An ex-CIA agent has been arrested under suspicions that he helped the Chinese government find CIA informants operating in China, the New York Times' Adam Goldman reports, citing the Justice Department. Many of the identified informants were killed in "a systematic dismantling" of the CIA's network in China that began in 2010.
The Trump administration has decided to continue freezing $65 million of the annual funding it gives the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees — but it will release $60 million to the organization for "urgent humanitarian needs," U.S. officials say.
Between the lines: The decision was a compromise.Axios reported earlier this month that the Trump administration froze $125 million of the annual funding to UNRWA, which was supposed to be transferred to the organization by Jan. 1, in retaliation for Palestinian protests against President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace Jason Greenblatt will arrive tomorrow in Israel for meeting with senior diplomats from Russia, the E.U. and the U.N. – who together with the U.S. form the "Quartet". Western diplomats say the meeting is going to deal among other issues with the crisis in the peace process and the Trump administration efforts to draft a peace plan.
Details: Greenblatt will arrive in Israel on the backdrop of the ongoing crisis between the U.S. and the Palestinians which started after President Trump's Jerusalem announcement and a few days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave a belligerent anti-Trump speech.
Since New Year’s Eve, Russian bases in Syria have been attacked several times by swarms of armed drones that aren’t visible on radar, the WSJ reports. The greatest attack on Russia’s headquarters in the region comes as Russia is working out a drawback of troops, per The Washington Post.
Why it matters: The attacks suggest Russia’s gains in the region might just be temporary since they show that its presence can still be penetrated despite the fact that Putin has declared victory over enemies, WaPo’s Liz Sly reports.
H.R. McMaster was in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday for secret meetings about North Korea. He met with Shotaro Yachi, the director of the Japanese national security council, along with the South Koreans.
Why this matters: The group agreed that resumed communications by the North Koreans are diversions and don’t have any effect on its determined pursuit of nuclear weapons. The group agreed they need to put more unified pressure on the north.
Putin is set to easily win another six-year term and has already collected the necessary 300,000 signatures to be listed on the ballot in two months, raking up just more than 700,000, per TASS.
He faces no real competition after Russian election officials last month barred his opponent, Alexei Navalny, from running due to a fraud conviction. Putin critics view court cases against Navalny as a way to keep him from legitimately threatening Putin's power.
In 2017, U.S. counterintelligence officials warned Jared Kushner that Chinese-American businesswoman Wendi Deng Murdoch could be using her close relationship to Kushner and Ivanka Trump to push the Chinese agenda, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: The warning was part of an ongoing effort to alert Kushner of the risks of dealing with people with foreign connections. Murdoch, who kept her married name after divorcing Newscorp CEO Rupert Murdoch in 2013, has been on counterintelligence radars for years. U.S. officials assessed that she was lobbying for a $100 million Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in D.C., which was ultimately deemed a security risk because its 70-foot tower could be used for surveillance.
