Axios

The latest U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarchs and companies have big implications in London, which has long been a playground of the Russian elite.

What's happening: The U.S. is warning U.K. banks that if they want to continue working with American financial institutions, they will have to cut off their links with Russian billionaires and companies sanctioned last week.

Palestinian protests continued for the third consecutive Friday along the Israel–Gaza border, resulting in another 163 Palestinians injured.

The demonstrations began as a grass-roots movement around the March of the Return. But Hamas, seeking to distract from its own mismanagement, has since assumed a key organizational role, taking advantage of Palestinian suffering and Israeli militarism to renew attention on the conflict. For its part, Israel is determined to prevent massive breaches of the border fence, and its use of live fire has left 33 Palestinian dead and over 1,300 injured since the campaign began.

The bottom line: This flare-up has become the bloodiest since the 2014 war. With no diplomatic recourse in sight, it's likely to get even worse.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said Friday there should be no rushing into using a military attack in Syria, but “at some point you have to do something,” per AFP. France and Britain both argued for strikes as well, per Reuters.

The stakes: Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said he couldn’t rule out war between the U.S. and Russia if strikes take place, per Reuters. However, Nebenzia says the "priority" is to avoid war, and Russia says it's coordinating with France to avoid military escalation in Syria. While consensus is building for avoiding military escalation in Syria, conflict is still possible.

Russia claims Presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron agreed on a phone call to stay in “close contact” and coordinate their actions to avoid military escalation in Syria, per the AP. The French readout did not mention coordination.

What it means: Trump is also coordinating next steps with the French, along with the British. If Russia is being kept in the loop, that reduces the likelihood of escalation. But if strikes only target the Assad regime and not Russia and Iran, “it will not harm Assad’s backers and therefore is unlikely to weaken [Assad's] resolve,” according to Jenny Cafarella of the Institute for the Study of War.

While last week’s horrific chemical weapons attack in Douma has seized the world’s attention, potentially pushing President Trump toward military action, Bashar al-Assad's regime has used chemical weapons more than 20 times since last year’s missile strike, and as many as eight times just since the beginning of 2018. So the question is: What comes after strikes?

The big picture: For Assad, the benefits of using these weapons have outweighed the costs. The U.S. and the international community must change that calculus through a range of economic, diplomatic and legal efforts, in addition to any military response. Otherwise, attacks will resume once the spotlight is gone.

John Boehner said told NBC's Savannah Guthrie on Friday that if he was still Speaker of the House, he would call President Trump and tell him that firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is a "very bad idea."

For Sunday's Season 3 premiere of "The Circus" on Showtime (8 p.m.), co-hosts John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Alex Wagner (replacing Mark Halperin) report from Moscow, St. Petersburg, London and Washington.

Details: The team interviews Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia’s English-language network RT, who's referenced 27 times in the U.S. intelligence report that found Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at the U.S. election.

A Russian court has issued a ban on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram, per the request of Roskomnadzor, the country's communications watchdog, though it can still appeal the decision, according to the Financial Times.

What it means: The court-issued ban means that Roskomnadzor can order internet service providers to block access to Telegram for Russian customers, though it will still be accessible via a virtual private network, or VPN, as the FT notes.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday that he could imagine a scenario when the U.S. may need to launch a ground invasion in North Korea to reach a solution that "moved past diplomacy."

Quick take: As Trump’s pick to serve as secretary of state, this statement during his confirmation hearing is bound to raise concerns in diplomatic circles, where most believe there is always room for more diplomacy before turning to military operations.

The Trump administration has urged Israel several times in the last few weeks to try to solve the crisis that erupted with Poland over a controversial law which makes it illegal to attribute crimes committed during the Holocaust to Poland.

A senior official at the Israeli foreign ministry told me: "The Americans made clear they don’t like the Holocaust law, think it is unacceptable and asked the Polish government to fix it. But at the same time they told us Poland is an important U.S. ally, especially in NATO, and also an Israeli ally and therefore there is a need to deal with the crisis carefully and not damage the alliance."

The stories of our distant ancestors — when and how they evolved into the Homo sapiens we are now, and how they migrated and eventually populated the world, often center on an exodus of modern early humans from Africa about 60,000 years ago.

What's new: A growing number of researchers believe while there may have been a main migratory event then, recent findings and new technology reveal that groups likely traveled out of Africa and its bordering Levant region earlier than previously thought. The map above by Axios' Andrew Witherspoon shows some of these recent findings.

WeWork is buying Naked Hub, a Chinese office co-working company and part of Naked Group, CEO Adam Neumann said in a blog post. Bloomberg pegs the acquisition price at $400 million, mostly in stock.

Why it matters: The purchase follows two WeWork trends — international growth, especially in Asia, and an acquisition spree. WeWork first opened offices in China in 2016, and last year set up a Chinese entity, bankrolled by SoftBank and Hony Capital, to expand its presence in the country.