Defense Bill Would Expand U.S. Missile-Defense Policy
John M. Donnelly | Roll Call
In a potentially momentous departure from longstanding law, the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill Congress will send President Barack Obama in the coming days would expand the aims of America’s strategic missile-defense policy. In 1999, Washington enacted a law that expressed the purpose of U.S. defenses against intercontinental ballistic missiles as “limited.”
China Flew Nuclear-Capable Bombers Around Taiwan Before Trump Call With Taiwanese President
Jennifer Griffin and Lucas Tomlinson | Fox News
Less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwan’s president over the phone, China flew a pair of long-range nuclear-capable bombers around Taiwan for the first time, two U.S. officials revealed to Fox News. On Nov. 26, two Chinese Xian H-6 bombers, along with two escort planes, a Tupolev Tu-154 and Shaanxi Y-8, flew around the island of Taiwan from mainland China, taking off and landing from two separate Chinese military bases.
Senate Votes Unanimously to Extend Iran Sanctions
Austin Wright | Politico
The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to extend sanctions on Iran for 10 years as President-elect Donald Trump faces calls not to immediately scrap a nuclear pact with Iran that he labeled "disastrous" on the campaign trail. The House-passed measure would renew the Iran Sanctions Act, first enacted in 1996 and set to expire at the end of the year.
Benjamin Netanyahu to Discuss 'Bad' Iran Nuclear Deal with Donald Trump
Jeffrey Heller and Arshad Mohammed | Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would discuss with Donald Trump the West's "bad" nuclear deal with Iran after the U.S. president-elect enters the White House. Speaking separately to a conference in Washington, Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry clashed over the Iran deal and Israel's settlement construction on the occupied West Bank, which Kerry depicted as an obstacle to peace.
Rouhani Says Iran Will Not let Trump Rip Up nuclear Deal
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin | Reuters
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday he would not let U.S. President-elect Donald Trump rip up a global nuclear deal, warning of unspecified repercussions if Washington reneges on the agreement. Trump had said during campaigns for the White House that he would scrap Iran's pact with world powers - under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for lifted sanctions - describing it as "the worst deal ever negotiated".
German Utilities Win Compensation for Nuclear Phaseout
Deutsche Welle
Germany's Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that the country's biggest power companies, Eon, RWE and Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall, are entitled to "appropriate compensation" for the government's decision to rush the shutdown of their nuclear reactors. The companies sought a decision about a law adopted by the conservative-led government of Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011, arguing they were not calling for the law to be overturned, but that they wanted compensation for the losses resulting from it.