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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the administration of US President Donald Trump to recognize Syria’s Golan Heights as part of the Israeli territory. Israel occupied the Golan Heights and then annexed it in 1981 in a move that has never been recognized by the international community. Neither has the US recognized the annexation of the mountainous area. Netanyahu made the request during his Wednesday meeting with Trump in Washington but the new US president's "reaction was not earth shattering," according to the Israeli premier who talked to reporters.  The Israeli regime has built scores of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government and aid militants in the Arab country. US President Donald Trump (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after a joint press conference at the White House on February 15, 2017 (Photo by AFP). Last Dece

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

Donald Trump with Michael Flynn during a discussion on national security in his offices in Trump Tower in New York on August 17.AP Photo/Gerald Herbert In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted reporting on his campaign's ties with Russian intelligence officials as "conspiracy theories and blind hatred." "The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!"  Trump tweeted . Both MSNBC and CNN led Wednesday morning shows with a  New York Times report published Tuesday night that said members of Trump's campaign  had multiple communications with senior Russian intelligence officials before the US election,  as CNN White House video producer Elizabeth Landers  observed. Landers also said Fox News had not reported on the Times article Wednesday morning. In a follow-up tweet, Trump dismissed the "Russian connection non-sense" as

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

The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly been assassinated in Malaysia, South Korean media and Malaysian police say. The announcement was first made by the Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's largest news agency, on Tuesday, which said 45-year-old Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of late former leader Kim Jong-il, was “killed” in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday. It added, citing an unnamed South Korean government source, that he lost his life after being attacked by two unidentified female agents with “poisoned needles.” Shortly after Yonhop’s report, South Korea's TV Chosun, a cable television network, citing multiple unnamed government sources, confirmed the assassination of Jong-nam by female assailants, adding that they had fled the crime scene and were still at large. On Tuesday evening, Malaysian police confirmed the death of Jong-nam, saying he had planned to travel to the autonomous region of Macau, which lies on the sout

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

Michael Flynn resigned because he had a telephone conversation with the Russian Ambassador and then lied about it. That's a little bit different from "links" to Russia. Unless it's now treasonous to enter into dialogue with other nations? Rudy Panko   They've done it again : Phone call = linked. QED. We've really hit rock bottom, folks. Links? As NBC reports, Flynn "misled Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials about his communications with Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States." This is what qualifies as having "links" to Russia? A telephone conversation? We thought that a major part of being in government was "talking with people"? Oh, but this saga of espionage and intrigue just gets better. Our friends at NBC News  claim that Flynn was forced to resign  after it was learned that "the Justice Department [had] informed the White House that it believed he could be subject to bl

Reuters ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari discussed a possible new arms deal with U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone on Monday to help the West African nation fight terrorism, the Nigerian presidency said. Nigeria has been fighting since 2009 against an insurgency by Boko Haram militants trying to set up an Islamic state in the remote northeast. The unrest has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. Abuja has been trying to persuade the U.S. to sell it military aircraft, a request being reviewed by Congress. "President Trump assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," the presidency said in a statement. Buhari is currently on medical leave in Britain. It gave no other details of the call, their first since Trump's inauguration, except that the U.S. president had invited Buhari to Washington. Under Buhari's predecessor Good

  Bob Bryan Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinWin McNamee/Getty Images Steven Mnuchin was confirmed by the US Senate on Monday night as the new Secretary of the Treasury. Mnuchin's confirmation came down nearly on a party line vote of 53 to 47, with no Republicans voting against the confirmation. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted for Mnuchin. Mnuchin, a former  Goldman Sachs banker and hedge fund manager , came under fire during his confirmation for various mistakes in financial disclosures to the Senate, as well as several previous investments. Mnuchin's fund invested in a mortgage lender called IndyMac at the height of the housing crisis (the name was later changed to OneWest). The lender's subsequent foreclosures on homeowners was called out by opponents as proof that the Treasury nominee profited from the financial woes of everyday Americans. Democrats claimed Mnuchin's company used  tactics such as robo-signing  to foreclose on as many people

President Muhammadu Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday had a telephone conversation with President Donald Trump at the request of the American President. The conversation was cordial and Mr. Buhari congratulated Mr. Trump on his election as the President of the United States, the presidency said. The two leaders discussed ways to improve cooperation in the fight against terrorism through provision of necessary equipment. Presidential media aide, Femi Adesina, confirmed the conversation in a series of tweets on the official twitter handle of the Nigerian presidency @NGRPresidency. Mr. Trump assured the Nigerian leader of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism. He commended Mr. Buhari for the efforts he made in rescuing 24 of the Chibok girls and the strides being taken by the Nigerian Army in combating Boko Haram. Mr. Trump also invited the Nigerian President to Washington at a mutually convenient date. This

