BANJUL, Gambia (AP) – President Adama Barrow returned triumphantly to Gambia, nearly two months after winning an election disputed by the country’s longtime dictator, to the cheers of hundreds of thousands who jammed the roads in welcome.
“That’s my president!” the crowds cried, eager to see Barrow fulfill the promise of democratic reforms and newfound freedoms in this tiny West African nation. The impasse after the Dec. 1 balloting had brought Gambia to the brink of military intervention, as regional leaders vowed to install the democratically elected Barrow despite legal efforts by longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh to overturn the result of the vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is expected to ask the Pentagon for ways to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and officials said the options probably would include steps the Obama administration considered but never acted on, from adding significantly more U.S. troops to boosting military aid to Kurdish fighters.
Trump’s visit to the Defense Department’s headquarters will start the conversation over how to fulfill his inauguration address pledge to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism “completely from the face of the Earth.” Among the possible options are sending in more Apache helicopters and giving the U.S. a leg up on the situation.
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a planned meeting with President Donald J. Trump, signaling a remarkable souring of relations between Washington and one of its most important international partners just days into the new administration.
The rift capped days of increasingly confrontational remarks on Twitter and in dueling public appearances between the two men, whose countries conduct some $1.6 billion a day in cross-border trade and cooperate on everything from migration to anti-drug enforcement to environmental issues.
Hours after Trump tweeted that the meeting should be scrapped if Mexico doesn’t agree to pay for a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile border, Pena Nieto responded via the same platform.