Pompeo repudiates Obama Mideast policy, takes aim at Iran in speech

CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration’s Mideast policies today, accusing the former president of “misguided” and “wishful” thinking that diminished America’s role in the region, harmed its longtime friends and emboldened its main foe: Iran.

In a speech to the American University in Cairo, Pompeo unloaded on President Donald Trump’s predecessor, saying he was naive and timid when confronted with challenges posed by the revolts that convulsed the Middle East, including Egypt, beginning in 2011.

Pompeo laid the blame notably on a vision outlined by President Barack Obama in a speech he gave in Cairo in 2009 in which he spoke of “a new beginning” for U.S. relations with countries in the Arab and Muslim world.

The speech came on the third leg of a nine-nation Mideast tour aimed at reassuring America’s Arab partners that the Trump administration is not walking away from the region amid confusion and concern over plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.

Former Obama administration officials rejected Pompeo’s assertions as petty, political and weak. They said the speech pandered to authoritarian leaders and ignored rights violations that Obama had called out.

Bomb-laden rebel drone kills 6 at Yemen military parade

SANAA, Yemen — A bomb-laden drone launched by Yemen’s Shiite rebels exploded over a military parade today for the Saudi-led coalition, killing at least six people in a brazen attack threatening an uneasy U.N.-brokered peace in the Arab world’s poorest nation.

The attack at the Al-Anad Air Base showed the unwillingness of Yemen’s Houthi rebels to halt fighting in the civil war, even if it doesn’t violate a peace deal reached last month in Sweden between them and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

The Houthi attack near the southern port city of Aden with a new drone variant also raised more questions about Iran’s alleged role in arming the rebels with drone and ballistic missile technology, something long denied by Tehran despite researchers and U.N. experts linking the weapons to the Islamic Republic.

The assault shocked the pro-government troops, who carried away the dead and wounded, their fatigues stained with blood. All the victims were government forces, officials said.

The Houthis immediately claimed the attack in the southern province of Lahj at a base where U.S. special forces once led their own drone war against Yemen’s al-Qaida branch.

Liberal lawmakers challenge Trump with drug cost competition legislation

WASHINGTON — Challenging the Trump administration on a top consumer issue, leading congressional liberals are proposing legislation that would radically reduce U.S. prescription drug bills by linking prices to lower costs in other countries.

The legislation set to be introduced today has little chance of becoming law under a divided government. But it could put Republicans on the defensive by echoing themes and ideas that President Donald Trump has embraced at one time or another. The common denominator is that people in the United States shouldn’t have to pay more for critical medications than do people in other economically advanced countries.

The Trump administration has put forward its own plan for reducing drug prices, but industry analysts have seen little impact so far.

The new legislation was coming from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Cummings leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is expected to take a major role on drug pricing issues.

The lawmakers want to open up generic competition to patent-protected U.S. brand-name drugs that are deemed “excessively priced,” allow Medicare to directly negotiate with drugmakers, and let consumers import lower-priced medications from Canada.

US apparel firm cuts off Chinese factory in internment camp

A U.S. supplier of T-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

In recent years, authorities in the far west Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in heavily-secured facilities where detainees say they are ordered to renounce their language and religion while pledging loyalty to the China’s ruling Communist Party.

An Associated Press investigation found the Chinese government had also started forcing some detainees to work in manufacturing and food industries. Recent shipments were tracked from one such factory, the privately owned Hetian Taida Apparel, located inside an internment camp, to Badger Sportswear, a leading supplier in Statesville, North Carolina.

In a statement posted to its website, Badger said Wednesday it will no longer do business with Hetian Taida, nor import any goods from the same region “given the controversy around doing business” there.