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Politics333 outlets ran this3 min read

UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial

152 member states voted in favour of the resolution, with three against.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

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UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial

What this story says

  • The UN General Assembly voted 152 in favour, 3 against, and 4 abstentions to permit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the assembly via video link.
  • The United States denied Mahmoud Abbas a visa, preventing him from travelling to New York for the UN General Assembly.
  • US officials cited alleged payments to terrorists and violations of US law as reasons for the visa denial.
  • The resolution allows Abbas to deliver his speech virtually at the upcoming 81st UN General Assembly session.

Who covered it

Left 27%(43)Centre 41%(65)Right 32%(51)

Percentages are shares of the 159 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 174 of the 333 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

86/100

Craft

95/100

Hype

15/100

333 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 43 of the 159 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution allowing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the 81st session via video link. The vote, which saw 152 member states in favour, three against, and four abstentions, followed the United States' decision to deny Abbas a visa.

The US visa denial prevented Abbas from travelling to New York to attend the General Assembly in person. The United States stated that the reasons for the denial included alleged payments to terrorists and violations of US law. This decision means Abbas will deliver his speech virtually, as he did in a previous year.

Disagreement on reasons for visa denial

While the United States cited alleged payments to terrorists and violations of US law for denying Mahmoud Abbas a visa, Deutsche Welle reported that the US State Department notice cited alleged association with a terror group but did not elaborate further. Welt stated the denial was due to missing reforms and non-compliance with commitments.

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated, centre-rated, or right-rated digests mention the specific number of abstentions in the UN General Assembly vote, which was four.

Tags:#UN#MahmoudAbbas#USVisa#Palestine#MiddleEast

Coverage settled. We checked this 8 times and stopped on 23 Sept 2026, 06:30. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial
Deutsche WelleCentre

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

43 rated outlets

  • The left‑rated outlets all reported that the United States refused visas to Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials for the United Nations General Assembly. Cumhuriyet’s full report added that the Assembly voted 152‑3‑4 to allow Abbas to address the meeting via a pre‑recorded video after the visa denial.
  • The Hindu’s digest led on the visa denial being justified by a failure to meet reform commitments. CBC, AP and other US outlets each led on a second‑year denial of visas for a high‑level Palestinian delegation. Haaretz noted an extension of visa sanctions; Al Jazeera highlighted Abbas among those barred; Le Monde cited accusations that the Palestinian Authority undermines peace; in.gr mentioned a lack of reforms; der Standard reported the scheduled speech.
  • None of the digests mention the 152‑3‑4 vote that approved Abbas’s video address, nor do they note that the Assembly will hear his pre‑recorded speech. The digests also omit any quotations from Palestinian or US officials, and they do not report the specific language of the UN resolution that enabled the video address.

Centre

65 rated outlets

  • Deutsche Welle reported that the United States denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa, preventing him from attending the UN General Assembly in New York. The report noted that the US cited payments to terrorists and violations of US law as reasons for the denial. Deutsche Welle also mentioned that the PA submitted a resolution to the UN to allow Abbas to speak virtually, as he did the previous year. The Jerusalem Post highlighted that the UN resolution allows Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials to speak via video after the US visa denial, quoting an official stating that Abbas's policy of payments to terrorists cannot be ignored. The Times of Israel focused on the US rejection of Abbas's visa, forcing him to address the UN virtually again, and noted that a Palestinian official indicated the State Department cited alleged association with a terror group without further elaboration.

Right

51 rated outlets

  • Welt reported that the US denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a visa for UN meetings, stating the reason was missing reforms and non-compliance with commitments, allowing him only to participate via video. Anadolu Ajansı reported that 152 countries backed a resolution calling on the US to reverse its decision barring the delegation from attending the 81st session in person. Arutz Sheva reported the UN vote to allow Abbas to address the General Assembly by video after the US visa ban, quoting Ambassador Danon saying Abbas cannot reward terrorism and demand international legitimacy. Daily Sabah noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take the UN podium while the Palestinian leader was denied a visa again. i24NEWS reported the UN approved Mahmoud Abbas's video address after the US visa denial, stating the resolution received an overwhelming majority with only three dissenting votes: the US, Israel, and Paraguay. Sapo reported that the majority of UN members approved Palestine's participation by videoconference after the US denied the visa to its president and government officials.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial?
Of the 159 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 27% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 32% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 333. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 159 rated outlets on this story, 27% are rated left, 41% are rated centre, 32% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial biased?
UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial is one event reported by 333 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered UN General Assembly allows Abbas video address after US visa denial?
333 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why was Mahmoud Abbas denied a visa by the United States?
The United States denied Mahmoud Abbas a visa to attend the UN General Assembly in person. Reasons cited by US officials included alleged payments to terrorists and violations of US law. Some reports also mentioned alleged association with a terror group, missing reforms, and non-compliance with commitments.
What was the outcome of the UN General Assembly vote?
The UN General Assembly voted 152 in favour, 3 against, and 4 abstentions to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the assembly via video link. This resolution enables him to deliver his speech virtually.
Has Mahmoud Abbas been denied a visa by the US before?
Yes, this is not the first time the United States has denied Mahmoud Abbas a visa to attend the UN General Assembly. Reports indicate he was also prevented from travelling to New York for the assembly in a previous year, forcing him to address it virtually.

Read it at the source

346 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

44
Show 36 more

Centre

67
Show 59 more

Right

55
Show 47 more

Not rated

180
Show 172 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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