| A US spotlight on Syria’s slaughterhouse Posted: 15 May 2017 02:35 PM PDT ![A US spotlight on Syria's slaughterhouse]( "A US spotlight on Syria's slaughterhouse") Just days before President Trump's trip to the Middle East, which may include a tour of Israel's Holocaust museum, his administration has accused Syria of killing thousands of political prisoners – at a rate of about 50 a day. Reports of the mass executions at Sednaya are not new. Amnesty International said in February that as many as 13,000 detainees had been hanged there since 2011.
|
| Gatekeepers of the Trump revolution Posted: 15 May 2017 12:06 PM PDT ![Gatekeepers of the Trump revolution]( "Gatekeepers of the Trump revolution") It was a somber scene in the GOP-controlled Senate. Republicans were set to blow up a historic Senate rule so they could bust through a Democratic blockade and confirm Neil Gorsuch for the US Supreme Court with just a majority vote. Which is why Sen. Susan Collins stood out.
|
| Trump call on Afghan surge: Another step away from 'America First'? Posted: 15 May 2017 10:48 AM PDT ![Trump call on Afghan surge: Another step away from 'America First'?]( "Trump call on Afghan surge: Another step away from 'America First'?") On the scale of the foreign-policy issues President Trump has to consider, the proposed surge of up to 5,000 more US troops into Afghanistan may not register as the most pressing. Compared with the nuclear threat posed by North Korea (another missile test over the weekend), or the challenge of defeating the self-declared Islamic State (Turkey's president is in Washington May 16 amid a sharp dispute over the US arming of Syrian Kurds), to surge or not to surge once again in what has become America's longest military engagement might be relatively small foreign-policy potatoes. How Trump comes down on Afghanistan will offer hints as to how far he intends to go with the "America First" theme of his campaign – or whether he will pursue the shift toward a more traditional exercise of American power and leadership that has characterized his early foreign-policy decision-making.
|
| Travel ban: Is a nationwide injunction on behalf of one person overkill? Posted: 15 May 2017 09:48 AM PDT ![Travel ban: Is a nationwide injunction on behalf of one person overkill?]( "Travel ban: Is a nationwide injunction on behalf of one person overkill?") For the second time in seven days, the Trump administration will defend the constitutionality of its second travel ban executive order. Last week in Virginia, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall made arguably the strongest defense of the order to date, including one claim that is likely to be voiced again in arguments today in California. "You have a global injunction resting on one plaintiff," said Mr. Wall on May 8 to 13 judges on the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
|
