Jared Kushner and others in the Trump administration have sought to eliminate the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has provided relief to millions of Palestinian refugees displaced by the establishment of Israel in 1949, reports Foreign Policy.
The big picture: The U.S. has provided funding for UNRWA for nearly 70 years, but many in the pro-Israel camp believe its existence perpetuates the notion that Palestinian refugees will one day return. Eliminating the agency would strip millions of Palestinians of refugee status.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday there is "a ways to go" before North Korea is denuclearized, explaining that "to the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the U.N. Security Council resolutions," Reuters reports.
Why it matters: President Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week for "keeping your word" after remains of U.S. soldiers from the Korean War arrived. But per Pompeo, the reclusive nation is still far from completing its commitment to denuclearize. "Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize. The world demanded that they do so in the U.N. Security Council resolutions... we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we're looking for."
"U.S. officials say the Trump administration is staffing up a Middle East policy team at the White House in anticipation of unveiling its long awaited but largely mysterious Israeli-Palestinian peace plan," AP's Matt Lee and Zeke Miller report.
The big picture: Trump's "peace team" is being boycotted by Palestinian leadership over the U.S. embassy moving to Jerusalem. Senior U.S. officials previously told Axios contributor Barak Ravid the peace plan won't be biased in favor of Israel.
A Russian national employed by the U.S. State Department, and through her position worked with the U.S. Secret Service, has been accused of being a Russian spy working in the U.S. embassy in Moscow undetected for about 10 years.
The details: According to the Guardian who broke the story, the Russian national had triggered warnings of U.S. intelligence in 2016 during a standard State Department security sweep when they found she regularly had "unauthorized meetings with members of the FSB, Russia’s principal security agency," which prompted State to revoke her security clearance. U.S. security agencies say she did not have access to classified information.
Three independent Russian journalists were murdered on July 31 in the Central African Republic (CAR) while filming a documentary on the Wagner Group, the mysterious Kremlin-linked military contractor operating in that country. The circumstances of their deaths are still unknown, but the incident follows the mysterious death of another Russian journalist who investigated the organization.
The big picture: With deployments in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan in addition to CAR, the Wagner Group has become an active, although still unofficial, component of Russia’s foreign policy and military toolkit at a time when the Kremlin is expanding its reach across Africa.
A Chinese company dropped its bid to acquire an advanced manufacturer in Germany after the German government prepared to veto the deal, reports Caixin Global.
The big picture: U.S. lawmakers are already working to strengthen reviews of foreign investments, primarily to block Beijing from acquiring U.S. tech and defense secrets. The fear that Chinese tech investments will give Beijing an economic and national security edge is now hitting Europe, too.
The Bank of England voted unanimously to increase interest rates from 0.5% to 0.75%, citing a strong labor market and credit growth, reports CNBC.
Why it matters: The Bank is projecting continued "modest" growth and expects to gradually increase rates in 2019, even as Brexit uncertainty and the possibility of a "no deal" scenario loom over the UK's economy.
