Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a Democratic congressional delegation today in Ramallah that dialogue with the Trump administration, which has been frozen for more than a year, could possibly be re-opened.
Why it matters: The Palestinians have been boycotting the Trump administration since Trump's Dec. 2017 announcement that the U.S. Embassy would move to Jerusalem. This more friendly rhetoric from Abbas comes ahead of the release of the White House Middle East peace plan, which is expected in the spring.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, which handles diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians, will cease to exist as of March 4, a U.S. official tells me.
Why it matters: The consulate was founded 175 years ago and has, for the past 25 years, served as the U.S. diplomatic post in charge of relations with the Palestinian Authority. The consulate will now merge with the U.S. Embassy, which was moved to Jerusalem in May. This will further downgrade U.S.-Palestinian diplomatic relations.
President Trump late last year called acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to ask whether a Trump-appointed attorney could "unrecuse" himself in order to lead the Southern District of New York's investigation into hush money payments during the 2016 election, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: There is no indication that Whitaker took any steps to appoint Trump ally Geoffrey Berman to lead the investigation, which had ensnared the president's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen. But Whitaker, who has reportedly told colleagues that part of his job was to "jump on a grenade" for the president, testified to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month that Trump had never pressured him to intervene in any investigation.
A landmark year of Department of Justice actions against China did not immediately diminish Chinese hacking, according to CrowdStrike vice president of intelligence Adam Meyers, who spoke to Codebook in advance of the firm's new global threats report.
Why it matters: In the past year, the DOJ charged several Chinese agents with stealing intellectual property both in person and through digital means.
Mike Calvey was an American success story in Moscow. The U.S. citizen and University of Oklahoma alum founded Baring Vostok Capital Partners in 1994, investing nearly $3 billion into local companies — including an early bet in Yandex at a valuation of just $15 million (current market cap on the Nasdaq is $10.3 billion).
Where they stand: Now Calvey is in a Russian jail, as are three of his BVCP partners, on fraud charges related to what Western eyes would view as a civil shareholder dispute. More specifically, Calvey is being quarantined in a solitary cell, reportedly without any money in his "jail account" to even buy basic toiletries.
At the Munich Security Conference last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed the Islamic Republic’s right to “sophisticated means of defense,” alluding to the ballistic missiles whose flight tests and transfers the Trump administration has sought to curb.
Why it matters:Multiple U.S. intelligence community assessments have judged Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal to be large and diverse. Some have even assessed that ballistic missiles would be Tehran’s “preferred method of delivering nuclear weapons, if it builds them.”
China accused the U.S. government Monday of trying to block its tech development with its claims that Chinese tech companies, including Huawei Technologies, might be used for espionage, per AP.
Why it matters: The charge comes at a time when the Trump administration has been urging its allies not to use Huawei for next-generation 5G wireless networks. But AP reports there's also a new twist: Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre now says it's possible to manage the risk of using Chinese equipment in the networks.
Seven members of the United Kingdom's Parliament resigned from the Labour Party today, citing dissatisfaction with party leader Jeremy Corbyn's approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism within the party, the BBC reports.
The details: The Labour Party, which overwhelmingly supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, continues to be plagued with charges of rising anti-Semitism within its ranks, with one departing MP calling the party “institutionally anti-Semitic" at a press conference announcing her resignation.
