Photo Members of the United Nations Security Council during a meeting about Syria on April 7. President Trump will host a lunch on Monday with 14 diplomats who are members of the Security Council. Credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images UNITED NATIONS — President Trump, who recently had Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin and Kid Rock over for a White House dinner, is planning to host 14 diplomats from around […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Sunday he expected Mexico to pay for the wall he has promised to build along the southern border, resuscitating a campaign promise that roiled U.S. relations with Mexico in the first week of his presidency. “Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,” Trump […]
By Josh Smith and Hamid Shalizi | KABUL KABUL Eight days after the U.S. military dropped its largest ever conventional bomb on suspected Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan, Taliban militants breached an army base in the north of the country and killed scores of local soldiers. To Afghan and other critics of President Donald Trump’s apparent indecision over how to win a seemingly intractable war, Friday’s […]
Photo King Salman of Saudi Arabia at the 28th Ordinary Summit of the Arab League at the Dead Sea last month. King Salman rescinded a 20 percent cut to ministers’ salaries and promoted two of his sons. Credit Mohammad Hamed/Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — King Salman of Saudi Arabia rescinded salary cuts for ministers and restored financial perks for public sector workers in a series of royal decrees […]
With president Trump optimistic, but already laying plans for a possible government shutdown – which incidentally would take place on the symbolic 100th day of Trump’s administration, incentivizing Democrats to be especially confrontational – White House budget director Mick Mulvaney tried to talk down concerns of an imminent government closure, and said talks between Republicans and Democrats in Congress could reach an agreement to avoid a government […]
By Valerie Volcovici | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Department of Homeland Security will not target immigrants brought to the United States as children for deportation, despite conflicting statements within the Trump administration, its secretary John Kelly said on Sunday. Kelly, asked on Sunday morning talk shows to clarify the department’s position on the status of these illegal immigrants protected under an Obama-era program, said the agency is focused […]
By Ahmed Sultan | ACHIN DISTRICT, Afghanistan ACHIN DISTRICT, Afghanistan The remote site in eastern Afghanistan where the U.S. military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat earlier this month bears signs of the weapon’s power, but little evidence of how much material and human damage it inflicted. Reuters photos and video footage – some of the first images from journalists allowed to get close […]
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is not worried by the prospect of cuts to corporate tax rates in the United States he told German magazine Wirtschaftswoche on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday promised a big announcement about tax reform shortly and ordered a review of Obama-era tax rules written to discourage U.S. companies […]
When future historians look back at the beginning of the 21st century, they’ll note that we grappled with many big issues. They’ll write about the battle between nationalism and globalism, soaring global debt, a dysfunctional healthcare system, societal concerns around automation and AI, and pushback on immigration. They will also note the growing number of populist leaders in Western democracies, ranging from Marine Le Pen to Donald […]
By James Pearson and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined a U.S. carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to […]
WASHINGTON U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday that the Trump administration’s tax reform plan would produce some “short term issues” when viewed under traditional “static” budget analysis rules. His comments during an interview by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde suggested that the plan would not be revenue-neutral and would increase deficits in the short term. Mnuchin said that the tax plan would pay […]
When North Korean traders give Li Jian long lists of the goods they want to buy, he checks the items against a 236-page Chinese translation of the UN sanctions imposed after Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted a sixth nuclear weapons test in September. “If it’s on the sanctions list, we can’t provide it,” Mr Li said from his office in downtown Dandong, the Chinese border city through which […]
By Roberta Rampton | SYDNEY SYDNEY U.S. Vice President Mike Pence crouched down in the shade of a eucalyptus tree on Sunday at Sydney’s Tarango Zoo where Penny, a red kangaroo, dozed in the midday heat, scratching her behind the ears before she lazily rolled onto her back. “That’s my usual position on a Sunday afternoon,” Pence said as a bank of cameras clicked, capturing yet another […]
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com, Last week Trump supporters and leftist social justice warriors met on the political field of battle in Berkeley, California. Words were exchanged, as were punches. And while an alt-right leader was punched in the face, by all accounts even the social justice warriors admit that they got a major beat-down. This prompted a reddit discussion among the left’s tolerant resistance movement, […]
By Ingrid Melander | PARIS PARIS France goes to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a bitterly fought presidential election, crucial to the future of Europe and a closely-watched test of voters’ anger with the political establishment. Nearly 47 million voters will decide, under tight security, whether to back a pro-EU centrist newcomer, a scandal-ridden veteran conservative who wants to slash public spending, a […]
By Ginger Gibson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s promised “big announcement” next week on overhauling the U.S. tax code, a top campaign pledge, will consist of “broad principles and priorities,” an administration official said on Saturday. The president unexpectedly said on Friday at a Treasury Department event that there would be “a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform.” In a Twitter message […]
The open call for the exit of United States from the Paris climate deal by none other than the head of the Environmental Protection Agency has shocked environmentalists. This is the first time a high-ranking Trump administration official such as EPA Chief Scott Pruitt has gone public with a call to scrap the historic agreement, which has been endorsed by more than 200 countries. Paris deal aims to […]
Finance ministers and central bankers from around the world have dropped a pledge to resist protectionism, in a further sign that the new US administration’s stance on trade is shifting the global debate. The group from International Monetary Fund member countries issued a statement on Saturday saying they would “promote a level playing field in international trade” but did not reiterate a previous commitment to “resist all […]
By Leika Kihara and Francesco Canepa | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund members on Saturday dropped a pledge to fight protectionism amid a split over trade policy and turned their attention to another looming threat to global economic integration: the first round of France’s presidential election. Concerns that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon, both critics of the European Union, could top the […]
©AFP WASHINGTON — Thousands of scientists and people from other walks of life turned out in Washington and New York on Saturday for Earth Day events that organisers have framed as a “celebration” of science to counter a growing disregard for evidence-based knowledge. The “March for Science” festivities included “teach-ins” on the National Mall and parades in midtown Manhattan and hundreds of other cities and towns. The […]
As her email mess was growing, Hillary Clinton scheduled the first national TV interview of her campaign with Brianna Keilar of CNN. It went poorly. But wait. It now turns out that Clinton aide Huma Abedin had meant “Bianna,” not “Brianna” when she disclosed her belated intent to a communications aide. She wanted what she figured would be a non-threatening session with Yahoo! News’ Bianna Golodryga, who […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would visit wounded U.S. veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the armed forces hospital located in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington. Trump announced the visit at midday in a Twitter post. “Getting ready to visit Walter Reed Medical Center with Melania,” he wrote, referring to his wife Melania Trump. In the tweet, Trump said, “Looking forward to […]
By Bate Felix and Daniel Pardon | PARIS/PAPEETE, French Polynesia PARIS/PAPEETE, French Polynesia French overseas territories and French residents in the United States and Canada began voting on Saturday in France’s presidential election, a day before the main first-round of a poll that could change the global political landscape. Of nearly 47 million registered French voters, there are fewer than a million resident in far-flung places like […]
Around 10,000 scientists and their supporters marched through London on Saturday — one of more than 500 demonstrations worldwide celebrating “robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity”. As the London demonstrators marched from the Science Museum to Parliament Square, they waved hundreds of colourful placards made in labs and homes across Britain, with messages ranging from “Nature isn’t fooled by […]
