(December 16, 2024)
President Yoon Suk Yeol has changed the course of South Korea’s diplomacy like no leader before him. He put his country in lock step with the United States by countering North Korea with sanctions and joint military drills. He won Washington’s plaudits when he overcame a century of historical grievances Koreans held against Japan and helped lay the ground for trilateral cooperation to deter China.
He sang the praises of Western values such as freedom.
This is just the latest challenge for Trudeau, who has endured a very tumultuous six months.
The party lost two federal byelections in formerly rock-solid Liberal ridings in Toronto and Montreal this summer.
He also faced a caucus revolt earlier this fall, when about 25 of his own MPs wrote to Trudeau demanding he resign to save the party from electoral ruin.
The mood at Howard University had dampened after the evening started out with music pumping and crowds dancing.
As the night wore on, muted crowds watched with eyes glued to screens showing the results.
The Israeli response was yet another example of what Austin privately characterized as Netanyahu’s government “playing with house money”: taking big shots at its adversaries, knowing that the United States, as Israel’s chief ally, would throw its military and diplomatic weight behind it.
Some speculated that Biden’s new lame-duck status had further emboldened Netanyahu, who thought a possible Trump return to the White House would mean more U.S. support for Israel and less complaining. Just days before the attacks on Shukr and Haniyeh, after giving a table-thumping speech to Congress, Netanyahu had visited the former president and newly crowned Republican presidential nominee at his Florida residence.
Joe Biden’s government is urging Australia to say no to a draft UN resolution by the Palestinian authority.
The draft demands an unconditional withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank.
T.J. McCormack, a Republican communications specialist, said that after a „stratospheric liftoff“ to her campaign, any „less-than-stellar few days would constitute a bad week“ for the vice president.
„For a coddled candidate the real world can be a terrible thing, especially when that world has several multi-front wars, murdered hostages and polling firms carving up swing states with scalpels,“ McCormack told Newsweek. „Kamala loved the big stage, now she‘s in the trenches.“
The blue-chip Dow was lower by 519 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 lost 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1%.
(25.03.2024)
In a testy exchange earlier this month, a senior U.S. official warned Israeli counterparts of the reputational “damage” as a result of the ongoing war in Gaza. The internal memo of the exchange involving Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo, obtained by NPR correspondent Daniel Estrin, offered yet another illustration of the rift between the Biden administration and Israel, driven largely by growing American horror at the humanitarian toll of the conflict and Israel’s role in making it worse — even as the United States shields Israel in international forums and helps replenish its war machine.
(22.03.2024)
„The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in the region but elsewhere in the world,“ the memo says. „We are concerned that the Israelis are missing the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in writing off their reputation damage.“
The State Department memo recommended pressing Israeli officials on the matter „at the highest levels.“
One Democratic member of the House responded to being told of the questions about age and memory raised in the report with a morbid laugh and sullen shake of the head. Another started anxiously asking for a sense of how others were responding, palpably feeling at wit’s end.
The spectacle — at times chaotic, at times emotional — echoed around the country among the networks of Democratic donors and strategists who have been struggling for weeks to contain their concern about the state and direction of Biden’s campaign.
The broad conclusion, both inside and outside Biden’s inner circle, is that a dangerous and misleading caricature of the president’s performance is at risk of setting in, pushed by the biting prose of a special prosecutor they suspected of seeking political revenge.
Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But the country’s leaders sent a high-level legal team to two days of hearings earlier this month — a sign of how seriously they regard the case and and an indication of likely concerns that any court order to halt operations would be a major blow to the country’s international standing.
„At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger,“ Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has been in close contact with U.S. officials about the war, told Axios. „They are pleading with the Netanyahu coalition, but getting slapped in the face over and over again.“
Behind the scenes: Biden hasn‘t spoken to Netanyahu in the 20 days since a tense Dec. 23 call, which a frustrated Biden ended with the words: „This conversation is over.“
Although a final ruling will likely take years, South Africa has requested the court issue provisional orders against Israel that could range from demanding a total and immediate ceasefire — which Israel and the US firmly oppose because Hamas has yet to dismantled — to more moderate orders such as insisting that more humanitarian aid be allowed in.
But it would be the interim ruling itself, that there is even plausibility to South Africa’s allegations, that would be the most damaging to Israel’s standing.
On Monday, Musk is set to share an audio chatroom with Robert Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and Democratic candidate for president.
The decision to host Kennedy again highlights, for the second time in as many weeks, Musk’s unique potential to shape public opinion through a combination of his own personal celebrity and his private control of a social media megaphone.
Voters seem to have a higher opinion of the challenger than of the president.
Concerns were rising April 17 over oil production and exports in Sudan and its bigger-producing southern neighbor as fighting related to a vicious power struggle between military leaders rolled into a third day.
Saudi Arabia is mulling an invite to Assad to the Arab League summit that Riyadh will host next month.
The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Algeria and Jordan have all resumed diplomatic ties with Assad, whose government remains under heavy US sanctions.
Every local prosecutor in the country will now feel that he or she has free rein to criminally investigate and prosecute presidents after they leave office. Democrats currently cheering the charges against Mr. Trump may feel differently if — or when — a Democrat, perhaps even President Biden, ends up on the receiving end of a similar effort by any of the thousands of prosecutors elected to local office, eager to make a name for themselves by prosecuting a former president of the United States.
(Feb. 1, 2023)
The variables that will determine oil companies’ profitability this year are largely out of their control — in both supply and demand. The war in Ukraine could expand or not; a recession in the United States and Europe could be deep or averted entirely. Prices for fuels, and inflation generally, will largely depend on how events play out.
Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi is scheduled to visit Russia – the last stop of his tour to Europe since February 14. He is expected to promote peace talks as the Russia-Ukraine conflict approaches the one-year mark, with the situation still deteriorating. Analysts said that China‘s tangible moves in de-escalating the situation have been in stark contrast to the US‘ fanning of flames.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin may hold talks with Wang Yi and he said the agenda for Wang is very „extensive and there is a lot to talk about.“
Downing Street has conceded that today‘s mass strike action will be „very difficult“ for the public.
The prime minister‘s official spokesman said it is „disappointing“ that headteachers do not know fully how many teachers will be available for work until later today.
The House and Senate are set to reconvene this week after the U.S. hit its debt ceiling last week, setting off a roughly six-month sprint for Congress to either raise the borrowing limit or risk economic catastrophe.
“The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises,” he continued.
(June 10, 2022)
Lower fertility rates, coupled with increased life expectancies around the world, are creating an aging population. Since 1950, the global median age has grown from 25 years to 33 years.
An older population comes with a number of economic risks, including rising healthcare costs and a smaller global workforce.
Every Leftist revolution – Venezuela, Cuba, the USSR itself – follows the same pattern. First, Western observers gush over it – they’ve seen the future and it works. Then, as things begin to go wrong, they blame saboteurs and plead for time. Finally, when the revolution ends (as they all end) in hunger and labour camps, they insist that it was never properly socialist in the first place, and that “real socialism has never been tried”.
Israel‘s military chief of staff condemned an assault on Israeli troops in the West Bank by left-wing activists, including an off-duty soldier.
The incident took place earlier on Friday near the Hebron Mount in the West Bank and saw left-wing Israelis, Palestinians, and one off-duty Israeli soldier clash with and hurl stones at Israeli troops posted at the site.
Israel‘s Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi condemned the attack, saying it represented „a very serious incident.“
More than 115,000 rail workers will be legally allowed to strike on Friday.
The “new” deal will maintain the original JCPOA’s rotten sunset clauses; will whitewash all of Iran’s nuclear program violations to-date (like enriching uranium to the 60% level); allow Iran to keep its nuclear enrichment infrastructure and other military weaponization projects; will not guarantee “anytime and anywhere” inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Iranian nuclear installations; and will not allow for the “snapback” of Western sanctions.
After several months during which Israel offered contradictory assessments regarding Iran’s intention to sign a new agreement, in the past two days senior Israeli officials have voiced similar assessments: Since Tehran conveyed its reply to the draft agreement last Monday, the chances of a treaty have increased significantly, even if still not great.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday tried to soothe the fears of Israel and its Gulf Arab allies ahead of the possible renewal of global powers’ international nuclear deal with Iran.
Blinken made the comments shortly before joining his counterparts from Israel and four Arab countries at a special gathering where the Iranian nuclear deal was expected to top the agenda.
As reports swirl of an imminent new Iran nuclear deal, Israeli officials on Sunday lashed out at Washington, according to a TV report.
“The Biden administration has turned diplomacy into a religion, and the agreement the US will sign with Tehran is meaningless,” officials quoted by Channel 13 news said.
Millions of health care workers across the U.S. were supposed to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by this coming Monday under a mandate issued by President Joe Biden’s administration. Thanks to legal challenges, they won’t have to worry about it, at least for now.
Same goes for a Jan. 4 deadline set by the administration for businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus.
Yesterday and today, federal judges in Louisiana and Missouri entered injunctions against vaccine mandates for the staff of 21 types of Medicare and Medicaid health-care providers, enacted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and planned to go into effect next Monday. Monday’s ruling was by Judge Matthew Schlep of the Eastern District of Missouri (a Trump appointee), and applies to ten states (Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming), all of which were plaintiffs in the case.
(31.05.2021)
While all the signatories have expressed their desire to see the deal revived, American allies in the Middle East have voiced concerns about this intention.
Mrs Clinton said it was also important to protect the „many thousands of Afghans“ who had worked with the US and Nato during the conflict, and said a large visa programme should be set up to provide for any refugees.
“This is a catastrophic move,” the source continued, adding that when Kahol Lavan Chairman Benny Gantz “did something similar in the last election, we made sure to stop the campaign when the other parties hit six seats so as not to endanger the bloc.”
(01.01.2021)
In a weekend interview with Yediot Aharonot, Gantz said „I felt him stabbing me in the back and turning the knife.“
Nissenkorn, whose resignation took effect Friday morning, wrote on Facebook afterward that Gantz made „crazy concessions“ that would have emptied the justice minister post of authority in an effort to keep the government together.
The grim countenances of Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance told the story before they even started talking – Christmas was off. As Boris Johnson sat in the Cabinet Room at 5pm on Friday, Whitty and Vallance appeared on the Zoom monitors and started reeling off increasingly alarming data about the new mutant strain of the coronavirus…
Felgentreu is considered one of the biggest supporters of the move to arm the UAVs, which was separated from the actual procurement of the UAVs due to previous opposition within the SPD, which caused him to resign over the issue. Felgentreu has told „Globes“ in the past that the German army needs the Israeli UAVs to help protect its combat soldiers on missions in Afghanistan and Mali.
The new tiers system for England came into force at midnight after the Commons approved it by 291 to 78 – but the healthy majority masked a disaster for Mr Johnson as a swathe of his own MPs abandoned him.
Scores of Tories joined the biggest uprising of this Parliament despite Mr Johnson personally waiting in the division lobbies and urging them to stick with the government, and he only secured victory because Sir Keir stopped short of opposing the measures.
(29.07.2020)
The public spat between the Democratic and Republican sides of the so-called Gang of Eight, less than 100 days before Americans go to the polls, is highly unusual for the group, whose obligations normally rise above the political fray and rarely descend publicly into the partisan squabbles that define Capitol Hill.