US President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Office after returning to the White House in Washington D.C. Photo: Yin Bogu/Xinhua Donald Trump, through Joel Pollak as ambassador, will attempt to export the alt-right’s “civilisation of death” agenda, writes Ahmed Haroon Jazbhay. Speculation is rife that US President Donald Trump aims to send South African-born Joel Pollak as his ambassador to the country.
Category: World News
.com | The agonising wait as the assault starts
It is Tuesday in Pretoria West, and after some of the city’s buildings are torched and about 30 foreign-owned shops looted, a group calling itself the Mamelodi Concerned Residents’ Association announces it will lead a march against undocumented immigrants on Friday and hand over a memorandum to government. At 11:00 that morning, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba speaks from Cape Town after the group’s anti-immigrant march is approved by the Tshwane metro police.
Malaysia warns North Korea to cooperate with investigation
According to police Friday, forensics stated that the banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used to kill Kim Jong Nam. . A journalist checks his phone outside North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
Trump tower opens in Vancouver but the welcome isn’t warm
This Jan. 20, 2017 photo shows the still-under-construction Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 69-story tower has drawn praise for its sleek, twisting design.
Pence: Administration backs Israel abroad, business at home
Vice President Mike Pence is assuring the Republican Jewish Coalition that he and President Donald Trump will work tirelessly on foreign and domestic issues important to the group, such as enacting business-friendly policies at home and supporting Israel abroad. “If the world knows nothing else, the world will know this: America stands with Israel,” Pence told the group Friday night.
India lobbies Trump administration to avert visa threat
Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry of India attends the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 19, 2017. India has stepped up its lobbying effort against moves in the U. S. Congress to impose curbs on visas for skilled workers that threaten the South Asian nation’s tech sector, which employs more than 3.5 million people.
Australians doubt Trump’s commitment to its traditional ally
Some Australians foresee trouble in their country’s traditionally strong alliance with the United States because of what they see as “unpresidential” behavior from President Donald Trump, while others think outspoken businessman-turned-Australian-leader Malcolm Turnbull is a good match for him. Australians have long had an affinity with the United States and absorb American popular culture like blotting paper.
‘Madman Theory’ of foreign policy working – so far
A man watches a TV news program showing a file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with letters reading: “The North fired a missile” at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. At the heart of Donald Trump’s foreign policy team lies a glaring contradiction.
Internet poker company founder pleads not guilty to U.S. charges
The founder of what had been one of the largest online poker websites agreed on Thursday to confront U.S. charges stemming from a long-running criminal case targeting internet firms like his operating illegally in the United States. Scott Tom, who founded Costa Rica-based Absolute Poker, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges he violated a federal internet gambling law and engaged in a money-laundering conspiracy.
US, Mexico at odds over deportation as top officials meet
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, before his departure to Mexico. President Donald Trump is sending his Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to Mexico on a fence-mending mission made all the more challenging by the actual fence he wants to build on the southern border.
Mexico bristles at ‘hostile’ Trump deportation rules
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray addresses the audience during a meeting between Mexico and the United Nations on human rights in Mexico City, Mexico February 22, 2017. Photo: Reuters Mexico reacted with anger on Wednesday to what one official called “hostile” new US immigration guidelines hours before senior Trump administration envoys began arriving in Mexico City for talks on the volatile issue.
Trump’s threat of mass deportation fills Mexican migrant towns with fear
In an undated handout photo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detain a suspect in Los Angeles in February of 2017. With an executive order last month and a pair of Department of Homeland Security memos on Feb. 22, the Trump administration has significantly hardened the country’s policies regarding illegal immigration.
Trump denounces anti-Semitism in newly forceful condemnation
President Donald Trump on Tuesday condemned recent threats against Jewish community centres in the U.S. as “painful reminders” of lingering prejudice and evil, his first full-throated comments on the rise of anti-Semitic venom after pressure for him to speak out forcefully. With his somewhat delayed denunciation, Trump sought to reset his relationship with American Jews, which has been strained by a recent White House statement on the Holocaust, comments by some of his supporters and his own fractious exchange with a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish publication.
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President Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, hasn’t shied away from expressing strong public opinions on military and strategic issues.
Saudi Arabia ready to send ground troops to Syria
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has said the kingdom is prepared to send ground troops to Syria to fight the Daesh group, as US Senator John McCain met with the Saudi King. Adel al-Jubeir told German daily SA1 4ddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday that Saudi forces could battle Daesh alongside US special forces assisting US-backed Kurdish-Arab fighters.
British IS ‘suicide bomber was former Guantanamo Bay detainee’
The British IS fighter is said to have detonated an explosives-filled vehicle in a village to the south of Mosul, Iraq. A British Islamic State fighter who is believed to have carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq was a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, according to reports.
Israeli jets strike outside Damascus – Syrian media
An Israel Air Force F-15 flies overhead during an exercise in the Golan Heights on February 23, 2014. Syrian media reported that Israeli aircraft targeted a Syrian Army convoy bearing weapons for the Hezbollah terrorist group early Wednesday morning.
NAT: A Note from Herbjorn Hansson
Herbjrn Hansson, Chairman & CEO, Nordic American Tankers Limited has issued a statement about his company which is headquartered in Bermuda and listed on NYSE, with offices and representatives in several other countries. “Our office in Sandefjord, Norway, deals with corporate management, including communication with the NAT board, IR matters, quality assurance, cost control, accounting, macroeconomics and any issues related to US capital markets.
The World Bank’s View Through the Looking Glass
A few days ago, I had the rare opportunity to watch an arm of the World Bank answer in court for the harm one of its projects allegedly caused. The International Finance Corporation , the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, responded to allegations that a power plant it financed harmed fisher folk in Gujarat, India.
