Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa has transformed himself from al Qaeda militant to Syrian president in a dramatic political rise capped on Wednesday by a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The encounter in Saudi Arabia is a milestone for a man who joined al Qaeda in Iraq around the time of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and spent years in U.S. prison there before returning to Syria to join the insurgency against Bashar al-Assad. The meeting - following Trump's announcement of an end to U.S. sanctions on Syria - is a huge boost for Sharaa as he tries to bring the fractured country under his...
As per the commerce ministry's announcement on Wednesday, China has temporarily halted some non-tariff measures that were previously imposed on 17 U.S. entities from its unreliable entity list and 28 U.S. entities from its export control list. These entities were added to the lists in April. China's unreliable entities list, which was updated on April 4, included 11 U.S. entities. Measures against these entities have been suspended for a period of 90 days, effective from Wednesday. Furthermore, measures against six more U.S. entities, which were added to the list on April 9, have also been...
Republicans in the U.S. Congress advanced major elements of President Donald Trump's budget package on Wednesday, as key committees approved tax cuts that would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt, while cutting spending on healthcare for the poor and disabled. With Democrats boycotting this top priority of Trump's, Republicans relied on their majorities in the tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce panel overseeing Medicaid and other healthcare programs to advance the controversial package of bills. Flexing their majority muscles,...