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China first, Russia second by Michael Klare If there’s a single consistent aspect to Pres. Donald Trump’s strategic vision, it’s that the simple principle of “America First” should always govern U.S. foreign policy, with this country’s vital interests placed above those of all others. “We will always put America’s interests first,” he  declared  in his victory speech in the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016. “From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” he  insisted in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017. Since then, however, everything he’s done in the international arena has, intentionally or not, placed America’s interests behind those of its arch-rivals, China and Russia. So to be accurate, his guiding policy formula should really be relabeled America Third. Given 19 months of bravado public rhetoric, there was no way to imagine a Trumpian presidency that would favor America’s leading competitors. Throughout the campaign, he  castigated China for i

Angela Merkel's government has promised to send rejected asylum seekers home, but some local states aren't cooperating. Schleswig-Holstein, for example, has temporarily halted all deportations to Afghanistan. Schleswig-Holstein will not be sending anyone back to Afghanistan for at least until May 31, the northern German state announced on Tuesday. Schleswig-Holstein's Social Democrat (SPD) Interior Minister Stefan Studt said that the state government was taking the step for "humanitarian reasons" because deportees weren't guaranteed "security and dignity" in Afghanistan. Some 700 Afghans with no right of residence currently reside in the northern German state. Responsibility for deporting people whose applications for asylum have been rejected  or have no right to reside in Germany rests with the country's 16 federal states, and Schleswig-Holstein's decision underscores the conflict between local and national authorities on the issue. Ear

British Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and US President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House on January 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP) The British government says an invitation for US President Donald Trump's state visit is still in place, despite an outpouring of public and political protest. More than 1.8 million Britons have signed an online  petition  urging the government to withdraw the invitation that Prime Minister Theresa May extended to Trump while she was visiting Washington last month. The petition, which is expected to be put to debate in Parliament, called for Trump to be allowed to enter the UK but not be granted an official state visit because of fears it would cause embarrassment to Queen Elizabeth. In a statement sent to petition signatories, the Foreign Office said the government "recognized the strong views ... but does not support this petition." It also said that the US president should be granted the “full courte

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear deal as the ‘worse deal’, we don’t think the White House will be killing the nuclear deal,” Roozbeh Aliabadi, managing partner of the Global Growth Advisors from New York, told Press TV on Tuesday. European states, Russia and China are behind the nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the analyst said adding, “it is highly unlikely that we will see killing of the deal.” “It is reasonable for all of us to assume that the nuclear deal will stay in place,” the analyst noted. He said the fact that Trump in his first three weeks in office has not yet discussed the JCPOA with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) means that the nuclear

Israeli Ambassador to Cairo David Govrin Israel's internal spy agency, Shin Bet, says the regime has temporarily withdrawn its ambassador to Egypt, citing security concerns in the North African country. "Due to security considerations the return of the foreign ministry embassy staff to Cairo has been restricted," the agency said in a statement released on Tuesday without elaborating on when the pull-out took place. However, Britain's  Daily Telegraph  said Israel's ambassador to Cairo, David Govrin, had been pulled out of the diplomatic mission at the end of last year. According to the report, the envoy is currently working from Jerusalem al-Quds while Tel Aviv hopes that he will be able to return to his post soon. Egypt has been wracked by a series of terror attacks. A Daesh-affiliated militant group operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has recently stepped up its assaults, taking advantage of the chaos created following the ouster of the country’s first

Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami (Photo by AP) The US has imposed sanctions against Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami over his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, in yet another hostile measure that could spark fresh tensions between the two countries. Late on Monday, the US Treasury Department blacklisted El Assiami and his associate, Venezuelan businessman Samark Lopez, over allegations of having a role in global drug trafficking. As part of the sanctions effort, 13 companies owned or controlled by Lopez -- including five based in the US state of Florida -- will be blocked and both men will be banned from entering the United States. Lopez stands accused of serving as El Aissami’s “key front-man” to launder drug proceeds and purchase assets. El Aissami, who has long denied any criminal ties, did not immediately react to Washington’s move. Since his days as interior minister, El Aissami has been the target of US law enforcement investigation over allega

PressTv This file photo taken on January 04, 2017 shows Michael Flynn, then National Security Adviser designate, arriving at Trump Tower for meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump in New York. The White House announced February 13, 2017 that Michael Flynn has resigned as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, amid escalating controversy over his contacts with Moscow. (Photo by AFP) The latest controversy of the new US administration has been the resignation of Michael Flynn as the US national security adviser over his secret contacts with Russia. In his resignation letter, Flynn admitted to phone conversations with Moscow's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. The conversations apparently revolved around the lifting of the Obama administration’s sanctions against Moscow.    In an interview with Press TV, Jim W. Dean, the managing editor of  Veterans Today , described Flynn’s resignation as a victory for

