Category Archives: Global Politics

Trump son-in-law Kushner withheld Russia meetings on security form | News | DW.COM | 07.04.2017

Anyone applying for top secret clearance is required to list for the FBI all foreign officials they have met with in the past seven years, but Kislyak and Gorkov were missing from paperwork filed by Kushner, who is Ivanka Trump’s husband.Kushner’s lawyer Jamie Gorelick said the omission was merely an “administrative error” made during a “very pressed time” as Trump prepared to take on the presidency. Gorelick said that an amended form would be submitted to the FBI, and that in the meantime Kushner had been given an interim level of security clearance.

Source: Trump son-in-law Kushner withheld Russia meetings on security form | News | DW.COM | 07.04.2017

Wallström: US Syria strikes must follow international law – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

“A great responsibility lies with Russia, with the USA, with China, and with the other permanent members to sit down and find a mutual resolution that both condemns the chemical weapons attack and demands accountability from those who were behind this. That is the task of the international community, and superpowers are highly important in that,” the prime minister told Aftonbladet.

Source: Wallström: US Syria strikes must follow international law – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

Germany′s right-wing AfD is ′guarantor of Jewish life,′ Petry says | News | DW.COM | 06.04.2017

‘Racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic’The ex-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, reacted strongly, saying that the AfD stands for “openly and inconspicuously expressed racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic statements, falsification of history, relativization or even denial of the Holocaust, as well as open closeness to the neo-Nazi scene.”The party distances itself, “if at all, half-heartedly and without lasting consequences from these phenomena and people standing in their ranks and top positions,” Knobloch said.

Source: Germany′s right-wing AfD is ′guarantor of Jewish life,′ Petry says | News | DW.COM | 06.04.2017

“True this!” Trump’s change of heart on Syria isn’t reassuring, it’s profoundly disturbing | David Shariatmadari | Opinion | The Guardian – #LoserTrump-#TraitorTrump is just about the tweet, the sale and looking good for the minute of the next thing

All this may just be routine strategic ambiguity. But, as ever with the Trump administration, we are in uncharted territory. No one quite knows whether Haley et al are speaking from a Trump-approved hymn-sheet, or concerned with protecting their own reputations in an administration not exactly known for its message discipline. No one quite knows whether Haley’s statement, only last week, that “Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out,” will stand or be overturned. Since the latter would represent a 180-degree turn, however, it’s worth considering in more detail.AdvertisementThose celebrating the possibility of a shift should ask how it may have come about. If there’s one thing we do know, it’s that Trump wants us to see that he cares. This is a president who is obsessed with how he is perceived, griping about unflattering photos and the size of the crowd at his inauguration.It’s not even clear that he has any ideological aims, other than to win, and to be liked. He has, after all, donated to both Republicans and Democrats. He supported the Iraq war, then didn’t, then claimed that he never had.

Source: Trump’s change of heart on Syria isn’t reassuring, it’s profoundly disturbing | David Shariatmadari | Opinion | The Guardian

Trump condemns chemical attack as his U.N. ambassador assails Russia’s role – The Washington Post #TraitorTrump, #LoserTrump still just selling himself and could care less about facts – Who unleashed the gas? All sides of this conflict spin and lie, so how are we to know who to blame?

“History will judge all of us in how we respond to these unforgettable and unforgivable images of the innocent,” British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said. “How long are we going to sit here and pretend that actions in these chambers have no consequences?”

Source: Trump condemns chemical attack as his U.N. ambassador assails Russia’s role – The Washington Post

Trump, Citing No Evidence, Suggests Susan Rice Committed Crime – The New York Times #TraitorTrump, #LoserTrump, sell, sell, sell – no buyers – what did you do when and with whom?

“I think it’s going to be the biggest story,” Mr. Trump said in an interview in the Oval Office. “It’s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time.”He declined to say if he had personally reviewed new intelligence to bolster his claim but pledged to explain himself “at the right time.”

Trump: ‘If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will’: Shanghaiist

“Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”Asked if that meant dealing with Pyongyang one on one, Trump said, “I don’t have to say any more. Totally.”Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst, tried to shed some light on what exactly Trump meant with these cryptic statement. Wilder told Financial Times that the president is trying to warn China that the US is about to begin instituting “secondary sanctions” on North Korea, including sanctions on “Chinese companies and individuals who deal with North Korea.”Still, others aren’t so sure that Trump will back up his tough talk.

Source: Trump: ‘If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will’: Shanghaiist

‘The occupation will collapse. And then we’ll build a moral society here’ | +972 Magazine

To avert one’s eyes from the occupation is to cooperate with the wicked regime. To yield before violence is to strengthen it. To remain silent before racism is to legitimize it. To surrender to fear and intimidation is to accept this dark reality, allowing it to continue and intensify.Each day that goes by without resistance is another day of deteriorating democracy. Each day that goes by without a struggle is another day of violence against Palestinian children. Each day that goes by without solidarity is another day in which racism and nationalism trump morality and justice.Each day that goes by in which we neglect to merge our society’s tremendous forces — of all colors, ethnicities, and organizations — is another day which strengthens the violent nationalist occupying regime’s belief that nothing can stop it, and that they can carry on with their nationalist project of the occupation undisturbed. That they can continue to destroy, to injure, to harm, to kill.

Source: ‘The occupation will collapse. And then we’ll build a moral society here’ | +972 Magazine

Donald Trump and Russia: The Spanish connection with Trump’s Russia scandal | In English | EL PAÍS

On February 1, Alexander Torshin, 63, a Russian politician and banker who is close to Vladimir Putin and whom the Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor and the Civil Guard define in their reports as a godfather from a notorious Russian mafia organization, had in his diary for the next day an appointment to meet in Washington with the world’s most powerful man: Donald Trump. The encounter was due to take place before an official and well-attended breakfast meeting, which Torshin attended as the head of a Russian delegation. The meeting was canceled that very night, according to sources from the White House, given the wave of criticism in the US press related to the influence of determined Russian circles in President Trump’s power teams. But the information reveals the heights to which this person, who has been investigated by the Spanish authorities, had reached in his rise to the upper echelons of the American leader’s circle.

Source: Donald Trump and Russia: The Spanish connection with Trump’s Russia scandal | In English | EL PAÍS