House Republicans, defying their top leaders, voted Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail. The move to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics was not public until late Monday, when Representative Robert Goodlatte, […]
Category: Domestic
Obama Takes To Twitter To Defend His Legacy
Barack Obama on Sunday used Twitter, a medium notoriously favoured by the man who will succeed him in the White House, to tout his achievements in office. “As we look ahead to the future,” Obama wrote in his first tweet, “I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you […]
Terrorist Murders 35 People NYE In Instanbul
Authorities in Turkey searched Sunday for a gunman who opened fire at a packed nightclub during New Year’s celebrations in Istanbul, killing at least 39 people and injuring 69. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned “the terror attack in Istanbul’s Ortakoy neighborhood in the first hours of 2017” and offered condolences for those who died, including “foreign guests.” […]
Leaked Snowden Documents Lend Credence To Russian Hacking
U.S. intelligence officials appear certain that Russia was responsible for interfering in the presidential election — though they haven’t fully detailed how they know. But a classified document leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveals that they’ve tracked Russian hacking before and that the information they gleaned may have helped this time around. Russian […]
Trump Looks To Repair Damage Done By Obama To Relationship With Israel
Strained U.S.-Israeli ties reached another low as Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded blame over the stalled Middle East peace process, with President-elect Donald Trump vowing a fresh start when he takes office on Jan. 20. Kerry, in a speech Wednesday in Washington, said Netanyahu’s policies backing the expansion of […]
Presidential Transition Turns Adversarial Between Trump And Obama
President Barack Obama and his successor Donald Trump are making moves that tread on each other’s turf and complicate the other’s agenda, creating one of the messiest White House transitions in recent years. Since Election Day, Mr. Obama has taken some of the most far-reaching actions of his eight-year presidency, leaving Mr. Trump to manage […]
Obama To Meet With Democrats Of Congress To Block Repeal Of Obamacare
WASHINGTON ― President Barack Obama will huddle with House and Senate Democrats next week to strategize on how best to protect the Affordable Care Act. Republican lawmakers plan to take up a repeal of Obamacare as soon as Congress returns in January. “Next week, Republicans in Congress will once again turn to repealing a law […]
Trump Praises Putin For “Very Smart” Response To Obama’s Sanctions
President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Friday to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin for not retaliating against new penalties imposed by the Obama administration for Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. election – going so far as to call Putin “very smart.” “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was […]
Putin Considers Retaliation For Sanctions By America
The Kremlin is considering retaliatory measures against the US after the Obama administration announced new sanctions to punish Russia for allegedly interfering in the presidential election, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Officials said Thursday that the US has ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the country, and imposed sanctions on six Russian […]
Obama Sanctions Russia Over Election Hacks
In the most sweeping retaliation against Russia in decades, President Obama slapped the country with new penalties Thursday for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking restrictions on five people and four organizations the administration says were involved. “All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” Obama said in […]
Congress Puts Band-Aid On Farm Loan Crisis
The budget patch gives the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency authority to meet the spike in loan demand by using future funding, according to U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who chairs an agricultural appropriations panel. There is no limit to how much the USDA can lend through April 28 – a victory for […]
Foreign President Accuses America Of Secretly Aiding Isis
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused the U.S.-led coalition fighting in in Iraq and Syria of supporting the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), as well as Syrian Kurds in regions that sit along Turkey’s southern border. “They were accusing us of supporting Daesh,” he told a press conference in Ankara, using an Arabic […]