Section: Foreign Policy (USA)
FP’s Situation Report: U.S. anti-terror dragnet blocks Somali payments back home; Is the Homeland Security Dept. still viable?; Showdown set for the AIPAC conference; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat U.S. anti-terror dragnet blocks Somali-American support for families back home. The United States has cracked down on money sent from Somali-Americans back to the motherland in an effort to financially starve al-Shabab, forcing big money transfer companies out of the Somali remittance business. FP’s...
FP’s Situation Report: Detainee torture continues in Afghanistan; United States losing its tech edge; U.S. absence allows South Sudan’s civil war to rage on; ‘Jihadi John’ unmasked; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat Detainee torture continues in Afghanistan. The United States is almost out of Afghanistan, but the controversial enhanced interrogation techniques it brought there remain. FP’s Justine Drennan: “[A] new United Nations report on torture in Afghan-run facilities is a reminder that Afghan security personnel...
FP’s Situation Report: Detainee torture continues in Afghanistan; U.S. losing its tech edge; U.S. absence allows South Sudan’s civil war to rage on; ‘Jihadi John’ unmasked; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat Detainee torture continues in Afghanistan. The United States is almost out of Afghanistan, but the controversial enhanced interrogation techniques it brought there remain. FP’s Justine Drennan: “[A] new United Nations report on torture in Afghan-run facilities is a reminder that Afghan security personnel...
Top Intel Official: U.S. Facing ‘Unprecedented’ Array of Threats
ST. PETE BEACH, Florida — U.S. special operations forces now face a widening array of “non-geopolitical threats” that challenge them in realms in which the United States once held undisputed sway, a senior Pentagon intelligence official said Wednesday. As an example, Garry Reid, a top deputy to Michael Vickers, undersecretary of defense for...
FP’s Situation Report: Pentagon walks back Mosul plans; Russia plays petro-politics with Europe; U.S. calls for South Sudan sanctions in writing; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The Pentagon tries to walk back plans to retake Mosul. Last week DoD unexpectedly released key details on its efforts to retake the Iraqi city from the Islamic State. U.S. officials apparently failed to check in with their Iraqi counterparts, FP’s Kate Brannen reports. Meanwhile, former Iraqi Prime...
FP’s Situation Report: Pentagon walks back Mosul plans; Russia plays petro-politics with Europe; U.S. calls for South Sudan sanctions in writing; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The Pentagon tries to walk back plans to retake Mosul. Last week DoD unexpectedly released key details on its efforts to retake the Iraqi city from the Islamic State. U.S. officials apparently failed to check in with their Iraqi counterparts, FP’s Kate Brannen reports. Meanwhile, former Iraqi Prime...
Putin’s Ukrainian Power Play
Russia is unsheathing its energy weapon once again, threatening to cut off its natural gas shipments to Ukraine and warning of potentially dire impacts on Europeans reliant on energy deliveries that come through the war-torn state. The move marks the second time Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has thumbed his nose at the West in recent days. On...
FP’s Situation Report: White House threatens new Russia sanctions; U.S. courts deal a huge blow to the Palestinian Authority; Is the al-Shabab mall threat a recruiting ploy?; and much more from around the world.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The White House wants Russia to pay for Debaltseve. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Moscow had to pay for its “land grab” after pro-Russian rebels captured the strategic railway town. FP’s John Hudson: Blinken said “Washington was working ‘very closely’ with European allies on ramping up...
Europe’s Kids Are Moody and Depressed
The future belongs to the young. So how the next generation feels and thinks matters to people of all ages. As much as baby boomers may lament it, it is millennials — those coming of age in this new century — who will shape the world’s economic and geopolitical destiny for years to come. At a time of renewed economic turmoil in Europe,...
From China, Love and Hate for Common’s Oscar Speech
After ascending the stage to receive the Oscar for Best Original Song along with popular crooner John Legend, the Chicago-born hip-hop artist known as Common sought to link the historic civil rights protests in Selma, Alabama with more recent struggles elsewhere. Common’s winning song, Glory, was dedicated to marches on Selma’s Edmund...
