DENVER – Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is taking heat for flubbing a question about how he would handle the situation in Syria.
“What would you do about Aleppo?” Johnson was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” a question about Syria’s largest city, which has been engulfed by the country’s ongoing civil war.
“What is Aleppo?” Johnson responded.
When the question was clarified by an MSNBC host on Thursday, Johnson said he’d work with Russia to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war and that the conflict was an example of the dangers of meddling in the region.
Johnson’s blunder sparked widespread mockery, with #WhatisAleppo trending on Twitter.
LOS ANGELES – A decade ago, California vowed to dramatically slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. On Thursday, the state charted a new goal to further cut carbon pollution by extending and expanding the landmark climate change law.
It will “keep California on the move to clean up the environment,” Gov. Jerry Brown said moments before signing a pair of bills in a Los Angeles park amid opposition from the oil industry, business groups and Republicans.
Experts said going forward will be more challenging because the new goal – to reduce emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – is considerably more ambitious and many of the easy solutions have been employed.
MOSCOW – Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders have agreed “in principle” to meet in Moscow for talks in what the Russians hope will relaunch the Mideast peace process after a more than two-year break.
But the wide gaps between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left it uncertain if or when the meeting will take place, and raised doubts about whether they would make any progress if they do get together.
In another twist, an Israeli TV station reported that a document discovered by two Israeli researchers indicated that Abbas had worked for the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB, while living in Syria in the early 1980s. The professors said they were coming forward with the information to discredit Moscow as an honest broker in peace talks.
After years of taking a back seat to the U.S. in Mideast diplomacy, Russia has increasingly sought to take a leadership role in the region. It has developed close ties with Iran and sent fighter jets to Syria to back President Bashar Assad in his war against rebel groups.
BEIRUT – Syria's rebranded al-Qaida affiliate says a senior commander who led military operations in the war-wrecked Aleppo has been killed in an airstrike.
A Twitter account for the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, said Thursday the commander of the alliance leading the fight in Aleppo was killed in an airstrike in the province rural areas. It doesn’t say when who carried out the airstrike against the commander who goes by the name Abu Omar Saraqib or when.
The U.S -led coalition, Russia and Syrian government warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against militant groups. Jabhat al-Nusra recently changed its name, saying it was delinking with al-Qaida central command. But the move was seen as way to avoid targeting.
Associated Press
