Chinese officials entered and took control of the U.S. Consulate in the city of Chengdu early on Monday, 72 hours after ordering its closure in retaliation for the U.S. decision to shut China’s consulate in Houston. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had called the mission in Houston a “hub of spying and intellectual property theft.”
China was among a range of topics discussed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London Tuesday, VOA News reports. Pompeo arrived for talks only days after Johnson finally decided to exclude Chinese tech giant Huawei from developing the UK’s 5G phone network, a move Washington has been exhorting for some time.
The U.S. ordered the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas, shut down because of the persistent problem of Bejing’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.
The United States and six Gulf countries on Wednesday imposed sanctions on six targets Washington has accused of supporting Islamic State operations, including by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to leaders of the group in Iraq and Syria.
As Christians around the world face increasingly intense persecution, the number of Christian refugees being allowed entry to the US has dropped by 90% since 2015, CBN News reports. This year the Trump administration set the total maximum number of Christian and non-Christian refugees to be allowed in at 18,000. Historically, the yearly average was 81,000.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday the Trump administration is considering restricting United States’ users’ access to the Chinese social media application TikTok over concerns it is potentially being used by the Beijing government as a means to surveil and propagandize people.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that US and “partner” forces seized a boat in June carrying Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen as he renewed his call for the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran.
The top Democrat on the US Senate Armed Services Committee has announced a funding package of $500 million for Israel’s missile defense as part of a key US defense bill, the Time of Israel (ToI) reports. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made the announcement Tuesday even as four progressive Congressional Democrats are demanding cuts in US aid to Israel if it proceeds to annex parts of the West Bank.
U.S. officials will gather this week to discuss whether to give Israel a green light for its plan to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s target date of July 1 approaches.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Syria, tightening pressure on President Bashar al-Assad and his government, amid concerns the war-torn country’s population will suffer.
The United States has condemned Russia for sentencing an ex-marine to 16 years in a high-security prison for spying, charges he vehemently denies.
European Union foreign ministers on Monday urged the United States to join a new effort to breathe life into long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but they rejected US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan as the basis for any international process.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern Wednesday about ongoing beheadings and other abuses of Christians and other faith groups in several nations.
The United States accused China’s leadership on Wednesday of increasing repression of Christians and other minorities while forcing religious groups to adopt its communist ideology. In remarks obtained by Worthy News, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “In China, state-sponsored repression against all religions continues to intensify.”
Declaring on Saturday that the Antifa movement is responsible for recent widespread violence and rioting in America, President Trump announced the US will designate the organization as terrorists, Fox News reports. A loose affiliation of groups based mostly in left-wing US cities, Antifa is a far-left militant movement whose protest tactics against those it considers fascist, racist, or far-right-wing include threats, property destruction, physical violence, and harassment.
On Thursday, China’s legislature passed national security, anti-sedition laws that will affect Hong Kong in such a way as to suppress protests against the central government. In anticipation of the widely publicized move, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that Hong Kong “does not continue to warrant” special US treatment as compared to mainland China.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday it is ending nearly all of the last vestiges of U.S. sanctions relief provided under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday that American officials are endangering world peace by attempting to push the US and China “to the brink of a new cold war,” Time reports. Amid rising tensions between the two countries on a range of issues, including China’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, last week the US Senate unanimously passed a bill that could prevent some Chinese companies from being listed on American stock exchanges.
Russia is using intelligence obtained from U.S. and European overflights under the Open Skies Treaty to plan future cruise missile strikes on infrastructure targets, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed yesterday.
Iran has defended an anti-Israel poster published by the country’s leader calling for ”the final solution,” amid accusations that he wants genocide against Jews.