Politico – Myah Ward and Jonathan Lemire / Harris makes a forceful case for Israel-Gaza cease-fire after Netanyahu meeting

• Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in private Thursday and followed it with a strikingly forceful call on his government to get a cease-fire deal done and ease the suffering of civilians in Gaza. 

• Harris, as she works to define herself as her party’s new likely nominee, did not diverge from Biden administration policy except perhaps in the directness of her message. 

• “Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” she said. It remains unclear if and how the vice president might try to distance herself from Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy, though there has been some daylight between the two leaders in the past.

• In December, Harris told administration officials, including the president, that she wanted the White House to show more public concern for the humanitarian devastation in Gaza — Biden sharpened his public criticism of Israel in the months after. And she also argued at the time that the administration needed to begin making “day after” plans for how to handle the aftermath of the war. 
   

Bloomberg - Sam Kim / North Korea’s Economy Rebounds as Kim-Putin Ties Fuel Arms Trade

• North Korea’s economy roared back to life as arms transfers with Russia provided support for Kim Jong Un’s regime, allowing the leader to shun diplomacy as he ramped up his threats against the US and South Korea. 

• North Korea’s gross domestic product expanded 3.1% in 2023 from a year earlier, ending a three-year streak of contractions and posting the biggest growth since 2016, according to estimates published Friday by South Korea’s central bank. 

• The growth comes as Kim has drawn closer to Moscow, ignored US calls to return to disarmament talks and rolled back border restrictions imposed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that slammed the breaks on trade for his sanctions-hit economy.

• While North Korea’s economy posts one of the biggest expansions since Kim took over the regime upon the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011, the country remains one of the most impoverished in the world with UN agencies saying a large share of its population suffers from shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities.

South China Morning Post - Jess Ma / Hong Kong adheres to global sanctions, rule of law, John Lee tells Ukraine’s top diplomat

• Hong Kong strictly adheres to global sanctions and local laws, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said after Ukraine’s top diplomat urged him to prevent Russia from using the city to circumvent Western restrictions imposed on it for invading its neighbour. 

• “The HKSAR government implements and strictly enforces United Nations Security Council’s sanctions. Any action taken by the HKSAR government will be in strict accordance with the laws of Hong Kong.”. 

• Russia is not mentioned on the sanctions list of the UN Security Council. Russian individuals and entities, however, are on the list. The country is not on the council’s list of 31 sanctions regimes either. 

• Kuleba’s calls were made after a report from an advocacy group Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation on Monday, which said the city had been shipping goods listed on the US and EU list of “Common High Priority Items” critical for Russia’s war effort. 
   

Al Jazeera / Venezuela presidential candidates hold final rallies ahead of election

• Venezuela’s government and opposition have closed the official presidential election campaign period with demonstrations of support that drew thousands of people on to the streets of the capital Caracas. 

• Maduro warned last week of a “bloodbath” if he were to lose, comments that drew criticism from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

• Maduro’s government has presided over an economic collapse in Venezuela, the migration of about a third of the population, and a sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations, which was crowned by sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and others which have crippled the country’s already-struggling oil industry. 

• Polls will open from 6am (10:00 GMT) to 6pm (22:00 GMT) on Sunday and the results are expected to be known on Sunday evening or in the following days.
   

Our opinion reads for today: 

• Bloomberg - David Fickling / Olympics Host Cities Don’t Belong on a Warming Planet 
• Project Syndicate - M. Niaz Asadullah / An Arab Spring for Bangladesh? 
• Financial Times - Courtney Weaver and Anastasia Stognei / Russia’s surprising consumer spending boom 
• The Guardian - Roman Krznaric / How will we solve the world’s water wars? An ancient Spanish court offers one answer