Politics

A secret 1983 CIA intelligence report suggested that the US should encourage Saddam Hussein to attack Syria to secure Iraq’s oil pipeline Hafez al-Assad had closed Iraq’s oil pipeline and as a result had a ‘hammerlock’ on US interests in both Lebanon and in the Gulf The report by ex- CIA official Graham Fuller, said that America should consider ‘urging Iraq to take the war to Syria’, noting that Saddam was ‘fighting for his life’ in the Iran-Iraq war.

Following German media's outcry that "the demons have been unchained", Asian media decried President Trump's isolationist policies, fearing they will chill the global economy and sow widespread international discord, as "the reality show has become reality," warning the world was now in "unpredictable territory... spreading unease, division, and conflict throughout the world."

While perhaps not as entirely hysterical as German media's 'opinion'...

Drone king Barack Obama took a final jab at Russia before leaving office. During his last press conference on Wednesday, Barack Obama, the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, said that the United States must stand up for the principle that “big countries don’t go around and invade and bully smaller countries.“ Obama was referring to Russia, after the they came to defend Crimea and Ukraine following a US-led color revolution.

In a move that has sparked controversy among some economists, within an hour of being sworn in, Trump undid one of Barack Obama’s last-minute actions, a mortgage-fee cut under a government program catering to first-time home buyers and low-income borrowers. The cut, which would become effective on January 27, would have reduced the annual premium for someone borrowing $200,000 by $500 in the first year, however exposing taxpayers to further losses in case of a spike in defaults.

While the rest of the developed world woke up in a cold sweat on the first official morning of the Trump presidency, the Kremlin said that Russia's Vladimir Putin was ready to meet President Trump but preparations for the possible meeting may take months, not weeks, according to Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.