Tag Archives: foreign relations

ABC News reports: In the midst of his first foreign trip since taking office, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds a majority of the American public has a great deal or good amount of trust in President Joe Biden to negotiate on the country’s behalf with other world leaders. That level of trust — 52% — roughly tracks the president’s …

Reuters reports: Russia’s foreign ministry has summoned a U.S. diplomat in Moscow to hand him a note of protest over plans to conduct searches in Russia’s trade mission complex in Washington, which should soon be closed, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It said it has summoned Anthony F. Godfrey, a deputy chief of mission at the U.S. …

ABC News reports: How do you say “awkward” in German? President Donald Trump is set to appear at a joint news conference today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after he spent months during the 2016 election campaign bad-mouthing her approach to the refugee crisis in Europe. Trump’s tough comments during the campaign about Merkel and what he called the “disaster” …

The New York Times reports: Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.” Mr. Trump, …

As always, Trump is being advised by the “best people.” The Telegraph reports: Donald Trump has savaged Japan, one of America’s closest allies, stating that if the US is attacked, all Japan would do is “sit home and watch Sony television”. He expressed his frustration that the US is bound by treaty to defend the Asian nation but that if …

Watch below. Via press release from Hillary For America: Tonight, the Democratic National Convention Committee is releasing a new video touting the steadfast leadership and smart diplomacy that Hillary Clinton displayed as America’s 67th Secretary of State. Clinton brokered an improbable ceasefire in Gaza to stop rockets from raining down on Israel. In Copenhagen, Clinton and President Obama crashed a …

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump, on the eve of accepting the Republican nomination for president, said Wednesday that if he were elected, he would not pressure Turkey or other authoritarian allies about conducting purges of their political adversaries or cracking down on civil liberties. The United States, he said, has to “fix our own mess” before trying …

Canada, we couldn’t agree more. Via ABC News: Canada’s Parliament broke into chants of “four more years” as President Barack Obama wrapped up the first address there by a U.S. leader since 1995. Four years for Obama amounts to wishful thinking. He’s nearing the end of his second term in office and speaks fondly of life after the presidency. His …

The Hill reports: U.S. airlines are in vicious competition for the chance to provide direct service to Cuba, even as the impact of the new business on their bottom lines is unclear. Last month, the Department of Transportation opened bidding from airlines to operate 20 daily round-trip flights to Havana, and 10 flights to nine smaller airports on the island. …

Washington-based lobbyists who represent foreign governments say they are overwhelmed with questions about how a Donald Trump presidency might upend trade, tourism, security agreements, and other foreign policy deals. The Hill reports: The questions about Trump are “almost all-consuming,” said Richard Mintz, the managing director of Washington-based firm The Harbour Group, whose client list includes the governments of Georgia and …

As I’ve reported here several times, openly gay US Ambassador Wally Brewster is under attack in the Dominican Republic, where anti-LGBT activists and the Catholic Church have launched a joint campaign calling for his resignation for spreading “homosexual indoctrination.” Today US House Democrats launched a tweetstorm in support of Brewster using the hashtag #ImWithWally. Brewster stands accused in part because …

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports: In an emotional apology, the AIPAC leadership expressed regret to President Barack Obama for an attack on him from its stage by Donald Trump, and for the loud applause it earned. “While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the President of the United States and our President Barack Obama,” Lillian …

Teabagistan is aflame with the usual screaming today after President Obama posed for photos with a giant mural of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara visible in the background. Media Matters points out that Ronald Reagan once delivered a speech with a huge bust of Vladimir Lenin looming over his head. And then there was that time George W. Bush posed for …

Hillary Clinton today spoke at the pro-Israel AIPAC conference where she slammed Donald Trump as a bully and praised the Tel Aviv Pride Parade as an Israeli example of tolerance. The pride quote: “We are both nations built by immigrants and exiles seeking to live and worship in freedom, nations built on principles of equality, tolerance and pluralism. At our …

President Obama has just landed in Havana for his historic visit to Cuba. Watch below. Via Yahoo News: The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban …

And the wingnuts are, predictably, screaming. CNN reports: “We can confirm that (Thursday) the administration will announce the President’s travel to Latin America, including Cuba, in the coming weeks,” according to a senior administration official. The trip, long expected, comes after Obama’s administration formally reopened ties with Havana in late 2014, following a half-century of enmity. Speaking at CNN’s GOP …

Via USA Today: Throngs of demonstrators gathered Monday to witness the raising of the Cuban flag over Cuba’s embassy, the first time it has flown here since the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with the communist country 54 years ago. As American and Cuban diplomats stood side by side, three Cuban guards in white uniforms marched out of the building, …

“Don’t say it’s unbelievable. Of course it’s believable. This is the world we live in today under American leadership that would surrender Israel’s security and our own. Don’t say it’s unbelievable. When Barack Obama warned voters he would “fundamentally transform America” and they voted for him anyway – twice – what was once the most powerful office in the world …

Via Talking Point Memo: The New York Daily News on Tuesday used its front page to condemn Republican senators for signing an open letter to Iran warning that a potential nuclear deal could be null once President Barack Obama is out of office. The tabloid’s front page prominently featured Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), …

“I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. But I am my own man, and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences. Under this administration, we are inconsistent and indecisive. We have lost the trust and the confidence of our friends. We …