State Department - Page 16

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will vote to confirm Ric Grenell as the next U.S. ambassador to Germany, ensuring the confirmation of what will be the highest-ranking ever openly gay person to serve the United States government. Grenell was nominated last year to the position by President Donald Trump.

“Repression” of China’s Uighur Muslim minority under Xi Jinping’s atheist regime “worsened” last year, the U.S. State Department revealed in a report published this week.

Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of China and Russia, respectively, reached out Thursday to the newly appointed head of Cuba’s National Assembly, Miguel Díaz-Canel, congratulating him on acquiring the title of “president.”

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration finds the expanding cooperation in Syria between U.S. NATO ally Turkey and Russia “gravely concerning,” a top Department of State (DOS) warned lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, DC — Mike Pompeo, U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of State (DOS), suggested during his confirmation hearing hosted Thursday by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that the administration will not withdraw from the controversial Iran nuclear deal, stressing that it will focus on fixing the pact instead.

The official communist Cuban delegation arrived in Lima, Peru, this week for this year’s Summit of the Americas, chanting pro-Castro slogans and defacing art calling for a free society on the island.

President Donald Trump appeared to have caught the State Department and Pentagon by surprise when he teased the imminent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria on Thursday. Few would dispute the president’s claims of tremendous progress against the Islamic State since his inauguration, but ISIS has not been completely destroyed, and the United States has other security concerns in the war-torn country.

Glenn R. Simpson, the co-founder of the controversial opposition research firm Fusion GPS, may have used unwitting reporters to help get the FBI to take more seriously the largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier produced by his group, according to a recently released book.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert had some fun at the expense of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad during a press briefing on Thursday. Nauert needled the Syrian strongman for behaving like an ordinary head of state, even as his brutal operation in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta grinds to its bloody conclusion.

Two weeks after the White House announced that President Donald Trump would accept an invitation to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in person by May, the State Department confirmed that they have not heard any word from Pyongyang on planning that summit.

NEW YORK — Jonathan M. Winer, an official in John Kerry’s State Department, vouched for the credibility of anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele to two reporters before they each broke separate stories about the information contained in Steele’s largely discredited dossier, the two reporters revealed in their new book together.

The United States announced this week it will provide $2.5 million in aid to Venezuelan refugees who have fled their country to Colombia amid a deepening political and humanitarian crisis in their homeland.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry has accused the United States of a “crime against humanity” after the Trump administration ordered the banning of Americans from investing in the country’s oil-backed cryptocurrency.

President Donald Trump sent the Iranian people a Nowruz (New Year) message and blasted the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for funding terrorism and propping up dictators at the cost of the livelihood of their people at home.

NEW YORK — Numerous officials from John Kerry’s State Department have been fingered for playing roles in the distribution – and in one case, possibly also the compilation – of the largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier.

With the US announcing cuts in aid money to the Palestinians, one might think the Palestinian Authority would try to cut expenses, but an invoice from a hotel stay by top Palestinian officials this month indicates the exact opposite.

A former CIA whistleblower who allegedly exposed the “deep state” and used to work as a fellow at the Heritage Foundation told Iran’s state-run Press TV Tuesday that the State Department will become “very reckless” and “violent” as a result of President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint CIA Director Mike Pompeo as America’s new secretary of state.

NEW YORK — Victoria Nuland, a senior official in John Kerry’s State Department, gave the green light for the FBI to first meet with former British spy Christopher Steele regarding his infamous, largely discredited dossier alleging wild claims about Donald Trump and Russia, according to a book released this week.

Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff submitted their resignations shortly after the announcement that Tillerson was let go from the department.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu warned Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo Wednesday that any new top diplomat in America must learn “how to behave” before addressing Ankara, claiming Turkey “would like to work with” anyone nominated to the post.

The Chinese state newspaper Global Times chided U.S. President Donald Trump in a piece analyzing the removal of now former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, claiming the high turnover in the administration shows Trump has a “lack of willingness or ability” to “see disagreements resolved.”

Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney joined SiriusXM host Matt Boyle on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about the sacking of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Gaffney proposed that if President Trump wants more top officials who truly support his policies, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster should be the next to go.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s seemingly sudden dismissal by President Donald Trump comes after a year of constant stories about his impending departure. He had a number of significant policy and messaging disputes with the president, and every one of them was followed by a chorus of unnamed administration sources telling reporters that Tillerson’s ouster was imminent.

President Donald Trump has announced the removal of Rex Tillerson from his position as Secretary of State after just over a year in office.

NEW YORK — A third former official from John Kerry’s State Department has been named in recent reports for alleged involvement in circulating the largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier.

President Donald Trump bid a swift farewell to Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, telling reporters that his now-former secretary of state would be “much happier” after he was fired from the administration.

The State Department’s concerted effort to highlight predatory lending and military expansion by Beijing’s Communist Party has triggered stern condemnation from China’s foreign ministry and state media, both of which have urged the international community to ignore Washington’s “carping” on the issue.

The U.S. State Department responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s broadcast of a cartoon attack on what appeared to be the United States with scorn and irritation Thursday, dismissing the video as “cheesy” and irresponsible.

NEW YORK — Jonathan M. Winer, the Obama State Department official who acknowledged regularly interfacing with the author of the controversial, largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier, served as senior vice president of a firm that did extensive pro bono work for the Clinton Global Initiative.

The State Department is considering an offer from billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to help pay a new embassy in Jerusalem after moving from Tel Aviv.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson to pay for at least part of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, four U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

The government of the United Kingdom has frozen all payments to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the largest non-profit refugee resettlement agencies in the world, pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of “sexual harassment and fraud” in the organization.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday that “sanctions are always on the table” regarding bilateral tensions, answering a question about whether Washington would ever sanction Turkey for its invasion of Syria.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Thursday reveals that 21 of the Americans complaining of hearing loss, balance problems, and other cognitive issues after working at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba suffered “widespread brain network dysfunction” of an unknown cause.

The U.S. State Department dismissed increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directed at America as something Washington is “used to,” following a threat from Erdogan that U.S. forces would soon experience the “Ottoman slap.”

TEL AVIV – Seeming discrepancies between two former officials in John Kerry’s State Department about actions taken involving the infamous, 35-page largely discredited anti-Trump dossier raise immediate questions about the State Department’s possible role in the sordid dossier affair.