Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
What is Ivanka Trump doing in the White House? We know what she is literally doing. At this moment, she is in South Korea, where she led the U.S delegation to the Winter Olympics and briefed South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the administration’s new economic sanctions against North Korea. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the first daughter has…
The Pentagon released a new nuclear arms policy Friday that calls for the introduction of two new types of weapons, effectively ending Obama-era efforts to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. arsenal and minimize the role of nuclear weapons in defense planning. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in an introductory note to the new policy…
Chapter 1 “I beg that you see how I am only human,” Otto Warmbier pleaded tearfully at his February 2016 show trial in Pyongyang. The University of Virginia honor student sat in judgment beneath gold-framed portraits of the Kim family, tugging occasionally at the fratty summer jacket he wore over his parti-colored shirt. Before him:…
President Donald Trump is considering a military strike against North Korea that his advisers hope, somehow, wouldn’t lead to war. It’s called the “bloody nose” strategy, and it’s based off of the idea that if America launched a limited military strike against North Korea — say, by attacking one of their facilities — that they could…
The US government has announced significant cuts in its United Nations budget obligations for 2018-2019 in what will be interpreted as a further ratcheting up of pressure from the Trump administration looking to bend decision-making at the international body to its will. In a statement released over the holiday, the US Mission to the United…
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers Thursday in Ramallah and other places in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, burning posters of President Trump and American flags a day after Trump decisively sided with Israel by announcing U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli police said three protesters were arrested in Jerusalem…
TOKYO — North Korea claimed the entire United States mainland was within reach after “successfully” testing a new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile, which it called the Hwasong-15, and said could carry a “super large heavy warhead.” While Pyongyang is prone to exaggeration, its boast of having all of the United States in range is…
So far, no explanation has been given. CREDIT: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews The United Nations approved a resolution Friday condemning the use of the death penalty in a discriminatory fashion, including its use to punish “apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and consensual same-sex relations.” But the United States joined a minority of states who voted against it. ILGA, the…
HOUSTON — If the Trump administration gets its way, U.S. citizens boarding international flights will have to submit to a face scan, a plan privacy advocates call a step toward a surveillance state. The Department of Homeland Security says it’s the only way to successfully expand a program that tracks nonimmigrant foreigners. They have been…
The deconstruction of the State Department is well underway. I recently returned to Foggy Bottom for the first time since January 20 to attend the departure of a former colleague and career midlevel official—something that had sadly become routine. In my six years at State as a political appointee, under the Obama administration, I had…