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Kurdish authorities estimate that 100,000 people have fled Kirkuk, Iraq, this week, formerly under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) but now lost to the Baghdad government and its Iran-backed Shiite militia allies. Kurds fleeing Kirkuk—a multi-ethnic city heavily reliant on its vast oil resources—say Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters are looting, burning houses down, and attacking Kurdish citizens. The Iraqi government announced a military initiative to wrest Kirkuk out of KRG authority after September 25, when the KRG organized a non-binding referendum asking Kurds whether they would support the establishment of an independent Kurdistan. While Kirkuk has not...

Yahya Sinwar says 'no one in the universe can disarm us,' likens belief that terror group will relinquish weapons to 'Satan dreaming of heaven' The Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip on Thursday dismissed US and Israeli demands that it lay down its arms and recognize the Jewish state, saying the terror organization is instead debating “when to wipe out Israel.” The remarks came during a closed roundtable discussion between Yahya Sinwar and Gazan youth about the ongoing reconciliation negotiations with rival Palestinian faction Fatah, to which some media outlets were invited to attend. “Over is the time Hamas spent...

The United States is concerned by reports of violent clashes around the town of Altun Kupri in northern Iraq. We are monitoring the situation closely, and call on all parties to cease all violence and provocative movements, and to coordinate their activities to restore calm. In order to avoid any misunderstandings or further clashes, we urge the central government to calm the situation by limiting federal forces’ movements in disputed areas to only those coordinated with the Kurdistan Regional Government. We are encouraged by Prime Minister Abadi’s instructions to federal forces to protect Iraqi Kurdish citizens and to not provoke...

All Russian roads lead to Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is neck deep in a Russian scandal involving bribery, kickbacks and extortion. FBI documents show that a Russian spy ring was simultaneously targeting her before and during her time as Secretary of State. The FBI arrested 10 Russian spies in June of 2010 and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quickly rushed them back to Moscow on a busy 4th of July weekend before the FBI was finished questioning them. Returning the spy ring to Moscow also prevented them from standing trial. Why???

Robert Mugabe has been named as a goodwill ambassador by the World Health Organization (WHO)

<p>WHAT’S the most powerful country in the world? There’s a good case to be made that it’s China. There are many kinds of power – diplomatic, cultural, military and economic. So an easier question to ask is: What’s the world’s largest economy? Almost certainly China. Many might protest. After all, the US still produces the most when measured at market exchange rates. But this comparison is misleading, because things cost different amounts in different countries. Gross domestic product (GDP) is supposed to measure the amount of real stuff – cars, phones, financial services, back massages, etc – that a country produces. If the same phone costs $400 in the US but only $200 in China, China’s GDP is getting undercounted by 50pc when we measure at market exchange rates. In general, less developed countries have lower prices, which means their GDP gets systematically undercounted.</p>

WASHINGTON -- One person who obviously didn’t know “what he was signing up for” is President Trump. Others include Trump voters who believed they were electing a decent human being to be commander in chief. What Trump reportedly said to the grief-stricken widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, who gave his life for his country, is not some kind of minor miscue or media-fueled distraction. It speaks to the core issue of Trump’s character and demonstrates, as clearly as any incident to date, his unfitness for the office he holds — and dishonors. Trump is a weak, narcissistic man in...

Former senator and Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday he has no plans to run for president in 2020, but didn't rule out the idea. "I don't have any plans right now, honestly," Kerry said on MSNBC when asked if he might make another run. Host Joe Scarborough and others noted that wasn't a firm denial, and pressed Kerry to talk more about whether he would entertain a run.

Twenty members of the Moderate Party in Sweden have proposed the government deploys the armed forces in some of the country’s most dangerous no-go zones to combat “gang violence”. Moderate Party politician Mikael Cederbratt made the proposal this week saying: “The situation in our areas of exclusion has deteriorated. The gangs have taken over and the police have had to retreat. Swedish law no longer applies there.” Cederbratt was backed up by 19 other Moderate party members who signed a motion to deploy members of the Swedish armed forces in the heavily migrant populated Stockholm suburbs of Hallunda-Norsborg, Tensta, Rinkeby,...

As President Donald Trump and his administration face mounting questions about the incident, the FBI is working with authorities in Niger to investigate an ambush that left four U.S. soldiers dead in the country earlier this month, a law enforcement official told CNN. Investigators are providing technical assistance, helping to collect and analyze evidence related to the surprise attack, that killed Special Forces soldiers Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson, Dustin Wright and La David Johnson. Officials say the investigation is routine: The FBI usually looks into the killing of American citizens overseas, it often gives assistance investigating international terror investigations, and...