By Pap Saine and Lamin Jahate By Pap Saine and Lamin Jahateh BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambia's new government has told the United Nations it will remain in the International Criminal Court (ICC), state media reported on Monday, reversing the previous administration's plan to withdraw from the tribunal. Former president Yahya Jammeh announced in October that he would pull Gambia out of the ICC, accusing the world body of ignoring alleged war crimes of Western nations and seeking only to prosecute Africans. But President Adama Barrow, who defeated Jammeh in a December election, pledged during the campaign to undo Jammeh's decision, restore human rights and repair the country's badly-damaged foreign relations. "As a new government that has committed itself to the promotion of human rights ... we reaffirm The Gambia's commitment to the principles enshrined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court," said a statement read on state television and r

Playboy, the men’s magazine, announced in October 2015 that it would stop publishing images of naked women, seeking to attract more advertisers and secure better placement on newsstands. MANDEL NGAN / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES By SYDNEY EMBER Playboy is returning to the bare essentials. A year after the famed but struggling men’s magazine stopped featuring photographs of naked women, it has apparently had a change of heart. From now on, women will shed much of the scanty clothing that had been covering them up. The next issue, which hits newsstands at the end of the month, will feature women who are topless and almost fully exposed. (Think strategically placed leaf, hand or leg.) Cooper Hefner, a son of the Playboy founder  Hugh Hefner , signaled the change in a  Twitter post  on Monday : “I’ll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” he said in a quotation superimposed over a photogra

David Choi   Foreign nationals are arrested during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Los Angeles, Feb. 7, 2017.Charles Reed/US Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested hundreds of people in a nationwide sweep in what they called a routine "enforcement surge." The moves, however, were seen by immigration advocates as a consequence of President Donald Trump's  recent executive orders  on immigration. According to officials  cited  by The Associated Press, the five-day operation was designed to round up undocumented immigrants who have criminal histories and pending deportation orders. Hundreds of arrests - from Atlanta to Chicago to New York, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and South Carolina - drew backlash from several immigration advocacy groups. ICE officials arrested about 160 people in Southern California alone. "This is not nor

Mark Wilson/Getty Images US President Donald Trump seems to have patched things up with China by promising to honor the "One China" agreement between the world's two biggest economies on his first phone call as president with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A press release from the White House said that during an "extremely cordial" conversation on Thursday evening, the "two leaders discussed numerous topics and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our 'one China' policy." The release also said the two leaders extended invitations to meet in their respective countries, and that representatives of each country "will engage in discussions and negotiations on various issues of mutual interest." Trump rattled the Sino-US relationship after his inauguration by breaking with decades of US policy and  taking a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen  in December. The "One China" policy, which the 

A small interest-rate rise shows the central bank testing the limits of its independence IF ASKED before the start of 2017 to bet on which important central bank would be the first to raise interest rates this year, the safe choice would have been the Federal Reserve. Some gamblers, relishing the long odds, might have gone for the Bank of England or even taken a flutter on the European Central Bank. All these guesses would have been wrong. The first to budge this year? The People’s Bank of China. On February 3rd the Chinese central bank raised a series of short-term rates. The decision received scant attention. The increases were, after all, small: one-tenth of a percentage point for the main rates. It also seemed quite technical, primarily affecting liquidity tools that lenders can tap if short of cash. And there was no fanfare: the central bank did not publish an explanation. China Public finance Central banking But China’s move is important for two reasons. First, it highlights

US president sends belated new year wishes, but failure to contact Beijing counterpart almost three weeks after inauguration is prompting questions  US president Donald Trump makes a call from the Oval Office of the White House – but not to China’s president Xi Jinping. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP View more sharing options Tom Phillips  in Beijing Thursday 9 February 2017 05.37 GMTLast modified on Thursday 9 February 2017 05.55 GMT Donald Trump has reportedly  yelled down the telephone  at Australia’s prime minister and  veered off into rants  about China and Nato with French leader François Hollande So the leader of the world’s second largest economy,  Xi Jinping , may feel he got off lightly with nothing more than a letter. Almost three weeks after Trump’s inauguration, that was how the US president decided to engage with his Chinese counterpart, in what observers described as a further indication of the dark clouds now gathering over US-China relations. In a statement, Whit

