By Michel Rose and Jean-Baptiste Vey | PARIS PARIS Emmanuel Macron took power as president of France on Sunday, vowing to restore the country’s status in Europe and the world and heal divisions in society — a nod to the bitter campaign the pro-EU centrist fought to defeat a far-right leader. The 39-year-old former investment banker, unknown to the wider public three years ago and whose May […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN More than 1,500 rebels and their family members left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus after more than two months of aerial strikes and artillery shelling, rebels and state media said on Sunday. The rebels had agreed overnight to a secret evacuation deal after being cornered in a small pocket of Qaboun, which lies […]
North Korea’s conducted its latest weapons test on Sunday, presenting South Korea’s Moon Jae-in with his first foreign policy challenge and raising fears that Pyongyang may have developed a new kind of missile. Japan’s defence minister said the missile had reached an altitude of 2,000km on its 700km journey, potentially indicating a new type of rocket. David Wright, a physicist and missile expert, wrote on the All […]
Authored by Paul Criag Roberts, “Fifty years ago, the streets of Leningrad taught me one thing: If a fight is inevitable, you must strike first.” Vladimir Putin In George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, 1984, information that no longer is consistent with Big Brother’s explanations is chucked down the Memory Hole. In the real American dystopia in which we currently live, the information is never reported at all. […]
SEOUL South Korea’s national security chief, Kim Kwan-jin, spoke to U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday following North Korea’s latest missile test, South Korea’s presidential office said. They agreed to strengthen cooperation to denuclearise North Korea, it said. (Reporting by Seoul bureau; Editing by Robert Birsel) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = (relatedItemsTotal / 2); var $relatedContentGroupOne = $(‘.related-content.group-one ul’); var $relatedContentGroupTwo = $(‘.related-content.group-two ul’); […]
By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim | SEOUL SEOUL North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons programme, South Korean and U.S. officials said, days after a new leader took office in the South, pledging to engage it in dialogue. The U.S. Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. It’s unclear where to start with President Trump’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that left the White House second-string spokesperson on a precipice better associated with the Flying Wallendas. “Trump’s account flatly contradicts the White House’s initial account of how […]
By Ben Blanchard | BEIJING BEIJING China welcomes all countries to participate in this weekend’s forum on China’s new Silk Road plan, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, after the United States warned China that North Korea’s attendance could affect other countries’ participation. Two sources with knowledge of the situation said the U.S. embassy in Beijing had submitted a diplomatic note to China’s foreign ministry, saying that […]
SEOUL A senior North Korean diplomat who handles relations with the United States said on Saturday Pyongyang would have dialogue with the U.S. administration if conditions were right, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing as she was travelling home from Norway, Yonhap said. “We’ll have dialogue if the […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS North Korea made a global appeal in a letter released on Friday for states to reconsider enforcing U.N. sanctions on the Asian nation as Washington seeks to step up pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The United Nations Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2006 and has strengthened the measures in […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to the new South Korean president’s advocacy of talks with North Korea by saying he does not oppose discussions, but reiterated that the circumstances must be right, according to a transcript of an NBC interview. Moon Jae-in’s advocacy of engagement with North Korea has appeared to contrast with the approach of the United States, South Korea’s main ally, which has […]
By Parisa Hafezi | ANKARA ANKARA President Hassan Rouhani will defend his efforts to open up Iran to the world on Friday in a final televised debate against the hardline challengers who aim to topple him in an increasingly acrimonious election next week. Rouhani, swept into office in a landslide four years ago on promises to reduce Iran’s international isolation, is seeking a second term after negotiating […]
SEOUL North Korea demanded on Friday the extradition of South Korea’s spy chief, accusing him of being a mastermind of a plot to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong Un, with a biochemical weapon. The North’s KCNA state news agency last week accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) of a plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with a biochemical weapon. The […]
By Ju-min Park and Christine Kim | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s new president launched international efforts to defuse tension over North Korea’s weapons development on Thursday, urging both dialogue and sanctions while also aiming to ease China’s anger about a U.S. anti-missile system. Moon Jae-in, a liberal former human rights lawyer, was sworn in on Wednesday and said in his first speech as president he would immediately […]
Washington // The US state department has approved the sale of 160 missiles to the UAE for an estimated US$2 billion (Dh7.35bn), the Pentagon said on Thursday. The UAE government has requested the possible sale of 60 Patriot PAC-3 missiles with canisters made by Lockheed Martin and 100 Patriot guidance enhanced missiles made by Raytheon, among other military equipment, according to a department of defence statement. It […]
Moon Jae-in’s presidency of South Korea began with admirable pledges to handle an unpredictable and belligerent next-door neighbour, North Korea, and tackle economic problems. He will also tackle broader regional tensions, China’s outrage at the United States THAAD missile defence system in South Korea and rising fears over that same northern neighbour‘s nuclear programme. But one other challenge may be almost as crucial in determining the success […]
SEOUL North Korea demanded on Thursday the handover of “terror suspects” who plotted to kill leader Kim Jong Un with a biochemical substance, repeating accusations it made last week that U.S. and South Korean spies were behind the plan. The North’s KCNA news agency last week accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service of a plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with […]
By James Pearson and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL Like many other Americans who came to teach at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), Kim Hak Song was a Christian missionary who raised money from a church to come to North Korea. Kim had been running PUST’s experimental farm before he was detained on Saturday, travelling by train from Pyongyang to China’s border town […]
Authored by Whitney Webb via TheAntiMedia.org, When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11 as part of its newly launched “war on terror,” it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s dying opium industry. A few short months before the invasion took place, the Taliban made headlines for having “dramatically ended the country’s massive opium trade” after the leader of the fundamentalist […]
Senators from both sides of the aisle wrote to President Donald Trump on Wednesday urging him to take a tougher line with Beijing in the South China Sea, calling for more U.S. naval patrols to uphold navigation rights in the disputed waterway. The appeal, backed by three Republicans and four Democrats, reflects growing concern in Congress that the Trump administration could be ceding strategic ground to China […]
Doomed children gasp their last breaths in the back of a truck filled with lifeless bodies that could have been their playmates hours ago. Volunteers sprint back and forth in an attempt to salvage the remaining lives. And a camera witnesses it all, capturing video that the public won’t see for more than a month. That was the scene shown Tuesday, when CNN showed horrific footage of […]
By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s liberal leader Moon Jae-in will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday, tasked with navigating the country out of rising geopolitical tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme and the risk of a rift with the United States. Moon, 64, is expected to announce major cabinet and presidential staff appointments as early as Wednesday […]
Turkey was informed of Mr. Trump’s decision, according to an American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing private diplomatic communications. Continue reading the main story The Turkish government had no immediate reaction, with officials declining to comment before Mr. Erdogan’s office did. But the move was likely to anger Mr. Erdogan, who has been pressing the United States to lessen its […]
BEIJING China’s military has conducted live-fire drills and weapons tests in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to the Korean peninsula, the country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday. In a brief statement late on Tuesday, the ministry said the tests of new missiles and weapons were carried out by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force “in recent days” and were designed to raise operational capability so as to […]
