Today's Headlines and Commentary

In response to the Kremlin’s attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil, President Trump expelled 60 Russians from the U.S. and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle, the New York Times reports. Twelve of the Russians expelled were identified as intelligence officers who worked at the United Nations in Manhattan. Senior White House officials told reporters on Monday that the expulsion falls within the administration’s broader effort to counteract Russian intelligence operations against the U.S. and to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to its NATO allies. The expulsion of Russian diplomats and shuttering of the consulate in Seattle mark the harshest sanctions yet imposed on Russia by the Trump administration.

At a meeting of EU leaders in Bulgaria on Monday, EU Council President Donald Tusk announced that 14 EU countries joined the U.S. in expelling Russian diplomats, Politico reports. During the announcement, Tusk reiterated the council’s belief that Russia tried to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a banned nerve agent. Tusk emphasized that the EU has not ruled out taking further actions against Russia and expelling more diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack. Ukraine also took action against Russia on Monday, expelling 13 diplomats from the country. Moscow announced that it will respond to the expulsions in kind, Reuters adds.

Three sources told Bloomberg that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made a surprise trip to China, Bloomberg reports. If true, the trip marks Kim’s first journey outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011. It remains unclear who Kim plans to meet in Beijing and how long he will stay. Although China and North Korea have historically been allies, Beijing strained the pair’s relations with its decision to support U.N.-sponsored sanctions against Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Facebook acknowledged Sunday that it logs the phone calls and messaging patterns of some users who access the platform on Android smartphones, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to a note posted by the company, the call and message logging occurs when Facebook users with Android smartphones sync their contacts with Facebook Messenger. The tech giant described the logging as an “opt-in” feature that monitors call and text histories but never accesses the content of the calls or messages. The company stressed that it never sells the data that the logging feature collects. Facebook’s logging of some users’ calls and messages comes at a time of broad public concern over the security of personal information on Facebook, a crisis of confidence prompted by the recently-exposed Cambridge Analytica data breach. The Journal highlights “a common thread: data from Facebook members being shared without those users necessarily realizing it.” The chiefs of both Apple and IBM have called for greater oversight of Facebook in light of recent personal data breaches, Reuters reports.

The Federal Communications Commission confirmed Monday morning that it has “an open non-public investigation” into Facebook’s user-privacy and data-security practices, Axios reports. The commission’s statement noted that “recent press reports” concerning data breaches at Facebook raise “substantial concerns.”

Yemen’s Houthis launched a multipronged ballistic missile attack against Saudi Arabia late Sunday evening, the Washington Post reports. The attack—which targeted the Saudi capital of Riyadh, as well as cities near the border with Yemen and in the southwest of the country—marked a sharp escalation in the Houthis’ attempts to strike the Gulf kingdom. Although the kingdom’s missile defense systems intercepted the incoming projectiles, fragments created by the interception of the Houthi missiles killed one Egyptian national and wounded two others. The foiled attack threatens to sideline recent efforts by the U.N. envoy to bring Saudi and Houthi officials together in peaceful talks to end the war. The Post notes that the aerial assault “seemed certain to provoke a furious Saudi response.”

ICYMI: This Weekend on Lawfare

Stewart Baker praised John Bolton’s work on the Proliferation Security Initiative—a vast improvement upon previous international WMD interdiction regimes—and expressed his hope that Bolton achieves similar success when dealing with Iran and North Korea.

Chris Mirasola argued that the administration's latest sanctions on Russia offer little new information about the Russian actors who coordinated international cyber attacks or interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Matthew Kahn posted the Lawfare Podcast, a conversation between Benjamin Wittes and Amy Chua about Chua’s new book, “Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations.”

Nicholas Miller argued that the current approach to nuclear nonproliferation, particularly the nonproliferation treaty, often does more harm than good.

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