Month: February 2020

The death toll from the coronavirus in mainland China spiked 23% Wednesday amid new counting methods adopted by Chinese health officials, who eased their criteria for confirmed cases. Deaths rose by 252, to a total of 1,367 worldwide. All but two deaths had been recorded in mainland China, although on Thursday Japan confirmed its first death. Meanwhile,…

The former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, has warned that the US had adopted an “amoral” foreign policy that “substitutes threats, fear and confusion for trust”. In her first public remarks since leaving the US foreign service two weeks ago, Yovanovitch said that the Trump administration’s handling of foreign policy risked alienating allies and…

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch sounded the alarm on Wednesday night, telling an audience at Georgetown University that the State Department is “in trouble,” with leaders who lack “policy vision” and “moral clarity.” Yovanovitch was ousted from her post last May, following a smear campaign orchestrated by President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.…

U.S. Northern Command is executing plans to prepare for a potential pandemic of the novel coronavirus, now called COVID19, according to Navy and Marine Corps service-wide messages issued this week. An executive order issued by the Joint Staff and approved by Defense Secretary Mark Esper this month directed Northern Command and geographic combatant commanders to…

By Jonathan Landay and Abdul Qadir Sediqi WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday he was told by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that “notable progress” had been made in talks between the United States and the Taliban on an agreement for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. In a post…

The Trump administration is seeking to announce this week that it has reached an agreement with the Taliban to deescalate violence in Afghanistan, CNN reported on Tuesday. The expected deal is being referred to within the administration as a “reduction in violence announcement,” which would see a ceasefire between Taliban and U.S. coalition forces that…

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. and the Taliban may soon reach an agreement aimed at ending the 19-year war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. “The United States and the Taliban have negotiated a proposal for a seven-day reduction in violence,” Esper said in Brussels Thursday after a meeting of defense chiefs from the North…

A Catholic priest in Rhode Island who barred state lawmakers who supported an abortion rights bill from receiving communion at his church has doubled down on his stance, saying abortion is worse than pedophilia. In an interview over the weekend with NBC affiliate WJAR in Providence, the Rev. Richard Bucci of Sacred Heart Church in…

China’s Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, has reported nearly 15,000 new cases Thursday, a stark rise that dashed hopes that the epidemic was slowing down and raised new concerns about its true scale across the country. Most of the new cases were reported in Wuhan, the capital of the province and where…

By Medha Singh (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes eased from record highs on Thursday, pressured by shares of Cisco after its disappointing quarterly forecast, while a spike in new coronavirus cases in China weighed on the sentiment. The Chinese province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak reported a record rise in deaths and…