US President Donald Trump’s six-month approval rating is the lowest of any president in polls in 70 years, a new survey shows. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Sunday surveyed people’s opinion about Trump’s competence on the world stage, his effectiveness, the GOP healthcare plan as well as his handling of Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 election.

Only 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, down 6 points from his 100-day mark, which itself was a low. The previous president, whose approval rating was very close to this level at or near six months, was Gerald Ford, who received 39 percent in February 1975.

Sixty-three percent of Americans polled believe it was not appropriate for Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign manager to have meetings with a Russian lawyer during the campaign for the presidential election last year. Also, 6 in 10 believe Russia sought to influence the campaign, and among those who believe so, 67 percent say Trump’s aides helped, similar to results released in April.

Nonetheless, the Russia controversy is only one of Trump’s troubles. Just 38 percent say he is making significant progress toward his goals, while 55 percent believe otherwise. Two-thirds do not trust his ability to negotiate with other world leaders specifically with Russian President Vladimir Putin on America’s behalf. And about half argue that the US leadership has become weaker under Trump, whereas just 27 percent say it has grown stronger. With regard to his party’s signature campaign issue which is to replace Obamacare, Americans by a 2-1 margin prefer it over the Republican plan, 50-24 percent.

Overall, Trump’s job approval rating, after six months in office, is 4 points lower than his predecessor Barack Obama’s career low, which came in his sixth year, according to the poll. Forty-eight percent “strongly” disapprove of Trump’s job performance, again slightly surpassing the strongest disapproval of Obama’s career, in his fifth year. The president’s 58 percent overall disapproval is 7 points higher than the next-highest disapproval rating at six months which belongs to President Bill Clinton in 1993, the poll shows.

Source: Presstv

Russia says the US is sheltering “too many” spies at its embassy in Moscow, warning that it may expel some American diplomats amid a deepening diplomatic row between the two countries. “There are too many CIA and Pentagon intelligence employees under the roof of the American diplomatic mission whose activities do not correspond to their status,” Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Friday.

She also reminded that the public must have heard about the “adventures” of some of the US spies, adding that “everything was available to the public – wigs, disguises and installations with performances.” Zakharova was apparently referring to the January remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said Moscow had foiled several intelligence activities involving US nationals working under diplomatic cover while wearing disguises, among them men dressing as women.

In one of the incidents, a disguised diplomat wearing a wig and false eyebrows penetrated into the US embassy after hitting the security officer and refusing to show his ID card. Elsewhere in her comments, Zakharova said Russia is prepared to expel US diplomats and shut down some American compounds if Washington fails to reopen two Russian recreational estates that were closed in the US.

In December 2016, former US president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian officials from the US and seized two pieces of property belonging to the Kremlin. Washington said the measure was taken in response to Russia’s alleged hacking of US political groups during the 2016 presidential election, an accusation flatly denied by Moscow.

The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman warned that his country “will have to take reciprocal measures” if the issue of the confiscated compounds is not resolved. She further complained that US officials were not issuing visas to Russian diplomats to allow Moscow to replace the expelled employees.

Zakharova also expressed hope that the US will take “a more constructive approach” to resolve the dispute over the seized properties after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, met face-to-face for the first time on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg last week.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow may retaliate Washington’s measures. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow’s patience was running out in its diplomatic row with the US, saying Washington should either correct its 2016 decision to expel Russian politicians and “illegally” seize Russian compounds or wait for “measures of reciprocity.”

Source: Presstv

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday suspended negotiations with Washington aimed at ending sanctions against Khartoum, after the United States extended its embargo for another three months, state media said.

US President Donald Trump prolonged a review period overnight to October 12 before his administration decides whether or not to permanently lift the decades-old sanctions.

His predecessor Barack Obama had eased the sanctions in January, but kept Sudan on review for six months, a period that ended on Wednesday. Obama had made the permanent lifting of the sanctions dependent on the East African country’s progress in five areas of concern at the end of the review period.

In his executive order issued on Tuesday, Trump extended the deadline, saying “more time is needed” for the review. And on Wednesday, Bashir decided to suspend the talks between Washington and Khartoum.

Bashir “issued a presidential decree ordering the suspension of the committee that was negotiating (the lifting of the sanctions) with the United States until October 12,” the official news agency SUNA said, quoting a presidential decree. The committee has been negotiating for more than a year with US officials on lifting the American trade embargo in force against Khartoum since 1997.

(Source: AFP)

US President Donald Trump says his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would have been more comfortable with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, as the president. “If Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That’s what Putin doesn’t like about me,” Trump said in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on Wednesday.

