Russian opposition leader and prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 30 days in prison for breaking public protest laws, reports Al Jazeera.
Why it matters: Navalny was convicted in January but sentenced more than six months later, a delay he claims was part of the Russian government's efforts to stop him from leading nationwide protests over pension reform on Sept. 9. Navalny has been jailed several times for organizing protests against Putin and for other charges he says are bogus. He was barred from running for president in January.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday that France and Germany are determined to work on an independent payments system that would allow the EU to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran, backing a proposal made last week by German foreign minister Heiko Maas, reports Bloomberg.
The big picture: The EU's commitment to maintaining economic ties with Iran, among other things, is fueling calls for greater independence from the U.S. Earlier Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a review of EU defense cooperation, claiming the bloc can no longer rely on the U.S. for security.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced an "exhaustive review" of defense cooperation in the European Union, claiming the EU can no longer rely on the U.S. for its security, reports the AFP.
"Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security. It is up to us to guarantee European security."
— Emmanuel Macron
The big picture: Macron said defense proposals would be revealed in the coming months, and that discussions would include all European countries — even Russia. President Trump left his European allies reeling after the July NATO summit in Brussels, during which he made some veiled threats to withdraw the U.S. from the military alliance if other countries didn't boost their defense spending.
The Kremlin-backed hacking group known as Fancy Bear has spent years trying to infiltrate the emails of top Orthodox Christian clergy, reports the AP.
The big picture: Ukraine is lobbying aggressively for a religious split from the Russian Orthodox Church, which claims exclusive jurisdiction over the Orthodox community in former Soviet states. Attempts to steal church leaders' private correspondence by the Russian intelligence officers behind Fancy Bear, who were indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, are part of the Kremlin's efforts to help Moscow maintain its power over the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Lana Del Rey is the latest performer pressured to explain performing in Israel, tweeting: "We don't always agree with the politics of the places we play within or even in our own country ... but we are musicians and we've dedicated our lives to being on the road."
The big picture: Social media campaigns and protests are putting pressure on artists to cancel shows in Israel over the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Two fans that implored Lorde to cancel her show last year cited Israel's "policies of oppression" and "apartheid," per the Washington Post.
After being deactivated for seven years, the U.S. Navy has formally reactivated the 2nd Fleet based in Norfolk, Virginia, in an effort to explore Russia's military expansion, Politico reports.
The details: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said the move is not because the Navy is "looking for a fight." The Navy had depended on the Cold War-era naval command "for decades to confront adversaries in the waters off North America," per Politico. The fleet will be responsible for assigning ships, aircraft and Marine landing forces "for potential operations along the East Coast and in the North Atlantic, where melting Arctic ice has also heightened the competition for natural resources."
