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Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune today in the first visit of a Pentagon chief to the North African country since 2006. It was also the highest-level US diplomatic meeting with the new Algerian president since longtime ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted amid popular protests last year. The meeting came a day after Esper signed a 10-year road map for defense cooperation agreement with Tunisia's defense minister and one day before an expected stop in Morocco. The trip is the latest sign that the United States sees strategic opportunity in bolstering its partnerships in North Africa...

Turkey supports efforts for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh as long as they account for Azerbaijan's legitimate demands, a spokesman for the Turkish presidency said. "We call on the Minsk Group to come up with a timetable and a new proposal that is actionable, that has specific guidelines to end the current round of hostilities but most importantly also a way to end the occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia, which has been the root cause of this problem," government spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told Al Jazeera. "The Minsk Group, which was established almost 30 years ago, has...

Putin’s invitation came as there appeared to be no end in sight for nearly two weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethic Armenian separatists that has claimed hundreds of lives. “The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia are being invited to Moscow on October 9,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin. “The President of Russia is issuing a call to halt the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh on humanitarian grounds in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners,” the Kremlin added. Yerevan has so far ruled out any talks between the two countries’ top diplomats as long as...

Leave it to The New York Times (The Times) to publish a 1,000-plus-word story on the failed state of Venezuela’s collapsing oil sector without saying anything about socialism. In the story headlined “Venezuela, Once an Oil Giant, Reaches the End of an Era,” The Times blamed America and made it appear that the Venezuelan oil sector was imploding due simply to “gross mismanagement.” “Venezuela’s colossal oil sector, which shaped the country and the international energy market for a century, has come to a near halt, with production reduced to a trickle by years of gross mismanagement and American sanctions,” The...

Well, he’ll probably piss off the Left again, but that’s what he's done so well over the past three or so years. Liberal reporter Michael Tracey absolutely ripped into Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and her debate performance Wednesday night. Tracey is no fan of Harris and said that she was an “awful” VP pick from the get-go. So are we shocked her debate performance was equally disastrous? It was a train wreck.  Harris came off unprepared on a host of issues, avoided the court-packing question, and seemed incapable of delivering a solid blow against Vice President Mike Pence, who was...

A spokesperson for the EU responded today (Thursday) to the report according to which the European Union links aid to PA to financial ties with Israel. According to the report, European Union leaders told the Palestinian Authority that they will refuse to provide financial aid as long as it refuses to accept tax revenues collected by Israel. "The EU and its Member States are and continue to be the largest international financial supporter of Palestinians. The EU is a firm supporter of the Palestinian Authority", the spokesperson said to Arutz Sheva. "The EU and many partners in the international community...

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Situation Room” that President Donald Trump has been a “useful idiot” in his dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean Kim Jong-un. Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “Lieutenant Colonel Vindman also told The Atlantic magazine President Trump is in his words, Vladimir Putin is a useful idiot. Do you agree with that characterization?

Russian energy giant Gazprom pledged to appeal what they described as an “unprecedented” fine after the Polish anti-monopoly watchdog UOKiK ordered them to pay some $7.61 billion (€6,47 billion) over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Polish regulator said that building the pipeline would increase Gazprom’s dominance on the Polish market. The project, which would allow Germany to double its gas imports from Russia, is “tantamount to breaking the rules of law and of fair competition” and the current situation may trigger “serious consequences for Poland’s and the EU’s economy,” they added. Gazprom is spearheading the Baltic Sea construction effort...

For the first time in a century, there are no rigs searching for oil in Venezuela. Wells that once tapped the world’s largest crude reserves are abandoned or left to flare toxic gases that cast an orange glow over depressed oil towns. Refineries that once processed oil for export are rusting hulks, leaking crude that blackens shorelines and coats the water in an oily sheen. Fuel shortages have brought the country to a standstill. At gas stations, lines go on for miles. Venezuela’s colossal oil sector, which shaped the country and the international energy market for a century, has come...

