John Hayward

Ukrainian comedian Vladimir Zelenskiy, who plays the president of Ukraine on a TV show, appears to have pulled into the lead in the actual presidential election contest.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told NBC News on Friday he thinks the “same gang” that provoked the 2003 invasion of Iraq is trying to set up a “suicidal” war between the United States and Iran.

Egypt’s parliament approved changes to the national constitution on Thursday that would allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to remain in office until 2034.

Nigerian opposition leaders are already challenging Saturday’s presidential election by claiming over a million foreigners and “ghost voters” are registered to vote and the electoral commission has done little to clean up the roles.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) attacked Special Envoy on Venezuela Elliott Abrams in a House Foreign Affairs Committee session on Wednesday, accusing him of genocidal culpability for a “massacre” in 1980s El Salvador during which “more than 800 civilians, including children as young as two years old, were brutally murdered by U.S.-trained troops.”

China’s authoritarian government has been sending mixed signals about population control to the populace. On one hand, the government admits it faces a demographic crisis that can only be solved by increased fertility rates and large families, sending signals to the public that having two or three children is now their patriotic duty. On the other hand, a couple from the eastern province of Shandong is suffering steep fines and persecution for the crime of birthing a third child.

The United Nations reported on Wednesday that a measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed at least a hundred children since the beginning of the year, adding to a medical and security crisis that already included Ebola, cholera, and factional violence that makes it difficult for doctors to treat any of the deadly diseases.

In an interview with China’s state-run Global Times on Monday, billionaire developer Huang Xiangmo decried Australia’s cancellation of his residency papers and dismissed allegations of influencing Australian politics on behalf of Beijing as “prejudiced and groundless.”

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh arrived in North Korea on Tuesday for an anticipated three-day visit.

A study published Monday by Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) estimated that North Korea produced enough fissile material last year to construct seven more nuclear bombs, even as it was negotiating denuclearization with the United States.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday instructing the U.S. government to increase its emphasis on artificial intelligence research (AI), which the president identified as a major driver of economic growth and a vital component of national security strategy.

China on Sunday responded to reports of noted Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit’s death in prison by posting a video of a man who claimed to be Heyit declaring himself to be in “good health.” The man was also suspiciously enthusiastic about being under investigation by Chinese authorities.

The Green New Deal (GND) quickly became the subject of such mockery that its godmother, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attempted to scrub the talking points from her website and pretend they never existed at all. The effort to erase this political disaster is one of the biggest political gaslighting operations in recent memory. It happened so fast that half of the online Left is still touting the GND as the irresistible wave of the future, while the other half thinks it’s a trick concocted by right-wing pranksters.

China’s Foreign Ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction” on Monday after two U.S. warships sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP).

The Arab League announced on Monday that they have not yet reached a consensus on reinstating membership for Syria, which they froze out of the League in 2011 at the dawn of its brutal civil war. Discussions about reinstating Syria will evidently continue.

Conventional wisdom holds that relatively moderate, or at least politically savvy, leaders in the Democrat Party are horrified by the rollout of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put AOC in her place when she “threw shade” at the program (as CNN put it) by sniffing disdainfully that “nobody knows what it is.” Do not believe this kabuki theater for an instant.

South Korean officials on Sunday signed a deal to cover more of the cost of U.S. troops over the coming year after President Donald Trump strongly urged them to do so.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stewed for a few hours over President Donald Trump’s critique of socialism in Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, then lashed back on Twitter with this defense of his cherished ideology.

The Chinese holiday of Lunar New Year is widely observed in both Koreas, albeit in very different ways. For example, North Koreans are reportedly giving each other crystal meth and other controlled substances as gifts to ring in the Year of the Pig.

A group of Republican senators on Thursday asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to invite Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to address a joint session of Congress, suggesting April 10 as an ideal date because it will mark the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act.

The new president of El Salvador, Niyab Bukele, is reportedly reconsidering his country’s relationship with China and intends to follow up on his campaign criticism of the previous administration’s deals with Beijing.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) on Friday urged all factions to stand down from a military confrontation as tribesmen and government troops occupied different parts of El Sharara, the country’s largest oil field.

Admiral Craig Faller of the U.S. Southern Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro no longer trusts his own people, so he has imported a squad of Cuban bodyguards for protection.

North Korean media remain almost completely silent about the second summit between dictator Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, even though the meeting is less than three weeks away.

Chinese officials in Xinjiang province, the troubled home of the Uighur Muslims, reportedly compelled Muslims to eat pork and drink alcoholic beverages during the Lunar New Year holiday this Tuesday. Muslim dietary practices forbid both activities.

Officials in Cary, North Carolina removed three paintings by Chinese artist Weng Bing from an exhibit because they had unacceptable “political” content that was “inconsistent” with the work Weng showed them when he applied for a permit, according to a report citing Weng this week.

Satellite images released on Wednesday revealed what appeared to be a satellite launch from Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center.

Zhao Qianli, 21, was sentenced on Tuesday to a year in federal prison for taking photographs of sensitive parts of the Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida. He was an exchange student from the North University of China studying in the U.S. at the time of his arrest.

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday offered a lukewarm review of President Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union Address, applauding his effort to build political unity in the United States but insisting the U.S. is too “deeply divided” to accomplish anything worthwhile.

Six Yazidi women held as sex slaves by the Islamic State (ISIS) before finding sanctuary in Canada reported received threatening phone calls and text messages from ISIS sympathizers.