The United States and China are approaching a final agreement on the first phase of a trade agreement that could end the trade war between the two countries. That’s what the leading White House economics consultant Larry Kudlow said.
William Taylor, the US acting ambassador to Ukraine, testified before Congress in a public hearing on Wednesday. He said that President Donald Trump inquired about “the investigations” during a telephone conversation with EU Ambassador Sondland.
For six weeks the hearings in Congress took place behind closed doors. But today is a new phase in the impeachment investigation into President Trump. The Congressional Inquiry Committee will now hear witnesses in public.
The French police have cleared the important border crossing between Spain and France at La Jonquera. On the French side of the border, protests have been made since yesterday morning by the Catalan separatist movement Tsunami Democràtic.
The South American neighboring countries of Bolivia are divided over the situation in the country, where President Evo Morales resigned on Sunday. Morales allies disapprove of the alleged coup.
Turkey will send captured IS fighters back to their home country from Monday, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu says to state media on Friday. According to the minister, all prisoners come from Europe. It is not yet clear how many people are involved.
French President Emmanuel Macron has described NATO as “brain death” in an interview published Thursday in British magazine Economist Magazine.
The United States has extended their sanctions against Iran to the country’s construction sector. The new restrictions apply to “four strategic materials used in Iran’s nuclear, military or ballistic missile programs,” said a spokesman on behalf of Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo.
The American House of Representatives on Tuesday evening recognized the mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu calls it a “shameful decision by those who exploit the history of other countries for their own political gain”.
President Trump is threatened to be further compromised in the Ukraine investigation. The reason is the first testimony of a White House official who heard his controversial Ukraine call. The army officer was so concerned about this that he rang the bell twice in the White House.
