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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis linked Friday the pullout of US-led coalition forces from Syria to an agreement on a political process. Speaking at a meeting of coalition defense ministers at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mattis said: “As the operations ultimately draw to a close, we must avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited by the (Bashar) Assad regime or its supporters.” He added that in Syria, “leaving the field before the special envoy Staffan de Mistura achieves success in advancing the Geneva political process we all signed for under the UN security council resolution would...

China offered to purchase nearly $70 billion of U.S. farm, manufacturing and energy products if the Trump administration abandons threatened tariffs, according to people briefed on the latest negotiations with American trade officials. In weekend talks in Beijing, Chinese negotiators led by Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s economic envoy, presented a U.S. team headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a package that includes Chinese companies buying more U.S. soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal and manufactured goods. Chinese and U.S. officials estimated the value of the package at nearly $70 billion in the first year. President Donald Trump has...

Special BriefingSenior State Department Officials Via Teleconference June 5, 2018 MODERATOR: Good morning, and thanks so much for joining us for today’s background call on the U.S.-Turkish working group on Syria. Joining us today we have [Senior State Department Official One]. He’ll be referred to as Senior State Department Official One. Also joining us is [Senior State Department Official Two]. He’ll be referred to as Senior State Department Official Number Two. As a reminder, the call is on background and the contents of the call are embargoed until the call ends. With that, I’ll hand it over to our Senior...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank has balked at an EU proposal to do business in Iran to help offset U.S. sanctions and save the 2015 nuclear deal, EU sources told Reuters, under pressure from the United States - where the bank raises much of its funds.The resistance from the European Union’s lending arm underscores the limits of the bloc’s ability to shield trade with Iran from the reimposition of U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear accord last month. European Commissioners are expected on Wednesday to endorse the EU executive’s plan to encourage the EIB to...

The Syrian Kurdish YPG on Tuesday said it will leave Manbij after Turkey and the United States the day prior agreed on the militia’s withdrawal.Turkey has long demanded the YPG withdraw from Syria’s northern border with the nation. In a new roadmap agreed upon by Ankara and Washington on Monday, the Syrian Kurds will leave and the U.S. and Turkey will jointly maintain security in the city.“We affirm that our forces will heed the call when necessary to offer support and help to the people of Manbij should it be needed,” the YPG said in a statement. The YPG said fighters left Manbij...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — It took generations to erect all the nation's Confederate monuments, and a new report shows they're being removed at a pace of about three each month. The study — released Monday by the Southern Poverty Law Center — shows that 110 Confederate monuments have been removed nationwide since 2015, when a shooting at a black church in South Carolina energized a movement against such memorials. The number — which includes schools and roads that have been renamed in California, a repurposed Confederate holiday in Georgia, plus rebel flags and monuments that have been taken down in...

Kazakhstan Grants U.S. Access to Ports for Afghan-Bound Goods By gaining access to Aktau and Kuryk, the United States adds additional routes to circumvent Russia. Mar 7, 2018 Lawmakers in Kazakhstan have approved an agreement allowing the United States to use two of the nation’s Caspian Sea ports as transit points for shipping nonmilitary material to Afghanistan. By gaining access to the ports of Aktau and Kuryk, the United States will gain an additional option in circumventing Russia, which has previously also provided transit options for NATO supplies to Afghanistan. Speaking on March 7, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kairat Adrakhmanov repeatedly...

The United States vetoed on Friday a Kuwaiti-drafted UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians, underlining Washington's differences with friends and foes alike over the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Later, a second, US-drafted resolution that blamed Hamas for the violence and upheld Israel's right to defend itself failed to attract any other country's support when it was put to vote in the 15-member council. Blasting the council majority, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the two votes showed it was willing to blame Israel and unwilling to blame Hamas, the Islamist group that...

A perfect storm of murder, addiction and carelessness has fueled a recent and troubling increase in deaths among U.S. children and teens, a new government report shows. The total death rate for those aged 10 to 19 rose 12 percent between 2013 and 2016, mostly due to an increase in deaths from accidental injury, homicide and suicide, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. In short, the United States is becoming less safe for teenagers. The primary causes of injury deaths were motor vehicle accidents, suicide, firearms-related murders and drug overdoses, the report discovered. "For children...

