International Glance
The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the US diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of Donald Trump’s “America first” priorities.
The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.
All of them had taken up their posts in the Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Trump’s second term that targeted mainly political appointees. That changed on Wednesday when they began to receive notices from officials in Washington DC about their imminent departures.
Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, although they typically remain at their posts for between three and four years. Those affected by the shakeup are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them, the officials said.
U.S. envoys arrived in Berlin Sunday morning for another round of talks intended to secure a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
At least 11 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in a shooting at Sydney's popular Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 that targeted Australia's Jewish community, police and officials said.
Denmark's intelligence service for the first time has described the United States as a potential threat to its and the wider European region's national security because of the Trump administration's apparent willingness to use economic and military coercion and pressure "to enforce its will," even against allies.
Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding hundreds of tents sheltering families displaced by two years of war and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.
