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Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within "one or two weeks," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday. News of Iran's capabilities follows the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has said his goal is to "get Iran out of its isolation," and who favors reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers. Blinken said that "what we've seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that's actually moving forward" with its nuclear program. The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal, which...

They know it’s over. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan winced as Joe Biden called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” during Thursday night’s “Big Boy” press conference. Joe Biden Thursday evening was nearly one hour late to his “Big Boy” press conference and it was a total dumpster fire. Old Joe botched the first question when he called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.” This was literally right after Joe Biden called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “President Putin.”

Israel has lost effective sovereignty in the northern part of the country, thanks to constant Hezbollah projectile fire that has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. The Times of Israel reported: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that Israel “has effectively lost sovereignty in the northern quadrant of its country because people don’t feel safe to go to their homes.” In an on-stage interview at the Brookings Institution, Blinken reiterates his belief that Israel does not want a war in Lebanon, but admits that “they may well...

The CIA conspired with former acting director Mike Morell and the Biden campaign to produce a letter falsely claiming that emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop were Russian disinformation — and solicited signatures from at least one former intelligence official, a staff report from the House Judiciary Committee is expected to reveal Wednesday. Morell told the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) that he needed the letter approved as an unusual “rush job” that day, October 19, 2020, in an effort to provide then-candidate Joe Biden ammunition in the final presidential debate to discredit The Post’s report on the Biden emails...

New FOIA emails obtained by Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch show the CIA panicking and making sure all hands were on deck to stop the Hunter Biden laptop from hell spreading like wildfire shortly before the 2020 election. In October of 2020 – just days before the presidential election – 51 former intelligence officials signed and published a letter that baselessly decried the contents of Hunter’s ‘laptop from hell’ had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” This was a lie. They all knew it was a lie. The fake news media ran with the story anyway. Mike...

The Biden administration is close to finalizing a treaty with Saudi Arabia that would commit the U.S. to help defend the Gulf nation as part of a long-shot deal to encourage diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Israel, U.S. and Saudi officials said. But the success of the diplomatic effort hinges on Israel’s commitment to a separate Palestinian state, and more immediately an end to the war in Gaza, an unlikely proposition amid months of fruitless cease-fire talks and an Israeli weekend raid to retrieve hostages from the heart of the territory. The U.S. aims to present Israeli leaders with an...

End the ceasefire talk and let Israel defeat Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's eighth trip to the Middle East since the terrorist atrocities of October 7, 2023, has gone about as well as the previous seven. That is to say: Not well at all. Blinken went to the region to pressure Israel and Hamas into accepting Biden's latest ceasefire proposal for the war in Gaza. Biden released the plan on May 31. It would proceed in three stages. First, there would be a six-week truce during which Hamas would release some hostages in exchange for terrorists held in Israel,...

Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to mediate a ceasefire and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza. Hamas wants written guarantees from the United States for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip in order to sign off on a US-backed truce proposal, two Egyptian security sources said. Mediators Qatar and Egypt said Hamas had responded on Tuesday to the phased ceasefire plan for an end to the eight-month war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group, without giving...

American intelligence officials believe that Yahya Sinwar, the powerful leader of Hamas in Gaza who is thought to be the group’s key decision-maker on any potential ceasefire deal, likely believes the group can survive Israel’s attempt to destroy it and feels confident it is well-positioned to approach negotiations from a place of strength, according to US officials familiar with recent assessments. The goal for Hamas is to survive, these sources say — that would be victory for the group. Sinwar likely believes Hamas can hold out while Israel’s global standing deteriorates as the war in Gaza, which has killed thousands...

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Yahya Sinwar has been in direct contact with Hamas leaders in Qatar, saying civilian casualties are "necessary sacrifices." A Wall Street Journal report has revealed messages penned by Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, to various Hamas officials and hostage deal mediators. According to the report, referring to the war, Sinwar recently wrote to Hamas officials negotiating a hostage deal, “We have the Israelis right where we want them.” In a message to Hamas leaders in Qatar, Sinwar presented as an example the civilian casualties during the Algerian war, affirming such...

