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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS – NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Fifty thousand people fled Nagorno-Karabakh by yesterday morning, nearly half of the disputed region’s population. Ethnic Armenians have been told they can remain if they accept Azerbaijani citizenship, yet many have chosen to leave. Christian Edwards reports CNN.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian separatist government said it will dissolve itself by the end of the year, separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan decreed. Avet Demourian reports for AP News.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
The military junta in Burkino Faso thwarted an attempted coup by security and intelligence services on Tuesday. Four people have been detained in connection with the attempted coup, and two are being pursued. The junta came to power after two military coups last year. Reuters reports.
The Kenyan government has announced it will deploy a police force to Haiti by January 2024 to restore order amid the ongoing gang warfare. BBC News reports.
Taiwan today unveiled its first-ever domestically produced submarine. Details of the submarine’s capabilities have not been disclosed for security reasons. The Taiwanese military hopes a domestic submarine capability will make a potential invasion by China more difficult. Eric Cheung reports for CNN.
North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly today adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force. Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in the production of nuclear weapons. Kim-Tong Hyung reports for AP News.
Allegations that the Indian government participated in an assassination in Canada highlight India’s foreign intelligence operations, which became more aggressive under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, security experts said. India has cultivated intelligence networks in the West, including in the United States, U.K., Canada, Germany, and France. “The agency now has a free hand to operate and has a defined set of deliverables to target India’s enemies besides monitoring their activities abroad,” said an Indian security official. Rajesh Roy and Paul Vieira report in the Wall Street Journal.
A second far-right extremist group in Germany was banned this week. The two banned organizations are Artgemeinschaft and the Hammerskins. The ongoing crackdown comes ten months after authorities foiled a far-right plot to overthrow the democratic government. Aishvarya Kavi and Christopher F. Schuetze report for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
Hundreds of paramilitary organization Wagner group fighters have returned to eastern Ukraine. However, a Ukrainian military spokesperson yesterday said their presence has had little impact on the battlefield. Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s air defense systems shot down 34 of 44 Russian drones last night, its air force claimed today. The attack caused no casualties, Odesa’s regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said. Martin Belam and Helen Sullivan report for the Guardian.
The House Rules Committee met to remove funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative as House Republicans made further cuts to their defense spending bill yesterday night. A final vote is expected this week amid uncertainty over the bill’s prospect of passing. Emily Brooks reports for The Hill.
U.S. RELATIONS
Travis King, the U.S. soldier who illegally dashed into North Korea in July, has been expelled by Pyongyang and is now in U.S. custody. The release is the result of “intense diplomacy” that required no concessions from the United States to secure his release, a senior administration official said yesterday. Because the United States and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang acted “within its role as a protective power” during negotiations. Bernd Debusmann Jr reports for BBC News.
Chinese government-backed hackers stole about 60,000 emails from ten State Department employees earlier this summer. The previously reported incident also affected Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The new details reveal that the hacked accounts were mainly connected to U.S. diplomatic efforts in the Pacific, where competition with China has intensified. Maggie Miller and John Sakellariadis report for POLITICO.
The United States will impose visa restrictions on individuals who are “undermining democracy” in Liberia ahead of the country’s elections in October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday. Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters.
Israeli citizens will be able to enter the United States without visas by Nov. 30 as Israel joins the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, the Biden administration announced. The waiver program is reciprocal. Palestinian-Americans “who had historically faced restrictions traveling to Israel [will now be] able to seek to travel visa-free on equivalent terms to other U.S. citizens,” an official said. Alex Marquardt reports for CNN.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
House Republicans yesterday indicated they rejected a bipartisan Senate plan to fund the government beyond this week, further increasing the chances of a shutdown. Jacob Bogage, Marianna Sotomayor, and Jeff Stein report for the Washington Post.
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges yesterday. Menendez has ignored calls from other elected officials, including democrats, to resign. Shayna Jacobs and Mark Berman report for the Washington Post.
Questions have been raised about whether Sept. 11 prisoner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s confession at Guantánamo Bay can be used in his eventual death-penalty trial. This week, a retired F.B.I. agent’s testimony revealed that Mohammed did not get a lawyer until 15 months after interrogators extracted a confession. Mohammed’s lawyers contend that he was trained to confess in a program of C.I.A. torture. Carol Rosenberg reports for the New York Times.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing former President Trump’s federal election interference case, has refused to recuse herself. Trump requested the recusal due to Chutkan’s comments in criminal cases against other Jan. 6 defendants. Chutkan wrote that she “has never taken the position the defense ascribes […] that former ‘President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned.’” Ryan J. Reilly reports for NBC News.
Outgoing Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley yesterday said he would take steps to protect his family after former President Trump said Milley colluded with China, warranting his death. Reuters reports.