Axios

Haitian officials said Thursday that four suspects in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse were killed in a gunfight and six more were arrested, at least one of whom is a U.S. citizen.

The state of play: The government is describing the assailants as foreign “mercenaries” but has filled in only fragments of the picture in terms of how and why Wednesday morning’s attack was carried out.

Fears are growing that Indonesia — with its massive population (271 million), low vaccination rate (13% have one dose) and surging COVID-19 death toll — could become the next India.

President Biden addressed the country Thursday afternoon to defend his withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan as the Taliban continues to gain ground and after U.S. troops abandoned their largest base under cover of darkness.

What he's saying: Biden set an Aug. 31 deadline to end U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, and denied that a Taliban takeover of Kabul was "inevitable" after America left.

A judge on Thursday determined that 47 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists will face trial in late September, after prosecutors were granted more time to build a case against them, per Reuters.

Why it matters: The activists face up to life in prison under the Beijing-imposed national security law that sparked a mass uprising on the streets of Hong Kong last year.

Taliban representatives on Thursday met Zamir Kabulov, Russia's special envoy to Afghanistan, in Moscow to stress that its recent territorial gains in the country do not pose a threat to Russia or its Central Asian allies, according to the Washington Post.

Why it matters: The meeting came days after a Taliban offensive forced more than 1,000 members of Afghanistan's security forces to retreat into neighboring Tajikistan, where Russia maintains a military base.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration "stands ready" to support Haiti in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

Why it matters: The assassination threatens to plunge the already tumultuous political landscape of the country into further disarray.

The U.S. will not have a "Mission Accomplished" moment for the war in Afghanistan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing Thursday, adding that the conflict "has not been won militarily."

Why it matters: President Biden is expected to speak Thursday about his decision to pull U.S. troops out of America's longest-running war and the steps the U.S. will take to support the country during the ongoing Taliban insurgency.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited Jordan secretly last week and met with King Abdullah II at his palace in Amman, a former Israeli official tells Axios.

Why it matters: This was the first meeting between the king and an Israeli prime minister in more than five years. It follows a long period of tensions between Abdullah and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and comes as Bennett attempts to reset the relationship.

China's leadership is deeply suspicious of the international financial system, and wants to ensure that the Chinese Communist Party remains the absolute power in the land, unthreatened by fast-growing corporate giants.

What's new: That lesson was learned the hard way this week by Didi, but the repercussions are likely to be much larger. Already, Chinese fitness app Keep has decided to scrap its planned $500 million IPO in New York.

The Biden administration has criticized the Israeli military's demolition of a home in the West Bank owned by the family of a Palestinian American accused of carrying out a terror attack in May.

Why it matters: This is the first time since the new Israeli government was formed that the Biden administration has criticized its actions in the West Bank.

Summer Olympics events in the Tokyo area will be held without spectators, after Japan declared a state of emergency in the capital following a surge in COVID-19 cases, Japan's Olympics minister announced Thursday.

Why it matters: It's another huge blow to the spectacle and finances of the delayed and scaled-back Olympics, just two weeks ahead of the opening ceremony.

European regulators on Thursday announced a $1 billion fine against the Volkswagen Group and BMW for running afoul of antitrust rules by "colluding on technical development in the area of nitrogen oxide cleaning."

Driving the news: The European Commission's Margrethe Vestager, the top antitrust official, said the settlement is about "how legitimate technical cooperation went wrong."

The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was carried out by foreigners, but "there is no doubt" that they had internal help, Haiti's ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond told CNN Thursday morning.

State of play: Four suspects were killed by police on Wednesday and another two were arrested in association with the attack, according to Haitian officials.

The historic heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest would have been "virtually impossible without human-caused climate change," an international team of climate researchers said in a new report.

Of note: The World Weather Attribution's analysis, published Wednesday, found that the record-setting heat that triggered wildfires and was linked to hundreds of deaths was a one-in-a-1,000-year event that "would have been at least 150 times rarer without human-induced climate change."

The global toll of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 4 million on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Why it matters: World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday the "shocking inequity" in vaccine rollouts, with richer countries hoarding does as he warned the world "is at a perilous point" of the pandemic.

Haiti's Communications Secretary Frantz Exantus announced Wednesday that local police arrested the "presumed assassins" of President Jovenel Moïse.

Details: Haitian officials said in a press conference that four suspects were killed by police and another two were arrested. Exantus said the suspects were arrested in Pelerin, a district within the neighborhood of Pétion-Ville, where Moïse's residence is located, AP reports.