Gaza-based Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar believes that “[W]e have the Israelis right where we want them,” despite massive losses to the terror organization, because of growing international pressure on Israel to stop short of victory. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Sinwar, who is likely hiding in a tunnel in southern Gaza, possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields, is happy with how the war is going — civilian casualties and all. The Journal noted: For months, Yahya Sinwar has resisted pressure to cut a ceasefire-and-hostages deal with Israel. Behind his decision, messages the Hamas military leader in...

In Papua New Guinea more than 300 people and 1,100 homes buried by a landslide... Louisiana Governor Mike Landry signing legislation classifying two types of abortion pills... Biden Administration prosecutors seeking a gag order against President Donald Trump... US political polling the Cook Political Report gives Donald Trump the advantage over Joe Biden in six... Four reported dead in an Israeli airstrike in the central part of Gaza... US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talking to Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz in the aftermath of the international court decision... The White House claiming tonight... Late tonight air raid alerts...

The US State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy in response to a repressive law and crackdowns on protests in Georgia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday. Blinken, who noted that he hopes the country’s leaders will reconsider the so-called “foreign agents” bill, said the new visa policy would target “individuals who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia, as well as their family members.” “This includes individuals responsible for suppressing civil society and freedom of peaceful assembly in Georgia through a campaign of violence or intimidation,” he said in a statement. The United...

The senators claimed the reason for the State Department's interference was because of ongoing negotiations related to the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal, which former President Barack Obama signed in 2015. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson unveiled evidence on Wednesday that former Secretary of State John Kerry's State Department "actively interfered" with the FBI's attempts to arrest people suspected of being in the United States illegally to support Iran's efforts to create weapons of mass destruction. Whistleblowers allegedly told the senators and shared unclassified documents with them that supported their claims, and showed that the Justice Department and...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning by train, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and promising that “assistance is now on the way” after Congress passed the $95 billion foreign aid package in April. Blinken is in Kyiv to “highlight the United States’ enduring support for Ukraine”, the State Department said on Tuesday, after the Secretary of State arrived in the country by overnight train, a necessity for foreign diplomatic visits as flying directly to Ukraine remains impossible. The two-day trip is the first by an American government figure since Congress passed the foreign...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday visited Ukraine, telling the country that soon-to-arrive U.S. military aid will make a “real difference” in its effort to fend off Russia's war. Blinken's trip comes amid a fierce new Russian offensive, according to the Associated Press. “We know this is a challenging time,” Blinken said in the Ukrainian capital on Kiev where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Has the Biden administration forgotten the injunction to never negotiate with terrorists? With the White House seeking to placate Hamas while censuring Israel for having the gall to defend itself, it seems the administration has embraced the exact opposite of that old wisdom. In her daily briefing on Monday, underqualified White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre only supported that impression with her words on a possible deal with Hamas. A reporter asked her about President Joe Biden’s Sunday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The significant focus of that … call was obviously on securing the release of all...

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and more than 30 House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging them to reconsider the recent authorization of weapons to Israel, just days after seven aid workers were killed. “In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” the letter said, obtained and first reported by NBC News.

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - (This April 5 story has been corrected to say that Gaza suffers widespread hunger, not famine, in paragraph 2 and adds context on United Nations warnings of imminent famine in Gaza in paragraph 11) Representative Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker and a key ally of Joe Biden, signed a letter on Friday from dozens of congressional Democrats to the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT Israel's military assault on Gaza, opens new tab, which followed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' Oct. 7 attack,...

Hamas should accept an “extraordinarily generous” proposal to release Israeli hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hamas is expected to respond to the U.S.-led proposal Monday in discussions with Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo. “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said during a panel discussion at the WEF. “And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and...