Mike Pompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed support Tuesday for talks between Greece and Turkey, NATO allies whose relations deteriorated to the point where both had warships facing off in the Mediterranean Sea.

The US ambassador to China will step down early next month, ending a three-year tenure marked by a trade war and increasingly bitter relations between the world's two largest economies.

The Trump administration has taken aim at Chinese cultural programs called Confucius Institutes housed within US universities. Administrators are caught in the middle, and some say academic freedom is at risk. 

US President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping but vague ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of popular social media apps TikTok and WeChat on security grounds, a move China's government criticized as "political manipulation."

China has followed through on its promises of retaliation toward the US. Beijing on Friday ordered the US to close its consulate in Chengdu. And, the Gülenists, dubbed by Turkey as FETO, the Fethullahist Terror Organization, are being purged on a massive scale. Also, as the coronavirus lockdown forced people indoors, Percibald García, an architect, grabbed a microphone and portable speaker and began doing readings of children’s stories in an empty public square in Mexico City.

The United States said Wednesday that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston "to protect American intellectual property" and the private information of Americans.

A British appeal court ruled today that Shamima Begum, who in 2015 went to Syria to join ISIS, can return to the United Kingdom to challenge the government's removal of her British citizenship. And, officials from the US, Britain and Canada said today that Russian hackers are trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research. Also, Europe's highest court has ruled that the so-called Privacy Shield trans-Atlantic data transfer deal is invalid.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered Huawei equipment purged from Britain's 5G network by 2027. And, a judge is scheduled to hear arguments today involving over 200 universities and 17 states seeking to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing new regulations for international students. Also, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that the US rejects China's claims in most of the South China Sea.

In a withering behind-the-scenes portrayal, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton accused him of sweeping misdeeds that included explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election.

In a new book, former White House national security adviser John Bolton accuses US President Donald Trump of sweeping misdeeds in order to pursue reelection, including explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping's help. And, in a 5-4 decision issued this morning, the US Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's attempt to cancel Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.