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Every stakeholder has had something to say about Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Kim Jong-un — except for one in particular. The South Koreans announced the invitation from the North Korean leader; Trump and his administration made a public show of accepting it; even Russia and China have offered public encouragement. The American media talks continually about it, at least when they take a break from coverage of the more pressing and existential issue of Stormy Daniels.So who’s the party pooper? Despite rarely missing a chance to comment on events in the region, the Kim regime itself is...

NAIROBI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson canceled scheduled events on Saturday on the second day of a visit to Kenya because “he is not feeling well”, a State Department spokesman said. no futher info

This thread is a friendly collaborative place for FReepers to analyze information and share opinons. FReepers have a wide variety of reasons for investigating Q Anon content; this is not the appropriate place to criticize or badger those who choose to use some of their time in this manner. This thread is a continuation of the prior Q Anon thread located here: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3637830/posts I plan to post one thread at a time and ping new drops posted to it. The current schedule is to post new threads Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. When I post each (new) thread, the prior...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The United States and Turkey pulled back from the brink of a potentially disastrous crisis on Friday, agreeing to normalize badly strained relations over Syria and other issues that had threatened the NATO allies' longstanding ties. However, details of the rapprochement were vague as the two sides agreed in principle only to form working groups that will begin meeting within the month to examine points of contention and try to resolve them. After talks in Ankara, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the creation of new "mechanisms" to improve...

The discussions were expected to cover several proposals for improving cooperation along the border area. It's been a flashpoint over the years for Turkish-Kurdish tensions, al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters traveling back and forth, and incidents involving major powers including Russia. Reflecting the sensitivity of the talks between Tillerson and Erdogan, only Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, serving as translator, also was included in the meeting, which lasted more than three hours. Erdogan's office said the discussions touched on regional developments, including in Syria and Iraq, the fight against terrorism and bilateral relations. "Turkey's expectations and priorities on these issues...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Saturday that he informed Putin of Israel's intention to continue defending itself against any aggression and to prevent Iran from establishing a presence "in Syria or anywhere else." Russia backs the Assad regime and maintains a large military presence in the country. Netanyahu has met several times with Putin to coordinate military activities in the region. Russia's foreign ministry appeared to criticize Israel's actions by saying it was "absolutely unacceptable to create threats to the lives and security of Russian servicemen." Netanyahu says he also spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that the U.S. is still considering restricting the sale of oil from crisis-torn Venezuela.</p> <p>Tillerson said in Argentina's capital that the U.S. wants "free, fair, and verifiable elections" in Venezuela, and wants to apply enough pressure to end the crisis in the South American country. The government there has faced widespread criticism over its decision to push up presidential elections under conditions that opponents say overwhelmingly favor President Nicolas Maduro.</p>

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed Russia at the GOP retreat in West Virginia on Thursday, definitively telling Republican lawmakers that Moscow "is not, will not, be our friend." "As long as their government has the values that it has, and as long as it conducts itself the way it does internationally," Haley said. Haley made it very clear that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election but also noted that "there is no reason to think the Russian interference made any difference between who won and lost."

Washington’s decision to drop Victor Cha as its next US ambassador to South Korea was not due to his disagreement with the Trump administration’s consideration of a limited strike on North Korea, a diplomatic source said Friday. “As far as I know, the reason Victor Cha was withdrawn was not his differing views on North Korea policy,” the source said, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter. “I believe there were many other factors. It is extremely difficult to give a detailed answer on what other factors were,” he said. He refused to discuss his source...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday warned countries in the Western Hemisphere to beware of Chinese investment, saying it is reminiscent of European colonialism. He also derided Russia for selling weaponry to unfriendly, authoritarian governments in the region. Before embarking Thursday on a five-nation trip to Latin America, Tillerson said China seeks only to enrich itself with investment and development projects. He said regional governments should protect themselves against "predatory actors that are now showing up in our hemisphere," specifically mentioning China. He said Chinese investment may look good but comes with a heavy price. (please...

Japan has conveyed its concern to the U.S. government that a statement made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could contradict an agreement with South Korea over the “comfort women,” sources close to the matter said. “It’s one that only they can resolve,” Tillerson told reporters this month after a 20-nation ministerial meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. “And we know that there’s more that needs to be done,” he said, referring to the issue of the Korean girls and women who were forced into Japan’s military brothels before and during the war. Tokyo has told Washington that Tillerson’s words could...

