Axios

Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban advised UAE ambassador Yousef Al-Otaiba regarding his op-ed against Israeli annexation in the West Bank and assisted in publishing it in the Israeli press, Israeli sources told me.

Why it matters: Saban was one of Hillary Clinton’s main political backers and donors. He also has communication channels with President Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner. Saban and Al-Otaiba have known each other for many years and became friends.

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against workers from the International Criminal Court who are investigating American troops and intelligence officials for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Why it matters: This is the ICC's first investigation of U.S. forces, and both Afghan and U.S. officials oppose it. The U.S. does not formally recognize the jurisdiction of the court, and the Trump administration is refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Friday it's "absurd and shameful" that a statue of Winston Churchill is the target of protesters, adding that Churchill "was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial."

Why it matters: Demonstrations against racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd have gone global. As in the U.S., protesters in Britain have sought to challenge racism and imperialism in their country's past and have vandalized or even removed the statues of historic leaders now thought to be racist.

Yousef Al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, stressed in an op-ed published in an Israeli newspaper that Israeli annexation in the West Bank will destroy all efforts to achieve normalization between Israel and the Arab world — mainly the Gulf states.

Why it matters: The op-ed was an unprecedented message from a senior official in the UAE to Israeli public opinion through the Israeli press. Yediot Ahronot is a mainstream newspaper with the largest circulation in the country which speaks to a center-right audience.

U.S. video conferencing company Zoom issued a statement on Thursday acknowledging that the Chinese government requested that it suspend the accounts of several U.S.- and Hong Kong-based Chinese activists for holding events commemorating the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The big picture: Zoom claims that it only took action because the Chinese government informed the company that "this activity is illegal in China" and that meeting metadata showed "a significant number of mainland China participants." Zoom said it does not have the ability to block participants from a certain country, and so it made the decision to end some of the meetings and suspend the host accounts.

It’s hard to say which is more remarkable: that Vietnam has recorded zero COVID-19 deaths despite a population of 96 million, or that the communist government expects the economy to grow by 5% this year during a massive global recession.

Why it matters: Both numbers deserve some scrutiny, but there’s no evidence a major outbreak is being covered up, and the bullishness about Vietnam’s economy is shared by the IMF and World Bank (though their growth estimates are lower). The southeast Asian country may ultimately be the pandemic’s biggest success story.

The Trump administration and Israel coordinated the U.S. authorization of sanctions against the International Criminal Court announced Thursday during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s short visit to Jerusalem last month, Israeli officials tell me.

Why it matters: The prosecutor of the ICC had decided to open an investigation against Israel for alleged war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza pending a review by the court's judges. The judges will make a decision soon, and Israel is seeking to use U.S. sanctions to pressure them into shutting down the investigation.