Tag Archives: Trump

Facebook on Tuesday launched a climate science information center to elevate credible sources on climate change, as critics question its role in the spread of misinformation on the issue. Facebook said the project is modeled on its COVID-19 Information Center, and launched a similar feature last month on voting in …

A U.S. judge on Wednesday forcefully rebuked federal prosecutors for a series of failures, including withholding exculpatory evidence, that led to the dismissal of an indictment against a banker who had been convicted of Iran sanctions violations. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s …

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people, the head of the agency said on Wednesday. Philippe Lazzarini also warned in an interview with The Associated …

The United States said on Wednesday it plans to impose sanctions on those who violate a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, which Washington says will now stay in place instead of expiring in October as agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal. U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran Elliott Abrams …

Top aides to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went before a Congressional panel on Wednesday to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the former State Department inspector general while he was investigating weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and allegations that Pompeo misused department funds. Trump abruptly fired Steve …

Israel’s rapprochement with Gulf Arab states has left the Palestinians feeling abandoned by traditional allies and clutching an old playbook in a rapidly changing Middle East, analysts and critics say. As the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain prepare to sign normalization accords with Israel at a White House ceremony on …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be willing to sell other countries in the Middle East the same weapons systems sold to Israel, noting the region’s wealth and saying it would be good for the United States and U.S. jobs. “They’re very wealthy countries for the most …

I’ve been struggling to write a review of this little sci-fi action masterpiece Tenet (2020) for quite some time now if only because it’s such a hard movie to understand. And I’m saying this as a sci-fi buff whose watched and read his fair share of reverse flow time travel …

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Tuesday will become the latest Arab states to break a longstanding taboo when they sign agreements toward normalizing relations with Israel in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump will host the White House ceremony at noon …

Bahraini opposition groups have said they reject a decision by the Gulf state to normalise relations with Israel, with a leading Shi’ite cleric on Sunday calling on the people of the region to resist. Cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, living in Iran, said he was against normalisation between Arab countries …

A deal establishing relations between Israel and Bahrain will result in direct flights between the countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. “There will be brisk and direct air traffic between the countries,” he said in remarks to the Israeli cabinet, a transcript of which was issued by …

Palestinians in Gaza burnt pictures of Israeli, U.S., Bahraini and United Arab Emirates leaders on Saturday in protest over the two Gulf countries’ moves to normalize ties with Israel. Bahrain on Friday joined the UAE in agreeing to normalize relations with Israel, a move forged partly through shared fears of …

Bahrain’s minister of foreign affairs Abdullatif Al-Zayani and Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi held a phone call on Saturday, the Bahrain foreign ministry announced, after the normalization of relations the day before. The ministers stressed the need to move relations forward to promote peace and stability in the region, it said. …

Arab American organizations have welcomed a federal court ruling that prevents President Donald Trump from excluding undocumented immigrants from 2020 US Census counts. In particular, he wanted to remove them from population counts that will be used next year to reallocate the number of seats each state gets in the …

The king of Bahrain reiterated the necessity of reaching a fair and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two state solution, in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain’s state news agency BNA said on Friday. Bahrain joined the …

Russia and China dismissed on Friday allegations by Microsoft Corp MSFT.O that hackers linked to Moscow and Beijing were trying to spy on people tied to both U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Advisers to both presidential campaigns are assessing risks from digital spies around the globe, …

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter. The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working …

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a former top aide to stop providing assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the Nov. 3 election and to play down U.S. white supremacist activity, according to a whistleblower complaint released on Wednesday. Brian Murphy, a former Homeland Security deputy …

Palestinian leaders won renewed Saudi support for Palestinian statehood at a Wednesday meeting, but did not persuade the Arab League to condemn last month’s normalisation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. At a video conference of foreign ministers, the Palestinian leadership softened its own censure of the UAE …

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged to a journalist early in the coronavirus pandemic that he played down the danger of the health crisis despite having evidence to the contrary, according to a new book. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told author Bob Woodward on March 19, days …

A day after President Donald Trump accused the U.S. military brass of wanting to fight wars to keep weapons makers happy, the Army’s top general said on Tuesday leaders of the armed forces would recommend sending troops into combat only when it is in American national security interests or as …

Amid historic normalisation talks between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, American officials spent a morning at an Abu Dhabi air base housing U.S. stealth jets which the Gulf state hopes to buy despite Israeli objections. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner met Emirati military officials at the UAE’s Al …

The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Sunday accused U.S. Attorney General William Barr of lying when he said China posed a bigger threat to November’s U.S. election than Russia. “That’s just a plain false statement by the attorney general,” Adam Schiff told CNN. “What Bill …

