President Donald Trump claimed at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that China is attempting to interfere in the 2018 U.S. election. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied the allegation, insisting the Chinese “do not and will not” interfere in the domestic politics of other countries.
China’s state-run Global Times naturally disputed President Donald Trump’s allegations of predatory Chinese behavior at the U.N. General Assembly. The Chinese also think Trump swiped some of their rhetoric about national sovereignty and the “doctrine of patriotism.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, expressing thanks to the United States, United Nations, and various international organizations for helping to create an opportunity for lasting peace between North and South Korea.
The State Department announced on Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit North Korea in October to meet with senior officials and set up a second summit meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, his first major performance on the world stage after securing a third term and all but ensuring he will become the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, denounced the Saudi-led blockade of his country as a “flagrant violation” of international law in his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
The 2018 United Nations General Assembly has to make do without an appearance by Chinese President Xi Jinping, but there is a heavy Chinese presence at the event, which Beijing – and critics of the Trump administration’s foreign policy – see as a golden opportunity for China to assume the mantle of globalist champion and displace the United States as the world’s most influential nation.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions against four current and former Venezuelan government officials, plus several other individuals and entities connected with Rafael Alfredo Sarria Diaz, a businessman accused of operating as the front man for Socialist Party official Diosdado Cabello.
Both U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday they have no plans to meet at the U.N. General Assembly, refuting speculation that a summit meeting between the two might occur.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in New York on Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly and hold a bilateral summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Moon is eager to set up a second meeting between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. President Trump indicated on Monday such a meeting could occur “quite soon.”
The Islamic State is circulating a video that claims to show the perpetrators of the Saturday attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, Iran, that killed 25 military personnel and civilians. Iran does not seem to believe ISIS was behind the attack, instead blaming Arab separatists it claims were funded, trained, and equipped by the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News to be aired on Monday night, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani predicted U.S. sanctions would be unable to paralyze Iran’s oil industry or inflict enough economic damage to jeopardize the survival of his government.
A month of fighting between two of the many heavily-armed gangs fighting for control of Libya killed at least 115 people and wounded 383 more, according to a statement from the Libyan Health Ministry on Sunday. Thousands of families have been displaced, children are at risk, and the conflict threatens to spiral even further out of control.
The Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) was formally outlawed on Monday, marking the first time a political organization has been banned outright since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997. The British Foreign Ministry pronounced itself “concerned by the decision,” while stressing the U.K. does not support the Hong Kong independence movement.
China’s state-run Global Times reported on Friday that officials have drafted a new regulation banning foreign news from distribution in China. The goal is to “prevent Western ideology infiltration and destabilization of China.”
China’s state-run Global Times fired a shot across the Philippine bow on Friday by reminding President Rodrigo Duterte that his country has a history of violent coups and assassinations, so he really ought to avoid destabilizing activities such as arguing with Beijing about islands in the South China Sea.
Iran held its latest in a string of threats and military muscle stretches in the Persian Gulf on Friday, as an assortment of jet fighters conducted a “show of strength” aerial drill, to be followed by a naval exercise on Saturday.
President Tran Dai Quang of Vietnam died at the age of 61 on Friday. According to government spokesman, he was felled by an unspecified “rare and toxic virus” despite the efforts of doctors from both Vietnam and Japan.
China’s oppression of the Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang province has transformed the region into a vast prison camp where a shocking percentage of the population is literally incarcerated without due process, while the rest live under constant surveillance.
China’s state-run Global Times boasted on Wednesday of a dramatically improved security situation in the province of Xinjiang, where the brutally oppressed Muslim Uighurs dwell. Apparently, the proliferation of re-education camps is making Xinjiang safe for tourism again.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a key supporter of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, grew noticeably less supportive on Wednesday when he called on Rouhani to “resign like a hero or wake up from his heavy slumber and talk to the people transparently.”
As the third summit meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in drew to a close, officials from the Trump administration signaled the United States is ready to resume discussions about eliminating North Korea’s nuclear program.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put doubts about his political future to rest on Thursday by winning an overwhelming victory over challenger Shigeru Ishiba for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, consolidating control of the party and all but ensuring another three-year term as leader of his country.
The simple truth of the opioid crisis is that prescription drugs have been blamed for a deadly crisis that is far more attributable to street drugs smuggled across the porous U.S. border.
Cybersecurity firm FireEye warned on Tuesday that Iranian hacking activity increased significantly after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. The firm tracked an especially vigorous “cyberespionage” effort against targets in the Middle East, U.S., and Japan through the month of July.
Both Chinese and Western media are reporting that a deal between the Vatican and China’s authoritarian government over the appointment of bishops may be near, potentially ending a long argument between the Catholic Church and Communist Party. Such a deal would also dismay many Chinese Christians and alarm human-rights advocates worried about Beijing’s drive to “Sinicize” religion, transforming it from a potentially subversive force into an instrument of state control.
The Chinese government and its carefully controlled media professed extreme pleasure with the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un Wednesday, lavishing praise on the North Korean leader and gushing over the glimpse of North Korea’s “modern” and upscale capital city of Pyongyang.
North and South Korean military officials agreed on Wednesday to conduct joint searches for the remains of Korean War soldiers, the first such cooperative project undertaken since the end of the war in 1953.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s third summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, held in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, produced an offer on Wednesday for Kim to visit South Korea “in the near future.”
At the annual Air, Space, and Cyber Conference on Monday, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson unveiled a study showing the USAF will need to grow by about 25 percent over the next decade to meet growing threats from China and Russia.
Women of the world, get ready for North Korea’s cosmetics industry, which China’s state-run Global Times calculates is “neck-and-neck with Chanel by four main metrics and superior in safety.”
The United Nations General Assembly opened on Tuesday with a bit of American political controversy, as the White House appeared to back away from U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s proposal for a Security Council session to “address Iran’s violations of international law.”
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday gave his first State of the Nation speech since winning a full term in office in July. Opposition lawmakers from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party heckled Mnangagwa’s speech and then walked out in protest.
Until very recently, 37-year-old Fan Bingbing was the most famous actress in China and a rising star in Hollywood, having scored roles in two of the biggest movie franchises in history, X-Men and Iron Man.
The United States called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday to discuss “efforts by some member states to undermine and obstruct North Korea sanctions violations.”
The impoverished government of Zimbabwe reportedly chartered a medical flight to Singapore on Sunday for deposed dictator Robert Mugabe, the kleptocrat and crackpot socialist responsible for impoverishing the country. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are told their government lacks the funds to deal with an outbreak of cholera.
Japan courted the wrath of China on Monday by announcing its submarine Kuroshio has been dispatched to join an anti-submarine warfare exercise in the South China Sea on Thursday, marking the first officially confirmed drill for a Japanese sub in those contested waters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his security council on Friday to discuss the impending invasion of Syria’s Idlib province.
Once again, Chinese media and internet users are lashing out at a Western corporation for the unforgivable insult of listing Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate entities from Communist China. The latest company to trigger the Chinese is Apple, whose iPhone XS rollout event included a slide that listed China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as three separate markets among the two dozen or so that would receive Apple’s new product on September 21.
The government of South Africa announced on Friday that President Cyril Ramaphosa secured another $10 billion in Chinese loans during his trip to Beijing last week, bring South Africa’s total economic stimulus and infrastructure financing from China up to $25 billion.
