Author: Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner

A seventh round of negotiations to rehabilitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal floundered this week after the regime renounced the tentative agreements struck over the previous six rounds of meetings. “Iran, right now, does not seem to be serious about doing what’s necessary to return to compliance, which is why we ended this round of…

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a deal to block the expansion of NATO, a demand brought forth amid widespread suspicions that Moscow is preparing a military offensive against Ukraine. “The only way to resolve the situation is to jointly develop long-term agreements that would prevent NATO’s further expansion to the east and the deployment of…

State Department officials are “deploying technology” to diplomatic posts around the world to detect the origin of mysterious ailments known as “Havana Syndrome” amid congressional complaints that the health incidents are not being taken seriously enough by the administration. “We’re developing, obtaining, and deploying technology to the field to protect our personnel,” Secretary of State…

China will not just have more people — it also may have better technology should a war with the United States break out, according to the general who leads the Marine Corps. The bleak assessment from Marine Corps Commandant David Berger came Thursday amid increasing Chinese belligerence. But Berger did offer some hope that the…

President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to draw U.S. military forces out of the Middle East as part of a strategic reorientation toward threats from China fraught with political risk. “More of everything is not a strategy,” State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet told the Center for New American Security. “We can do more than any…

Russian President Vladimir Putin will provoke “sanctions from hell” if the frozen conflict in Ukraine turns hot, according to a prominent Republican. “I’m hoping that they understand that the Russian economy, as weak as it is … they invade parts of the Ukraine, it will get weaker,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told the Washington…

South Korean officials want Pope Francis to visit North Korea, as the outgoing president pushes for a diplomatic breakthrough with the nuclear-armed neighbor. “As the pope’s willingness to visit North Korea has been reaffirmed, we hope the North would respond and pave the way for fostering peace on the Korean Peninsula,” South Korean Ministry of…

Chinese officials can’t blame the United States for their failures to prosecute an aggressive policy to reduce emissions, according to one of President Joe Biden’s top aides. “It’s on them,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday, as the U.S. delegation prepared for the launch of an international climate conference in Glasgow.…

President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team consists of a skeleton crew of Senate-confirmed ambassadors and lower-profile placeholder diplomats, putting a spotlight on domestic political dysfunction as he makes his first trip to Europe since the “debacle” in Afghanistan. “This is indicative of the totally bipartisan collapse in decent relations between the executive branch and the…

State Department officials attempted to censor watchdog reports on U.S. efforts in Afghanistan as Taliban militants swept across the country, according to a top oversight official. “Some of the requests were bizarre, to say the least,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Ropko said Friday. “State requested we redact Ashraf Ghani’s name from our…