Exclusive: Myanmar probing police ‘cover-up’ of deaths of two Rohingya Muslims
The ruins of a market which was set on fire are seen at a Rohingya village outside Maugndaw in Rakhine state, Myanmar October 27, 2016. Boys search for useful items among the ashes of burnt houses after fire destroyed shelters at a camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State near Sittwe, Myanmar May 3, 2016.
Supreme Court To Decide If Mexican Nationals May Sue For Border Shooting
Relatives of Sergio HernA ndez sit in Ciudad Juarez at the U.S.-Mexico border, on the second anniversary of his killing in 2012. The cellphone video is vivid.
Three Immediate Priorities for McMasterby Tom RoganIn 2005, Colonel…
Attempting to secure Tal Afar, a city in northern Iraq, McMaster faced a big problem: He was witnessing an insurgency that was warping from nationalism into , and he knew that the U.S. Army’s “kinetic” focused strategy was making things worse. But, unlike many other field commanders, McMaster decided to buck the Army groupthink.
Trump appoints McMaster and Kellogg to top security roles
The national security adviser, part of the senior White House staff, serves as the chief in-house counselor to the president on national security issues and has traditionally sought to play the role of a broker among agencies. “And well be talking to some of the other generals that Ive met”, Trump said.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe turns 93; confirms 2018 election run
One of Africa’s longest-serving heads of state turns 93 today — but is showing no signs of slowing down. In an interview to state media to celebrate the occasion, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe confirmed that he intends to run for president in the 2018 general election, Reuters reported.
Thomas Friedman: Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn’t improving
First you were tested by a rival – Russia – and utterly failed to appreciate the corrosive impact on our democracy of your indulgence of Russia’s hacking our election. And on Wednesday you’re going to be tested by a friend – Israel – and its prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu.
BBC reporter shocked by threats from Castro’s goon squad
It’s really mild criticism, as one would expect. But the goons who run the Castro Kingdom don’t like any kind of criticism, even of the milder sort.
Looking To Deal? North Korea May Come The US For First Time In Years
Senior North Korean officials may soon come to America for a meeting with former U.S. officials, the first such meeting in over five years, reports The Washington Post. Plans for the “Track 1.5” talks, which are expected to take place in New York within the next few weeks, are still in their early stages, the Post reports.
Explosion rattles Bogot , one policeman killed
An explosion in the center of Colombia’s capital killed a police officer and injured more than two dozen others, according to media reports and eyewitnesses. Andres Felipe Arias Leiva, Colombia’s former agriculture minister who faces possible extradition for alleged corruption, said Tuesday that the case is of a political nature because he opposed the strategy of the current Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, to agree with the Forces Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia .
Trump’s first month augurs stormy trans-Atlantic relations
Europeans have reacted to President Donald Trump’s first month in office with demonstrations, counter-barbs and sheer angst that a century of trans-Atlantic friendship may be sinking. The governments of some traditional allies have gone a step further, uniting with fundraising plans and a special conference to balance the new U.S. administration’s reverse tack from Barack Obama’s presidency on abortion policies.
Inside V.P. Mike Pence’s Not-So-Reassuring European Reassurance Tour
Vice President Mike Pence told Munich conference attendees that the Trump administration was “unwavering” in its commitment to NATO, but he didn’t dispel doubts with his tough talk on Saturday. Somewhere amid the reports out of Melbourne, Florida and, well, Sweden, Americans were kept abreast of what President Trump was up to this weekend.
Ex-officials: Israeli leader spurned secret peace offer
Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Ex-officials: Israeli leader spurned secret peace offer
Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Canadian Border Town Worries About ‘Confrontations’ After …
A municipal authority in Manitoba, Canada is concerned about the influx of dozens of “asylum seekers” who showed up to border town of Emerson Sunday morning . “I’m scared, the bigger the numbers – if we don’t have enough officials, someone is going to slip through the crack because there’s so many people to process,” Reeve Greg Janzen, a municipal authority, told CBC News .
February 20, 2017: Seeking a solution
Seeking a solution With regard to “Did Trump nix the 2-state solution?” , the assertion that then-president Bill Clinton “wed the Israelis and Palestinians to the notion that the only resolution to the conflict is a two-state solution” flies in the face of historical factuality. The 1993 Oslo Accords did not require a sovereign Palestinian-Arab entity.
Trump’s national security candidates promised autonomy
FILE PHOTO: Acting U.S. National Security Advisor Retired General Keith Kellogg arrives for a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2017. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton arrives for a meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, U.S., December 2, 2016.
S. Korea Positive N. Korea Murdered Kim Jong-un’s Brother
As most of the suspects are of North Korean origin, South Korean officials say that Kim Jong-un’s brother was murdered by Pyongyang. Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was murdered Monday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
S. Korea Positive N. Korea Murdered Kim Jong-un’s Brother
As most of the suspects are of North Korean origin, South Korean officials say that Kim Jong-un’s brother was murdered by Pyongyang. Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was murdered Monday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
Mugabe has been in power in the southern African country since 1980.
President Robert Mugabe arrives to chair ZANU PF’s Politburo meeting at the party headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe, on February 15, 2017. Photo – Reuters President Robert Mugabe arrives to chair ZANU PF’s Politburo meeting at the party headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe, on February 15, 2017.
Israeli leader lauds ‘new day’ in relations with Trump’s US
” Israel’s leader says President Donald Trump told him it was a “new day” in Israeli-American relations. Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet Sunday that last week’s meeting with Trump in Washington was “historic” and strengthened the two countries’ longtime alliance.
Sudan’s president accompanies UAE’s rulers to defense show
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has accompanied two of the United Arab Emirates’ most-powerful rulers to a defense show. Al-Bashir was flanked by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nayhan and Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the event Sunday.