He also commented about the ceasefire in southwestern Syria, announced after his two-hour meeting with the Russian president on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

“Well he wants what’s good for Russia, and I want what’s good for the United States. And I think in a case like Syria where we can get together, do a ceasefire, and there are many other cases where getting along can be a very positive thing, but always Putin is going to want Russia and Trump is going to want the United States and that’s the way it is,” Trump said. “Sometimes you’re not going to get along on things and sometimes you will. But we had a good meeting, it was a face to face meeting, it was a long meeting. It was two hours and 15 minutes. Everyone was surprised by the amount of time but that was a good thing and not a bad thing. Yeah, I think we get along very well and I think that’s a good thing, that’s not a bad thing. People said, ‘Oh they shouldn’t get along.’ Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn’t make sense not to have some kind of a relationship.”

His comments came as the FBI as well as congressional committees were investigating whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump associates during the 2016 campaign and transition. Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has adopted a positive stance towards Russia and its leader. During the interview, he asserted that the ceasefire in Syria was a manifestation of forging better ties with Moscow.

“I think we had an excellent meeting. One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing. And, by the way, this is now four days. The ceasefire has held for four days. Those (previous) ceasefires haven’t held at all. That’s because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it’s held. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe as we’re speaking they start shooting again. But this has held unlike all of the other ceasefires that didn’t mean anything,” Trump said. “So, that was a great thing that came out of that meeting. I think a lot of things came out of that meeting but I do believe it’s important to have a dialogue and if you don’t have a dialogue, it’s a lot of problems for our country and for their country. I think we need dialogue. We need dialogue with everybody.”

Syria has been beset by conflict since March 2011. Numerous rounds of talks and three different UN special envoys have failed to resolve the crisis which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Monday that there is a higher potential than we are seeing in the past for progress” following the new cessation of hostilities.

Source: Presstv

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow may retaliate moves by the United States last year to seize Russian diplomatic premises in America and eject a number of Russian diplomats.

The administration of former US president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds in December 2016 over allegations that Moscow had attempted to influence the US presidential election back then. Denying the allegations, Russia has previously called for the return of the premises.

During a visit to Austria on Tuesday, Lavrov told Russian media that the situation had lingered and was “outrageous.” “I believe that for such a great country like the United States of America, this advocate of international law, it’s just shameful to leave the situation in mid-air,” he said. The Russian foreign minister also said that Moscow was “now thinking of specific steps” to retaliate. He did not provide details, however.

When the Obama administration ejected the Russian diplomats and took over the premises, Russia did not take immediate reciprocal action and preferred to wait and see whether ties would improve under the administration of President Donald Trump, whose election victory Obama said had been aided by the alleged Russian meddling.

At a news conference with the European Union (EU)’s High Representative Federica Mogherini later in the day, Lavrov said once again that the US would face “retaliatory measures” if it did not heed Russia’s calls to return the diplomatic premises.

“If this does not happen, if we see that this step is not seen as essential in Washington, then of course we will take retaliatory measures,” he said. “This is the law of diplomacy, the law of international affairs, that reciprocity is the basis of all relations.”

According to Russia’s Izvestia daily, Moscow has been considering the expulsion of some 30 US diplomats and taking over two US diplomatic compounds near Moscow and St. Petersburg. A dacha complex owned by the US Embassy at Serebyany Bor outside Moscow may be one of those premises.

Citing Foreign Ministry sources, Izvestia said that the measures will take effect if the diplomatic row is not resolved at a meeting between Lavrov’s deputy Sergei Ryabkov and Thomas Shannon, a US under secretary of state, in St. Petersburg next week.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump’s son met with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, a report reveals. Donald Trump Jr., had been promised damaging information about his father’s opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, ahead of meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing US officials.

In a declassified report released in January, the intelligence community concluded that Russia helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and Trump.

According to the Times, the meeting represents “the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.” Then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also took part in a meeting with the Russian lawyer. In a statement sent to the newspaper, Trump Jr. denied that he had received any information about the former secretary of state, asserting that the meeting had been held at the request of an acquaintance.

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,” Trump Jr. said in his statement. “Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

He added that claims of helpful information by the lawyer were just an excuse to get him to attend the meeting over American adoptions of Russian children. “It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” he said.

Source: Presstv

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that his country will remain loyal to Qatar and that a list of demands by Saudi Arabia and its allies from the Persian Gulf country are under no circumstances acceptable. “When it comes to this list of 13 items… it’s not acceptable under any circumstances,” said Erdogan in an interview with France 24 television on Wednesday.

He added that such demands are the equivalent of “stripping” Qatar of its statehood. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, after officially accusing it of “sponsoring terrorism.”

On June 23, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the severance of all Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement. The closing down of a Turkish military base in Qatar is one of the demands on the list. Erdogan stated the he was willing to close the base if Doha requested to do so.

