Foreign policy does not usually swing US politics. It attracts attention but what matters more are the economy, jobs and taxes. The price of petrol is more closely looked at by voters than the number of soldiers the country has stationed abroad. America, first.
On that note, Donald Trump has long chided against US military involvement in foreign wars. It is something his election campaign and administration has been consistent on. Having argued with his advisers about this for the past two years, his pulling of troops from Syria this week signalled there will no longer be a middle ground. So why the big fuss?
The resignations of Defence Secretary James Mattis and special envoy to Iraq and Syria Brett McGurk, go further than personal protests against the president. They show the mismatch between long-standing US policy and the current occupant of the White House is no longer tenable. The discord is becoming unmanageable.
Mr Trump's tweets are evidence of this but beyond the disagreements is a presidency surrounded by problems at home and abroad. The people who tried to implement foreign policy during the first half of Mr Trump's administration have bowed to the inevitable and given up.
The splits are numerous. The US alliance with Europe is under assault. Relationships between Mr Trump and the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and the EU are particularly fraught. The latter, as well as the likes of Mr Mattis, see Russia as the greatest threat to the western world. The US defence secretary was tired of telling allies one thing, only to see Mr Trump undermine him while softballing Vladimir Putin.
Similarly, Mr McGurk's unwillingness to sell US allies a policy that the president did not believe in finally pushed him over the edge. In quitting, Mr McGurk said his integrity could no longer survive the clash of choices he was faced with. Mr Trump was less than cordial when reacting to Mr McGurk's resignation, indicating he did not even know who he was. Dismissiveness is rarely rewarded by loyalty or respect, so expect more departures.
An abrasive style is one thing. The US role as the world's sole superpower means Mr Trump, for now at least, can get away with it. But beyond the day-to-day arguments are challenges that will dominate the second half of his first term: investigations into his election campaign and business affairs, and what looks like a coming US slowdown.
Mr Trump inherited a benign economic situation. Growth and job numbers have improved under his tenure. But the stock market gains of 2017 that he claimed sole credit for are now wiped out. The tax cut that Republicans passed under the president's administration added $779 billion to the federal deficit this year and is forecast to top $1 trillion by the next election. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 per cent, an action Mr Trump did not want, also downgrading growth forecasts for next year. Mr Trump's anger led to him asking advisers if he could fire Fed chair Jerome Powell, who made last week's announcements.
A partial shutdown of the US government over Democrats' opposition to funding a border wall with Mexico is the biggest sign yet of the chaos in Washington under the Trump administration. It outweighs resignations, serving as a symbol of the partisanship of the most partisan US president in history.
Financial markets do not like uncertainty. Unlike foreign wars, the government inertia and stubbornness on Capitol Hill is something that Americans, including the country's most vocal Trump backers, will not ignore. The affected departments of State, Homeland Security, Transportation, Agriculture and Justice impact all Americans. Sooner or later, the anger will land at Mr Trump's door. His political gamble is that his supporters care more about the border wall than they do about government workers and services. The next week will see if he is right. He may well be. But in what is meant to be a season of goodwill Mr Trump has taken an isolated and selfish stand for his own ends.
Short-term politics often outweighs cohesion but there was nothing normal about this past week. The departure from Syria may not change the course of this presidency but the premature exits of Mr Mattis and Mr McGurk show that experienced and serious figures inside the Trump tent no longer have the stomach to swallow a policy they don't believe in.
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Read more:
Departing US envoy Brett McGurk’s legacy in Iraq and Syria
Donald Trump has destroyed America's credibility with one tweet
With James Mattis gone, the last of the grown-ups has left the Trump administration
______________
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
The%20specs
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
More on Quran memorisation:
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Match info
Bournemouth 0
Liverpool 4 (Salah 25', 48', 76', Cook 68' OG)
Man of the match: Andrew Robertson (Liverpool)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company%20profile
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NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
SHAITTAN
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVikas%20Bahl%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAjay%20Devgn%2C%20R.%20Madhavan%2C%20Jyothika%2C%20Janaki%20Bodiwala%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
THE%20HOLDOVERS
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
'The Sky is Everywhere'
Director:Josephine Decker
Stars:Grace Kaufman, Pico Alexander, Jacques Colimon
Rating:2/5
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
