A federal judge has ordered North Korea to pay the family of Otto Warmbier $500 million in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The backdrop: Warmbier was detained in North Korea for 17 months and died last June shortly after being flown back to the U.S. in a coma. In the lawsuit, filed in April, Warmbier's parents alleged that "North Korea, which is a rogue regime, took Otto hostage for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the heads of the other coalition parties decided this morning to dissolve the Knesset and hold early elections on April 9th, 2019. The elections were supposed to be in November 2019.
Why it matters: This high-stakes political drama is connected to the attorney general's upcoming decision whether to indict Netanyahu on three separate cases of bribery. Last week, the state prosecutor said a decision on the Netanyahu cases will be made in the next several months. The decision to go for early elections might influence his timetable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week in Brazil to discuss President Trump's decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, Israeli officials told me. They'll both be there for Jair Bolsonaro's inauguration.
Why it matters: Israel is very concerned the U.S. withdrawal will encourage Iran to continue its attempt of building military presence in Syria. Netanyahu spoke twice to Trump last week about his Syria decision, but this will be the first high level meeting between Israeli and U.S. officials since Trump announced the pullout.
In the United States, Russia's social media disinformation campaigns are often seen as an election-tampering issue. There's a good chance we'll spend 2019 talking about propaganda as something we have to prepare for before the 2020 election.
But, but, but: The propaganda isn't going anywhere in 2019. It's simply not tied to elections. Russia uses these campaigns to create discord over divisive issues. There's nothing that says that kind of chaos can't happen outside of an election.
