Today’s Headlines and Commentary
The New York Times reports that the 72-hour Gaza cease-fire negotiated by the United States and United Nations collapsed less than two hours after going into effect this morning (05:00 GMT); Israel says two soldiers have been killed and another appears to have been captured, while Gaza health officials report that 35 Palestinians have been killed and over 100 wounded. Both sides are accusing each other of breaking the truce: the Wall
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The New York Times reports that the 72-hour Gaza cease-fire negotiated by the United States and United Nations collapsed less than two hours after going into effect this morning (05:00 GMT); Israel says two soldiers have been killed and another appears to have been captured, while Gaza health officials report that 35 Palestinians have been killed and over 100 wounded. Both sides are accusing each other of breaking the truce: the Wall Street Journal reports that Sami Abu Zhory, a Hamas spokesman, claims Israeli forces shattered the cease-fire by opening fire near Rafah, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared the attack a "unilateral and egregious" violation of the truce by the Palestinians.
Under the original plan, forces were to remain on the ground during the three-day ceasefire, says Al Jazeera. The Associated Press reports that 17 Palestinians were also killed in an airstrike early Friday in the hours before the cease-fire took effect, bringing the Palestinian death toll since July 8 to 1,450; Israel has lost 61 soldiers and three civilians.
Fourteen people have been killed in fighting close to the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The Guardian reports that ten are Ukrainian soldiers; the others have yet to be identified. Ukrainian television also stated on Friday that 20 paratroopers had been killed by pro-Russian separatists overnight, though a military source stated that the death toll is likely lower. So says the Times.
In response to Moscow's support for rebels in Ukraine, the EU has just published a law that will restrict arms sales to Russia and sever financing for five major Russian banks. Reuters reports that the sanctions are the toughest yet to be levied against the country.
Months after the Edward Snowden leaks hit the press, al-Qaeda drastically changed how its operatives interact online. That's the word from Recorded Future, a Big Data company that is scheduled to release a new report today that draws a straight line from the Snowden trove to major alterations in an al-Qaeda encryption program. Check out the NPR story here.
Iraq's foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari declared that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is to blame for the rise of Sunni insurgents who have seized parts of the country. Reuters writes that the comments will only further complicate efforts to form a power-sharing government capable of putting down the militants.
A Syrian Army defector known only by the alias "Caesar" has smuggled 50,000 photos out of the country. The pictures could become the basis for U.S. and allied efforts to prosecute war crimes in Syria. The Wall Street Journal reports that Caesar, a former Syrian military-police photographer, testified Thursday before the House about his job documenting thousands of mangled corpses at Damascus Hospital and described the situation in Syria as "a genocidal massacre."
CIA Director John Brennan has apologized in the wake of an internal agency review that confirmed CIA employees had improperly searched computers used by Senate investigators looking into the agency's interrogation methods. The Washington Post's has a run-down of the summary of the CIA Inspector General's findings.
China says nine "terror suspects" have been killed in a police action in Xinjiang. The AP notes that the development comes on the heels of the Wednesday murder of a pro-government Muslim cleric in the Xinjiang city of Kashgar and what the Chinese government has described as a violent Monday attack on dozens of people near Kashgar by militants armed with knives.
The New York Times editorial board notes that China's recent "politically motivated antitrust investigations" into American tech companies could be retaliation for the Justice Department's decision, back in May, to indict five members of the Chinese Army for hacking.
Americans Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle, detained more than three months ago in North Korea, are pleading for help from the U.S. government. Kenneth Bae, a third American who has been imprisoned in the country since 2012 told a pro-North Korea news organization in Japan that he felt "abandoned" by the U.S. government earlier this week. See more from the AP, via ABC.
Wired's "Danger Room" notes that it's been three years since the Kaman K-1200 K-MAX, a self-flying helicopter, has taken over dangerous missions to deliver cargo to Marine Corps stations in Afghanistan. For more in machines, watch an injured robot relearn to walk in about two minutes: here's the video of a hexapod figuring out how to adjust to damage, courtesy of Tech Crunch.
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Jane Chong is former deputy managing editor of Lawfare. She served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University.
