Chinese Canadian pop star Kris Wu was detained Saturday night on rape allegations, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: The detainment marks a rare move to investigate a case involving sexual assault in China, where few assault allegations pan out, according to the Post.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with Southeast Asian leaders all of next week, the State Department announced on Saturday.
State of play: Blinken will meet with ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as attend other separate meetings. U.S. officials have not always been present in ASEAN meetings, they "have sometimes sent more junior officials to the region's summits," Reuters writes.
The Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyber-espionage campaign broke into the email accounts of some of the most prominent federal prosecutors' offices around the country last year, the Justice Department announced.
State of play: DOJsaid 80% of Microsoft email accounts used by employees in the four U.S. attorney offices in New York were breached.
Haiti police said that a former Supreme Court judge has been linked to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Reuters reports.
State of play: Law enforcement officials said Wendelle Coq-Thelot, a former judge, had met with some Colombian mercenaries who allegedly were involved in Moïse's killing. Police issued an arrest warrant for Coq-Thelot earlier this week.
Why it matters: Violence in Tigray has led to thousands of deaths, forcing roughly two million people to flee their homes and over five million to rely on emergency food aid. The shortfall will leave "400,000 people on the verge of famine," the agency told CNN.
The European Union on Friday announced it had adopted a legal framework for new sanctions against Lebanese individuals responsible for obstructing or undermining democracy and the rule of law in the country.
The big picture: Lebanon has been without a working government since August of last year, when Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned after a deadly explosion in Beirut.
The United States has been forced to lay off more than 180 local employees and contractors at its embassy in Moscow and two consulates, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday.
Driving the news: "Starting in August, the Russian government is prohibiting the United States from retaining, hiring, or contracting Russian or third-country staff, except our guard force," Blinken said in a statement.
President Biden will announce sanctions against one entity and two Cuban individuals this afternoon and provide details on his administration's efforts to improve internet connectivity in Cuba, a senior administration official said Friday.
Why it matters: After initially hoping to place the issue on the back burner, the White House has recently ramped up its focus on Cuba amid protests on the island and in the United States, congressional backlash and political pressure from the South Florida Cuban community.
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Singapore and Vietnam next month for her second foreign trip since taking office, her spokesperson confirmed Friday.
Why it matters: Harris will become the first vice president to ever visit Vietnam, and the highest-ranking Biden official to travel to Asia as the administration looks to rally an international coalition to curb China's influence.
Chinese companies will be unable to go public in the U.S.unless they make new risk disclosures, according to a statement released Friday morning from SEC chair Gary Gensler.
Why it matters: Chinese companies, and tech startups in particular, are already under growing pressure from their own government. Now they're also getting squeezed by U.S. officials.
Japan expanded its coronavirus state of emergency to four more areas in addition to Tokyo on Friday amid record spikes in infections, AP reports.
The big picture: The state of emergency now includes Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, near Tokyo, as well as in the western city of Osaka, effective Monday until Aug. 31.
Pro-democracy protester Tong Ying-kit was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison on charges of terrorism and inciting secession brought under Hong Kong’s national security law, AP reports.
Why it matters: The 24-year-old Tong is the first person convicted under the sweeping law, which China imposed last year to help crack down on massive protests that erupted in mid-2019.
The first plane with more than 200 Afghans who served as interpreters, contractors or other ally roles for the U.S. military has arrived in the U.S. — the first of many such flights as troops are withdrawn from the region.
Why it matters: More than 700 Afghan allies and their families are preparing to be brought into the U.S. in the coming days on special immigrant visas. More than 70,000 Afghans have received those since 2008.
