After months of review, the Trump administration has announced it will stop all funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which in recent years reached $350 million annually.
Why it matters: The U.S. was the main funder of UNRWA for years. Many in the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence community had reservations about a total funding cut, fearing it would further destabilize Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank. The move to stop all U.S. funding to UNRWA was led by senior adviser Jared Kushner and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Bruce Ohr, a senior lawyer for the Justice Department, says that former British spy Christopher Steele, author of the infamous Russia dossier, told him two years ago that Russian officials believed they had then-candidate Donald Trump "over a barrel," the Associated Press reports.
The big picture: Ohr, who has been on the receiving end of several attacks from the president for his connection to Steele, reportedly described this conversation in a meeting with lawmakers this week. This new information helps piece together the months leading up to the start of the investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
Sam Patten, a former associate of ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, was charged on Friday for failing to register as a foreign agent for his involvement with a Ukrainian political party, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: This is yet another person taken down by the far-reaching Mueller investigation. And, as Axios' Mike Allen reported, there is still a lot of evidence the special counsel has — or could have — that we have yet to seen.
"The Story of Yanxi Palace," a Qing Dynasty era costume drama set in the Forbidden City, has broken records for online viewership in China.
By the numbers: iQiyi announced in a press release today that the 70 episode series has been streamed over 15 billion times. It was streamed an average of 300 million times a day, with more than 700 million views on its peak day.
Robert Sutter, a long-time government official who is now a professor at the George Washington University, says the 115th Congress has "broken the mold" for dealing with China, showing "widespread support" for a harder line from President Trump.
Why it matters: The Chinese are not wrong — there really has been a structural shift across the U.S. government in policies towards China. The Chinese have been slow to grasp this change.
The head of U.S. counterintelligence, William Evanina, told Reuters that Chinese spy agencies are creating fake LinkedIn accounts to recruit Americans with access to government and business secrets, and he's calling on LinkedIn to shut them down.
Why it matters: LinkedIn, unlike Twitter and Facebook, has largely remained out of the spotlight when it comes to battling social media misinformation campaigns. But with several other tech giants headed to Washington next week to testify on their role in foreign interference, LinkedIn may soon be forced to address abuse on its platform too.
Press reports this week have suggested the Trump Administration is preparing to take some action, potentially including defunding, against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the much-maligned organization created in 1949 to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley agreed on Tuesday that Palestinian refugees’ right of return — a demand critical to Palestinians and anathema to Israel — ought to be off the table.
The big picture: The administration may be ramping up pressure on the Palestinians ahead of rolling out Trump’s peace plan — his so-called Ultimate Deal. But criticism of UNRWA — an object of derision for Jared Kushner and other members of Trump’s peace team— might instead be part of a campaign to completely reset U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified that Iran remains in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal and is providing access to all nuclear sites, per the AP.
Why it matters: The remaining parties to the deal have been attempting to salvage it since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew in May, but U.S. sanctions will make it impossible to provide Iran the sort of economic benefits they were promised. For now, Iran continues to comply — it's unclear how long that will last.
Panasonic will move its European headquarters from London to Amsterdam in October because of tax issues related to Brexit, reports Nikkei Asian Review.
The big picture: The U.K. has said it will lower its 20% corporate tax rate following its departure from the EU to retain and attract businesses, but Panasonic fears that this could cause the country to be labeled as a "tax haven" by Japan — which would result in multinationals being taxed more heavily at home.
