- The Trump administration changes Obama era policy by removing the mandate that employers offer free birth control to employees. [Link]
- Federal workers earn 80% more in wages and benefits than other Americans. [Link]
- The US government is illegally searching and storing Americans’ financial records. [Link]
- Robert Perry debunks more Russiagate myths. [Link]
- The US will not participate in war games with Saudi Arabia because of Saudi’s blockade of Qatar. US CENTCOM in the Middle East is located in Qatar. [Link]
- Trump says that the US will develop a “broad strategy” to punish Iran. [Link]
- Daniel Larison explains Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has no intention to improve relations with Iran. [Link]
- The State Department approved a $15 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. The weapons deal includes THAAD missile defense systems. [Link]
- Gareth Porter explains the importance of supporting the bill to end support for Saudi’s war in Yemen. [Link]
- The Spanish government will lift restrictions on companies who move from Catalonia to other parts of Spain. [Link]
- An estimated 350,000 people took to the streets in Catalonia to protest Catalan independence. There are some reports that some of the protesters were bused in from other regions of Spain. [Link]
- Kim Jung Un says nuclear weapons are a powerful deterrent against the US. [Link]
- The body of a special operations soldier has been found in Niger. He is the fourth US soldier to die in last weeks ambush attack in Niger. The US now believes an Islamic State affiliate group was responsible for the attack. [Link]
- The Red Cross will scale back operations in Afghanistan after being targeted by militias. [Link]
- The US made a change to the Afghan airforce replacing its Russian helicopters with American made Blackhawks. Afghan pilots do not have any experience with Blackhawks. [Link]
- Turkish police arrested an employee of the US embassy in Turkey and accused the employee of assisting the 2016 failed coup. In response, the US Mission to Turkey announced it would end all non-immigrant visa services. [Link]
- Turkey moved troops into the Idlib Province of Syria. The Turkish troops made a deal with al-Qaeda linked rebels and set up checkpoints near Kurdish areas. [Link]
- A suicide bomber killed 20 people at a Shi’ite shrine in Pakistan. [Link]
- A gunman killed five Hazaras living in Pakistan as refugees from Afghanistan. [Link]
- Russian and Syrian airstrikes kill at least 79 civilians near Deir Ezzor. [Link] Russian or Syrian aircraft also hit a market in the Idlib Province killing at least 11 civilians. [Link]
- Over 1,000 civilians were killed in Syria in September. [Link]
