Free Republic

On Friday, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was welcomed to the White House as part of the first diplomatic summit of Joe Biden’s presidency — but Biden was not the one to welcome him to the United States. Instead, Suga was greeted by Vice President Kamala Harris. ... The strange, awkward greeting was met with alarm from Cutis Houck, the managing editor of NewsBusters, who tweeted that “If Vice President Pence welcomed and then showed the head of a major U.S. ally and global power around the White House and not President Trump, CNN and MSNBC would have melted down...

The Norwegian Center Against Racism has criticized Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s newly-formed cabinet for failing to “reflect the population”. Rune Berglund Steen, who is head of the NGO, also said the lack of diversity represented a “democratic problem”. “Even Trump’s government has more people with minority ethnic backgrounds than the Norwegian [government],” Steen, who was speaking to broadcaster NRK, said. Among the 68 ministers and secretaries presented by Solberg as she unveiled the new government on Wednesday, only two appear to be of minority background, according to NRK — State Secretary Anne Karin Olli, who is of indigenous Sami heritage,...

US President-elect Donald Trump has now spoken with both the Danish and the Swedish prime ministers but Norwegian PM Erna Solberg is still waiting for a phone call from the incoming leader of the free world. […] Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, was the first Scandinavian leader to speak with Trump after his surprise victory earlier this month. Rasmussen said that the two men had “a friendly and constructive chat” of about ten minutes on November 16th. Swedish PM Stefan Löfven touched base with the incoming US president on Wednesday for a “brief” telephone conversation. …

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Only the Islamic State (ISIS) can “fulfill our ambitions and dreams,” said firebrand Kurdish cleric Mulla Krekar, who was recently freed from a Norwegian jail. “The Islamic State is not something strange; it is the only element that can fulfill our ambitions and dreams,” he said in an Al Jazeera interview. The 58-year-old preacher added that all Muslims calling for resistance to the extremist Sunni ISIS “Caliphate” are “cowards,” and accused them of following orders from the United States and Shiite Iran. He called upon ISIS to appoint someone “with the courage to fight the infidels...

Norwegian centre-right leader Erna Solberg is set to form a new government after Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg admitted election defeat. Ms Solberg described her win as "a historic election victory for the right-wing parties". Her Conservative Party is widely expected to form a government with the anti-immigration Progress Party. It is oil-rich Norway's first general election since attacks by a far-right extremist left 77 people dead in 2011.

Norway's opposition Conservatives, promising tax cuts and better healthcare, won elections in a landslide on Monday but faced tough coalition talks with a populist party that wants to spend more of the accumulated oil riches and curb immigration. Led by Erna Solberg, a former girl scout leader who has overcome dyslexia, the Conservatives promise to diversify the economy away from oil, privatize state firms, and reduce some of the world's highest taxes rates to give the private sector more breathing room.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch said, Tuesday, that she was sorry about the great distress caused to incoming justice Noam Solberg during the selection process because he is a resident of the Gush Etzion bloc of Judean Jewish communities. Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for Solberg and justice Tzvi Silbertal, she said that, contrary to reports in the media that Silbertal was a close member of her circle, "It should be that way, I would be happy if he will be in the future. But I know Justice Silbertal..."