30 former foreign policy and national security officials from three administrations published an “open letter” harshly criticizing the Trump Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Why it matters: The signatories, who served under George W. Bush, Clinton and Obama, criticized the plan as harming U.S. interests, giving Israel “a green light” for annexation in the West Bank and possibly turning Israel into a binational state.
On Sunday, the United States will deny entry into the country to any foreign national who poses a risk of transmitting the coronavirus, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday.
Why it matters: The public health emergency comes with a quarantine for U.S. citizens arriving from Hubei province, and a temporary ban on foreigners without family in the U.S. who have recently visited China.
The Trump administration will begin deterring immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, the administration announced on Friday.
Why it matters: This comes three years after Trump's signature travel ban was first announced, which barred people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. The move serves as another sign of the U.S. closing its doors to immigrants under the Trump administration.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 14-day federal quarantine order for 195 U.S. citizens who were evacuated directly from Wuhan, China amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Why it matters: This is the first time the CDC has ordered a quarantine in nearly 50 years. The last time was in the 1960s to protect against smallpox. CDC officials emphasized this is purely preventative since the U.S. citizens were directly exposed to the coronavirus in Wuhan.
The Palestinians are scrambling to mobilize the Arab States against the Trump peace plan with very little success, Arab and U.S. officials told me. Many Arab states are privately and publicly pressing the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table for a better deal.
Why it matters: The foreign ministers of the Arab League member states will convene tomorrow in Cairo at the request of the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to call on the Arab foreign ministers to back the Palestinians and pass a resolution criticizing the Trump plan.
Several airlines — including major U.S. carriers like Delta, United and American — are suspending some or all of their China flights through February because of coronavirus fears.
The big picture: Airlines said demand for flights to China has plummeted due to the virus' spread. Large companies in other industries — from technology to packaged food — have suspended business trips, CNBC reports.
The State Department advised Americans not to travel to China on Thursday and recommended that those currently in the country consider leaving, following WHO's global public health emergency declaration.
Why it matters: The U.S. now considers travel to China as dangerous as going to North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia because of the coronavirus.
Approximately 6,000 Carnival cruise ship travelers have been released after a passenger from Macau experienced possible coronavirus symptoms but tested negative, the BBC reports.
The state of play: Officials feared the ship would be the first impacted by the coronavirus spread. Diseases can quickly flourish among cruise ship passengers because so many people are in such close proximity to each other.
Historical analyses of President Trump's impeachment will note that it coincided with a tumultuous four months in U.S. foreign policy.
Between the lines: It’s impossible to evaluate exactly if and how impeachment affected Trump's calculus along the way — but it certainly affected his predecessors.
Context: Local debt is riskier. The U.S. government can print money while the city of Detroit, or the state of Illinois, cannot. That's why the U.S. government borrows at much lower rates than Detroit or Illinois.
An American Airlines pilots' union sued the company on Thursday to temporarily halt all flights between the U.S. and China, the Financial Times reports, citing "serious" health threats from the coronavirus.
What they're saying: "We estimate that as many as 300 passengers and crew travel to DFW alone from Chinese cities on each American Airlines flight,” said Eric Ferguson, president of the union — representing 15,000 pilots. American Airlines previously stated it would cancel flights between Los Angeles and China from Feb. 9 through March 27, citing a decline in demand.
The U.S. State Department has placed U.S. diplomatic staff and their families in China on "authorized departure," meaning they are permitted to leave the country amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Driving the news: Approximately 210 U.S. citizens were evacuated Wednesday from Wuhan, where the outbreak began and has spread most widely. The virus has killed at least 171 people in China and infected over 8,000, and was declared a Global Health Emergency on Thursday by the World Health Organization.
The proposed capital of a future Palestinian state is just one reason why President Trump's peace plan is so widely opposed by Palestinian officials and activists.
Why it matters: Palestinian negotiators have long demanded a capital in East Jerusalem. In unveiling his plan, Trump said the capital would be in "Eastern Jerusalem." In fact, it's just outside the Old City in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis.
Those who have bet on fear overtaking the market by piling into U.S. Treasury bonds have been rewarded handsomely so far in 2020, as prices on safe-haven government debt have risen and yields have fallen significantly.
Why it matters: The bond market is sending a clear signal that investors are nervous — tensions continue to ratchet higher in the Middle East, new wrinkles are revealed in President Trump's impeachment trial, and the coronavirus outbreak is claiming more lives.
A memorial service was held at the Royal Australian Air Force base in Richmond, New South Wales,Thursday for three members of a U.S. aircrew who died while fighting bushfires when their air tanker crashed in the state's Snowy Mountains last week.
The big picture: Capt. Ian MacBeth, First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr. died last Thursday when the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, operated by the Canadian company Coulson Aviation, crashed in the Snowy Mountains. A crowdfunding page to support their families had raised nearly $20,000 by 1:15am ET Thursday.