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Sunday that the kingdom was eager to achieve a fair and permanent solution to the Palestinian issue, which he said was the main starting point of the kingdom’s proposed Arab Peace Initiative, the state news agency …

The White House has asked U.S. government agencies for extensive details of any funding that seeks to counter China’s global influence and business practices, or supports Beijing, amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing. According to an Aug. 27 White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document seen by …

Seven Rochester, New York police officers were suspended on Thursday over the asphyxiation death of a Black man who they arrested in March in a brutal incident only revealed in videotape footage made public this week. The tape, which was recorded by an officer’s body camera, shows a group of …

A difference between English and Arabic versions of a trilateral statement after an historic flight from Israel to the UAE has been seized upon by Palestinians to suggest the Gulf state has overstated Israeli readiness to drop West Bank annexation plans. The English version of a joint communiqué by the …

Two high-profile Venezuelan opposition leaders are in talks with the government of President Nicolas Maduro to participate in the upcoming legislative elections despite a planned boycott, a Turkish official involved in the talks said on Tuesday. Opposition parties had agreed to sit out the parliamentary vote slated for December, arguing …

Three people were killed and several others were injured on Monday in two separate explosions in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi and its tourism hub Dubai, the police and local media said. The Abu Dhabi government media office said two people were killed in the blast in the …

Facebook made a mistake in not removing a militia group’s page earlier this week that called for armed civilians to enter Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid violent protests after police shot Jacob Blake, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. The page for the “Kenosha Guard” violated Facebook’s policies and had been flagged by “a …

Iran’s central bank said on Saturday it was taking legal steps to counter a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court by creditors seeking to seize $1.7 billion of its assets held by Deutsche Boerse’s (DB1Gn.DE) Clearstream unit. The German stock exchange operator said earlier the creditors had filed the suit …

Israel hopes to hold a signing ceremony in Washington for its normalisation deal with the United Arab Emirates by mid-September, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet said on Sunday. The date for such an event could be decided by senior aides to Netanyahu and to U.S. President Donald …

TikTok Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer has left short video app firm just three months since joining – and days after TikTok sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over an executive order banning transactions with it in the country. He will be replaced by U.S. General Manager Vanessa …

A small number of U.S. troops were injured during an interaction with Russian forces in Syria, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. While such interactions between American and Russian forces are not rare, the incident highlights the risks of troops from both countries operating in close proximity in northern …

The president of the U.N. Security Council, Indonesia, said on Tuesday it was “not in the position to take further action” on a U.S. bid to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran because there is no consensus in the 15-member body. Thirteen council members expressed their opposition …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Gulf state of Bahrain on Tuesday as part of a Middle East tour following an accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations. Israel and the United States have said they are pushing more Arab countries to follow …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a visit to Khartoum on Tuesday that Sudan’s democratic transition was a “once in a generation opportunity”. In a tweet, Pompeo also said that he looked forward to discussing “how to deepen the U.S.-Sudan relationship”. The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said …

The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Iran on Monday, Iranian state TV reported, as he seeks access for inspectors to two suspected former atomic sites after a months-long standoff between Tehran and the body. Tehran said Grossi’s visit would “strengthen ties and build trust” between Tehran and …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Sudan in the coming days, a Sudanese government official said on Sunday. Sudan has been normalising relations with the United States since the overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 but is still seeking removal from a list of …

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has described Turkish attacks on Iraqi soil as “unacceptable” and urged the US to resolve the dispute in a meeting with US President Donald Trump. Ankara and Baghdad have been negotiating since mid-June to solve the dispute over Turkish offensives in Kurdistan and other disputed …

The United States was further isolated on Friday over its bid to reimpose international sanctions on Iran with 13 countries on the 15-member U.N. Security Council expressing their opposition, arguing that Washington’s move is void given it is using a process agreed under a nuclear deal that it quit two …

The United Kingdom, France and Germany on Thursday said they cannot support the U.S. move to restore United Nations sanctions on Iran, saying the action is incompatible with efforts to support the Iran nuclear deal. “In order to preserve the agreement, we urge Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with …

The United States is eyeing the sale of stealthy F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates in a side agreement to the UAE’s overtures to Israel, an industry insider who was part of the dialogue with government officials said on Wednesday. A sale, which could reduce Israel’s military advantage …

Israel’s settler leaders say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defrauded them of their long-held dream of annexing the occupied West Bank as part of the country’s normalisation deal with the United Arab Emirates. Their anger could be a problem for right-wing Netanyahu, whom they accuse of repeatedly floating the …