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Remainers had hoped it would be the night when they finally made a dent in Theresa May’s Brexit plans as they put forward a bewildering array of new clauses and amendments to the Article 50 bill. Nine proposals in all, ranging from the rights of EU migrants to the opinions of the Gibraltar Government, were put to the vote, and one by one all nine proposals were thrown out by MPs. It was a flawless night for Theresa May, as the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill was passed by 494 votes to 122 in its original, unamended form.

President Donald J. Trump killed the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) once and for all on Monday, signing an executive order officially withdrawing from the trade deal negotiations. It came as a part of series of three separate executive actions that President Trump took on Monday. “The first is a withdrawal of the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said, explaining the first executive action President Trump was taking in the list of three. The other two were one freezing hiring of all federal employees except in the military, and one that restores...

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President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife. Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart." "I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Donald Trump’s favorability rating is sky-high here, where citizens are paying surprisingly close attention to the U.S. election and see the developer and political novice as the clear choice for the White House. In dozens of interviews FoxNews.com conducted in various cities across the country this month – with Iraqis from different religions and walks of life – the overwhelming majority support Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Many believe Trump would be tough on terror, and blame Clinton – at least in part – for policies that have destabilized much of the Middle East. "America should...

More than a year since the Obama administration officially ended American combat operations in Afghanistan, the White House’s newly minted battle plan for the country effectively restarts the combat mission for the 9,800 U.S. service members still in the country. White House officials have given the administration’s tacit approval to allow U.S. commanders in Afghanistan to conduct offensive airstrikes against the Taliban and other insurgent groups and to let American troops restart joint ground operations with Afghan forces. The changes were based on the findings of a three-month review of the situation in Afghanistan, which was overseen by Gen. John...

The United States will halt its military withdrawal from Afghanistan and instead keep thousands of troops in the country through the end of President Obama’s term in 2017, Mr. Obama will announce on Thursday, prolonging the American role in a war that has now stretched on for 14 years. The current American force in Afghanistan of 9,800 troops will remain in place through most of 2016 under the Obama administration’s revised plans, before dropping to about 5,500 at the end of next year or in early 2017, senior administration officials said. Some of the troops will continue to train and...

In June, we learned that the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, had been in US custody but was released in 2009 when President Obama closed down Camp Bucca in preparation for the US withdrawal of troops (yes, the withdrawal he repeatedly denies having anything to do with) from Iraq. ... Abu Duaa was connected to the intimidation, torture and murder of local civilians in Qaim,’ according to a 2005 U.S. intelligence report. He would kidnap individuals or entire families, accuse them, pronounce sentence and then publicly execute them ... ISIS’ acts of unmatched evil include burying women and...

The U.S. has started to pull its Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey, despite a recent appeal from Ankara to its NATO allies to keep the air and missile defense units at a delicate time on the border with Syria. Patriot missiles were initially deployed at the Gaziantep 5th Armored Brigade Command in southeastern Turkey after the country appealed to its NATO allies to guard against rockets from Syria.

The question on everyone's mind is: will the United States and its European and regional Sunni allies intervene to stop President Vladimir Putin from reversing the gains made by mainstream Syrian rebels after more than four years of war? Few are holding their breath. Many say, often with vehemence, that the current drama is the consequence of ongoing Western inaction and U.S. retreat at critical moments in an ever more uncontrollable conflict, whose regional dimensions are fast becoming global. Nobody in the Middle East is counting on U.S. President Barack Obama. The gloomy prediction of most is that a war...

Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, on Saturday said that the Iraqi security forces captured a leading figure in Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in an operation based on intelligence reports. Al-Abadi said this in his address to a ceremony in Baghdad for the 146th anniversary of the Iraqi press. “The security forces managed to arrest the terrorist Abdul Karim al-Sadoun by the efforts of the Iraqi intelligence,” Abadi said. Abadi did not give further details about how or where the arrest took place, saying he preferred an official statement to declare the details later as interrogation was still underway. Al-Sadoun was...

