diplomat

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Billionaire GOP Donor Gets Nod for Prestigious Ambassadorship

Trump picks Warren Stephens as ambassador to UK

(Newser) - President-elect Trump has named billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens as his envoy to Britain, a prestigious posting for the Republican donor whose contributions this year included $2 million to a Trump-backing super PAC, the AP reports. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening, announced he was...

India, Canada Expel Diplomats After Plot Accusations

Row between nations began with Sikh separatist's killing

(Newser) - India and Canada expelled a half-dozen of the other's diplomats on Monday after accusations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was involved in "homicides, extortion, and violent acts" on Canadian soil. The criminal activity had centered on supporters of the pro-Khalistan movement, which seeks a separate homeland...

Russia Boots 6 UK Diplomats for Spying

Britain denies espionage accusations, calling them 'completely baseless'

(Newser) - Russia on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and said it decided to expel them, an announcement that comes as tensions between Moscow and the West grow during an intensified push by Ukraine to loosen restrictions on using weapons provided by the US and Britain to strike Russia. Russia'...

North Korea Suffers Another High-Level Defection: Seoul

Diplomat Ri Il Kyu, stationed in Cuba, fled to South Korea

(Newser) - South Korea's spy agency said Tuesday that a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest defection by a member of the North's elite, reports the AP . The National Intelligence Service confirmed the defection of a North Korean counselor of political affairs...

Ex-US Ambassador Pleads Guilty to Spying for Cuba

Victor Manuel Rocha, former diplomat to Bolivia, is said to have helped communist nation for decades

(Newser) - For more than four decades, a diplomat working in the US State Department secretly funneled information to Cuba's communist government. That's according to prosecutors, and now to Victor Manuel Rocha himself, a former ambassador to Bolivia who on Thursday switched his initial plea of not guilty to guilty...

Former US Ambassador Arrested as Secret Agent

Ex-diplomat to Bolivia Manuel Rocha, 73, accused of secretly working to promote Cuba's interests

(Newser) - A former US diplomat has been arrested in Florida, accused of secretly serving as an agent for Cuba. WTSP identifies him as 73-year-old Manuel Rocha, who served as the ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. A source tells the AP , which first reported on Rocha's arrest Friday in...

Henry Kissinger Turns 100, and the Celebration Is Mixed
Kissinger's 100th Marked With
Tributes, New Accusations
THE RUNDOWN
May 27, 2023 10:45 AM CDT

Kissinger's 100th Marked With Tributes, New Accusations

Ex-secretary of state's sway over foreign policy isn't questioned, but calls of 'war criminal' still haunt him

(Newser) - Former diplomat and presidential adviser Henry Kissinger marks his 100th birthday on Saturday, outlasting many of his political contemporaries who guided the United States through one of its most tumultuous periods, including during the Vietnam War and his eight years as national security adviser and secretary of state under Richard...

Russian Diplomat Condemns His Own Country, Quits
Russian Diplomat:
I'm 'So Ashamed'
May 23, 2022 10:35 AM CDT

Russian Diplomat: I'm 'So Ashamed'

Boris Bondarev condemns invasion of Ukraine, then resigns

(Newser) - That a diplomat in Geneva condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine isn't a surprise. That the diplomat is from Russia most certainly is. Boris Bondarev, described by the New York Times as a mid-level diplomat who has worked for Russia's Foreign Ministry for two decades, publicly issued a...

US Asks 12 Russian Diplomats to Leave

UN ambassador finds explanation inadequate

(Newser) - US officials accused 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations of "espionage activities" on Monday and asked them to leave the country. The US said the expulsions had been in the works for months, long before Russia invaded Ukraine, CNN reports. But Vassily Nebenzia, Russian ambassador to the UN,...

After Getting Visa Applications, China Questions US Boycott

Biden administration says it's sending help for athletes and coaches, but not diplomats

(Newser) - Given that the Biden administration earlier this month announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, China is asking why it's receiving visa applications for US government employees. That can be explained, the US answered: Those applications are for consular and security officers—not diplomats or high-ranking officials, the...

