Washington

By the busload and planeload, National Guard troops were pouring into the nation's capital on Jan. 16, as governors answered the urgent pleas of U.S. defense officials for more troops to help safeguard Washington even as they keep anxious eyes on possible violent protests in their own states.

Turkey will renew its offer to form a joint working group with the United States to look into the technical aspects of its acquisition of the Russian S-400 defence systems it acquired, once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Friday.

There have been many fine tributes to former US Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, who passed away on December 6 at age 87. These encomiums invariably note the near universal high regard he enjoyed in Washington for his intelligence, integrity, humor and accomplishments - the latter consisting mostly of liberal legislation he managed, via his other attributes, to get Republicans to support.

Russia is launching domestic procedures to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Russia decided to do so due to the lack of any progress on the issue of removing the obstacles that have been created so far and that hinder its functionality.
As it is stated, as soon as all internal procedures are completed, the notification will be sent to all other participants in the Agreement.

This is how the assistant at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Stevan Nedeljkovi, explains the decision of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress to recall President Trump, followed by a debate and a vote in the Senate.

A top Turkish official is calling on the new U.S. administration to engage in a dialogue with Turkey and to review a decision to sanction the country over its purchase of an advanced Russian air defense system.

That request comes even though Washington has made clear that there can be no waiver of the sanctions until Ankara disposes of the Russian technology.

Turkish defense Minister Hulusi Akar said it would be "very problematic" for Ankara to turn back on its purchase of Russian S-400 defense systems but expressed hope that a dispute with the United States on the issue could be resolved through dialogue.

Akar also reiterated that Turkey was in talks with Russia on obtaining a second consignment of the S400 defense systems.

“Washington is currently concerned about the general motivations of Turkish foreign policy while it largely trusts Greece as a pillar of stability in the EastMed”

High-level Polish officials have jumped on the bandwagon of criticism over US President Donald Trump's social media bans to promote a recent draft law officially aimed at combatting online "censorship", but which digital rights groups warn must be scrutinised carefully.