Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen taunted Moscow that U.S.-led sanctions have impaired Russia's “ability to conduct war” and claimed their military is now scavenging to find crucial replacement parts for battlefield equipment.
Why it matters: Yellen made her comments in an interview with Axios in Johannesburg, South Africa, after warning government officials in Pretoria they shouldn’t violate U.S. sanctions.
Police say a gunman opened fire on worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue Friday night local time, killing at least seven Israeli citizens and wounding three others in an incident that officials are describing as a terror attack.
The big picture: The gunman, who authorities identified as a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, was also killed, police said. It's the deadliest attack on Israelis since the new right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, assumed office. It comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The Department of Justice on Friday announced three new arrests related to an alleged murder-for-hire plot to kill a New York-based journalist and human rights activist who was critical of the Iranian government.
Why it matters: The Justice Department alleged that the three arrested men were members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran and were tasked with killing the victim, a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who was previously the target of other intimidation, harassment and kidnapping plots by the Iranian government.
CIA director Bill Burns arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday for visits to Israel and the occupied West Bank, where he is expected to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders and his counterparts on both sides, according to two U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue.
Why it matters: Burn’s visit was pre-planned but it takes place amid the most significant escalation of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in months.
A former Fox News employee who alleges its late CEO Roger Ailes sexually abused her for years is accusing the network of "enabling" it and "actively covering" it up. Fox News strongly denies the claims.
Driving the news: Former bookerLaura Luhn alleges in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York against Fox News Network, its parent company 21st Century Fox and former network executive Bill Shine that Ailes "used his position as the head of Fox News to trap" her in a yearslong "cycle of sexual abuse."
