Foreign challenges pile up as Russia, Iran test Trump's mettle

Washington

DONALD Trump's brief honeymoon in global affairs is over. After a week of relative calm and domestic preoccupations, actors from Russia to Iran are testing the new US president's mettle.

On the face of it, a recent Iranian ballistic missile test and a Russian- backed incursion deeper into Ukraine appear to have little in common and less to do with the man in the Oval Office. But make no mistake, both were moves designed to test the Republican leader.

Mr Trump's election has ended diplomatic business as usual. No one is quite sure what the neophyte president knows about the world or what he will decide on any given issue.

Teheran and Moscow apparently have decided to find out.

Since Mr Trump spoke to President Vladimir Putin for an hour on Saturday, there has been a significant increase in violence around the Ukrainian industrial hub of …