The New York Times details an aborted operation that would have very likely started a shooting war with Iran Richard Brandt    Too close for comfort. Buried in the middle of the  New York Times'  story on the inner workings of Trump's National Security Council is a revelation almost too terrifying to believe: Last week, the U.S. Navy came close to intercepting and boarding an Iranian ship — allegedly in an attempt to stop the flow of weapons to the Houthis in Yemen. We don't want to believe it, but frankly Trump's team is so hawkish on Iran,  it's hard to completely dismiss : Last week, Defense Secretary  Jim Mattis  was exploring whether the Navy could intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen. The potential interdiction seemed in keeping with recent instructions from Mr. Trump, reinforced in meetings with Mr. Mattis and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, to crack down on Iran’s support of

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters in New York City on January 27, 2017 (Photo by Reuters) The United Nations Security Council has announced an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The United States, Japan, and South Korea on Sunday requested the meeting on an “urgent basis.” North Korea launched the missile near the western city of Kusong on Sunday. It flew east about 500 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) later on Monday confirmed that Pyongyang had “successfully” tested a “surface-to-surface medium long-range ballistic missile.” The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, “expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means, which adds to the tremendous might of the country,” the KCNA said. A man wat

President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered an abrupt joint statement Saturday night, addressing reports that North Korea test fired a ballistic missile into its eastern sea. "I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%," Trump said. In his remarks, Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable." Trump and Abe made their remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not take questions from reporters. The launch was North Korea's first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to Trump's new administration. But details of the launch, including the type of missile, were scant. There was no immediate confirmation from the North, which had recently warned it is ready to test its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The reports come as Trump was hosting Abe and just days before the North is to mark the birth

Chicago police search for evidence at the scene of a shooting in Chicago, Illinois, on February 11, 2017. (Photo via the Chicago Tribune) Two teenage girls have been shot in the head in separate incidents less than 30 minutes apart in Chicago, Illinois. A police bulletin released on Sunday said that one of the girls, aged 11, was in the back seat of a parked car at around 7:40 pm, when someone fired shots, "striking her in the head." The girl, identified by her grandmother as Takiya Holmes, was said to be in critical condition at Comer Children's Hospital. "They are treating her as best as they can with all kind of aggressive measures that the hospital can do for her, but it's grim and we want prayers to go up for her. We want whoever saw what happened to tell the police," Patsy Holmes told local media. According to police, she was hit in the back of the head during the incident on the city’s South Side, which saw another head shooting less than half a

Handout/Getty Images Russia could return Edward Snowden to the US as a "gift" to President Donald Trump, according to two US intelligence sources  cited by NBC News on Friday. One unnamed official, who NBC said gleaned information from "a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports," said such a move could be an attempt to "curry favor" with the Trump administration. Snowden is a former US National Security Agency contractor who stole top-secret documents in 2013 that revealed mass surveillance efforts by the US government. He shared those documents with journalists. Russia has been sheltering Snowden since 2013, and recently granted him permission to stay through 2020. Trump has in the past called Snowden a  traitor  and  a spy , and suggested Snowden may have given US secrets to other countries. Snowden  denied those allegations on Friday , saying on Twitter, "I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest

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

While President Trump has helped make Twitter a regular part of the national conversation, the business behind the microblogging service is not looking up. That feeling was only reinforced by the meager revenues the  company reported  on Thursday. Things look especially slow when you compare the platform to rival social media apps. As this chart from  Statista shows, after gaining hundreds of millions of users in its first few years, Twitter has only added 31 million monthly active users over the past two years. Facebook's suite of behemoths have easily surpassed that over the same time frame, while Snapchat has outpaced it as well (though it has  slowed recently , too). Now, Twitter serves a much narrower niche than Facebook, so the fact that it can't keep up makes sense. But even with that in mind, the company appears to be in a prolonged rut.

President Trump said Friday that he is considering rewriting his executive order temporarily barring refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, indicating that the administration may try to quickly restore some aspects of the now-frozen travel ban or replace it with other measures. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would probably wait until Monday or Tuesday to take any action, and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said several options — including taking the case to the Supreme Court — were still on the table. Trump hinted that the ongoing legal wrangling might move too slowly for his taste, though he thought he would ultimately prevail in court. “We will win that battle,” he said. “The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily, but we will win that battle. We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand-new order.” He said among the revisions he might make are “new security measures.” A t

Tony Edward   http://www.gszon.blogspot.com.ng  By now the majority of searchers on Google are familiar with the Knowledge Graph box, which appears on the right side of the search results page and highlights information about various entities (companies, people, places, things and so on). In the past, I’ve written about how to both  obtain  and  optimize  a Knowledge Graph result. In my attempts to learn more and get a better understanding of Google’s Knowledge Graph, I’ve discovered some cool hacks and tricks. While these tricks do not have any significant practical implications, they can serve as a way to better understand how Google’s Knowledge Graph works, which can be used to optimize your personal or company Knowledge Graph results. Before getting into the tricks, let’s break down some important items. For the examples below, I used Donald Trump. Google Knowledge Graph API The  Google Knowledge Graph API  is a tool that can be used to get insight into your Knowledge Graph r

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