence at home or on the world stage on Hannity.

Joe Biden and the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, are expected to announce on Monday an agreement to end the US military combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The plan to shift the US military mission, whose stated purpose is to help Iraq defeat the Islamic State, to a strictly advisory and training role will be spelled out in a broader communique to be issued by the two leaders following a White House meeting on Monday afternoon, said the official.

The official said Iraqi security forces were "battle-tested" and have proved themselves "capable" of protecting their country. Still, the Biden administration recognizes that Isis remains a considerable threat, the official said.

Isis was largely routed on the battlefield in 2017. But it can still carry out high-casualty attacks. Last week, the group claimed responsibility for a roadside bombing that killed at least 30 and wounded dozens in a suburban Baghdad market.

Given the lack of any deep thinking going on in the White House, Americans could easily find themselves in yet another Afghanistan.

The inability of the United States to comprehend what it was becoming involved in when, in the wake of 9/11, it declared a Global War on Terror, has to be reckoned one of the singular failures of national security policy over the past twenty years. Not only did the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq make bad situations worse, but the fact that no one is Washington was able to define "victory" and think in terms of an exit strategy has meant that the wars and instability are still with us. In their wake has been hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars spent to accomplish absolutely nothing.

As a result, Iraq is unstable and leans more heavily towards America's adversary Iran than it does to Washington. The Iraqi Parliament has, in fact, asked U.S. forces to leave the country, a request that has been ignored both by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump actually threatened to freeze Iraqi bank assets to pressure the Iraqis into accepting the continued U.S. occupation. At the same time, American troops illegally present in neighboring Syria, continue to occupy that country's oil fields to deprive the government in Damascus of much needed resources. Neither Iraq nor Syria threatens the United States in any way.

The French parliament approved a bill early Monday that will require a health pass for access to restaurants, bars, trains and planes from the beginning of August. All venues accommodating more than 50 people already require proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid-19 test, including museums, cinemas and swimming pools.

France's parliament approved a law early Monday requiring special virus passes for all restaurants and domestic travel and mandating vaccinations for all health workers.

Both measures have prompted protests and political tensions.

Scientists who are skeptical of chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci's proclamations about the coronavirus pandemic don't want to go public with their concerns for fear it will affect their funding, Sen. Rand Paul claimed Tuesday.

Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told Fox News Primetime of Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984:

"He's been there for 40 years, probably 39 years too long, but he controls all the funding, so people are deathly afraid of him. I get letters from scientists all the time. You can find them. They're very distrustful of what he's saying.

"They don't think he's making sense. They don't think he's reading the science accurately, but they're afraid to speak out because many of them are university scientists and they depend on NIH [National Institutes of Health] funds, and to cross him means it's the last money you'll ever get."

President Joe Biden has now declared that the United States is facing an existential crisis comparable to what it experienced during the Civil War, a struggle that will produce a truly democratic form of government with universal franchise or which will result in the denial of basic rights to many citizens. And he is quite willing to address the issue employing a maximum of emotion and fear mongering unmitigated by a minimum of reasonable suasion, saying

"We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War — the Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th. I'm not saying this to alarm you. I'm saying this because you should be alarmed."

Of course, what may have occurred on January 6^th has nothing to do with the issue currently in play, which is voting rights, though it is only one aspect of what is essentially a revolution sponsored by the Democratic Party to reorder the American political system in such a fashion as to guarantee its dominance for decades to come. Other steps will include greatly increased immigration, a war on so-called domestic terrorists and decriminalizing or choosing not to prosecute many felonies committed by party constituencies.

The voting rights legislation currently before Congress includes the interestingly named For the People Act and its successor the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both of which would seek to restore certain unconstitutional aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Most important, they would eliminate the ability of the states to pass legislation that creates conditions on registering and voting. The text of the John Lewis Act now before Congress refers to these steps as "discriminatory laws, needless barriers, and partisan dirty tricks."

Expelling leftwing members after thousands have already departed could spell the end for the 'broad church' strategy

Amid uninspiring opinion polling and after a very close shave in Batley and Spen - which prompted an outpouring of triumphalism way out of proportion with Labour's narrow win there - Keir Starmer has taken the opportunity to settle some scores. After a marathon nine-hour meeting of Labour's ruling national executive committee on Tuesday, it was announced, as expected, that four leftwing groups had been proscribed: Socialist Appeal, Labour Against the Witchhunt, Labour in Exile Network and Resist.

Reports suggest that the move could see up to 1,000 Labour members effectively expelled from the party. It isn't necessary to carry a torch for all or any of these groups to see the cynicism of the manoeuvre. For some, the decision to proscribe these groups has rekindled memories of Neil Kinnock's war on the Labour left in the 1980s; indeed, Socialist Appeal is the fragment of Militant that remained in Labour after the rest of the organisation was driven out three decades ago. As for the others, it is unclear how many of their members are still in Labour. Membership is down by about 120,000 from its peak under Jeremy Corbyn.

America has come back down to Earth. After years trying to sabotage the almost-complete, $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will link the gas fields of Siberia to consumers in Germany, Washington is dropping its objections.

Signing a new agreement with Berlin, the US has put itself behind Germany as its key ally in Europe. Not Ukraine, which has thrown up no end of objections and appeals over the project. As would be expected, there has been a furious reaction in some quarters.

Some are hysterical in a comical register: The Kyiv Post, for instance, mouthpiece of the North American-Ukrainian "diaspora,"cries" Betrayal!" in best British-yellow press style and declares Chancellor Angela Merkel to be "Ukraine's foe of the week."

The narrative that domestic anti-government extremism is the greatest threat to U.S. national security — the official position of the U.S. security state and the Biden administration — received its most potent boost in October 2020, less than one month before the 2020 presidential election. That was when the F.B.I. and Michigan state officials announced the arrest of thirteen people on terrorism, conspiracy and weapons charges, with six of them accused of participating in a plot to kidnap Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who had been a particular target of criticism from President Trump for her advocacy for harsh COVID lockdown measures.

The headlines that followed were dramatic and fear-inducing: "F.B.I. Says Michigan Anti-Government Group Plotted to Kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer," announced The New York Times. That same night, ABC News began its broadcast this way: "Tonight, we take you into a hidden world, a place authorities say gave birth to a violent domestic terror plot in Michigan — foiled by the FBI."

Democrats and liberal journalists instantly seized on this storyline to spin a pre-election theme that was as extreme as it was predictable. Gov. Whitmer herself blamed Trump, claiming that the plotters "heard the president's words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry — as a call to action." Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) claimed that "the president is a deranged lunatic and he's inspired white supremacists to violence, the latest of which was a plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer," adding: "these groups have attempted to KILL many of us in recent years. They are following Trump's lead." Vox's paid television-watcher and video-manipulator, Aaron Rupar, drew this inference: "Trump hasn't commended the FBI for breaking up Whitmer kidnapping/murder plot because as always he doesn't want to denounce his base." Michael Moore called for Trump's arrest for having incited the kidnapping plot against Gov. Whitmer. One viral tweet from a popular Democratic Party activist similarly declared: "Trump should be arrested for this plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer. There's no doubt he inspired this terrorism."