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The gap is wide between how former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris see America’s role in the world.
… Top South Korean and European Union officials agreed Monday to work together to block deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
… The United Arab Emirates opened its annual oil and gas summit on Monday amid volatile global prices and uncertain world politics ahead of the U.S. election.
… German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is in Kyiv, vowing that Berlin’s backing for Ukraine will remain steadfast regardless of what happens in the U.S. vote.
… The Pentagon is bolstering the U.S. presence in the Mideast, with a fresh deployment of several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, a squadron of fighter jets, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers.
… Whoever wins the U.S. presidency could accelerate the Pentagon’s military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis militants of Yemen.
… Fresh from a remarkable upset that ousted a ruling party that had been in power since independence six decades ago, new Botswana President Duma Boko says he wants to follow a neutral foreign policy but a disruptive agenda closer to home.
… And the secret immigration “A files” obtained by the House Judiciary Committee paint a detailed portrait of how migrants implicated in violent crimes came to the United States.
Conventional wisdom says the European right will be further strengthened if Mr. Trump wins on Tuesday — but it’s not clear which European right he’d be working with.
Washington Times Special Correspondent Eric J. Lyman offers a deeper look, writing in a dispatch from Rome that while European trans-Atlanticists greet the prospect of a second Trump administration with a mixture of dread and horror, not everyone is bracing for disaster. Many of the former president’s political themes — notably a focus on illegal immigration, traditional values, populism and a distrust of global elites — have proved politically potent in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
Combined, far-right and conservative parties have more influence in Europe now than at any other time in decades. They are part of the ruling coalition in seven European Union member states. A once-shunned far-right party that won Austria’s national vote in September could raise that number to eight. In other countries, conservatives who mirror many of Mr. Trump’s political priorities, have the parliamentary power to shape legislation.
As president, Mr. Trump designated the Iran-backed Houthis militant group in Yemen as a terrorist organization. President Biden rescinded the designation shortly after taking office, saying it impeded a negotiated end to Yemen’s bloody civil war, only to reimpose the designation early this year as Houthis expanded their missile strikes on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis claim the strikes are in solidarity with Hamas allies in Gaza, who are also backed by Iran. National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang reports that whoever wins the U.S. presidency could accelerate the Pentagon’s current campaign against the Houthis to put pressure on Iran and to show support for Israel.
The Houthis have directly targeted Israel with drones and missiles on multiple occasions. Clifford D. May, founder and president of the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recently spoke with the Threat Status weekly podcast about how the current U.S. campaign has not stopped the Houthis from continuing their missile attacks.
“This is a terrorist group backed by Iran. Instead of shooting the archers, we’ve been shooting the arrows,” said Mr. May. “We can’t deter or defeat the Houthis with the American military? Now, I would argue it’s not a matter of capabilities. It’s a matter of will. We haven’t been willing to do it.”
That illegal immigrants commit crimes in the United States is nothing new. But many experts say the past 3½ years have been different in terms of the number and intensity of the crimes. The new accounts reveal savagery.
Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn, described for Congress last month her daughter’s rape and slaying, her body stripped from the waist down and dumped into a Texas creek, her hands and ankles bound. Investigators told the mother the two migrants hoped the water would wash away any DNA evidence.
After battling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the House Judiciary Committee obtained the secret immigration files, known as the “A files,” of migrants implicated in high-profile crimes. In a series of reports, Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, has painted a detailed portrait of the perpetrators and how they came to the United States.
Of 15 migrants the committee zeroed in on, at least 11 were “catch-and-release” cases, meaning the government had them in custody at the border or a port of entry and let them go anyway. Often, that was through one of Mr. Mayorkas’ parole programs. Just two were considered “gotaways” who evaded border authorities.
The Washington Times Editorial Board writes that “fans of the status quo will be comfortable with the foreign policy stance of the Democratic nominee. Vice President Kamala Harris has been in the room during every key decision made in the past 3½ years.”
On the contrary, Mr. Trump “worries the administration’s current course makes the world more dangerous,” the board writes, noting the former president’s assertions: “We could end up in World War III the way it’s going. Look at Russia with Ukraine — that’s a disaster. Look at the Middle East — it’s exploding all over the place.”
The editorial, which is part of The Times’ Voter Guide, examines the candidates’ differences on policy toward China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and beyond.
Chad Wolf and Thomas K. Plofchan III assert that the Biden-Harris administration’s border security policies have “brought the disturbing threat of terrorist and cartel convergence” to the doorstep of the United States.
“Qualitatively, Harvard University Professor Graham Allison and former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell recently declared in Foreign Affairs that ‘the terrorism warning lights are blinking red again,’” write Mr. Wolf, a former acting secretary of homeland security, and Mr. Plofchan, a former counterterrorism and intelligence counselor at the Homeland Security Department.
“Twenty-three years after 9/11, the American people and the men and women of our national security community deserve better,” they write. “We must acknowledge the threat posed by the convergence of criminal and terrorist actors along the southern border and the quantifiable degree to which Kamala Harris has enabled this threat. We must do so with moral clarity and intellectual integrity in our social discourse, including in public reporting.”
Three major developments of the past month have “created a unique opportunity for the Iranian people to challenge and topple the Islamic regime,” according to Avi Davidi, the editor of the Times of Israel’s Persian edition.
“These include the significant weakening of Hezbollah, Israel’s unprecedented strike on Iranian territory, and the lack of regional support for Iran amidst these challenges,” Mr. Davidi wrote recently on the Times of Israel website. “Adding to this is Iran’s worsening economic crisis and growing factional tensions within the regime, placing it in a particularly vulnerable position across multiple fronts.
While some may argue that an external threat could rally the Iranian people behind the regime,” Mr. Davidi contends the regime’s “45-year track record of repression has left it highly unpopular, as shown by widespread anti-government demonstrations in recent years, including the 2022-2023 Mahsa Amini protests.”
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