A North Korean refugee whose two younger brothers died of starvation says children and babies are "dying without hope" under Kim Jong Un's regime. Grace Jo, 26, who now studies at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, told Fox News in an interview on Wednesday that the world must stop the North Korean regime and its killing of innocent people, but added that she doesn't want to see a military intervention. "Child, babies and moms are dying without any hope," Jo said. The refugee said that she and her family escaped three times to China, but were captured and sent back...

Gold star widow Natasha De Alencar released the audio of a phone conversation she had with President Donald Trump in April about the death of her husband who was killed in Afghanistan. “I am so sorry to hear about the whole situation. What a horrible thing, except that he’s an unbelievable hero,” Trump told her in the call about her husband Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, which The Washington Post released. “Thank you. I really, really appreciated it,” she said. “I really do, sir.” Trump also told the widow if she is ever in Washington D.C. that she...

Smack dab in the center of Copenhagen is an amusement park called Tivoli. First opened in 1843, it's a special place. I always found Disneyland agitating, garish, and strangely disturbing – big and sprawling and fake and always insanely crowded, not just an amusement park but something more like a would-be alternate reality where you're condemned to the hell of spending eternity queued up for some two-minute diversion surrounded by shrieking, ill-mannered children. (I've so far managed to avoid visiting Disney World.) Tivoli's not like that. It's like a Japanese garden, modest and charming and meticulously put together. There's a...

The Krasnodar, a Russian attack submarine, left the coast of Libya in late May, headed east across the Mediterranean, then slipped undersea, quiet as a mouse. Then, it fired a volley of cruise missiles into Syria. In the days that followed, the diesel-electric sub was pursued by the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, its five accompanying warships, MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and P-8 Poseidon anti-sub jets flying out of Italy. The U.S. and its allies had set out to track the Krasnodar as it moved to its new home in the Black Sea. The missile attack upended what had been...

The Pyongyang regime is clearly shaken up by President Donald Trump and resorting to clumsy desperation measures.  A letter sent to the "parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia" by the "Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly" was revealed by Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, who called it "unprecedented."  The letter came via the North Korean embassy in Jakarta, their closest diplomatic establishment to Australia, and was accompanied by an open letter to parliaments of the world.  These North Korean entities speak for Kim Jong-un. (Full texts below.) Both documents reveal that North Korea has bought into the image...

CHINA’S leader has laid out his ambitious plans for a superpower in a three-hour speech with huge implications for Australia. BEIJING has outlined plans to become the world’s biggest superpower within the next 30 years. Opening a five-yearly national congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping set out his time frame for the country to become a “global leader” with international influence. In his 3 ½ hour speech, Mr Xi urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take a stronger role in society and economic development to better address the nation’s “grim” challenges. Speaking in the massive Great Hall of the People near...

Clinton Foundation benefited amid shady uranium deal Hey, mainstream media! We finally found it — a real Russia scandal involving the 2016 election. With actual evidence of criminal wrongdoing and everything! So come on, New York Times, CNN and MSNBC, let’s ... Hey, where’d everybody go? For months I’ve been doing TV hits as the token conservative and getting grilled over “Russiagate.” Did Donald Trump and the Russians collude to steal the election from Hillary Clinton? And for months I’ve been asking the same questions: Where is the evidence of an actual crime? And since “collusion” isn’t necessarily against the...

For a stunning and emotional 18 minutes on Thursday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly cut through a nasty debate over condolence calls to Gold Star families, appealing to the political class to allow at least this one thing to remain “sacred.” Instead, Democratic lawmakers and operatives and allies in the media immediately turned on Kelly – himself a Gold Star father – branding him a liar and an “enabler” of President Trump, even suggesting his criticism of a black Democrat who publicized one of those calls was racist. “Kelly isnt just an enabler of Trump. He's a believer...

North Korea has warned it will not be intimidated by Donald Trump's threats in an "unprecedented" letter sent to other countries. "If Trump thinks that he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance," the letter said. "Trump threatened to totally destroy the DPRK ... it is an extreme act of threatening to totally destroy the whole world." The document was published by the Sydney Morning Herald and has been verified by Australia's foreign ministry. Foreign minister Julie Bishop described the missive as...

(CNN)Natasha De Alencar was sitting at home after a trip to Walmart in April when a phone rang. It was President Donald Trump, and he wanted to talk about her husband. Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar had been brought back to the United States from Afghanistan days earlier in a flag-draped casket. The member of the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) died April 8 -- the first American killed in combat in Afghanistan this year, according to Pentagon records. The soldier died of injuries in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province "when his unit came in contact with enemy...