The United States must encourage an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East and adopt an "evenhanded approach" that recognizes Palestinians and Israelis have a right to "live in peace and security," Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) wrote in a New York Times opinion on Friday.
Driving the news: Violence escalated this week after Israelis intensified efforts to evict Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem. Hamas fired rockets and Israel massed troops, leaving more than 125 Palestinians and seven people in Israel dead.
Facebook lost on Friday in its attempt to block a European Union privacy decision related to how it sends data about EU users back to the U.S.
Driving the news: Ireland's High Court dismissed procedural complaints from Facebook about a decision it had made about the data transfer last August, rejecting the platform's argument that the EU's judgment was made too hastily.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to travel to Denmark, Iceland and Greenland this weekend to address Arctic policies amid sweeping climate change that is affecting the region.
State of play: While in Reykjavik, Iceland, Blinken will attend the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, an organization created 25 years ago to foster cooperation among the eight Arctic nations at a time when Russia has been increasingly aggressive in building up its military presence in the region.
Ireland's public health care service preemptively deactivated its IT services on Friday after it was targeted by a ransomware attack, according to the AP.
Why it matters: The attack on Ireland's Health Service Executive, and other recent high-profile cyber extortion attempts, demonstrates how vulnerable critical infrastructure is to criminal hacking groups.
Tel Aviv — With U.S. envoy Hady Amr set to arrive in Israel on Friday for de-escalation talks with Israeli, Palestinian and UN officials, Israeli officials are concerned the U.S. intervention will lead to increased pressure to stop their military operation.
Driving the news: Fighting continued overnight, with the Israeli military massing forces along the frontier with the Gaza Strip and briefing reporters about ground forces entering the fight. Anticipating a ground invasion, Hamas sent its elite forces to their defensive tunnels. The Israeli forces instead began to bomb those tunnels and did not cross into Gaza, Israeli officials say.
The big picture: Israel began massing troops on its border with Gaza on Thursday, launching attacks from the air and ground as Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.
About 150 million vaccine doses were administered globally over the past week, the highest weekly total yet and a jump from 130 million last week.
Breaking it down: In the U.S., daily vaccinations peaked in mid-April and fell sharply as demand waned, though they've ticked up over the past few days (46% of the population has at least one dose).
After mishandling the worst domestic crisis India has faced in decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval ratings have plummeted … to 63%.
Breaking it down: While that’s down from 74% before India’s second wave struck, per Morning Consult’s tracker, it still makes him perhaps the most popular leader of any major democracy. But despite his enduring popularity, Modi no longer appears invulnerable.
Israeli ground troops have joined the fight near the Gaza Strip,the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday night.
Driving the news: While tanks and artillery were deployed for the first time on Thursday, the IDF says no ground troops have crossed into Gaza. Israel has called up 9,000 reservists and massed at least three brigades on the frontier with Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
In a dramatic shift that comes amid fighting in the Gaza strip and clashes between Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel, right-wing kingmaker Naftali Bennett has announced he will no longer seek an alternative government to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Why it matters: Bennett had been on the verge of a power-sharing deal with centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid that would have made him prime minister for two years until Lapid rotated into the job. Without Bennett, Lapid has no path to a majority, and Israel will almost certainly head for its fifth election since 2019 with Netanyahu still in his post.
President Biden told reporters Wednesday it's his "expectation and hope" that there will soon be an end to fighting between Israel and Hamas, which has killed scores of Palestinians and several Israelis.
What they're saying: Biden, after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that he hoped the conflict would be "closing down sooner than later," despite Israel's government announcing plans to scale up its military offensive.
