The US ambassador to Israel did not rule out an Israeli move to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, land the Palestinians seek for a state, in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday.
Related: Jared Kushner casts doubt on Palestinian ability to self-govern
Continue reading...Administration gives Libyan National Army chief cold shoulder less than two months after Trump showed support in surprise call
The Trump administration has given the cold shoulder to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, less than two months after Trump appeared to show support for him in a surprise phone call, and is now rethinking its policy towards the country’s civil war, according to multiple sources in the US and the region.
Encouraged by the 15 April call, Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) hired lobbyists in Washington in the hope of arranging an official visit by the field marshal, who is a dual Libyan-US national, or one of his top aides, to reinforce the impression that he had US backing in his offensive against the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
Continue reading...The administration wants to sell $8bn of weapons to Saudi Arabia and UAE – and prop up a morally indefensible war
On the Friday before Memorial Day, when few Americans were paying attention, the Trump administration announced that it would circumvent Congress and sell $8bn in new weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It was Donald Trump’s latest attempt to give a blank check to two US allies leading a disastrous war in Yemen.
Related: UK arms exports are still playing a central role in Yemen’s humanitarian crisis | Anna Stavrianakis
Continue reading...‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report
The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.
Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.
Continue reading...The US is prepared to engage with Iran about its nuclear program without pre-conditions but needs to see the country behaving like “a normal nation”, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani suggested on Saturday that Iran may be willing to hold talks if Washington shows it respect, but said Tehran would not be pressured into talks.
Continue reading...Democrats are turning a president enraged at the blocking of his border wall into an unhinged beast
Donald Trump’s threats of higher import tariffs against Mexican goods can be better understood not as an escalation of his trade war with the rest of the world, but as the act of a desperate man, prepared to upset most US business leaders to achieve his aim of building a border wall with the country’s southern neighbour.
His anger, which he will bring with him on a state visit to London on Monday, is not so much with Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration in Mexico City as with Congress, which has blocked the border wall, or at least restricted funding to such an extent that its completion is unlikely before the next presidential race gets under way.
Continue reading...Mexico’s president hinted on Saturday that his country could tighten migration controls in order to defuse Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods. Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he expected “good results” from talks in Washington next week.
Related: 'No idea too lunatic': how Trump's shock troops attack US democracy
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been bartending this week - returning to the job she had before running for Congress - to raise support for living wage legislation. NY1 and WNYC have some scenes from today’s venue.
She’s now going around the restaurant, pen and pad in hand taking orders.
.@AOC begins serving tables at an embargoed location in Queens - she says she’s excited for servers to be the served today. pic.twitter.com/YdCjZvkSI7
There’s a new push from the left to defeat one of the only remaining anti-abortion Democrat in the House, BuzzFeed reports.
Progressives are targeting Dan Lipinski, an Illinois congressman. Marie Newman, a Chicago businesswoman, is running against him for the second time. “This type of legislation is authoritarian and totalitarian. There’s no other way to describe it,” Newman told BuzzFeed of the recent spate of state-level abortion bans. “Let’s be honest about what it is. It’s taking us back 100 years, and that’s not exaggerating.”
Continue reading...After 5% tariff announced, president tweets ‘Mexico has taken advantage of the US for decades’
Donald Trump has defended his decision to impose new tariffs on Mexico as stock markets worldwide were rattled by fears of an escalation in trade tensions.
“Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump tweeted. “Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!”
Continue reading...US will place a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico to pressure the country to stop the flow of Central American migrants, Trump says
In a surprise announcement that could compromise a major trade deal, Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is slapping a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the border.
He said the percentage would gradually increase “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied”.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said Robert Mueller 'should never have been chosen' for the position of special counsel, claiming Mueller wanted to replace James Comey as FBI director. Trump's remarks come a day after the former special counsel said at a press conference that investigators could not conclude that the US president had not committed a crime
A new book from Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff says special counsel Robert Mueller drew up a three-count obstruction of justice indictment against Donald Trump before deciding to shelve it – an explosive claim which a spokesman for Mueller flatly denied.
Related: 'It's all explosive': Michael Wolff on Donald Trump
Continue reading...There was a time, not so very long ago, when the US was held up as a model for other nations to emulate. That time has passed. Last week witnessed more gratuitous international hooliganism by the Trump administration. Its latest depredations include extra-territorial bullying of trade and business rivals, violent threats against Iran, an absurdly biased “peace plan” for Palestine, resumed arms sales to fuel the Saudis’ war in Yemen, and an assault on global press freedom.
Anger and dismay over Donald Trump’s wildly swinging wrecking ball obscure they ways in which the US could be using its unmatched power to benefit others – but refuses to do so. Its current policy is defined by its absences. Once again, Syrian civilians are dying in a horrific war Trump has done nothing to halt. Alarm bells are ringing over the climate crisis and mass extinction – yet Trump’s people prefer to focus on economic opportunities afforded by a melting Arctic ice cap.
Continue reading...If Roosh V, rape-apologist and leading voice in the online ‘manosphere’, can change his ways, perhaps psychedelics can advance feminism
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Continue reading...Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US would send 1,500 troops to the Middle East as a protective measure after a breakdown in relations with Iran. ‘Right now, I don’t think Iran wants to fight and I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us,’ the US president said
Continue reading...White House downplays prospect of conflict but blames Iran for tanker bombings and Iraq attack
The US will send hundreds of additional troops and a dozen fighter jets to the Middle East in the coming weeks to counter what the Pentagon has said is an escalating campaign by Iran to plan attacks against the US and its interests in the region.
And for the first time, Pentagon officials on Friday publicly blamed Iran and its proxies for recent tanker bombings near United Arab Emirates and a rocket attack in Iraq.
Continue reading...Voices within Chinese state and private media grow more strident as tensions mount
Over the last week, China’s state media outlets have called the US government delusional, compared it to apes shouting on a river bank, and offered to teach the Americans a Chinese idiom: diandao heibai, “to invert black and white”, or deliberately distort the truth.
As trade tensions mount between the US and China, Beijing faces the difficult task of appealing to national pride to shore up confidence in the leadership while also keeping public anger in check.
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Arguments have begun in Donald Trump’s lawsuit to block Congressional subpoenas of his financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One.
Patrick Strawbridge, one of Trump’s lawyers, reiterated in court his argument that Congress is overstepping its role by issuing such broad subpoenas.
Related: Trump lawyers to appear in court over subpoenas for financial records
Donald Trump Jr is set to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming an author.
The first son, who earlier today was described as “a good young man” by his father – has signed a deal with Center Street Books, and the tome will be published later this year.
Continue reading...Donald Trump rejected a charge by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that he was engaged in a cover-up, saying he was the "most transparent president" the country had ever had. In a last-minute press conference in the Rose Garden, outside the Oval office, Trump condemned the Democats, and said "the crime was committed on the other side". Trump added he would refuse to work with them unless they dropped their investigations into his administration and finances
Continue reading...About 400 events were set to take place across all 50 US states in defense of abortion rights
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