Today's Headlines and Commentary

The President defended his July phone call with Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky as being perfectly appropriate while also acknowledging that the two discussed former Vice President Joe Biden, the New York Times reports. This news comes against the backdrop of the ongoing standoff between the administration and the House Intelligence Committee over an intelligence community whistleblower complaint.

President Trump imposed new sanctions on Iran that specifically target the country’s central bank and national development fund, according to POLITICO. The sanctions come after rumored Iranian involvement in a series of strikes last week that devastated large Saudi oil facilities.

Yemen’s Houthi-owned Al-Masirah TV station reported that a Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes on a mosque in the Omran province of Yemen on Monday, resulting in the death of five civilians from one family writes Reuters. The report details that two children from the same family remain missing.

In thousands of cities and towns worldwide, millions of people protested political inaction on climate change on Friday, writes the Times. The protests represent the largest-scale and most geographically-diverse demonstrations by young people on the climate change issue.

The Joint List, an alliance of Arab Israeli political parties, endorsed former military chief Benny Gatz for prime minister, according to Al Jazeera. In a New York Times opinion piece, Joint List leader Ayman Odeh wrote that the action, which broke an almost three-decade-long standard of choosing not to endorse a candidate, was not a direct endorsement of Gatz or his policies. Rather, Mr. Odeh claimed it was an attempt to “prevent another term for Mr. Netanyahu.”

At least 35 civilians were killed and 13 were wounded as a result of a raid by Afghan government forces on a wedding party in the southern Helmand province. Afghan officials said the target of the raid was a Taliban hideout used to train suicide bombers that was located next to the bride’s home, writes Reuters.

ICYMI: Last Weekend on Lawfare

Jen Patja Howell shared the latest episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which David Priess spoke to Josh Campbell about Campbell’s career at the FBI, about his perspective on current relations between the bureau and the White House and about the publication of Campbell’s new book, “Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump’s War on the FBI.”

Narrelle Gilchrist discussed the threat of political violence in Kenya in the lead up to to the 2022 election.

Benjamin Wittes reflected on the connections between Corey Lewandowski's House Judiciary Committee testimony and the on-going whistleblower controversy.

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