USA

Trump commits to NATO Article 5 obligation, after having left commitment in doubt

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday made an explicit commitment to NATO’s core mutual defense obligation, weeks after he declined to do so at a meeting of alliance members in Brussels. “I am committing the United States to Article 5,” Trump said in response to a question during a Rose Garden news conference with […]

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International, USA

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Jewish great-grandson has a play on Theresienstadt

By Sandee Brawarsky J.R.R. Tolkien’s great-grandson Nicholas Tolkien. Separated by three generations, one lived through war to create a magical world of fantasy, and one was blessed to know peace but writes about an unimaginably tragic chapter of history. Playwright and director Nicholas Tolkien, who makes his Off-Broadway debut this month with “ Terezin,” is

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Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Russia threatens retaliation against U.S. over seized diplomatic compounds

Russia will retaliate against the U.S. unless Washington returns property seized by the Obama administration and reinstates their diplomatic immunity status, Moscow warned Friday. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, formalized the warning in a statement Friday amid recent reports involving the two properties – a compound on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and

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International, USA

Ending with Cosby’s own words, prosecution rests

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors in Bill Cosby’s sex assault trial closed their case Friday, ending five days of evidence and testimony by letting jurors hear the 79-year-old entertainer’s admission that he used to get Quaaludes, a powerful sedative, to use in sexual encounters with women. In a 2005 deposition, Cosby admitted to obtaining seven prescriptions

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Liberman: Top Hamas operative in Lebanon, plotting attacks

Defense minister urges visiting American UN ambassador to pressure Beirut to expel dangerous terrorist Saleh al-Arouri By Times of Israel staff US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley meets with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in Jerusalem on Friday, June 9, 2017 (Dana Shraga/Ministry of Defense) Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Friday that a senior official

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Middle East, USA

Polanski’s victim asks judge to end 40-year-old sex case against director

LOS ANGELES — The woman Roman Polanski was convicted of sexually assaulting in 1977 when she was 13 appeared in court Friday and urged a judge to dismiss the 40-year-old sex case against the fugitive director. Samantha Geimer stood before Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon in downtown Los Angeles and said she wanted the case

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

President Trump fires back at White House reporters over James Comey’s statements

On Friday, just more than 24 hours after former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Donald Trump appeared outside the White House to address reporters. There were a number of questions for Trump who stayed silent throughout Thursday as James Comey testified and even called the president a liar on

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International, USA

Nancy Pelosi looking into why Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia on first foreign trip

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday she finds it “strange” that President Trump decided to make Saudi Arabia his first foreign trip, adding that she was looking into it. “I just think it was a very strange choice to go there,” Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said on MSNBC. “Especially in light of having served

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International, Middle East, USA

Op-Ed: U.S. withdrawal from Paris pact makes sense

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you’re looking for American ingenuity and technological prowess to help resolve the climate issues that face the world, the Paris Climate Pact is not for you.  The pact is a voluntary agreement among countries including the world’s worst polluters (this is axiomatic, since only Nicaragua and Syria are

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Shoshana Bryen, The World We Share, USA

A physicist who always dreamed of working in the US says it’s no longer the ‘global center of science’

Tucked into a corner of physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed’s otherwise very cerebral-looking office is a computer with the ’90s TV show, “Twin Peaks,” paused midscene. The cult classic is constantly on in the background as Arkani-Hamed works on physics problems at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey. “I find watching it inspiring because, there,

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Science, Medicine, & Education, USA