International

US attorney general discussed Trump campaign with Russian ambassador, says report

Jeff Sessions discussed Donald Trump’s White House bid with the Russian ambassador, according to US intelligence intercepts cited in the Washington Post on Friday, contrary to the attorney general’s public assertions. Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Sessions […]

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International, USA

Qatar’s emir says his country is ready for dialogue to resolve diplomatic crisis

Qatar’s Emir says the country remains open to dialogue with four Arab nations that have isolated it, but that any resolution to the crisis must respect his country’s sovereignty. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani made the comments in his first televised speech since a diplomatic dispute among the U.S. allies erupted more than a

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Middle East

Trump commissions USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, calls on Congress to boost defense spending

President Trump commissioned the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Saturday, celebrating the newest symbol of American military might as he called on Congress to approve a budget with a big increase in defense spending. Addressing an audience of dignitaries and sailors on the $12.9-billion nuclear-powered carrier at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia,

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USA

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s new communications director, deletes old tweets to avoid ‘distraction’

Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump’s newly appointed communications director, has begun purging his Twitter account of old tweets that don’t jive with the administration’s agenda. “Full transparency: I’m deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that’s all that matters,” Mr. Scaramucci tweeted Saturday afternoon, hardly 24 hours

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USA

Israeli leaders can still contain Temple Mount crisis, but require political courage

The escalating violence brings to mind the events of September 2000, after opposition leader Sharon visited the Mount, but with a few significant differences By Avi Issacharoff The decision taken overnight Thursday-Friday to leave the electronic metal detector gates at the entrances to the Temple Mount compound — placed there after the July 14 attack

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Middle East

After Woman’s Mysterious Death At Mexico Resort, Tourists Report Similar Incidents

Something sinister is happening at a handful of luxury Mexican resorts — at least according to one lawyer and some tourists who’ve vacationed there. After a young woman died under mysterious circumstances at the Iberostar Paraiso Resort in Playa Del Carmen, her family and attorneys have been looking for a plausible explanation for what happened

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International, Travel and Food

Closing the State Department’s war crimes office could send the wrong message

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ambitious plans to streamline and restructure the State Department. And the first thing on the chopping block could be the war crimes office. Foreign Policy magazine reported that a member of Tillerson’s team informed the Office of Global Criminal Justice Special Coordinator Todd Buchwald that he and his

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International, USA

US orders Wells Fargo to reinstate whistle-blower and pay $577,500 in compensation

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Labor Department has ordered Wells Fargo & Co. to reinstate another former employee who alleged she was fired after reporting part of the widespread fraud that engulfed the bank in a major scandal. The whistle-blower, a former branch manager in Pomona, Calif., will be reinstated and paid $577,500 in back

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USA

A McDonald’s employee is out of a job for refusing to serve a uniformed police officer

A Virginia McDonald’s has taken “appropriate action” after a uniformed police officer was denied service by a drive-thru employee. Scott Naff, an officer for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, had reportedly paid for his food at the restaurant’s drive-thru when he pulled up to the second window and was refused his meal.

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USA

How an Oregon-born immigrant to Israel found a job giving tours of Hamas tunnels

When Capt. Libby Weiss grew up in the US, she never suspected she’d one day be working with international media in a war zone By Renee Ghert-Zand TEL AVIV — Capt. Libby Weiss spent most of the summer of 2014 in a Hamas tunnel, and she wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Israel’s military

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Middle East, USA

State Department will ban US citizens from traveling to North Korea

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Friday it will prohibit U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea starting late next month, citing the risk of arrest and imprisonment by the authoritarian regime in Pyongyang. The decision by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson bars use of U.S. passports “to travel in, through, or to North Korea,”

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International, Travel and Food, USA