The Trump administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan and partnership with the Taliban has made the United States less safe, President Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster told CBS News in a 60 Minutes interview set to air Sunday.
Why it matters: McMaster says the president partnered with the Taliban before peace talks in Doha, Qatar began this month, and diminished the sacrifice of American troops who died during the Afghanistan War.
Amid a global assaulton human rights stretching from Belarus to Hong Kong to Yemen, the European Union signaled yesterday that it may act to deter corrupt kleptocrats and state abusers by hitting them where it hurts: their assets.
Driving the news: Europe's chief executive Ursula von der Leyen revealed in her first-ever State of the Union speech that she will bring forth a European Magnitsky Act, a sanctions framework modeled after a U.S. law that restricts malign actors' access to travel and the global financial system.
The Brexit omnishambles threatens to become a full-blown constitutional crisis, now that Boris Johnson's government has declared its intention to violate international law by breaking the very withdrawal treaty that Johnson negotiated, signed, declared a triumph, and ran on as the basis of his party's reelection.
For the record:Five former prime ministers have come out against Johnson's Internal Market Bill, which has already caused a slew of resignations from the government. The bill would allow the U.K. to unilaterally override the EU in a manner that explicitly violates Britain's treaty obligations.
FBI Director Chris Wray on Thursday told Congress the bureau has seen "very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020," primarily to "denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment."
Why it matters: It confirms previous statements from various intelligence officials about Russia's interference activities, which continue with less than 50 days until the election.
Smoke from the historic wildfires ravaging the U.S. West was observed over the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe this week, and it will return to the continent this weekend, per European scientists' research.
Why it matters: "The fact that these fires are emitting so much pollution into the atmosphere that we can still see thick smoke" some 5,000 miles away "reflects just how devastating they have been in their magnitude and duration," said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the European Commission's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), which studied the data, in a statement.
American democracy faces what could be its greatest test in a lifetime as signs mount that Russia is working to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, while the Trump administration and its allies systematically minimize those efforts, in the process becoming an accessory to them.
Why it matters: It's becoming ever more difficult to find any boundary between foreign meddling and domestic disinformation.
Why it matters: Only the U.S. has more cases (over 6.6 million). India has the fastest-growing number of daily infections — more than 90,000 each day for the five days leading up to Tuesday, the BBC notes. The country of 1.4 billion people surpassed 4 million cases on Sept. 4. India imposed lockdown measures that saw businesses close in March, but these have since eased despite soaring cases as the government aims to revive a struggling economy.
Yoshihide Suga was formally elected as Japan's prime minister by parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, per AP.
Why it matters: Suga is the first new leader of the world's third-largest economy in nearly eight years, after Shinzo Abe officially resigned from the role earlier in the day.
Jon Stewart noted on his return to Capitol Hill Tuesday that many veterans affected by exposure to toxic burn pits are suffering the same afflictions as first responders have since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Driving the news: The former "Daily Show" host who's campaigned for years for the continuation of the 9/11 compensation fund, including making a powerful speech in Congress last year, is advocating for a bill that would cover medical conditions associated with veterans' exposure to the pits during this century's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The peace treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates states that both countries are committed to "working together for a negotiated solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will meet the aspirations and needs of both parties."
Why it matters: The Emiratis face criticism from the Palestinians over their peace treaty with Israel. Officials involved in the negotiations on the text of the treaty told me the Emiratis wanted to include language on Palestinians in the document. The Emiratis wanted stronger language, but Israel did not agree.
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