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Japan now has Asia’s only navy with two aircraft carrier-sized warships — the Kaga (pictured) The state-controlled Chinese media has sharply criticised the commissioning of Japan’s powerful new warship, which has the same name --- Kaga --- as one of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s aircraft carriers in World War II. The original Kaga, which Beijing’s English language daily, Global Times, terms a “notorious warship”, was sunk by the US Navy in the Battle of Midway in 1942. With Japanese Ship (JS) Kaga’s rebirth on Wednesday as a “helicopter destroyer”, Japan now has Asia’s only navy with two aircraft carrier-sized warships...

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson thinks that if only he can enlist Beijing’s support, sanctions will compel Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear arsenal – here’s why he’s wrong ****************************************** Speaking on Thursday ahead of his first trip to Beijing, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged that Washington’s policy towards North Korea had failed.That’s putting it mildly. After more than 20 years of US efforts aimed at halting Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, the North Korean regime is closer than ever to developing a credible strike capability. This month, it fired four medium-range missiles into the Sea...

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that there is now “more than circumstantial evidence” that Trump’s associates colluded with the Russians to interfere in the U.S. election. In an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily,” host Chuck Todd asked if Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, currently has a circumstantial case. “Actually, no, Chuck. I can tell you that the case is more than that. And I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now,” Schiff said. Asked if he’s seen direct evidence of collusion, Schiff said, “I don’t to want go...

HARARE — Zimbabwe has opened its 2017 tobacco-selling season with hopes the “golden leaf” will change the economic fortunes of the southern African nation. Officials say the tobacco yield has been increasing after a downward turn in 2000 when the government chased white commercial farmers off their land. Zimbabwean farmers applauded after the 2017 tobacco selling season began Wednesday in Harare at the country’s biggest auction floor. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya saluted the farmers. “Producers of tobacco are indeed our heroes. You are important to this economy. The foreign currency you produce is above $800 million a...

Now that a couple of left-wing ideologues on the bench have ruled against President Trump's second, “bullet-proof” immigration order, it is time to put into force a law which is on the books and which will have practically the same effect. Several commentators have pointed out the the U.S. is not enforcing the law under which the U.S. can stop issuing visas to citizens of countries which refuse to take back their deportable aliens. “All [President] Trump would have to do is have his Homeland Security Department secretary issue an official notification about those countries, and the State Department would...

Brussels last night made an extraordinary threat to disrupt flights to Europe and hold British goods at the border if the UK refuses to pay a £50 billion Brexit divorce bill. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK would pay a heavy price if it tried to walk away from the EU without paying for its “responsibilities”. In a mocking speech, he quoted Winston Churchill, saying: “The price of greatness is responsibility.” Government lawyers have told Theresa May that the UK has no duty to pay a penny towards the EU’s ongoing costs after leaving. A report by...

A House intelligence committee investigation took a dramatic shift this week after newly disclosed intelligence reports suggested the Obama administration improperly gathered and disseminated secret electronic communications from President Trump and his transition team prior to inauguration. Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, indicated that the administration used its foreign intelligence gathering authority to spy on the discussions of Trump and his transition team by improperly unmasking the identity of Americans who were swept up in foreign electronic spying. "What I've read seems to be some level of surveillance activity, perhaps...

A holdover from the Obama administration who helped broker the Iran nuclear deal continues to work in the Trump State Department as a member of the “policy planning staff,” according to her biography on the agency website. “Prior to joining the Policy Planning Staff, she served as a Director for Iran and Iran Nuclear Implementation on the National Security Council Staff from 2014-2016,” Sahar Nowrouzzadeh’s bio states. “Sahar also previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State and a Team Chief and Senior Analyst at the Department of Defense.” In an October 2016, Nowrouzzadeh was...

Israeli authorities have arrested a 19-year-old suspect in connection with dozens of hoax bomb threats to Jewish community centers in the United States and around the world. ABC News reports that the unnamed suspect is a dual U.S.-Israel citizen. Other reports indicate that the suspect is Jewish. The arrest was “part of an ongoing international investigation that has been taking place for several months with other police and security agencies in America and Europe,” Arutz Sheva reports.

