Politics

WASHINGTON / AGENCIES US President Donald Trump has signaled support for anti-government protests in Iran, but in two weeks he faces a decision on US policy towards the Islamic Republic that suddenly seems riskier than it did a week ago. The six days of demonstrations in several Iranian cities began over economic conditions, and Trump must decide by mid-January whether ...

AMMAN / Reuters The Syrian army backed by Russian jets escalated bombing of the last rebel bastion on the eastern outskirts of Damascus as they prepared to break a siege of an army base encircled by opposition forces, residents and witnesses said on Wednesday. They said the army was amassing elite forces to prepare for a major assault on the ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump is hardening his demands for a deal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, a dispute with congressional Democrats that hangs over talks this week to avoid a government shutdown. Any deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, must also forbid immigrants from sponsoring family members to join them in the US, ...

Bloomberg Protests that have roiled Iran over the past five days will die down in a few days, according to a senior Iranian official, as authorities said hundreds of those involved in the unrest have been detained. The demonstrations broke out last week, starting in the holy city of Mashhad and spreading to other parts of the country, including the ...

Bloomberg The US will continue to withhold $255 million in military aid to Pakistan as the White House reviews the nation’s ‘level of cooperation’ in fighting terrorism, a National Security Council spokesperson said. The announcement came just hours after Trump in a tweet said the US has ‘foolishly’ given more than $33 billion in aid to the country and gotten ...

Bloomberg Israel’s parliament passed an amendment on Tuesday that would make it harder for it to cede control over parts of Jerusalem in any peace deal with the Palestinians, who condemned the move as undermining any chance to revive talks on statehood. The legislation, sponsored by the far-right Jewish Home coalition party, raises to 80 from 61 the number of ...

Bloomberg The European Union can’t pick and choose which bits of its economic relationship with Britain it maintains and which it eliminates in any future trade deal, UK Brexit Secretary David Davis said, throwing the words of EU diplomats back at them. Post-Brexit trade talks are due to start in March, with a year remaining until Britain’s scheduled exit day ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration’s national security strategy calls for a more aggressive approach toward stopping a North Korean missile strike on the US: knocking the weapons out prior to launch. But it’s unclear that the US has the technology or on-the-ground intelligence to effectively carry out a preemptive strike in that kind of crisis situation. And if it fails, the ...

DUBAI / Agencies The death toll in a wave of protests that have agitated Iran over the past five days climbed, as security forces clashed with demonstrators rallying in a rare show of displeasure with the country’s leaders. As many as a dozen people may have died. Calls for more demonstrations raise the possibility of prolonged instability. “In the events ...

Bloomberg After a year filled with nuclear provocations that raised fears of a devastating war in Northeast Asia, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un started 2018 on an optimistic note. His call for talks to ensure the success of the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month — and improve overall inter-Korean relations — represented a tactical shift for a ...