U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has been blocked from addressing the Security Council about atrocities being committed in Syria following a Russia-led protest backed by China. He will instead give an informal briefing.
The dispute: Per the AP, Russia "had argued that human rights have nothing to do with the council's mandate of ensuring international peace and security." Western diplomats countered that they're closely linked.
The backdrop: Russia has played an active role in the slaughter of civilians in Syria in its efforts to prop up the Assad regime. Hundreds have been killed in an ongoing offensive on the rebel-held suburb of Eastern Ghouta.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas personally attacked U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman today, calling him a "son of a dog" during a speech at his Fatah party meeting. The U.S. State Department has condemned his rhetoric as "outrageous and unhelpful."
Why it matters: This is another escalation in Abbas's rhetoric against the U.S. since President Trump's Jerusalem announcement. In another speech two months ago, Abbas went on a personal attack against Trump himself and told him to "go to hell".
Negotiators for the United Kingdom and European Union have reached a deal on key terms for the Brexit transition period, which will run from March 29, 2019, the official date of Brexit, through December 31, 2020, per The Guardian. The agreement saw the U.K. make some notable concessions on contentious issues.
U.S. companies have long decried Chinese theft of their intellectual property. In August 2017, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) launched an investigation into China's intellectual property policies and practices, which is set to conclude before August 2018.
Why it matters: It is unclear whether the Trump administration intends to move against China without first going to the WTO. If so, it might argue that its concerns about China’s intellectual property policies and practices do not involve a WTO trade agreement. How the administration finesses this issue could affect the WTO’s ability to resolve future trade disputes.
Axios has learned that special counsel Robert Mueller has focused on events since the election — not during the campaign — in his conversations with President Trump's lawyers.The top two topics that Mueller has expressed interest in so far: the firings of FBI director James Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Why it matters: That suggests a focus on obstruction of justice while in office, rather than collusion with Russia during the campaign. But both sagas are interwoven with Russia: Trump himself has linked Comey's firing to Russia, and Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador during the transition.
After a weekend at war with the Mueller investigation, the White House is extending an olive branch. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the probe, plans to issue this statement:
“In response to media speculation and related questions being posed to the Administration, the White House yet again confirms that the President is not considering or discussing the firing of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”
Why it matters: The White House strategy had been to cooperate with Mueller. So this is an effort to turn down the temperature after a weekend of increasingly personal provocations aimed at the special counsel.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who's leading the House Intelligence Committee through the Russia investigation, tells Axios he's worried Vladimir Putin could "test some things" in the 2018 midterm elections that he "would want to fully develop and blow out in a bigger way... in the presidential [election] in 2020."
What he's thinking: Conaway, previewing the Republicans' coming findings and recommendations during an interview in his Capitol Hill office, said that given the Russians used a nerve agent in Britain and penetrated the U.S. power grid, he doesn't "put anything past this guy [Putin]."
Early results indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin has coasted to a fourth term in office. Exit polls showed Putin picking up 73.6% of the vote in an expected landslide, granting him another six years in power, reports the AP.
The controversy: Incidents of ballot stuffing were reported at voting stations across Russia, and the country's Central Election Commission said it was "immediately reacting" to all such claims. And prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was barred from running because of a criminal conviction handed down by Putin's government, had urged his supporters to boycott today's vote because the seven contenders running against Putin had refused to voice concerns about electoral manipulation.
North Korea's senior diplomat for North American affairs, Choe Kang-il, will meet with former U.S. diplomatic officials and South Korean security experts in Finland this week, the Associated Press reports. South Korea's Yonhap cited "diplomatic sources" that stated Kathleen Stephens, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, would be among the U.S. officials involved in the meeting.
The backdrop: This development comes ahead of a potential meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who earlier this month expressed his willingness to negotiate with the U.S. on abandoning his country’s nuclear weapons.
The Treasury Department is ending a 10-year-old line of formal economic communication with China — the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue — because the Trump administration is "disappointed" with perceived unfair trade practices by China, per Bloomberg. Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin will still continue to engage in private, informal talks with high-ranking Chinese officials.
“Above all, their markets are not reciprocal in the sense that there’s not an ability for other countries to work in China the way that China works in elsewhere."
— David Malpass, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, to Bloomberg TV
The backdrop: President Trump is making moves against Chinese economic influence on several fronts. He reportedly wants to curtail Chinese investment in U.S. companies and hit the country with another round of steep tariffs, after his recent actions on steel and aluminum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is on track to secure a resounding victory for his fourth term in office as voters head to the polls today. "The only possible blemish for the Kremlin [is] if large numbers of voters do not bother taking part because the result is so predictable," per Reuters. According to the AP, expect the results to come in after the last polls close in Kaliningrad at 2 p.m. ET.