Lawyers for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl fulfilled a promise Thursday to appeal to the top military court to toss out their client’s case over disparaging comments made by President Trump on the campaign trail. In a 314-page motion filed Thursday with the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, defense lawyers said the “unprecedented circumstances” of Trump repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who should be executed constitute apparent unlawful command influence (UCI). “To describe President Trump’s comments about Sgt. Bergdahl as merely ‘troubling,’ ‘made without consideration of their possible impact on the trial of the accused,’ ‘disturbing and disappointing,’...

"Unable to live in a world with Donald J. Trump as president, Timothy Jay Curtis succumbed to cancer on Dec. 22, 2016," the first line reads. Curtis was gay and in an 18-year relationship with Pierre de Prez, who became his spouse two years ago.

Adding to the uproar over Rep. Devin Nunes’ disclosure that the communications of President Trump and his transition team may have been intercepted by American intelligence or law enforcement agents, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Thursday described Nunes’ actions as “very disturbing.” Nunes, the California Republican who heads the House intelligence committee, called a press conference Wednesday to announce that he had informed the White House that Trump transition communications may have been subject to “incidental collection” in the course of surveillance of other targets, possibly foreign. Nunes faced severe criticism from both sides of the aisle for making the...

President Donald Trump's chest-thumping nationalism and harsh immigration policies are the subject of a new play depicting an apocalyptic America where stadiums are turned into prisons and people become sick, hungry and frightened. "Building the Wall," which opened last weekend in Los Angeles, was written by Robert Schenkkan, a two-time Tony winner who co-wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated movie "Hacksaw Ridge." The play is set in the very near future, after the Trump administration makes good on a pledge to hunt down and arrest millions of unauthorized immigrants by imposing martial law. But things get horribly out of hand....

Two-thirds of Russians oppose the revival of Russian monarchy, believing that its historical time has passed, according to recent research from the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion. At the same time, 28% of Russians are not against reviving monarchy in their country, but say they don’t see a worthy candidate at this time, reports Interfax-Religion. The overwhelming majority of respondents (82%) believe the current republican form of government is more suitable. Smaller towns and villages approved of the current form slightly more, at 84-86%. In specifically choosing between monarchy and a republic, only 11% inclined towards monarchy....

Poland's prime minister drew a link on Thursday between an attack in London targeting the British parliament and the European Union's migrant policy, saying the assault vindicated Warsaw's refusal to take in refugees. Poland's right-wing, eurosceptic government has refused to accept any of the 6,200 migrants allocated to it under the European Union's quota scheme that is designed to share the burden of taking in the large numbers of migrants and refugees who have come to Europe over the past two years. "I hear in Europe very often: do not connect the migration policy with terrorism, but it is impossible...

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Vote Summary Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture re Nomination of David Friedman to be Ambassador to Israel ) Vote Number: 95 Vote Date: March 23, 2017, 01:07 PM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Cloture Motion Agreed to Nomination Number: PN53 Nomination Description: David Friedman, of New York, to be Ambassador to Israel Vote Counts: YEAs 52 NAYs 46 Not Voting 2 YEAs ---52 Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Capito (R-WV) Cassidy (R-LA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT) Enzi (R-WY)...

The disclosure came in a report Wednesday night, citing unnamed U.S. officials. FBI suggests that President Donald Trump may have worked alongside Russian officials to release information aimed at Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. The FBI has information indicating that associates of President Donald Trump were in communication with suspected Russian agents and that they may have coordinated on releasing hacked emails and other information to undercut Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, CNN reported Wednesday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

A former Russian member of parliament who defected to Ukraine and began sharply criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin was gunned down Thursday in downtown Kiev in an apparent contract killing. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the murder of Denis Voronenkov, a former member of Russia’s Communist Party who fled to Kiev in October 2016, an “act of state terrorism by Russia.” A suspected assailant was arrested after Voronenkov was shot twice in the head, dying on the spot. The suspect’s identity or other details were not immediately made public. In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman denied Russian involvement in the killing.

FULL TITLE: 'Pray for a Muslim ban': Pauline Hanson urges supporters to respond to London's Westminster terror attack by demanding an end to Islamic migration in Australia One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has urged Australians to use the hashtag 'pray for a Muslim ban' in the wake of London's Westminster terror attack. In a video posted to her Facebook page on Thursday, the Queensland senator took aim at London's first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, for comments he made in September about terror attacks bring 'part and parcel of living in a big city'. 'People are feeling sorry for people over...