“The Americans are also there, with 9,000 soldiers, and so are the French… Why are the Saudis disturbed by us and not by that? This is unacceptable,” he added. Meanwhile, the four Arab countries seeking to isolate Qatar have said in a statement that Doha’s response to their demands to end the Persian Gulf diplomatic crisis was “not serious.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir talks to reporters during a joint press conference with his Emirati, Egyptian, and Bahraini counterparts after their meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo on July 5, 2017. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir also stated that the boycott of Qatar will continue until the Persian Gulf kingdom changes its policies in line with those of the Riyadh regime.

Source: Presstv

President Paul Biya has met for the last time the outgoing Swiss Ambassador to Cameroon, Claude Altermatt. The Swiss diplomat is presently at the Unity Palace today Wednesday the 5th of July 2017 to thank the Cameroonian dictator for the hospitality received during his four-year stay in the country.

Both men have examined the bilateral ties between Cameroon and Switzerland including Cameroonian migrants residing in the small but beautiful European country.

Claude Altermatt has reportedly hailed the cordial relations existing between Cameroon and Switzerland and hoped that they will be further strengthened when the new ambassador takes office.

Source: CRTV

Russia has announced that it may deploy troops to de-escalation zones in Syria after agreement from Turkey and Iran. Russian negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev made the announcement during talks being held in the Kazakh capital Astana on Tuesday.

“Overall, (the agreement) provides for the presence of Russian military police in the buffer zones, but once again this matter has not been agreed yet…Depending on when the documents on safe zones are signed, I think one should expect concrete measures on the deployment of forces within 2-3 weeks,” he said.

“So far it is hard to talk about presence of the Russian observers and representatives of the Russian defense ministry. But nevertheless overall there are plans for the Russian military police presence in the buffer zones. But still this matter has not been fully agreed yet. It will be related to the question about the status of de-escalation monitoring forces,” he added.

The final document pertaining to the de-escalation zones are expected to be signed on Wednesday, he added, noting that the principles of the zones have already been agreed upon in the former rounds of the talks.

In May, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to establish four “de-escalation zones” in Syria. Lavrentyev added that Russia and its partners are still engaged in negotiations concerning detailed maps and other conditions related to the Idlib province and southern regions while the borders of two other zones, in Homs province and near Damascus, had been agreed upon.

“One thing is to work with maps and another one is to apply it to reality on the ground which is rather complicated. And this process of course takes a long time. But nevertheless I would like to say that we have practically determined the contact lines and borders of the second and third de-escalation zones. We still have questions on Idlib and the southern zone,” he added.

The fifth round of Astana talks kicked off earlier on Tuesday. More than 2.5 million people are believed to be living in the general area of the four zones. The Syrian army unilaterally announced a halt to fighting until midnight July 6 in one of the zones that spans the southern provinces of Dara’a, Quneitra, and Sweida.

Source: Presstv

British Prime Minister Theresa May is yet to decide whether to publish details of a report about foreign funding of extremism in the UK with a focus on Saudi Arabia. The outcome of the Home Office investigation is not yet released, which “leaves question marks over whether their decision is influenced by our diplomatic ties,” said the Green party co-leader, Caroline Lucas, as cited in a Guardian report, published Monday.

The probe was commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron and approved by May in December 2015, although she demonstrated a resolve to boost ties with Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf Arab states later. Lucas and the Home Office both said this week that the British premier was personally responsible about whether to make the findings public.

“The review into the funding of Islamist extremism in the UK was commissioned by the former prime minister and reported to the home secretary and the prime minister in 2016,” claimed Home Office minister Sarah Newton. “The review has improved the government’s understanding of the nature, scale and sources of funding for Islamist extremism in the UK. Publication of the review is a decision for the prime minister.”

In her parliamentary question on the review’s whereabouts, Lucas called the delay “astonishing,” asserting that “the government is sitting on this report but refusing to publish it or give any reason for their continued secrecy.” Since Saudi Arabia launched its brutal campaign against Yemen in March 2015, the UK government has approved arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia worth $4.1 billion, according to London-based Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

May’s nemeses, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, have both called for making the findings public. According to Lucas, after recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, the British public is “quite rightly asking questions about routes to radicalization, and the funding of terror is central to this. “I urge Theresa May to reveal immediately whose advice they are following as to whether or not to publish this report, and to do all they can to put the facts into the public domain if it is safe to do so.”

Cameron had committed to publishing the report by spring 2016, according to the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, but the Home Office later called its contents “very sensitive,” indicating that it would never be published. Condemning London’s efforts to “kowtow” before the monarchy, he noted, “It is a scandal that the government are suppressing this report. The only conclusion you can draw is that they are worried about what it actually says.”

Source: Presstv