Sorted by date Results 1 - 15 of 15
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States aspires to have North Korea as a "close partner" and not an enemy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday, noting that the U.S. has often in history become good friends with former adversaries. Pompeo said he had told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of that hope during his brief visit to Pyongyang earlier this week, during which he finalized details of the upcoming June 12 summit between Kim and President Donald Trump and secured the release of three Americans imprisoned in the country. He said his t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not as simple as just saying "we're out" of the Iran nuclear deal. If President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal on May 12, the rest of the world will be thrust into uncharted territory, forced to navigate a complex web of U.S. sanctions that were lifted under the landmark accord but would ostensibly be put back in place. Would Trump re-impose sanctions on those who do business with Iran? How quickly? And would Europe follow suit? How would Iran respond? And what h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Pompeo took over as America's top diplomat Thursday after being confirmed by the Senate and sworn in across the street minutes later. The new secretary of state immediately dashed off to Europe in an energetic start befitting the high-stakes issues awaiting him from Iran to North Korea. The hard-charging former CIA director was confirmed on a 57-42 vote — one of the slimmest margins for the job in recent history. Every past nominee to get a roll call vote since at least the Carter administration received 85 or more yes...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Pompeo, the hard-charging CIA director picked to be the next secretary of state, will tell the Senate on Thursday that years of soft U.S. policy toward Russia are "now over." Drawing a sharp contrast with predecessor Rex Tillerson, Pompeo will vow to promote democracy and human rights while ending "demoralizing" vacancies at the State Department. According to his prepared remarks, Pompeo will chastise Russia for acting "aggressively" and emphasize that the Trump administration considers Russia "a danger to our c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — He came, he saw, he got fired on Twitter. And now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said farewell, with a parting plea Thursday to America's diplomats not to let anyone violate their integrity. Tillerson did not mention his erstwhile boss, President Donald Trump, as he spoke to several hundred State Department workers who gathered at headquarters in Foggy Bottom to watch him depart. Nor did he directly address the icy manner in which he was terminated last week after one of the shortest stints by a secretary of state in r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In its toughest challenge to Russia to date, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of an elaborate plot to penetrate America's electric grid, factories, water supply and even air travel through cyber hacking. The U.S. also hit targeted Russians with sanctions for alleged election meddling for the first time since President Donald Trump took office. The list of Russians being punished includes all 13 indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, a tacit acknowledgement by the administration that at l...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump unceremoniously dumped Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet on Tuesday and picked CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take his place, abruptly ending Tillerson's turbulent tenure as America's top diplomat and escalating the administration's chaotic second-year shake-up. Tillerson was ousted barely four hours after he returned from an Africa mission and with no face-to-face conversation with the president, the latest casualty of an unruly White House that has seen multiple top officials depart in recent w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing mysterious "health attacks" in Havana, the United States said Friday it is making permanent its withdrawal of 60 percent of its diplomats from Cuba, extending an action that has hurt the island nation's economy and cramped Cubans' ability to visit the U.S. Last October, the State Department ordered non-essential embassy personnel and the families of all staff to leave Havana, arguing the U.S. could not protect them from unexplained illnesses that have harmed at least 24 Americans. But by law, the department can only o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — You thought President Donald Trump might mellow out in 2018? Refrain from taunting world leaders tweet by tweet? Think again. Trump is storming into the new year in exceptionally aggressive fashion, picking fresh fights on Twitter with such speed that his aides, international partners and the public are struggling to catch up. If he was brash on the global stage in Year 1, the first days of Year 2 suggest he was just warming up. Pakistan? Liars and swindlers who enable terrorists, the president tweeted just hours after the wor...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country's civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said Thursday. If clinched, the deal could be announced by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after a meeting in Vietnam on Friday, four U.S. officials said. The United States has been reluctant to hold a formal meeting between the leaders unless they have a substantive agreement to announce. The potential understanding comes as a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is poised to permanently lift sanctions on Sudan, U.S. officials said Thursday, bringing the African nation further into the international fold after decades of isolation, war and abuses. The Trump administration will complete a process that former President Barack Obama started in January, when he temporarily lifted the penalties. An announcement is expected as early as Friday, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress has yet to be notified. In justifying the d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States expelled 15 of Cuba's diplomats Tuesday to protest its failure to protect Americans from unexplained attacks in Havana, plunging diplomatic ties between the countries to levels unseen in years. Only days ago, the U.S. and Cuba maintained dozens of diplomats in newly re-opened embassies in Havana and Washington, powerful symbols of a warming relationship between longtime foes. Now both countries are poised to cut their embassies by more than half, as invisible, unexplained attacks threaten delicate r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States issued an ominous warning to Americans on Friday to stay away from Cuba and ordered home more than half the U.S. diplomatic corps, acknowledging neither the Cubans nor America's FBI can figure out who or what is responsible for months of mysterious health ailments. No longer tiptoeing around the issue, the Trump administration shifted to calling the episodes "attacks" rather than "incidents." The U.S. actions are sure to rattle already delicate ties between the longtime adversaries who only recently began p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two more Americans have been confirmed to be affected by unexplained health attacks against U.S. diplomats in Cuba, the United States said Tuesday, raising the total number of victims to 21. The additional two individuals appear to be cases that were only recently reported but occurred in the past. The State Department said no new, medically confirmed "incidents" have taken place since the most recent one in late August. Earlier this month, the U.S. disclosed there had been another incident in August after previously saying t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will approve the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, senior U.S. officials said, ending years of delay for a project that has served as a flashpoint in the national debate about climate change. The State Department will recommend the pipeline is in U.S. interests, clearing the way for the White House to grant a presidential permit to TransCanada to build the $8 billion pipeline, two officials said. It's a sharp reversal from the Obama administration, which rejected the pipeline after deeming it contrary to...