As the Trump administration continues to declassify selective CIA documents regarding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, former intelligence officials are expressing concern the releases are politically motivated and potentially damaging national security. Trump’s director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, has declassified bits and pieces of highly redacted CIA notes and memos including a Russian allegation then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was planning to tie Trump to Russia to distract from the ongoing controversy over her private email server. The highly selective disclosures reveal little additional substance about the investigation into Russian meddling or the Trump campaign, say...

If ever a president of the United States represented Wile E. Coyote, it is Donald J. Trump. Really, the pummeling this president has endured from both his domestic and foreign adversaries is almost worthy of a Road Runner cartoon. And it is remarkable the man still has his sanity. Before he was even elected president, Hillary Clinton’s Scooby van – her tricked out campaign ride that doubled as an ambulance - was taking aim at Donald Trump with Russian intelligence agents behind the wheel.We now know from declassified government records that U.S. intelligence agencies had surmised in July 2016 that...

In Nagorno-Karabakh, on the one hand, Shiite Azerbaijan, whose people are a large minority in Iran, is fighting, and on the other, Christian Armenia, a trading partner that helps Tehran circumvent sanctions. In the shadow of the fear of unrest by the Azeri minority, the regime is treading a thin rope Dr. Raz Zimet | Posted 10:12 The fighting between Azerbaijan and the Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in the Caucasus entered its 11th day this morning (Wednesday), and a ceasefire is still not in sight. More than 200 people have already been killed and hundreds more injured in...

Trump has reduced the U.S. military footprint abroad, choosing to punch hard while pulling back. The Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in the Middle East has been destroyed. Syria and Iran are on notice. The two biggest terrorist leaders alive when Trump took office, the Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, are now dead. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have recently signed major diplomatic agreements with Israel, a breakthrough engineered by the Trump administration and the first such pact between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors in 25 years. The president has focused the...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313640512025513984  

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he had noted what he called “sharp anti-Russian rhetoric” from U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but that he had been encouraged by Biden’s comments on arms control. Putin, in comments on state television ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3, said Russia would work with any U.S. leader, but praised Republican incumbent Donald Trump for saying he wanted better ties with Moscow. “Of course we value this,” said Putin, who also denied once again Washington’s charge of Russian meddling in U.S. elections. He said that a bipartisan U.S. consensus on...

We learned last week that (a) Hillary Clinton approved of faking a Russia-Trump scandal to detract from her unsecured server; (b) that then–CIA director John Brennan briefed Obama and intelligence officials about the plan; and (c) that intelligence officials sent a memo to Peter Strzok tell him of Hillary's plan.  The actual documents were made available on Tuesday.  They revealed that Obama knew almost from the beginning that "Russian collusion" was a hoax, while the media's current cover-up of the newly released documents shows that the Russia hoax will live forever in their reporting. Brennan's July 2016 notes of his meeting with Obama...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian authorities rushed to evacuate people from more than 10 villages in the region of Ryazan on Wednesday after a blaze broke out at an ammunition depot, sending thick smoke belching into the air, the Interfax news agency reported. Munitions could be heard detonating at the depot in footage circulated on social media. A witness in one of the videos said shrapnel and ash was falling from the sky.

Top Republicans and allies of President Trump praised his move to declassify all documents related to the Russia investigation saying the “American people deserve the truth.” “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,” the president tweeted Tuesday night. “Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!” The president tweeted Tuesday night. "All Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime...

President Trump Tuesday night went scorched earth and authorized the total declassification of all documents related to the Russia hoax, Spygate and Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.“No redactions!” Trump said. “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!” Trump tweeted. I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions! https://t.co/GgnHh9GOiq— Donald J....

Today's top stories 06.10.20; 1) Palestinian Islamists launched a rocket toward Israel's southern communities, last night; the first such attack since September the 16th.2) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan singles out Israel, Cyprus and Syria as the root obstacles to global peace and tranquility.3) Armenia claims Israel pledged to suspend weapons sales to Azerbaijan; sophisticated weaponry which granted the latter a clear qualitative military edge in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.