South Korean President Park Geun-hye speaks during an emergency cabinet meeting at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, December 9, 2016. Yonhap/ via REUTERS (Reuters) - Lawyers for South Korean President Park Geun-hye have rejected a plan by a special prosecutor investigating a graft scandal to question her, citing a media leak, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said on Thursday. The plan was to question Park on Thursday at an undisclosed location, Lee Kyu-chul, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, told a media briefing. But Park's office had notified the prosecutor that it was scrapping an agreement on the questioning, Lee said. "There is no change to the position that a face-to-face questioning of the president is necessary but there has been no decision specifically on the schedule from this point on," he said. Lee said Park's lawyers had notified the prosecutor's office of the decision after a television station said in a

Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate Isabella Lovin delivers remarks at the ''Our Ocean'' conference at Georgetown University in Washington, U.S., September 16, 2016. REUTERS/GARY CAMERON FILE PHOTO: Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin speaks to the media during a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden July 2, 2016. TT News Agency/Johan Jeppsson/via REUTERS/FILE PHOTO (Reuters) - Eight countries have joined an initiative to raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls caused by President Donald Trump's ban on U.S.-funded groups around the world providing information on abortion, Sweden's deputy prime minister said. Isabella Lovin told Reuters a conference would be held on March 2 in Brussels to kick-start the funding initiative to help non-governmental organizations whose family planning projects could be affected. The Netherlands announce

Bill McKibben The White House in the Time of Trump has seen unprecedented attacks on pillars of society and civilization  ‘Bannon and Trump hate reason precisely because it places limits on their actions.’ Photograph: REX/Shutterstock We’re not in a normal historical moment. Congress is acting as expected under a Republican government. The assault on the environment and working people is wrong, but predictable. What’s coming from the Oval Office, though, is unprecedented. It’s less the White House than the Black Tower, sending out its Breitbartian orcs and alt-right winged harpies to poison the politics of a nation. Two types of assaults are underway. One, instigated mostly by Congress, is painful. Last week, for instance, they managed in one morning to both end rules which sought to  prevent  coal companies from polluting streams and regulations which made it  harder  for oil companies to bribe foreign governments. There are dozens of these changes, all of them with hideous cons

The Somali Government, on Tuesday, announced a ban on flights arrival and departure from Mogadishu Airport and also beefed up security ahead of the Wednesday presidential elections. The Transport and Civil Aviation Minister, Ali Ahmed, informed travel agencies of the flights suspension as well as traffic movement in the capital during the elections. “We inform travel agencies that flights at Aden Adde Airport will be suspended on Wednesday for the presidential election,” Mr. Ahmed said. The minister said that this would not affect other local airports in the country, as the election would take place only in the capital city. According to him, all major roads in Mogadishu will be closed for two days till the conclusion of the election. The Mogadishu Mayor, Yusuf Jimale, imposed a ban on traffic movement in Mogadishu to ensure security of the presidential elections. The Horn of Africa nation, which has been under near daily attacks from the Al-Shabaab terror group, plans to curb d

US President Donald Trump Iran has “total disregard” for the United States, says President Donald Trump, repeating his rhetoric against the nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers, including Washington. The accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is “the worst deal I’ve ever seen negotiated,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. Since he started campaigning for the 2016 presidential election, the New York billionaire has on several occasions spoken ill of the JCPOA, giving promises ranging from an immediate repealing of the deal to renegotiating it. His Sunday appearance still  left the “door open,”  as Fox News put it on its headline. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. The new president also parroted the anti-Iran rhetoric, promoted by the GOP and his cabinet members,  accusing  Tehran of supporting terrorism. “They’re sending money all over the place and weapons, and you can’t do that,” he said. “That deal, I would have lived

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, January 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump to take a tougher stance against Iran. "New admin in US, new gov in Britain, new diplomatic opportunities for Israel. I have meetings in London tomorrow and in Washington next week," Netanyhahu said in a tweet on Sunday. Earlier in the day, he told his cabinet that forming a united front against Iran was one of the main topics that he was going to raise with May and Trump during his upcoming visits. “In the diplomatic sphere, I intend to emphasize the need for a common front against Iran’s defiant aggression, which has raised its head in recent days. This must be done on an ongoing basis, but especially in light of Iran’s defiance against the international order,” Netanyhahu said. Tel Aviv’s renewed focus on Iran c