Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the United Nations Security Council's Friday decision rejecting a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran, saying the council "failed ... to hold Iran accountable."
Why it matters: The council voted to allow a 13-year embargo designed to prevent Iran from buying and selling weapons, including aircraft and tanks, to expire this October, despite protests from the U.S., Israel and multiple Arab states, the New York Times reports.
The UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, told me in an exclusive interview that his country wants to implement its normalization deal with Israel “as soon as possible."
What he's saying: Gargash said he was confident that the U.S.-brokered deal moved Israeli annexation of the West Bank off the table for a “long time.” He also said Israeli tourists would soon be able to travel to the UAE.
Spain's government announced Friday that it will shut down nightclubs, ban public smoking and restrict nursing home visits as coronavirus cases climb in the country, per the AP.
The state of play: Spain's daily cases have almost reached the highs seen in March and April when the country was one of Europe's worst-hit, per Johns Hopkins data. So far during this surge, the nation's reported deaths are nowhere near the rate seen in the spring.
U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from the World Bank about its continued operation of a $50 million loan program in Xinjiang, following Axios reporting on the loans.
Why it matters: The Chinese government is currently waging a campaign of cultural and demographic genocide against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, in northwest China. The lawmakers contend that the recipients of the loans may be complicit in that repression.
