Thursday, November 30, 2017

Trump Administration to World: Sever All Ties With North Korea

The Trump administration on Wednesday called on all countries to sever all ties with North Korea, and for the regime in Pyongyang to be deprived of its “rights and privileges” as a U.N. member-state. Read

Haley: US Doesn’t Want War, But if it Comes, ‘North Korean Regime Will be Utterly Destroyed’

The U.S. does not seek a war on the Korean peninsula, but if one breaks out, “the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley warned Wednesday. Read

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

North Korea After Latest Test: Entire U.S. Is Now Within Nuclear Missile Range

North Korea declared Wednesday that its latest intercontinental ballistic missile test has achieved for the regime the goal of bringing the entire continental United States within range of its nuclear warheads. Read

Pence to Kim Jong-un: Don’t ‘Test the Resolve of This President’

Vice President Mike Pence late Tuesday warned the North Korean dictator not to test President Trump’s resolve or the capabilities of the U.S. military, and indicated that the administration is considering “additional measures” in response to Pyongyang’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch. Read

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Pakistan Submits to Hardliners Again: ‘We Shall Die to Protect the Honor of the Prophet’

Pakistani authorities have done a deal with Muslim radicals who paralyzed the capital to protest a proposed law change, which they suspected was designed to appease a sect regarded as heretical. Read

Iran to Europe: Don’t Challenge Our ‘Defensive’ Missiles Or We’ll Extend Their Range

A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned European governments not to challenge its ballistic missile program unless it wants Iran to boost its missile capabilities to bring Europe within range. Read

Monday, November 27, 2017

Pakistani Terrorist Released After Provisions Applying to His Group Were Dropped From US Legislation

A Pakistani court order releasing the suspected mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack came just days after a provision linking U.S. military aid to Pakistan to its actions against his terrorist group was dropped from a defense policy bill. Read

Trump Berated for Voting Against Russia’s Annual ‘Nazism’ Resolution; Obama and Bush Did Too

Critics of the Trump administration continued to vent outrage on social media over the holiday weekend for its vote earlier this month against a U.N. resolution condemning the “glorification of Nazism” – but were mostly silent about the fact the Obama and Bush administration both did the same thing each year. Read

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Chief of Lebanon’s US-Backed Army Urges Troops to Prepare to Face ‘Israeli Enemy’

A day after Lebanon’s president defended the legitimacy of the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah, the chief of Lebanon’s U.S.-backed army on Tuesday urged his forces to stand by to face threats from “the Israeli enemy.” Read

Feted at the UN For Decades, Africa’s Third Longest-Ruling Autocrat Bows Out

As Zimbabweans celebrated the resignation Tuesday of 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe, a United Nations spokesman declined to get into an “abstract philosophical” discussion on the longevity of autocrats who over decades are fixtures at the U.N. Read

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Supporters of Bid to Have Muslim Brotherhood Labeled a Terrorist Group Try a New Approach

Sponsors of a long running but unsuccessful congressional push to have the Muslim Brotherhood designated a foreign terrorist organization are trying a different approach, urging the administration to focus initially on specific country branches of the global Islamist organization. Read

US General in Afghanistan: From 2011 to 2016, ‘The Enemy Believed … We Had Lost Our Will’

Five years of “telegraphing” to the Taliban that U.S. and coalition forces were leaving Afghanistan prompted the enemy to believe “we had lost our will,” the top U.S. military officer leading the campaign there said Monday. Read

Monday, November 20, 2017

Zimbabwe’s Strongman Clings to Power

Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old ruler defied his opponents again Sunday when his presumed resignation speech ended without him signaling his departure. Read

Palestinians Threaten to ‘Put on Hold’ All Communications With Trump Administration

Two months after Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas called publicly for Israeli officials to be tried by the International Criminal Court, the Trump administration, in line with U.S. law, is threatening to close the Palestinian mission in Washington – and the P.A. is furious. Read

Friday, November 17, 2017

Expert: ICC Has No Jurisdiction to Investigate Alleged Crimes by US Troops in Afghanistan

