USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he is an “island of one” for removing U.S. forces from northeastern Syria.

But he remained steadfast and defended a move that drew widespread bipartisan criticism that he has endangered stability in the Middle East and risked the lives of Syrian Kurdish allies who helped the U.S. bring down the Islamic State group in Syria.

Turkey, however, regards those Kurdish fighters as a terrorist threat and has launched a military operation against them.

Trump said the U.S. cannot fight “endless wars.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday stood behind personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, one of his highest-profile and most vocal defenders, amid reports that federal prosecutors in the city Giuliani led as mayor are eyeing him for possible lobbying violations.

Behind the scenes, however, many of Trump’s closest aides and advisers, inside and outside the White House, quietly wish the president would cut ties with Giuliani, whose leadership of New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks earned him worldwide admiration and the moniker of “America’s mayor.”

NEW YORK, October 12. /TASS/: The US authorities are using economic and diplomatic tools to convince Turkey to stop the military operation in Syria, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in an interview with The Tennessean newspaper. The interview was published on the official website of the US Department of State on Friday.

12 October 2019; AFP: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday urged the NBA to stand up to China, wading into a row as Beijing pressures the basketball league after a team official expressed support for pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.

The top US diplomat was applauded for the comments in a speech to a Christian group in Nashville as he denounced China's treatment of its mostly Muslim Uighur population.

New York, Oct 12 (AFP) Boeing unveiled a shift to its leadership structure on Friday as it manages the 737 MAX crisis, announcing that Dennis Muilenburg will remain chief executive but step down as chairman.

The company said splitting the roles would allow Muilenburg to focus full time on running the company "as it works to return the 737 MAX safely to service" while ensuring full support to customers sharpening Boeing's focus on safety.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy warned on Friday that international arms control and disarmament has come to a crucial crossroads with a series of significant challenges.

Speaking at a plenary meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Fu Cong, head of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the world is encountering changes unseen in a century and the international security situation has become increasingly complicated and unsettling.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Democrats, Muslims and other groups condemned President Donald Trump on Friday for criticizing the state for welcoming so many Somali refugees, and they called out Republican leaders for failing to criticize his statements.

At his campaign rally Thursday night in Minneapolis, which is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S., Trump said Washington leaders had sent “large numbers of refugees to your state from Somalia without considering the impact on schools and communities and taxpayers.”

CHICAGO (AP) — Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has lost his title as chairman of the troubled aircraft manufacturer, nearly a year after the first of two crashes of its 737 Max that together killed 346 people.

Boeing announced late Friday that company directors decided to separate the two jobs and elected one of their own, David L. Calhoun, to serve as non-executive chairman.

TRIPOLI, Oct 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN envoy for Libya said he hopes an international conference next month will produce a Security Council resolution committing foreign powers to stopping an escalating proxy war and an accelerated mechanism to enforce an arms embargo.

The conference being organised by Germany is set to be the first major diplomatic push to end fighting that began when eastern-based forces led by Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on the capital Tripoli six months ago.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards fought Saturday to hang on to a rare Democratic governorship in Deep South Trump territory against a national GOP offensive aimed at forcing him into a runoff.

Republicans were trying to hold Edwards under the 50% benchmark the region’s only Democratic governor needed to win outright over five others in the field. President Donald Trump made a last-minute appeal to Louisiana’s voters to reject Edwards.