Ramadi falls. The Iraqi army flees. The great 60-nation anti-Islamic State coalition so grandly proclaimed by the Obama administration is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it’s the defense minister of Iran who flies into Baghdad, an unsubtle demonstration of who’s in charge — while the U.S. air campaign proves futile and America’s alleged strategy for combating the Islamic State is in freefall. It gets worse. The Gulf states’ top leaders, betrayed and bitter, ostentatiously boycott President Obama’s failed Camp David summit. “We were America’s best friend in the Arab world for 50 years,” laments Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief.Note: “were,”...

Last month marked the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a moment vividly encapsulated by the frenzied scene of South Vietnamese desperately trying to reach the last helicopter on the roof of the American embassy. April was also the 150th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox, when Robert E. Lee capitulated to Ulysses S. Grant, bringing the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War to an end.The two episodes seemingly have little to do with each other. But each, in its way, illustrates one of the bleakly recurring themes of US military history: When America's armed forces prematurely abandon the...

Head of the DPR Aleksandr Zakharchenko made an emergency announcement in Donetsk on February 26 in regard to the withdrawal of heavy armaments from the line of contact. He recited to the journalists the text of the document submitted to the Head of the OSCE mission in the DPR. “In pursuance of the Declaration of 12.02.2015 and the “Package of measures concerning implementation of the Minsk Agreement” the Donetsk People’s Republic has withdrawn heavy armament to the agreed upon and registered by the given document distance”, the document claims. Aleksandr Zakharchenko remarked that the DPR has withdrawn 90% of artillery,...

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Martha, let's keep our eye on the ball. The reason I've been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 20 times — I've been up in the Kunar — I've been throughout that whole country, mostly in a helicopter and sometimes in a vehicle. The fact is we went there for one reason: to get those people who killed Americans, al-Qaida. We've decimated al-Qaida central. We have eliminated Osama bin Laden. That was our purpose. And in fact, in the meantime, what we said we would do, we would help train the Afghan military. It's their responsibility...

In a speech on the floor of the United States Senate on June 21, 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama warned against a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq that would endanger Iraq and the United States. Here is the complete text of that speech. You can hear an audio excerpt here. The more important parts of the speech are highlighted with italics by the author.

Mr. Norris, with Washington and Colorado recently legalizing pot smoking and their football teams (Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos) being in the Super Bowl, some have asked whether there is going to be added marijuana use during this year’s Super Bowl. And President Barack Obama recently said that he doesn’t think marijuana is as dangerous as alcohol. What do you think, Chuck? Is it? – “Trying to Make Sense of Sensimilla” in Seattle I understand the arguments for the legalization of marijuana: It can generate tax revenue. It can reduce illegal supply and demand. It can strip power from cartels...

Curious why over the past few months JPM has quietly been accumulating a substantial amount of eligible physical gold (even as its registered gold inventory is the lowest it has ever been at just 87K ounces since December 13, 2013 when 147K ounces of gold was withdrawn - keep that date in mind for a few minutes)? This may have something to do with it: moments ago the daily Comex gold vault report confirmed what many expected, namely that the JPM accumulation was merely in advance anticipation of major withdrawals. How major? Well, on January 23, JPM saw 321,500...

BRITISH troops have been put at risk in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of vital American helicopter rescue teams. US Pave Hawk choppers have been an important ­element of the air medical ­response in Helmand due to their winch capabilities. In the past six years the aircraft, which operate out of ­Camp Bastion, Britain’s main military base in the country, have saved more than 2,400 lives. But they have been pulled out of the war zone a year earlier than expected and a ­senior military source says they have not been adequately replaced. The insider said loss of the Pave Hawks...

U.S. and NATO officials have acknowledged that, in the rush to implement the President's politically calculated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Afghan troops were not properly vetted, which resulted in the deaths of 45 coalition members - most of them Americans - at the hands of their supposed Afghan allies. Hence, in an extremely belated response, the senior commander of U.S. special forces in Afghanistan has finally decided to suspend training for all new Afghan recruits until they can be re-vetted... The spike in green-on-blue attacks has forced NATO officials to concede the 'painful truth': Many of the attacks might have...