Latest news with #USDiplomacy
Reuters
3 days ago
- General
- Reuters
US flag raised over ambassador's residence in Damascus
The United States' newly appointed Syria envoy Thomas Barrack on Thursday (May 29) raised the American flag over the ambassador's residence in Damascus for the first time since the U.S. embassy there closed in 2012. The flag-raising underlines a rapid expansion of U.S. ties with Damascus since President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced the lifting of sanctions and met Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Arab News
6 days ago
- General
- Arab News
US envoy for Syria arrives in Damascus for historic visit
DAMASCUS: The US envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrived at the ambassador's residence in the Syrian capital on Thursday, in the first official visit since the US embassy there closed in 2012, a year after Syria's conflict broke accompanied by the Syrian foreign minister, was appointed to the Syria role on May 23. He is also the US ambassador to Turkiye.
The Independent
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Mea Culpa: Struggling to recall
When we moved from being a print newspaper to a digital one, we naturally had to let go of conventions that worked on paper but didn't translate to the new medium. Some that were kept are curious even to those in the newsroom. The pull-quote – a line reprinted in the body of its parent story, in larger font than the main text – is one such curiosity. I think it was an effective tool in print, where it could jump off the page and draw a reader into a story. It can't do this in a digital story, where it is hidden until a reader scrolls down the page to a point where they can see it. Not to mention they have already clicked on the story. But the pull-quote still has its advocates, who say it can break up a wall of text and draw attention to a line that might have been skimmed over. The latter argument was pushed to an extreme in a recent feature, where we placed a pull-quote directly above the same words in the body of the text. Thanks to Mick O'Hare, who did not skim over this shoddy placement. I spy: Poor Greenland is back in the news for its trouble with the US president. A headline for a news in brief item read: 'Denmark recalls US ambassador over Greenland spying report.' This suggests that Denmark was calling back its ambassador from Washington. Denmark was actually summoning Washington's ambassador to report to the foreign office in Copenhagen. We managed to get this right in the article. As Richard Thomas notes, only the US has the power to recall its diplomats. If it were to do so at this time, Denmark would have to wait. New direction: In a report on a murder trial involving a body buried under concrete we wrote: 'A forensics officer said he became suspicious after he noticed poured concrete that looked different and newer to other cement on the ground under the stairs [of the house]...' We've used 'different to' interchangeably with 'different from' for years – not without controversy – but 'newer to' wouldn't be correct even if we swapped in 'from'. In the US it would be acceptable to keep the pooled positional by writing 'different and newer than' but this would be unsightly to some readers in Britain. We could have gone with 'different to and newer than'. But there was a simpler way: to say 'it looked different and newer' and allow the context to tell the reader that we meant this was in relation to the other concrete. Thanks to Paul Edwards for flagging this one. Messing about in boats: Speaking of things that would be acceptable in the US, we once again used 'careened' in place of 'careered'. 'Careening' used to mean turning a boat on its side to clean it and, understandably, does not get used much in this sense. As has been said before in this column, 'careen' has been misused as 'career' enough that it is now widely accepted to mean 'moving swiftly and in an uncontrolled way'. But there are many who prefer 'careering'. We have repeatedly pledged to stick with the original to keep everyone happy. Roger Thetford held us to our word.
The Sun
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Ukraine & Russia face off in historic direct talks for first time in three years after Trump says he'll meet Putin ASAP
Marco Rubio lands in Istanbul Donald Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio has officially landed in Turkey ahead of Russia Ukraine peace talks. The top US diplomat is not expected to attend the negotiations but he will be closely monitoring the situation, the US has confirmed. Instead, Trump will be represented by US director for policy planning Michael Anton.
Times of Oman
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Times of Oman
Ex-Pentagon official Rubin takes a jibe at Trump's claims on cessation of hostilities
Washington DC: Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, took a jibe at US President Donald Trump's tendency to claim credit for almost every achievement, saying that Trump might as well have "invented the Internet" and "cured cancer." His remarks came in response to Trump's statements on the India-Pakistan cessation of hostilities, where Rubin pointed out that Indians should not take the US President's claims literally. In an interview with ANI, Rubin said, "Donald Trump likes to claim credit for everything. If you ask Donald Trump, he single-handedly won the World Cup. He invented the Internet. He cured cancer. Indians should be more like Americans in this regard and not take Donald Trump literally" Rubin also addressed the role of the United States in the India-Pakistan conflict, emphasising that Washington's diplomatic efforts are crucial to preventing escalation, especially given the potential for nuclear exchange between the two nations. He also said, "Whenever Pakistan and India come into conflict, the United States tries to mediate behind the scenes, and this is reasonable because the United States is trying diplomatically to provide an off-ramp to prevent unrestricted warfare and also, in a worst case scenario, prevent an escalation to any sort of nuclear exchange. So, the fact that the United States would be in touch with both New Delhi and Islamabad is obvious, and the fact that both New Delhi and Islamabad would use Washington to pass messages is also obvious." Trump on Monday had said that his administration played a crucial role in brokering an immediate cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, following escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. "We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. I also want to thank VP JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their work. On Saturday, my administration helped broker an immediate cessation of hostilities, I think a permanent one between India and Pakistan the countries having a lot of nuclear weapons," Trump had told the media. "I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering and powerful... And we helped a lot, and we also helped with trade. I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it, let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade," he added. India launched Operation Sindoor in response to last month's Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. India's precision strikes in Pakistan and PoJK on May 7 killed over 100 terrorists.
