Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
China’s Xi says Silk Road plan boosts finance, security ties
The launch was seen as a challenge to a new South Korean president who was elected last week and came as U.S., Japanese and European naval forces gathered for war games in the Pacific. The two-day meeting that started Sunday gives the Chinese president a platform to promote his image as a global leader and free trade advocate in contrast to...
Sinister text messages reveal high-tech front in Ukraine war
Text messages like the one Kirienko received have been sent periodically to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. The Associated Press has found that the messages are almost certainly being sent through cell site simulators, surveillance tools long used by U.S. law enforcement to track...
Projections: Macron wins French presidency by a large margin
PARIS (AP) — Political newcomer Emmanuel Macron will be France’s next president, pollsters projected Sunday night, delivering a resounding victory to an unabashedly pro-European former investment banker and strengthening France’s place as a central pillar of the European Union. If confirmed, the result would constitute a resounding...
High-level US-Russia talks set for next week in NYC
Thomas Shannon, undersecretary for political affairs, will travel to New York on Monday to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov “to discuss a range of bilateral issues,” the department said in a one-sentence statement. The working group headed by Shannon and Ryabkov is intended to address festering irritants in the...
In Ukraine, feeling grows that the east is lost to Russia
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Leonid Androv, an electrician from Kiev, was drafted into the Ukrainian army and spent a year fighting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after the conflict broke out in 2014. The 2015 agreement, which Ukraine signed as its troops were being driven back, has greatly reduced but not stopped the fighting, while...
Putin, Merkel spar over election meddling; Trump, Putin talk
Speaking during a joint news conference following talks at his Black Sea residence, Putin said accusations of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were “simply rumors” that were being used as part of the political fight in Washington. U.S. intelligence agencies say they have definitive evidence that Russia was behind the hacking of...
Putin, Merkel spar in Russia over election meddling
Speaking during a joint news conference following talks at his Black Sea residence, Putin said accusations of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were “simply rumors” that are being used as part of the political fight in Washington. U.S. intelligence agencies say they have definitive evidence that Russia was behind the...
The Latest: Putin to discuss Ukraine, Syria with Merkel
MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (all times local): Russian President Vladimir Putin has told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he hopes they will discuss the unresolved conflict in eastern Ukraine and the civil war in Syria. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has...
Germany’s Merkel arrives in Russia for talks with Putin
MOSCOW (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has arrived in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin expected to focus on the unresolved conflict in Ukraine and the civil war in Syria. Putin and Merkel last met in Germany in October for talks aimed at reviving the peace process in eastern Ukraine. …read more Source: San Francisco...
What on Earth might a Trump-Kim Jong Un meeting look like?
BANGKOK (AP) — In one corner: the unpredictable dictator, the third-generation family ruler whose nation has a seven-decade reputation of being erratic, quick to take umbrage and insistent that it is powerful enough to upend the planet. In the other corner: a sandpaper-tongued American president like no other, barely past his first 100 days as...
