Guy Taylor
Articles by Guy Taylor
Lights go out at Pompeo CIA hearing
The confirmation hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA was abruptly halted by a power outage just as it was getting under way Thursday morning on Capitol Hill. Published January 12, 2017
Rex Tillerson: U.S. response to Russia Crimea seizure was ‘weak’
Former ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, took a tough line on Russian hacking, praised Mexican immigrants and acknowledged the problem posed by global climate change -- drawing repeated accolades from Democrats during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, but setting up some potentially awkward moments with his future boss. Published January 11, 2017
Rex Tillerson is asked: ‘Is Putin a war criminal?’; Marco Rubio says answer is ‘discouraging’
Sparks flew early in Wednesday's secretary of state nomination hearing for Rex Tillerson when Republican Sen. Marco Rubio ripped the former ExxonMobil CEO for refusing to say outright that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal." Published January 11, 2017
Rex Tillerson ‘right person at the right time’: Robert Gates
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson is "the right person at the right time" to be America's top diplomat, particularly when it comes to navigating the increasingly complex relationship between Washington and Moscow. Published January 11, 2017
Obama hoped to use ISIS as leverage against Assad, John Kerry reveals
Well before Russia's military came to Bashar Assad's aid in Syria, the Obama administration calculated that the Islamic State's expansion in the region would force the Syrian president into negotiating with Washington, according to private comments Secretary of State John F. Kerry made last fall. Published January 10, 2017
RT, Russia’s government-owned news operation, aggressively backed Donald Trump
The assertion by American spies that Russian hacking gave Donald Trump an edge in the election is dominating headlines, but almost no attention has gone to an entirely separate focus of the report circulated Friday by the U.S. intelligence community -- the influential role played by Russia's government-owned, and increasingly high-profile, satellite news organization. Published January 8, 2017
Donald Trump urged to mend relations with Philippines
President-elect Donald Trump would be well-advised to make a trip here early in his administration to shore up Washington's troubled alliance with one of the linchpins of its regional security network, says former President Fidel V. Ramos, an elder statesman among the Philippines' political and military elite. Published January 4, 2017
Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs strains U.S. alliance
Since taking office six months ago, hard-line populist President Rodrigo Duterte has succeeded in turning this city into one of the murder capitals of the world, authorizing the police and an array of unknown accomplices to gun down at point-blank range anyone suspected of dealing or using illegal drugs. Published January 3, 2017
Donald Trump, Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte seek connection as China looms
It was once the rock-solid symbol of one of the deepest and most enduring U.S. alliances in the region. Today this massive but long-shuttered U.S. Navy base is just one more question mark in a confused and evolving relationship at a time of major strategic changes in both Manila and Washington. Published January 2, 2017
John Kerry: Israel can be Jewish or democratic — not both
Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that if Israel rejects a two-state solution for peace with the Palestinian people, "it can be Jewish or it can be democratic." Published December 28, 2016
U.S. rebukes Israel and allows U.N. condemnation of settlements
In a move seen by critics as a last ditch slap at Israel by President Obama before he leaves office, the administration allowed the U.N. Security Council to push through a resolution Friday that called Israeli settlement construction on territory Palestinians want for an independent state a "flagrant violation" of international law. Published December 23, 2016
Trump, Netanyahu press Obama to veto U.N.’s Jewish settlement vote before postponement
A U.N. Security Council vote to condemn Israeli settlement construction in areas Palestinians want for an independent state was delayed Thursday, hours after President-elect Donald Trump, several other prominent Republicans and Israel slammed the motion and called on the Obama administration to veto it. Published December 22, 2016
U.N. vote on Israeli settlements delayed after criticism from Israel, Trump
A U.N. Security Council vote to condemn Israeli settlement construction in areas Palestinians want for an independent state was delayed Thursday -- hours after President-elect Donald Trump, several other prominent Republicans and Israel slammed the motion and called on the Obama administration to veto it. Published December 22, 2016
ISIS perfects art of self-radicalization, confounds counterterrorism officials
Monday's Christmas market attack in Berlin was the latest in an increasingly low-tech terrorism campaign being waged by the Islamic State and its sympathizers who favor butcher knives and trucks driven into crowds over suicide belts and booby-trapped cars -- a tactical shift that has confounded American and European counterterrorism officials. Published December 21, 2016
Kremlin’s claim U.S.-Russia ties “frozen” prompts pushback from Obama administration
The Obama administration is pushing back at Russia's assertion that relations between Washington and Moscow have essentially been "frozen" until President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House next month. Published December 21, 2016
Berlin police say they’re not clear whether man detained is driver of fatal attack
The Christmas market attack in Berlin may have been the work of multiple terrorist operatives, according to German authorities who warned Tuesday that the deadly strike could be the first of several plotted against the city. Published December 20, 2016
Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to Turkey, killed amid shooting at photo exhibition
A lone gunman screaming "Allahu akbar" and "Don't forget Aleppo!" fatally shot Russia's ambassador to Turkey on Monday, an assassination that leaders from both nations warned was designed to inflame already tense relations between their countries over the war in neighboring Syria. Published December 19, 2016
Donald Trump-Tsai Ing-wen phone call raises hopes, fears in Taiwan
President Tsai Ing-wen's precedent-shattering phone call with Donald Trump sent a thrill across Taiwan last week, but hopes are being tempered by fears that the U.S. president-elect may see the island democracy simply as a chit to reshape Washington's relationship with Beijing, and that his unpredictability could spark an arms race and instability in East Asia. Published December 11, 2016
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan president, breaks silence on Trump call, says no major policy shift
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday downplayed her historic recent phone call with President-elect Donald Trump, stressing that "one phone call does not mean a policy shift" between Washington and the island nation that China regards as its territory. Published December 6, 2016
Donald Trump conversation with Taiwan angers China
Government officials and analysts here are celebrating behind the scenes over President Tsai Ing-wen's phone conversation with President-elect Donald Trump, even as concerns mount over potential fallout with China, where authorities expressed outrage over the development over the weekend. Published December 4, 2016