Over the weekend, top Democrats went berserk over Senator Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) open letter to the Iranian regime warning them that President Obama’s executive agreement with them was not the final legal word.
In a speech Tuesday evening, in which he called American officials “genocidal” and promised that “Yankee boots will never touch our ground,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro demanded the nation’s legislature expand his already unconstitutionally developed executive order powers in light of President Obama’s new sanctions against the socialist regime.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to the announcement of expanded sanctions on his regime on behalf of the Obama administration yesterday in an extensive public broadcast in which he repeatedly called President Obama “nefarious” and claimed the United States had organized a false-flag style operation to make it appear that Maduro had bombed his own government buildings.
Economic woes may force Russia to shrink its military budget by 10 percent in 2015. State owned defense conglomerate Rostec vowed to keep an eye on military spending this year while announcing a plan to give Iran Antey-2500 missiles.
Russian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists continue to shell in strategically important Debaltseve, Ukraine, despite an official ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia set to begin at midnight on February 15. In response, the European Union (EU) passed new sanctions and admitted Russia sent forces to east Ukraine.
A Chinese news agency reported the country of Cyprus was ready to host Russian air and navy bases. Russian news site Lenta.ru printed the story, which was then picked up by numerous international outlets. However, on Monday, Cypriot officials denied the reports.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is calling for his government to draft a blacklist of Venezuelans exiled in the United States calling for Congress to impose further sanctions on his socialist regime for both economic and political crimes, as well as ties to drug trafficking.
Sen. Rand Paul signaled that the Senate should give President Obama room to negotiate with Iran before it votes on economic sanctions on the country. “If it fails I will vote to resume sanctions and I would vote to– vote to actually have new sanctions,” he said. “But if you do it in the middle of the negotiations you’re ruining it.”
President Barack Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening and set a record with the amount of times he threatened to veto Republican bills over the course of his final two years in office. While Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst delivered the official Republican rebuttal, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) issued a response of his own, focusing on foreign policy.
The United States placed new sanctions on North Korea Friday in retaliation for what it claims is the country’s involvement in the November 24 cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.
President Barack Obama hinted that he might be prepared to establish a new U.S. embassy in Tehran ” if we can get a deal on making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon,” and the deal led to warmer relations with the Iranian regime.
Ukraine cut power and cancelled trains to Crimea as Visa and Mastercard announced the company will not process business cards due to sanctions from the West.
