By Ben Blanchard | BEIJING BEIJING China is likely to express its anger at being told to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Beijing on Saturday, his first visit to the country since taking office last month. Beijing is expected to call on Washington to share responsibility in lessening tensions in the region, while strongly opposing this month’s deployment […]
By Jeff Mason and Andreas Rinke | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump reiterated his strong support for NATO on Friday and pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet NATO’s military spending target, in the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders. The meeting between the leader of Europe’s largest economy and the U.S. president was billed as one that could help determine the future of the transatlantic […]
BEIRUT The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said a U.S.-backed assault to drive Islamic State from its de-facto capital Raqqa would begin at the start of April and the YPG would be taking part, despite fierce opposition from neighbouring Turkey. A spokesman for the U.S. Pentagon said no decision had been made yet on the Raqqa offensive, which is part of a two pronged attempt […]
The White House has assured the UK government it will not repeat allegations that President Donald Trump was placed under surveillance by GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency, after London protested over the “nonsense” claims. The allegations, made on Thursday by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, triggered an angry response from Downing Street, an extraordinary high-level spat between two allies with possibly the closest intelligence-sharing relationship in […]
Saudi Arabia’s push to boost political and trade ties with the Maldives faces growing resistance as activists in the archipelago oppose plans for an ambitious development project funded by the kingdom. King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is on a month-long tour of Asia as Saudi Arabia seeks to deepen alliances with predominantly Muslim states in the region, is due to visit the Indian Ocean nation at the […]
Authored by Michael Jabara Carley via The Strategic Culture Foundation, On 10 January 2017 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired his minister of external affairs, Stéphane Dion, and replaced him with Chrystia Freeland, who was then minister of international trade. This cabinet shuffle might not have gotten much public notice except that Dion is a distinguished parliamentarian, former leader of the party and leader of the opposition, […]
By Simon Lewis and Wa Lone | SITTWE, Myanmar SITTWE, Myanmar Since security forces swept into their villages in northwestern Myanmar late last year, around 75,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the nearby border to Bangladesh. Many now fear that the authorities in Myanmar could make their displacement permanent. At least once a year, local administrators go house-to-house in the Rohingya villages of northern Rakhine State, lining […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to confirm former Republican senator Dan Coats to be President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence and to approve Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster’s transfer to become his national security adviser. The vote was 85-12 to confirm Coats, who also served as ambassador to Germany under former President George W. Bush. Fifty-one votes were […]
By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. government on Wednesday unsealed charges against two Russian spies and two criminal hackers for allegedly pilfering 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, The indictments, announced at a news conference in Washington, represent the first time the U.S. government has criminally charged Russian officials for cyber offenses. The content of at least 30 million accounts were accessed as part […]
TAIPEI China’s accelerated military development and recent activity by its military aircraft and ships around Taiwan pose an increased threat to the self-ruled island, according to a Taiwanese government defence report draft reviewed by Reuters. The 2017 Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) also highlights the uncertainty over the future strategic direction of the United States in the region, the impact of Japan flexing its military capabilities and “conflict […]
The good Doctor was on Alex Jones for 45 mins today — discussing a variety of topics. Some of the notable moments were: We’re in a civil war with the left The left in the GOP are part of the democratic party How the family structure was targeted by Marx and now by the left Soros, Pelosi, Maxine Waters Healthcare Taxes Cuba and Castro War His dinner […]
Donald Trump paid an effective tax rate of 25 per cent in 2005 on income of $150m, according to a leaked tax return that sheds a glint of light on the tax affairs the president has kept shrouded in secrecy. MSNBC reported that two pages of Mr Trump’s return — which revealed nothing about his income sources — showed the president paying $38m in tax and reporting […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday he plans to hold public hearings on possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, although he did not say when they would take place. “It will happen,” Republican Senator Richard Burr told reporters after a closed committee meeting. Asked if he knew when, he said, “I don’t yet, […]
By Susan Heavey and Susan Cornwell | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump and congressional leaders are weighing changes to their plan to dismantle the Obamacare health law, a White House spokesman said Tuesday, as Republicans defended their effort following an estimate that it would cause 14 million Americans to lose insurance next year. Press Secretary Sean Spicer said White House officials and leaders in the Republican-controlled U.S. […]
Dutch voters head to the polls on Wednesday after Mark Rutte, prime minister, and rivals clashed over refugees, immigration and the economy in the last televised debate following an extraordinarily tight race. After a campaign that was interrupted by a diplomatic spat with Turkey, by fears of foreign interference and by a row over the security of populist Geert Wilders, the vote is set to be extremely […]
Taking a bold authoritarian step towards fighting online hate speech, Germany intends to pass a law that would fine social media outlets up to $53m for failing to delete hateful comments within a designated time frame. Out of all the social media outlets, YouTube is the best at monitoring hate speech, with a 90% removal rate inside a week. Facebook was second at 39% and Twitter an […]
Turkey’s president escalated his diplomatic row with the Netherlands on Tuesday, claiming the country had a “rotten character” and blamed Dutch troops for the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war. The remarks by Recep Tayyip Erdogan come less than 24 hours before Dutch voters go to the polls in a national election that has been coloured by a heated debate about the role of […]
DUBAI A Bahraini court on Tuesday delayed a ruling in the trial of the spiritual leader of the country’s Shi’ite Muslim majority on charges of collecting funds illegally and money laundering, local media reported. Ayatollah Isa Qassim, who is in his mid-70s, faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted in the trial that has ratcheted up tensions in the Western-allied Gulf Arab state where the […]
By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Gayatri Suroyo | JAKARTA JAKARTA Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency said it will look into allegations that dozens of politicians siphoned off money causing state losses of up to $170 million in what could be one of the Southeast Asian country’s biggest graft scandals.Two public servants on trial for corruption linked to the procurement of electronic identity cards last week identified at least […]
ANKARA Turkey’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said the European Union was exercising democratic values selectively and that it should not be standing by the Netherlands, which it accused of violating human rights and European values. Ankara has suspended high-level diplomatic relations after Dutch authorities prevented its ministers from speaking at rallies of expatriate Turks, worsening a row between the NATO allies. In a joint statement on Monday, […]
YANGON Dozens of Myanmar soldiers have been killed in several clashes between ethnic rebels and the army along the border with China, state media reported on Tuesday, threatening leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s chief goal of ending decades of ethnic strife. More than 20,000 people from Myanmar have crossed China’s border in recent weeks to escape the bitter fighting in the north, prompting Beijing to call for […]
SEOUL North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday of “merciless” attacks if an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson, which is joining South Korean forces for exercises, infringes on its sovereignty or dignity. North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the U.S. strike group was […]
By David Lawder | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Fourteen million Americans would lose medical insurance by next year under a Republican plan to dismantle Obamacare that would also reduce the budget deficit, a nonpartisan congressional research office said on Monday, throwing President Donald Trump and Republicans on the defensive as they press forward with replacement legislation. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office forecast that 24 million more people would be […]
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has loomed over European politics for more than a decade, entangled in the awkward embrace of reluctant allies. This weekend he burst into the middle of a fraught electoral season. The Dutch were behaving like Nazis, the Germans too, he said, by banning his foreign minister from speaking at rallies in their countries and setting police dogs on Turks who protested the […]