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no jurisdiction to investigate alleged wrongdoing by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and the Trump administration should not cooperate with the tribunal, a Heritage Foundation scholar argued this week. Read

China Disputes That Xi Agreed With Trump to Reject North Korea ‘Freeze-for-Freeze’ Proposal

Beijing is disputing that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during his recent meetings with President Trump to reject a proposal which China and Russia have been pushing as the solution to the North Korean standoff. Read

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Iran Turns Down Offers of Earthquake Aid, Including From Its Arch-Foe Israel

Survivors of an earthquake near Iran’s border with Iraq – the deadliest in the world so far this year – have been calling for more help than they’re getting, but their government says it doesn’t need help from abroad. Read

Zimbabwe ‘Coup’ Unlikely to Bring the Real Change the Misruled Country Needs

However Zimbabwe’s current crisis resolves itself, the short-term outcome is unlikely to be good for the people of the southern African country, impoverished under the almost four-decade-long misrule of President Robert Mugabe. Read

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Iran: U.S. and Canada, ‘Self-Proclaimed Champions of Human Rights,’ Have Killed ‘Millions’

An Iranian representative at the United Nations on Tuesday accused Canada, the U.S. and other “self-proclaimed champions of human rights” of hypocrisy and said their policies have killed “millions of people.” Read

Russian FM: We Never Agreed With US That The Iranians Would Leave Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has poured cold water on U.S. expectations that recent U.S.-Russian understandings on Syria would pave the way for the ejection of Iranian forces. He reiterated Moscow’s stance that Iran and Russia are in Syria legitimately, while it is the U.S. and its allies that are the unwanted outside parties. Read

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Australia May Become Last Major English-Speaking Country to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

Australia looks set to become the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage, after the results of a three-month-long postal survey on changing the country’s one man-one woman marriage law are announced on Wednesday. Read

At UN Climate Conference, Administration Defends ‘Cleaner’ Fossil Fuels, Draws Protests

Venturing deep into hostile territory, Trump administration delegates at U.N. climate talks in Bonn on Monday made the argument for fossil fuels to be part of the solution to climate change – and ran into some vocal opposition. Read

Monday, November 13, 2017

Bush-Era ‘Quad’ Initiative Revived As Trump Turns Focus to ‘Indo-Pacific’

Amid a flurry of meetings and summits on President Trump’s Asia itinerary, one event receiving relatively little media attention is the revival of a decade-old but short-lived partnership of four maritime democracies leery of China’s expanding influence across the region. Read

As Reporters Focus on Putin and Xi, Trump Counters That He Has Good Relations With All 20 Leaders He’s Met With in Asia

President Trump expressed irritation Saturday that media outlets focus on his good relations with autocratic leaders, declaring that he relates well to all of the leaders he’s been meeting with on his Asia trip. Read

Friday, November 10, 2017

Outrage As Greece Gives 2-Day Furlough to Terrorist Who Killed American and British Diplomats

The U.S. and British governments expressed outrage Thursday at a decision by a Greek judicial council to allow a convicted left-wing terrorist serving 11 life sentences to take a two-day furlough – particularly as one of his comrades earlier absconded during a similar parole. Read

Trump to Critics: ‘How Can You Blame China For Taking Advantage of People That Had No Clue?’

President Trump hit back early Friday at critics at home for challenging his comments in Beijing on the massive trade deficit with China, doubling down on blaming not China but past U.S. administrations for the situation. Read

Thursday, November 09, 2017

As Trump Visits, Christian Group Urges China Not to Send North Korean Defectors Home

As President Trump continues his state visit to China, a Christian religious freedom advocacy group called Wednesday for his hosts to halt plans to forcibly repatriate ten North Korean defectors, drawing attention to a longstanding Chinese policy which campaigners say can have fatal consequences. Read

Communist-Linked Paper Concerned That Trump ‘May at Some Time Tweet Something Embarrassing About China’

President Trump is popular in China because he is pragmatic, not ideological, and has not so far used the human rights issue to “make trouble for China,” the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times said in an editorial Thursday. Read