A growing number of State Department employees are charging they are being put in career purgatory because of their previous work on policy priorities associated with President Barack Obama and in offices the Trump administration is interested in closing. The situation has got so serious that several officials tell CNN they have retained attorneys after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to raise concerns about being assigned to low-level jobs in Foggy Bottom such as answering Freedom of Information Act requests. The issue has also come to the attention of senior Democrats on Capitol Hill. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has made clearing...

A Russia-led initiative involving China and Pakistan that seeks a political settlement to Afghanistan’s civil war has the makings of a diplomatic alliance that could supplant the United States as the leading power in Central Asia. The grouping was unveiled after a third meeting in Moscow late last month and may be expanded to include regional powers Iran and Turkey, which formed a separate tripartite grouping on Syria with Russia in talks preceding the parleys on Afghanistan. The Afghan government reacted angrily to the Moscow meeting, to which it had not been invited, because the meeting proposed the relaxation of...

The State Department announced a new $600,000 taxpayer-funded study that suggests "ideals of masculinity" in Kenya are contributing to terrorism.The department's Bureau of Counterterrorism is seeking a nonprofit group to "explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya." The grant proposal states that men being "tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving" can make them vulnerable to joining Islamic extremist groups."Gender is increasingly recognized as an essential aspect to understanding and countering violent extremism throughout the world," the State Department said. "To date, research and interventions on gender in Kenya have predominantly focused on the role of women and girls...

“The prospect of regime change is a serious concern. The Kremlin understands that (U.S. President Donald) Trump is unpredictable. They felt more secure with Barack Obama that he would not take any action that would explode the situation, but with Trump they don’t know.” Kortunov, the think-tank chief close to the Russian Foreign Ministry, said he did not think the Kremlin’s defense of Kim Jong Un was based on any personal affection or support for North Korea’s leadership, likening Moscow’s pragmatic backing to that it has given Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow’s position was motivated by a belief the status...

The Trump administration is expected to approve a plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as early as next year, rather than waiting for several years, Trump administration officials said Friday. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been considering several options since President Donald Trump, late last year, declared Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital and announced the United States would finally move its embassy there from Tel Aviv. Tillerson has said previously that building a new facility that satisfies the significant security requirements is a complex process involving site-selection, permitting and construction. He’s said that process is...

Speaking at Stanford University after being introduced by former top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, Tillerson said the Trump administration was determined not to repeat President Barack Obama's "mistake" when he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Republicans for years have argued the withdrawal created the opening for IS' rapid expansion.... Securing a successful U.N. peace process, getting Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, ridding Syria of Iran's influence and eradicating all weapons of mass destruction in the country.

Despite the “rise and fall of the unipolar concert,” China and Russia’s balancing strategies have backfired: they are not leading to multipolarity, but are actually reinforcing unipolarity. The reason is that China and Russia’s balancing strategies have focused on regional “revisionism,” which has provoked powerful responses in East Asia and Europe to contain them. Russia’s balancing strategy has to a large extent proven to be counter-productive. Instead of preventing the expansion of NATO through a “divide and conquer” strategy, or driving a diplomatic wedge between the United States and Europe, Russian revisionism has united NATO...Perhaps most illustrative of all, a...

A pair of rogue regimes with a longing for nuclear weapons promise to dominate Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s second year atop Foggy Bottom. Tillerson, in following President Trump’s distaste for former President Barack Obama’s decision-making, declared in 2017 an end to the era of “strategic patience” with Iran and North Korea. As the nation’s top diplomat, he has to try to rally international support for Trump’s more aggressive posture. Diplomacy doesn’t stop at home, though. Tillerson has to persuade Congress to support his vision for reorganizing the State Department, while maintaining his position in the administration, which has seemed...

WASHINGTON — America’s top diplomat stepped back Friday from his offer of unconditional talks with North Korea, telling world powers the nuclear-armed nation must earn the right to negotiate with the United States. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s declaration before the U.N. Security Council marked a stunning reversal after he proposed discussions with Pyongyang without preconditions earlier this week. That overture was almost immediately rebutted by White House officials.