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – US forces have reached on the top of Mount Sinjar (Shingal) to establish a new a military base, a Kurdish Ezidi official said on Friday. “Today, 15 military vehicles of US troops arrived on top of Mount Shingal and stationed themselves near Mira peak on the mountain,” Jalal Khalo, deputy mayor in Shingal, told Kurdistan 24. The US forces are preparing to build a military base on the mountain, Khalo added. Mount Shingal is one of the most strategic locations in Iraq, lying near the border with Syria and 125 km west of Mosul. The Kurdish...

A new survey shows the majority of Europeans are supporting the de-Islamization of western countries. One America’s Kristian Rouz explains.

The Illinois legislature ratified a dangerous constitutional amendment Wednesday that could overturn every pro-life law in the United States.According to supporters, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal rights for all citizens no matter what their sex is. However, pro-life advocates and conservatives long have warned that abortion activists would use the amendment to destroy the limited protections that America provides to unborn babies.Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the ERA on Wednesday after a state House vote of 72-45, the AP reports. If just one more state passes the amendment, it could...

The United States knocked Hong Kong out of first place among the world's most competitive economies — fueled in part by the nation's faster economic growth, Bloomberg reported. Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Center placed Hong Kong second in its annual rankings, edging out regional rival Singapore, with remained in the No. 3 spot from 2017, Bloomberg reported. [snip] Bloomberg pointed out Austria and China both made impressive gains in the rankings of 63 countries: Austria moved up seven slots to 18th place, and China jumped five spots to No. 13. Venezuela ranked as the worst economy, and Mongolia maintained its...

President Trump is making good on his promise to make America great again as the nation roared back to reclaim the title of the world’s most competitive economy. The U.S. beat Hong Kong for the top spot, retaking the position for the first time since 2015, according to Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Center’s annual rankings, Bloomberg reported. Faster economic growth as well as scientific and technological innovation launched the U.S. up from 4th place last year, as the nation scored best in international investment, domestic economy and scientific infrastructure sub-categories. “The renewed top ranking aligns with the positive U.S. growth...

In order to have a permanent United States’ military presence in the country, Poland is willing to put in as much as $2 billion, a defense military proposal by the latter claimed. The proposal comes a month before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit begins in Brussels, and is another push in Poland’s desire to have American troops in the country. Poland has expressed this need since its entry into NATO in 1999; however, the current urgency is due to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region. “Following Russian invasions in Georgia and Ukraine, countries in Central and Eastern Europe...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Defence Ministry expressed regret on Thursday after the United States withdrew an invitation to China to attend a major U.S.-hosted naval drill, saying that closing the door does not promote mutual trust and cooperation.The Rim of the Pacific exercise, known as RIMPAC and previously attended by China, is billed as the world’s largest international maritime exercise and held every two years in Hawaii in June and July. RIMPAC enabled the armed forces of the world’s two largest economies to directly engage with each other. It was viewed by both countries as a way to ease tensions...

The U.S. birthrate hit a historic low in 2017, well below replacement levels, a phenomenon that Vox is touting as “a sign of progress.” According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, the general fertility rate for women between the ages of 15 and 44 in 2017 was 60.2 births per 1,000 women, the lowest recorded level since government records began over a century ago. The total fertility rate (TFR) in the United States last year, which indicates the average number of births per woman in her lifetime, dropped to...

The United States has hammered another nail into the “coffin” of the 1947 UN Partition Resolution that called for the internationalization of Jerusalem.The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, the Philippines, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, and various other countries are considering to follow in the footsteps of the United States.The Christian evangelical sector of American voters was what finally clinched Trump’s resolve to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.The “price” Israel will pay appears to be continued restraint in construction and an occasional building freeze in Jerusalem.The embassy will open in west Jerusalem, with...

Pakistan has prevented a US diplomat from leaving the country after he allegedly killed a motorcyclist by driving through a red light last month. Local press said on Saturday that a plane was sent by the US to collect Col Joseph Emanuel Hall, a military attache, but was denied clearance. US officials have previously said he cannot be arrested or tried because he has diplomatic immunity. The incident has increased political tension between the countries. Ateeq Baig, 22, was killed in the crash in Daman-e-Koh, north of Islamabad, on 7 April. CCTV footage showed a white four-wheel-drive - said to...

In an op-ed published by The New York Times on Friday, two men who served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Obama White House openly called for traditional American allies in Europe to take the side of the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism over the leader of their own country. According to Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevens, President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal is an insult so grievous that European governments should consider pulling their ambassadors out of Washington — and expelling American ambassadors from their...