International

WASHINGTON: When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, no US ambassador was there to welcome him. The post has been vacant for nine months. The Republican donor President Donald Trump chose for the job, John Rakolta Jr., hasn’t been approved by the Senate. Trump has frequently accused Senate Democrats of using the …

HERAT: Gunmen stormed a police station in western Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding two others, officials said, in the latest violence targeting the war-torn country’s beleaguered security forces. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the raid in the provincial capital of Herat, near the Iranian border, but the Taliban have been relentless in …

NEW YORK: The FBI opened a probe into President Donald Trump for possible obstruction of justice after he fired FBI Director James Comey, counterintelligence agents were investigating why Trump was acting in ways that seemed to benefit Russia, according to a source familiar with the matter, The New York Times reported. As the FBI opened the Trump probe in the hectic …

China will work to straighten out trade frictions with the US this year, the country’s commerce minister told state media, following talks with US negotiators this week. A large US delegation ended a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday in the first face to face trade talks since President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in December pledged a …

The decade-long Palestinian split looks set to deepen in the coming months, with President Mahmoud Abbas poised to take multiple measures against Gaza to squeeze its Islamist rulers Hamas. The moves raise concerns of more suffering for Gaza’s two million residents, already under an Israeli blockade and facing severe electricity shortages, while a cornered Hamas could renew violence against Israel. …

The death toll in a coal mine roof collapse in northern China has risen to 21 after rescuers found two more miners dead on Sunday, state media reported. A total of 87 people were working underground in the Shaanxi province mine at the time of the accident on Saturday afternoon, according to official news agency Xinhua, citing local authorities. Rescuers …

President Donald Trump said he was holding off on declaring a state of emergency to end the partial United States government shutdown that dragged into a 23rd day on Sunday, as he insisted on $5.7 billion to build a Mexico border wall that congressional Democrats oppose. Asked by Fox News why he didn’t immediately declare a national emergency to secure the funds without congressional …

A high-ranking Yemeni intelligence official injured in a Houthi rebel drone attack on the country’s largest air base died of his wounds on Sunday, medical sources said. Intelligence Brigadier General Saleh Tamah was wounded on Thursday in a strike on a military parade in Al-Anad air base, in government-held Lahij province some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen’s second …

(CNN)A bid to remove a Texas county GOP leader from his post because he is Muslim has been rejected. The Tarrant County Republican Party voted on Thursday to keep Dr. Shahid Shafi in his post as vice chairman, according to the Star-Telegram. In a video posted on the Star-Telegram’s website, Mike Snyder of the Tarrant County Republican Party announced, “the …

our favorite media outlets—you know, the ones that insist that there are “good people on both sides”—have spent the better part of two years trying to understand the Trump voter. We’ve all been subjected to the results: dozens, even hundreds, of articles detailing the lives and thoughts of the poor, aggrieved white people who’ve allegedly been “left behind” by forces …