The United States is experiencing a massive surge in the number of Cuban refugees risking their lives to reach American shores, following President Obama’s announcement that the White House would legitimize the communist Castro regime by reestablishing diplomatic relations.
Two days after American F-16s arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, authorities are confirming that manned American airstrikes are being conducted from Turkey into Syria, the first time since the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) that such activity has occurred. The arrival of American troops to Syrian skies follows confusion regarding whether Turkey and the United States have agreed to create a “buffer zone” free of jihadis and Kurds in Syria.
For the first time since Turkey declared it had launched a military campaign to create an “ISIS-free zone” in Syria following the terror attack in Suruç, Turkey, the Islamic State has initiated a new, alarmingly successful offensive near the Turkish border.
The U.S.-Turkey coalition appears already in trouble, even before American F-16s take to the Syrian skies out of Turkey to fly anti-ISIS missions. The Turkish military allegedly only gave Americans ten minutes to leave the site of an imminent airstrike on alleged PKK territory in Iraq.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PPK) terrorist group’s leadership has called upon the United States to intervene and encourage the Turkish government to engage in peace talks with the Kurdish group, in the hopes of ending the air campaign Turkey is waging against them while claiming to be fighting the Islamic State (ISIS).
Seventy years ago, the B-29 Enola Gay, piloted by Paul Tibbets, Jr., dropped an atomic bomb, Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Japanese officials are concerned over the recent WikiLeaks exposure of American spying.
Socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is blaming a United States conspiracy for a supermarket riot over the weekend that left one 21-year-old man dead–a man witnesses say was shot to death by Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard.
The State Department has raised the Cuban flag over the new embassy in Washington, D.C. while the American embassy remains barren in Havana, though operating officially as an embassy. It released its first press release today as an official embassy and not the Office of American Interests. It will be run by interim head Jeffrey DeLaurentis as Congress gears up to oppose the appointment of any ambassador to the communist dictatorship so long as the Castro regime continues to flagrantly violate human rights.
The United States moved to reassure its jittery allies in the Asia-Pacific that it has enough firepower to maintain stability in the region that has seen increased Chinese muscle-flexing in recent years.
In a recent conversation, a senior Egyptian security official stated that Egypt needs the technological tools to monitor the borders, especially the western borders, “that is where large numbers of recruits and terrorists come. We have to monitor people and arms smuggling. Tunisia is the largest recruiter of the Mujahedeen,” he said. Tunisians make up the largest group of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, estimated at about 3,000.
Iran’s secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council and recently-returned head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohesen Rezaei says Iran is prepared to take 1,000 Americans hostages and demand millions of dollars in ransom for each of them if the United States even considers waging war against Iran.
Though the very phrase “American Exceptionalism” is often mocked as simple-minded flag waving, there are concrete reasons that the American civilization is unique. The United States has a special place in world history. Despite the bumps, bruises, and outright contradictions that the country has muddled through in its very short existence, Americans can take pride in its numerous accomplishments, actions, and principles throughout the last two centuries.
Multiple reports citing senior administration officials are confirming the news that the United States and Cuba will announce the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C., respectively. Cuban officials have confirmed that a letter to dictator Raúl Castro announcing the opening of the U.S. embassy has been received.
Japan is considering joining the United States on surveillance flights in the South China Sea, having already participated in one this week with the Philippines. The disputed waters, which China has claimed almost entirely as its own, have seen significant construction on its reefs by the communist power in the past year, angering its neighbors.
The French National Assembly voted on Wednesday to distribute $60 million to non-French victims of the Holocaust. The fund is set to be administered by the United States. It will be distributed to foreign nationals who were deported from France to Nazi death camps, especially Auschwitz, on French rail lines.
The famous 1972 “Nixon to China” moment, in which President Richard Nixon opened up relations with the Chinese Communists to peel them away from the Soviet Union’s orbit, is often considered a major turning point in the Cold War. Since that time, those who guide U.S. foreign policy have mostly seen China as a long-term partner in a future, global system with America as the first among equals. The American eagle and Chinese dragon would rise together with “constructive engagement.”
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. For many, such as British parliamentarian and best-selling author Daniel Hannan, the anniversary represents “an event of truly planetary significance”.
It is one of the few places on earth where nothing but a line on a map separates the third world from the first. A line that allows some to live in abundance while condemning others to a life sentence of squalor A line that separates the land where the dreams can come true from one where dreams are the exclusive domain of a wealthy few. A line that marks the transition from a nation that is recognized for its economic and political stability to one that is just as notorious for its economic and political instability.
On June 6, 1944, almost four years to the day that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech in which he prophetically called for the “New World” to step forth to liberate the old, Allied forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower stormed the beaches of Normandy. The hour of Europe’s liberation had come, and it would be delivered by the greatest amphibious invasion in world history.
On June 5, 1944, standing in his headquarters watching it rain, General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, pulled out a pencil and scribbled a short note he hoped he wouldn’t have to use.
The United States has offered Vietnam $18 million for the purchase of American patrol boats, to be used in self-defense against looming threats from China to Vietnamese and Philippine vessels that dare navigate into the South China Sea. China has both increased its belligerent activity in the disputed region and trumped up calls to condemn its neighbors for “provocative” behavior near the Spratly Islands.
Top officials from the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran met in Geneva this weekend to negotiate the final parameters of a nuclear deal with the Ayatollah’s regime.
Venezuela is collapsing rapidly before the eyes of Latin America, with most of the region standing idly by. This exposes isolationism by countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, and exemplifies how the lack of engagement within the region is now confronted with a regional bloc that will not let it engage even if it wants to.
After months of alarming neighboring Vietnam and the Philippines with illegal constructions in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, the Chinese government announced the construction of two lighthouses in the region, complete with groundbreaking ceremonies. The move indicates China has abandoned any attempt to continue their constructions surreptitiously, particularly in light of American State Department warnings to stay within their sovereign territory.
