Seoul agreed to a 13.9% increase in the cost it pays to house US troops, the largest increase since 2003 South Korea agreed to a 13.9 percent increase in the funds it will pay to host US troops for 2021 after pressure from the previous Trump Administration for Seoul to foot more of the bill. The increase means South Korea will pay about $1.03 billion for 2021, which is much lower than the numbers floated by President Trump, who rejected a similar increase in spending during talks under his administration. The last big increase in South Korea’s spending was in 2003 when…

January 25, 2021 / JNS) U.S. President Joe Biden has appointed Palestinian American Maher Bitar to the role of senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, according to a report in the political journalism site Politico. Bitar served in the National Security Council under former President Barack Obama, as director for Israeli and Palestinian affairs. He earned his master’s degree at Oxford University, writing his dissertation on forced migration at the school’s Refugee Studies Center. He has worked with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Jerusalem. Since 2017, Bitar served as general counsel for Democratic members of the House…

WASHINGTON — In an “interim” security strategy document released Wednesday afternoon, the White House emphasized that the Biden administration views diplomacy as its first tool for national security issues — and democracy as its greatest asset. The report also called for an end to “forever wars,” such as the conflict in Afghanistan; for the Pentagon to divest of legacy military systems in favor of funding for future needs; and stressed the need for cybersecurity improvements across government. In the introduction to the 24-page document, the first wide-ranging, formal guidance on national security issues from the administration, President Joe Biden wrote that American democracy is “our…

The Biden administration is now almost halfway through its proverbial Hundred Days and appears likely to be able to jam through its coronavirus relief package of $1.9 trillion, of which under 10 percent bears any relationship to alleviating the impact of the virus. Tens of millions of Americans will enjoy receiving $1,400, and some of the more egregious ingredients of outright logrolling, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s subway system to Silicon Valley and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s redundant bridge to Canada. In his formidable address to the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Orlando on Feb. 28, former President…

  What happened in Charlottesville didn't start with Donald Trump. It didn't start with David Duke either, but there's a long, durable thread from Duke to Trump that's worth thinking about. Despite his dubious Twitter profile claim to be "one of 100 most read and quoted people in the world," Duke may be an obscure character to many people these days. But his dying fame has flickered back to life in the Trump era, and there he was on Saturday in Virginia, in the thick of the white nationalist protesters, talking to the media. "This represents a turning point for…