'Tragic Accident' Near Russian Embassy in Berlin Raises Eyebrows

Body of 35-year-old was found last month. Was he a diplomat or a spy?

(Newser) - Last month, a man's body was discovered on the pavement outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Now, more news on who the man was, though details are still murky. Der Spiegel reports that the deceased was a Russian diplomat, and that he'd apparently fallen from an upper floor....

She Came to US to Work for a Diplomat. It Was a Nightmare

Inside one domestic worker's allegations

(Newser) - It was a chance meeting at a gas station that can only be described as incredible: Sri Yatun had been living in Los Angeles where she worked as the housekeeper, cook, and nanny for an Indonesian consular official and her husband. What she had been promised when she left her...

Diplomats: Canada Is Hiding 'Havana Syndrome' Cases

They claim personnel are being sent to Havana without knowing the risks

(Newser) - A group of Canadian diplomats says their government is hiding cases of "Havana Syndrome," the mysterious illness affecting Canadian and US personnel in Cuba. In a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, nine diplomats who reported strange symptoms say "at least three additional cases were identified...

Feds Doubted the Kidnapping Story. They Shouldn't Have

The truth of John Patterson's 1974 disappearance was much more grim

(Newser) - John and Andra Patterson had been living in Hermosillo, Mexico, for just two months when the 31-year-old John, a new member of the United States Foreign Service, was kidnapped. It was March 22, 1974, and as Brendan I. Koerner writes in a lengthy piece for the Atlantic , he was the...

Diplomats Take 34 Hours— and a Push—to Leave N. Korea

Amid restrictions, final leg required hand-pushed rail trolley

(Newser) - A group of Russian diplomats and their families had to travel more than 34 hours just to get out of North Korea, a journey that ended on a hand-pushed cart. Most methods of international travel, including plane and train, have been blocked in North Korea due to the coronavirus pandemic....

China: We Didn't Ask US Diplomats to Take Anal COVID Tests

Whether it happened or not, it's not going to be happening from this point forward

(Newser) - No worries, American diplomats in China: You can keep your pants on. Per a report Wednesday in Vice , the Chinese government vowed this week to stop performing anal swab COVID tests on diplomats from the States, after news on that supposed occurrence prompted a complaint from the US State Department...

Report Finds Culprit Behind Mystery US Diplomat Illnesses

'Directed' microwave energy apparently sickened envoys in Havana and China

(Newser) - A new report by a National Academy of Sciences committee has found that “directed” microwave radiation is the likely cause of illness among American diplomats in Cuba and China. The study commissioned by the State Department and released Saturday is the latest attempt to find a cause for the...

British Diplomat Praised as 'Hero and Gentleman' After China Rescue

61-year-old consul saved drowning woman

(Newser) - Diplomatic relations between China and Britain are currently tense—but one British diplomat is being praised as a "friend of China" after a dramatic rescue. Steven Ellison, the 61-year-old British consul general in Chongqing, took off his shoes and dived into a fast-flowing river on Saturday to rescue a...

Ambassador's Mustache That Irked a Nation Is No More

Harry Harris' facial hair was too harsh a reminder of Japanese colonialism for some

(Newser) - To most Americans, Harry Harris' mustache likely wouldn't cause a second glance. But to South Koreans, the US ambassador's facial hair became a lightning rod —and over the weekend, he finally shaved it off. The envoy headed to a barbershop in Seoul on Saturday to go under...

NYT: Trump Made Big Ask of US Ambassador on British Open

Sources: President pressured Woody Johnson to ask UK government to bring event to Turnberry

(Newser) - Robert Wood Johnson IV, the New York Jets owner and Trump donor with no diplomatic experience before being tapped as the US ambassador to Britain, was apparently just the person the president thought could handle a big job: Ask the British government if it could help get the British Open...

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