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Kerry: ‘No Science, No Fact’ Supports Trump’s Decision on Iran Nuclear Deal

Former Secretary of State John Kerry says President Trump relied on “no science, no fact” to justify his decision not to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal. Read

Trump to Kim Jong-un: ‘Every Step You Take Down This Dark Path Increases The Peril You Face’

President Trump had a message for North Korea’s Kim Jong-un on Wednesday: “Do not underestimate us and do not try us”; abandon your aggression and nuclear weapons ambitions and “we will offer a path to a much better future.” Read

Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Iran Blames U.S. As Tensions With Saudi Arabia Deepen

Iran’s foreign minister blamed the United States Tuesday for deepening tensions between his country and Saudi Arabia, following a weekend that saw the abrupt resignation of Lebanon’s Saudi-backed prime minister and a foiled attempt by Iranian-supported militia in Yemen to strike Riyadh’s international airport with a ballistic missile. Read

North Korea’s Nuke Testing Dates Back 10 Years, But Kerry Blames Trump’s ‘Rhetoric’

As President Trump continued an Asia trip dominated by concerns over North Korea, former secretary of state John Kerry told CNN Monday that Trump’s rhetoric has given the Kim Jong-un regime reason to say that it needs a nuclear bomb. Read

Monday, November 06, 2017

Saudis Blame Iran for Missile Attack on Airport; Could Be ‘Act of War’

The costly civil war in Yemen took a dangerous new turn at the weekend when the Saudis said they intercepted a ballistic missile heading for the kingdom’s second-busiest airport, and accused Iran of responsibility. Read

Saudi Prince Among Dozens Arrested for Corruption; Donor to Carter, Clinton, Georgetown, Harvard

The most prominent of dozens of princes and others arrested in a weekend “anti-corruption” sweep overseen by the heir to the Saudi throne is a billionaire whose largesse has benefited recipients ranging from the Carter Center and Clinton Foundation to Georgetown and Harvard universities and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Read

In Asia, Trump Extolls US Military Might – And The American Flag

President Trump made headlines Sunday with remarks in Japan warning dictators not to underestimate “the most fearsome fighting force in the history of our world,” but he also had a message for Americans back home, extolling the U.S. flag and what it stands for. Read

Friday, November 03, 2017

North Korea Steps Up Insults Ahead of Trump’s Asian ‘Junket’

On the eve of President Trump’s visit to Asia, expected to be dominated by the North Korean threat, Pyongyang’s state media have stepped up their insults against a president described as a maniac in need of “medicine for curing his psychical disorder.” Read

Ayatollah Khamenei to Iranian Students: Don’t Forget U.S. Is the Main Enemy

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of students Thursday that a path to a bright future requires them not to forget that the United States is their principal enemy. Read

Thursday, November 02, 2017

Haley on Cuba Embargo Measure at UN: ‘Our Principles Are Not Up For a Vote’

As long as the Castro regime continues to deny the Cuban people freedom, the United States does not fear isolation at the United Nations or anywhere else, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told the world body Wednesday, as the U.S. voted against an annual resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Read

Khamenei to Putin: Let’s Ditch the Dollar and ‘Isolate the Americans’

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday that their countries, both targeted by U.S. sanctions, should respond by ditching the U.S. dollar in trade transactions and use their national currencies instead. Read

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

IRGC Vows to Respond to New US Sanctions With More Powerful, Precise Missiles

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on entities and individuals linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, prompting the IRGC’s commander to vow to double down on its ballistic missile program. Read

Uzbekistan Has Become an Increasingly Important Source of Recruits for ISIS

Uzbekistan, the country of origin of the man accused of carrying out Tuesday’s deadly vehicle-ramming attack in New York City, has become an increasingly important source of recruits to ISIS and other violent groups operating in Syria and Iraq in recent years. Read

100 Years On, Remembering the Battle That Made Rebirth of Israel Possible

One hundred years ago on Tuesday, horse-mounted soldiers from the furthest reaches of the British Empire seized a key objective from Turkish forces near Gaza, paving the way for the end of Muslim Ottoman rule and the rebirth three decades later of the state of Israel. Read