The chickens come home to roost in Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Long ago, journalists documented Pakistan’s powerful military intelligence service support for terrorists, but on Thursday the Trump administration formally moved to cut off security aid. The move likely will hit Pakistan’s air forces hardest but also may jeopardize U.S. supply to its operations in Afghanistan, which rely on overland routes from Pakistan.

Importantly, the U.S. State Department at the same time placed Pakistan on a Special Watch List for “severe violations of religious freedom,” another long overdue move. It also re-designated 10 Countries of Particular Concern as part of its annual report under the International Religious Freedom Act.

IRAN: Video captures of Thursday rallies show Iranians continuing to take to the streets to protest their government, despite a crackdown that has seen at least 450 demonstrators arrested.

Being so very wrong about the direction of Arab Spring protests should make Western experts and foreign media wary of ascribing simple motives to Iranian protests, wrote historian and analyst Patrick Cockburn. That said, the United States is fully backing anti-government protesters and taking its case to an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday.

ISRAEL: Besides wanting to build a train tunnel under Jerusalem’s Old City and name the Western Wall train station after President Donald Trump, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz wants to revive rail travel between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

ALGERIA: Authorities are stepping up a campaign against Protestant churches, restricting activities and arresting three Christians in a cafe for having Christian literature.

CHINA: Not my cup of tea, but the longest glass bridge in the world has opened in Hebei.

WEEKEND READS: The story of reporter James Risen’s seven-year legal battle with the Obama administration raises important questions about press freedom and reporting on national security. (How ironic if former President Barack Obama paves the way for Trump to jail reporters.) Also, foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead has been blogging about Christmas—and his work is not to be missed. How does a transcendent God reveal Himself to culture-bound people? Mead asks. Friday he examined the Three Wise Men and their journey to Bethlehem as a voyage of scientific discovery: “The Gospels occupy a kind of center point in human culture as a whole: products of a particular time and place, but comprehensible to all.”

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