President Trump has nominated U.S. envoy to North Korea Stephen Biegun for the deputy secretary of state post, AP reports.
The big picture: Biegun, who would replace John Sullivan if confirmed by the Senate, aided negotiations for Trump's historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, per AP, and has led ongoing negotiations to denuclearize the country. No president in recent history has started his tenure with as many extended Cabinet vacancies as Trump.
President Trump encouraged Nigel Farage, the U.K.'s pro-Brexit provocateur, to "get together" with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deliver a Brexiteer victory in the upcoming general election, during a conversation Thursday on Farage's radio program on LBC.
Why it matters: Farage and Johnson are perhaps the two men most closely associated with Brexit, but they're leading competing parties into the Dec. 12 election. Johnson's Conservatives fear Farage's Brexit Party could play a spoiler role, denying them a parliamentary majority. Trump praised both Johnson and Farage effusively while claiming opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn would be "so bad for your country."
A hacker group linked to Chinese espionage is illicitly installing software at telecommunications companies to steal text messages from specific users and regarding specific topics, according to cybersecurity firm FireEye.
The big picture: While Chinese espionage is often linked to intellectual property theft, the targets in this case appear to be more linked to traditional espionage, including senior political and military figures and topics that could be of interest to Chinese policymakers.
A 36-year-old Nepali climber named Nirmal Purja has reached the summit of the world's 14 highest mountains (all at least 26,350 feet tall) in just over six months.
Why it matters: The fastest previous ascent of all 14 peaks — which are all in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges that stretch across China, India, Nepal and Pakistan — took nearly eight years. He smashed the record to smithereens. Purja credits his endurance to his natural physiology and his intense military training. Prior to attempting this feat, he spent 10 years in the British special forces.
The Israeli Security Cabinet decided Wednesday to form a committee to monitor Chinese investments — a decision Israeli officials say came after strong pressure from the Trump administration.
The state of play: The Trump administration first raised the issue of limiting Chinese investments in Israel two years ago, and President Trump himself raised it with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times.
Russia's defense ministry said Wednesday that the country's newest nuclear-powered submarine successfully test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, according to Reuters.
Facebook removed three networks of accounts and groups backed by Russia and linked with political interference in eight African countries, the social network said Wednesday.
Why it matters: "Russia is continuing to aggressively try different disinformation techniques, even as it has come under scrutiny for its online interference methods" ahead of the U.S. 2020 election, writes the New York Times.
Israel asked the U.S. and other Western countries to condition aid to Lebanon on its government's action against Hezbollah's precision missiles project, Israeli officials told me.
Why it matters: The U.S. has had a close relationship with the Lebanese government for many years, prompting a debate inside the Trump administration on whether aid should be frozen.
The era of American dominance is "definitively over," war with China is growing more likely, and world leaders are risking long-term security by refusing to face challenges like climate change, according to a new Atlantic Council report titled "Global Risks 2035."
The big picture: Author Mathew Burrows, a CIA veteran who previously steered long-term risk forecasts for the U.S. intelligence community, writes that the world is slipping into a "new bipolarity" defined by competition between the U.S. and China.
