Warship ruse, new stealth missiles: How US, UK and France attacked Syria

President Donald Trump’s outrage over another apparent chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was clear. And for the second time in his presidency, the US commander-in-chief demanded retaliation.

As images of sick or dying children flooded global media all week, the US guided-missile destroyer USS Winston Churchill churned toward the Mediterranean to join a flotilla of allied warships, including another US destroyer, the USS Donald Cook.

It was a ruse.

While both vessels carry as many as 90 Tomahawk missiles -- the main weapon used in the Friday evening strike on Syria -- neither ship, in the end, fired a shot. Instead, according to a person familiar with White House war planning, they were part of a plan to distract Russia and its Syrian ally from an assault Assad’s government could do little to defend itself against.

More bad news for 'dreamers': Trump ends 'catch and release' practice

US President Donald Trump has signed a presidential memorandum to end "catch and release" practice whereby illegal immigrants are released into the United States shortly after their apprehension.
In his presidential memorandum, Trump has also asked the Defence Secretary to produce a list of military facilities which could be used to detain illegal immigrants.

The White House, in a statement yesterday, called the 'catch and release' policy "a dangerous practice" whereby aliens who have violated the US immigration laws were released into the country.
"The safety and security of the American people is the president's highest priority, and he will keep his promise to protect the country and to ensure that US laws are respected," the White House said.
"At the same time, the president continues to call on congressional Democrats to cease their staunch opposition to border security and to stop blocking measures that are vital to the safety and security of the United States," it said.

Good chance Kim Jong Un will give up his country's nuclear weapons: Trump

US President Donald Trump, who has agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, said on Wednesday there is a now a good chance the North Korean leader will give up his country's nuclear weapons.

"For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility," Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.

This is what he tweeted:

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 28 March 2018

His comments came as Kim completed a secretive and unprecedented visit to Beijing on Wednesday as the two countries seek to repair frayed ties before Pyongyang's landmark summits with Washington and earlier with South Korea.

'Un-American', 'treasonous' to not applaud me: Trump blasts Democrats

US President Donald Trump described lawmakers who did not applaud his State of the Union address as unpatriotic and treasonous.

During a speech in Cincinnati, Trump suggested Democrats were "un-American" because they did not full-throatedly embrace his address to a joint session of Congress last week.
"They would rather see Trump do badly, okay, than our country do well," he said."It's very selfish. And it got to a point where I really didn't even want to look."
"They were like death and un-American.

Un-American. Somebody said, 'treasonous.' I mean, yeah, I guess, why not?"
"Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much," he added.

US SC allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban on 6 Muslim countries

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries.

The justices, with two dissenting votes, said that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The action suggests the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September.

The ban applies to travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a "bona fide" relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have left the lower court orders in place.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, will be holding arguments on the legality of the ban this week.

Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted it expects those courts to reach decisions "with appropriate dispatch."

Quick resolution by appellate courts would allow the Supreme Court to hear and decide the issue this term, by the end of June.
READ MORE

China is the key to avoiding nuclear 'fire and fury' in North Korea

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship.

North Korea got the world’s attention – and Trump’s – when it successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time on July 4. In response, the United Nations approved new economic sanctions against North Korea which, predictably, inspired a bellicose response from the rogue regime.

Trump threatened that further provocations will be met with “fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

In response, North Korea issued a threat of its own – missile strikes on the US territory of Guam.

With tensions escalating, it is important to be realistic about how we can get out of this mess.

In short, any nonmilitary solution will rely on China choosing to apply its massive economic leverage over the North Korean regime. This is a point that Trump clearly recognizes. In July, he tweeted that Chinese trade with North Korea “rose 40 percent in the first quarter,” highlighting China’s reluctance to punish North Korea for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
READ MORE

Kremlin says has nothing to do with Trump Jr's meeting with Russian lawyer

The Kremlin today insisted it was in no way linked to a meeting between US President Donald Trump's son and a Russian lawyer at the heart of a political firestorm.

"We have already said that we are absolutely not familiar with this whole story," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"We never had any contact with this lawyer, that is why we are not in the loop and have nothing to say. She doesn't have even the slightest relation to us."

The Kremlin had on Monday denied links to the lawyer.

The June 2016 meeting with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has thrust Donald Trump Jr into the centre of a growing scandal over whether Trump's associates colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in the Republican's favour.

A string of emails Trump Jr released yesterday showed he agreed to the meeting after claims from a British music promoter that a senior official in Moscow had offered to pass on dirt on Hillary Clinton and Veselnitskaya was a "Russian government attorney".

Peskov ridiculed claims that Veselnitskaya was working for the Russian government as "inappropriate and absurd".

Veselnitskaya herself has also denied she had any damaging information on Hillary Clinton or that she is tied to the Russian authorities.

READ MORE