PENCE DEFENDS ATTACK ON SYRIA TO ALLIES IN LATIN AMERICA
Thousands of miles from home, Vice President Mike Pence was thrust into a new, more immediate, role on the world stage Saturday: explaining President Donald Trump’s military strike in Syria to a summit of Latin America leaders.
Hours after Trump hailed the missile strike targeting the Syria’s suspected chemical weapons — tweeting, “Mission Accomplished!” — Pence defended the president while building support among U.S. allies for the joint strikes with Britain and France.
“The objective of the mission the commander in chief gave our military forces and our allies was completely accomplished — with swift professionalism,” Pence told reporters, noting there were “no reported civilian casualties.”
Later, speaking in a cavernous hall of world leaders at the Summit of the Americas, Pence expressed gratitude to Canada, Colombia and other nations that had voiced support for the strike and urged “every nation in this hemisphere of freedom” to support the military action.
Pence’s to-do list included smoothing over differences with Mexico, America’s southern neighbor, amid unease over Trump’s decision to send troops to the border and harsh rhetoric on immigration. And with tensions simmering over trade, Pence expressed hope alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the three nations could soon agree to a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement.
Protesters demand new vote, new electoral system.
HUNGARY» Tens of
BUDAPEST, thousands of anti-government protesters marched Saturday in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, demanding a new election and a new national electoral system in the biggest opposition rally in years.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban was re-elected for a fourth term last week. His right-wing populist Fidesz Party won a supermajority in the national assembly, with preliminary results showing that Fidesz and tiny ally the Christian Democratic party won 134 seats in the 199-seat legislature.
Opposition supporters are upset that Hungary’s electoral rules have given Orban’s party such a large majority in Parliament when it won only about 50 percent of the vote.
Estonia’s Reform Party picks its first female leader. Estonia’s largest political party has chosen a new leader, its third one in four years, as it seeks to restore popularity and mend its tarnished image among voters before a parliamentary election next year.
Party delegates for the centerright Reform Party voted Saturday to elect Kaja Kallas. The 40-year-old lawyer and lawmaker at the European Parliament will be the first female leader of a major political party in the Baltic country.
Kallas is the daughter of former Estonian prime minister and European Commissioner Siim Kallas, who was one of the founders of the Reform Party in the 1990s.
Attack kills peacekeeper, wounds 10 French soldiers.
» Officials say a BAMAKO, MALI
U.N. peacekeeper is dead and 10 French soldiers have been wounded after a jihadist attack in northern Mali.
Residents in the town of Timbuktu reported hearing two large detonations Saturday near a camp for the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA.
Ten soldiers from the French military operation known as Barkhane were among those hurt — five seriously, according to the Malian security ministry.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility though a number of extremist groups are active in the region.
A security official said one of the vehicles used in the attack had been disguised as a MINUSMA vehicle while the other was marked as a Malian military vehicle.