Russian authorities are freezing up vast swathes of the country’s online world in what critics call a heavy-handed – and so far unsuccessful – attempt to block a popular messaging app, Telegram. The head of the communications watchdog acknowledged Wednesday that millions of IP addresses unrelated to Telegram have been ... Read More »
Turkey’s President Erdogan calls snap election in June
Turkey will hold snap presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 June, brought forward by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from November 2019. He has run Turkey since 2002 and will seek five more years with beefed up powers approved in a referendum last year. The idea of an early poll was ... Read More »
Cuba set to swear in new president to replace Raul Castro
An era will end in Communist-run Cuba on Thursday when President Raul Castro retires, likely handing over the reins to his right hand man Miguel Diaz-Canel, born the year after brothers Fidel and Raul led their 1959 leftist revolution. However after nearly 60 years of Castro rule, the change is ... Read More »
Trump’s CIA chief in secret meeting with North Korean leader: U.S. officials
U.S. Secretary of State nominee and CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea over the Easter weekend and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Pompeo’s trip made him the ... Read More »
Barbara Bush dead: Former US first lady dies, aged 92
Donald Trump and wife Melania release statement lauding her efforts to promote literacy Former US first lady Barbara Bush has died at the age of 92. Her death was announced in a statement from the office of George HW Bush, the former president and Ms Bush’s husband of 73 years. ... Read More »
Abe hopes Trump meeting will bring Japan in from diplomatic cold
Japan’s PM wants assurance his country won’t be overlooked in any North Korea deal Besieged by cronyism scandals that have prompted speculation he will be out of office by early summer, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will arrive in the US for talks with Donald Trump this week with a ... Read More »
Commonwealth leaders could choose next head after Queen this week
Ahead of leaders’ retreat, Theresa May makes clear that UK backs Prince Charles as next symbolic leader of organisation Commonwealth leaders could decide this week on who takes over from the Queen as head of the organisation, Downing Street has said. The news came as Theresa May prepared to address ... Read More »
Trump Scraps New Sanctions Against Russia, Overruling Advisers
WASHINGTON — President Trump rejected, for now at least, a fresh round of sanctions set to be imposed against Russia on Monday, a course change that underscored the schism between the president and his national security team. The president’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, had announced on ... Read More »
Russia’s Putin predicts global ‘chaos’ if West hits Syria again
MOSCOW/DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions. In a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, Putin and Rouhani agreed that the ... Read More »
Trump’s ‘mission accomplished’ tweet may come back to haunt him as another battle looms around Damascus
As Syrian troops move to another confrontation around the Syrian capital, what will the US president – and the British and French – do if more images of gassed civilians dying in agony appear? Syrian army troop reinforcements are moving up to more front lines in the suburbs of Damascus ... Read More »