In an Oval Office interview on Friday afternoon,President Trump told me that he held off on imposing Treasury sanctions against Chinese officials involved with the Xinjiang mass detention camps because doing so would have interfered with his trade deal with Beijing.
Driving the news: Asked why he hadn't yet enacted Treasury sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials or entities tied to the camps where the Chinese government detains Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, Trump replied, "Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal."
In an Oval Office interview with Axios on Friday, President Trump suggested he's had second thoughts about his decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela and said he is open to meeting with dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Driving the news: Asked whether he would meet with Maduro, Trump said, "I would maybe think about that. ... Maduro would like to meet. And I'm never opposed to meetings — you know, rarely opposed to meetings.
Nigel Farage, the U.K. Brexit Party leader, was photographed attending President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday despite a ban on people from Britain entering the U.S. due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The big picture: A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Independent Farage was initially denied boarding of his flight to the U.S., but he was permitted after a review because his visit was deemed to be "in the national interest" of the U.S. Trump and Farage are friends and the president said last year the Brexit Party leader should be negotiating with the European Union on the U.K. exit from Europe because he's "very smart." Farage did not respond to Axios' request for comment.
The White House is expected to hold high-level meetings this week to discuss whether to give the Israeli government a “green light” on annexing parts of the West Bank, American and Israeli sources tell me.
Why it matters: Israel won't move forward on annexation without the approval of the White House, and there are disagreements on the issue inside both the Israeli government and the Trump administration. Security and intelligence officials from both countries fear annexation would lead to violent escalation in the region.
Mexican officials announced they will be hitting the "pause button" on plans to send as many as 5,000 migrant farmworkers to Canada after two Mexicans died from the coronavirus, The Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The coronavirus is quickly spreading among migrant farmworkers in Canada, leaving at least 600 infected, per the Post. If other countries limit the migrant farmworkers they are willing to send to Canada, it could derail plans for harvesting both this year and next, per the Post.
China revealed more details on Saturday regarding a planned national security law to curb opposition to Hong Kong and install a central government office in the territory that would give Beijing authority to oversee the policing of protesters and other disruptive activities, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Why it matters: The news confirms fears that Beijing will use the national security law to directly intervene in the lives of Hong Kong residents.
