Washington – President Donald Trump has four leading candidates under consideration to replace outgoing White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, a Trump confidant said on Friday. The four are deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley, Stephanie Grisham, who is first lady Melania Trump’s communications director, former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert and outgoing Treasury [...]

Jerusalem – Israel’s cabinet will meet in the Golan Heights on Sunday to honour US President Donald Trump and vote on naming a settlement there after him, the prime minister’s office announced. Trump in March broke with decades of international consensus and recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, a strategic area seized from Syria in [...]

Washington – President Donald Trump says he won’t fire White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after a federal watchdog agency recommended her removal for repeatedly violating a law that limits political activity by government workers. Trump tells Fox & Friends that he was briefed on the Office of Special Counsel investigation Thursday and says “it looks [...]

Washington – One of the largest U.S. producers of aerosol cans, Colorado-based Ball Metalpack, has laid off 91 of its 500 U.S. workers since President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imported steel that abruptly hiked the firm’s raw materials costs. At a chief competitor, DS Containers, the story is different. The subsidiary of [...]

Beijing – China has summoned a U.S. envoy in Beijing to protest what it calls “irresponsible words and deeds” on an extradition bill that has triggered massive demonstrations in Hong Kong. China’s foreign ministry said Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng summoned Robert Forden, the U.S. embassy’s deputy chief of mission, on Friday. The ministry says [...]

Washington – President Donald Trump is calling Iran “a nation of terror,” saying Iran’s responsibility for attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman was “exposed” by the United States. Calling into “Fox & Friends” on Friday, Trump says of the Thursday attacks, “Iran did do it.” He cites video purporting to show an Iranian [...]

Israel – The largest gay pride parade in the Middle East is drawing hundreds of thousands of revelers to the streets of Tel Aviv. Drag queens and rainbow-clad marchers streamed through the city on Friday, posing for selfies and beating drums. Floats rolled by blasting electro beats. Support for gay rights is increasingly widespread in [...]

Jerusalem – Following the firing of a rocket from Gaza on a school building in Israel, Israeli planes struck in the Hamas-controlled enclave, destroying a naval base. The strikes Friday were on military facilities and resulted in the total destruction of the naval commando base in the Strip’s south, the Kan broadcaster reported. No casualties [...]

Amman – Jordan’s King Abdullah reacts angrily to any suggestion that he might accept a U.S. deal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict that would make his country a homeland for Palestinians. Speaking to the armed forces in March, he rejected the idea of Jordan as an alternative state for Palestinians, saying: “Don’t we have a [...]

Washington – The U.S. military on Friday released a video it said showed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the oil tankers targeted near the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting the Islamic Republic sought to remove evidence of its involvement from the scene. The U.S. Navy rushed to assist the stricken [...]