State Department

The US has found five units of the Israeli security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights, over incidents in the West Bank before the current Gaza war, the state department has said.

The findings come at a time when Israel is facing potential accountability from the international criminal court and the state department for its conduct of the conflict in Gaza, in which more than 34,000 people have been killed.

The United States found five units of Israel's security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights, the first time Washington has reached such a conclusion about Israeli forces, the State Department said on Monday, though it has not barred any of the units from receiving U.S. military assistance.

The U.S. found five units of the Israel Defense Forces responsible "for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights," the State Department announced on Monday – though whether funding to the American ally could be cut over such abuses under the so-called "Leahy Laws" still hangs in the balance. 

Russia has dismissed a report claiming Vladimir Putin did not order the killing of famed dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison in February.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told Russia’s state-run media on Saturday that he had seen the Wall Street Journal report, which cited an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, and that there was little reason to believe it. He derided its logic and said it wasn’t worth looking into.

U.S. intelligence agencies signal that Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have planned for Alexei Navalny to have died when he did, a new report said.

The Wall Street Journal report said U.S. agencies have determined that Putin likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed in February, but it doesn’t entirely excuse him from responsibility.

The determination has been shared and agreed upon by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the State Department’s intelligence unit.

US intelligence officials do not think Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the death Alexei Navalny, according to a report slammed by one critic as “absurd.”

Alexei Navalny was found dead in a notorious Arctic penal colony in February, sparking worldwide outrage over the loss of the opposition leader who was widely seen as Putin’s strongest critic.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on three days of uphill Middle East diplomacy Monday, hoping to pause the bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip that is taking a heavy toll on civilians and inflaming anti-Israel sentiment in the U.S., complicating President Biden’s path to re-election.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s President Xi Jinping and other Beijing officials as differences between the two nations grow on a number of issues. 

Blinken said he outlined the U.S. worries with China, mentioning Beijing’s backing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has surpassed the two-year mark, and Taiwan.

“Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support,” Blinken said to reporters following the meeting.

The areas where the United States and China can work together seem to be shrinking fast, and the risks of confrontation are growing. But it was clear on Friday that both countries are trying to salvage what they can.

Preserving some semblance of cooperation — and the difficulty of doing so — was at the heart of a meeting between Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Friday. It was the latest effort by the rivals to keep communications open even as disputes escalate over trade, national security and geopolitical frictions.

China is making “attempts to influence and arguably interfere” in the 2024 elections in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a diplomatic tour to the communist country.