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Don’t Fear a U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Germany

According to Washington’s punditocracy, there are only two ways to interpret the Pentagon’s announcement Wednesday that it plans to move ahead with withdrawing nearly 12,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in Germany. One view is that President Donald Trump is capitulating yet again to pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin and …

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Final Look: U.S. Security Policy in the Trump Era

When President Donald Trump entered office under an “America First” banner, it seemed to herald a new era of U.S. isolationism. As he prepares to leave the White House on Jan. 20, though, the shifts in America’s military engagements during his one-term presidency have been less dramatic than anticipated. Though …

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Migrants allege abuse, degrading conditions in Saudi deportation center

A new report from Human Rights Watch describes squalid conditions at a facility detaining mostly Ethiopian migrants in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is detaining hundreds of migrants in inhumane, degrading conditions at a deportation center in Riyadh, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report that alleges guards have also …

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Lebanese activist sentenced to prison for collaborating with Israel

Kinda El-Khatib, a critic of Hezbollah on social media, was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court. A Lebanese activist was sentenced to prison this week on charges of working with Israel. The activist, who has been a critic of Hezbollah, denied the allegations in court.

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Washington on the spot as its Syrian Kurd allies are drawn into PKK-KDP fight

Reported border clash worsens conflict between Kurdish factions in triangle where US, Turkish and Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish forces come into play. Tensions between the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have sharply escalated amid claims that a PKK-linked Syrian militia that is backed …

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