Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, the United Kingdom ceding the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and a North Korean military setback.
Rising Antisemitism
Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in the United States were killed late Wednesday while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. The couple, Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky and American citizen Sarah Milgrim, were with two other people when they were shot by 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez.
According to eyewitnesses, Rodriguez was seen chanting “free, free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” before event security detained him.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed these remarks, saying, “We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel.”
Reports of antisemitism around the world have skyrocketed since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza. According to the Anti-Defamation League, more than 9,000 antisemitic incidents occurred in the United States in 2024. This was the highest number on record since the agency began tracking such reports 46 years ago, and it marked a 344 percent increase over the past five years as well as an 893 percent increase over the past 10 years.
“Inciteful antisemitic rhetoric is a growing and increasingly deadly danger to Jews and societies worldwide. It must be forcibly and universally condemned,” said Stuart Eizenstat, chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Last week, the local D.C. government awarded the Capital Jewish Museum funding from a $500,000 grant to help increase its security amid fears that its identity as a Jewish museum and its new LGBTQ exhibit could make it the target of hate crimes.
Where to place the blame for rising antisemitism, though, has been mixed. On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused “many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe,” of fostering an atmosphere of “antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement.”
Several Western countries have become increasingly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, where 19 months of war have led to mass displacement, fear of famine, and widespread destruction across the territory. Israeli attacks have killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza during this time, of which most have been women and children, according to local health authorities.
However, Israeli opposition figure Yair Golan wrote on X on Thursday that Netanyahu’s government “is the one that’s fueling antisemitism and hatred of Israel, and the results are unprecedented diplomatic isolation and danger posed to every single Jew around the globe.” Golan made headlines this week for accusing the Israeli government of killing Palestinian babies “for a hobby,” among other controversial remarks.
European governments were also quick to condemn Wednesday’s shooting while decrying Saar’s argument that Western criticism of Israel is to blame. Such a statement is “outrageous and completely unjustified,” French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said, adding that “France has condemned, France condemns, and France will continue to condemn, always and unequivocally, any act of antisemitism.”
Today’s Most Read
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What We’re Following
Air base access. The United Kingdom signed a deal on Thursday that cedes sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under a 99-year lease, London will maintain control of the strategically important U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia air base for a costly rate of $135 million a year (or $4.5 billion in total).
The Chagos Islands are London’s last colonial outpost in Africa. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has touted the deal as a long-awaited solution for an ethical and security dilemma on the continent. “If we did not agree [to] this deal, the legal situation would mean that we would not be able to prevent China or any other nation setting up their own bases on the outer islands or carrying out joint exercises near our base,” Starmer said.
But some officials have warned that ceding sovereignty of the archipelago will play into China’s hands, as Mauritius is a close trading partner of Beijing’s and China is looking to extend its influence on the continent.
The agreement has faced months of delays and controversies, up until just a few hours before the signing ceremony, when a British judge overturned an injunction to allow the deal to go forward. British and U.S. officials have argued that the agreement was the only way to ensure that the United Kingdom and United States maintained control of the air base, whose location places U.S. and British troops in the heart of the Indian Ocean.
Sinking warship. North Korea acknowledged a rare setback in its military development on Thursday, when state media reported that a second naval destroyer was damaged during a failed launch the day before. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the vessel became stuck on its launching sled, unbalancing and ultimately puncturing the bottom of the newly built 5,000-ton-class destroyer.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un—who was at the launch ceremony—blamed scientists, ship workers, and military officials of “absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism” for causing the “criminal act.”
Kim is seeking bigger ships to counter what he claims are U.S.-led threats in the Indo-Pacific and against Pyongyang. Specifically, he hopes to build a “blue-water operational fleet,” meaning the ships would be able to operate in the open ocean rather than just coastal waters. This was North Korea’s second major warship unveiled in recent weeks, with the first—the Choe Hyon-class destroyer—launching in April.
Harsh prison conditions. A Belarusian political prisoner has died while serving a five-year sentence at a prison colony in the city of Shklow, Belarus, the Viasna Human Rights Center said on Thursday. Valiantsin Shtermer, 61, was convicted in October 2023 for insulting Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. It is unclear when or exactly how Shtermer died, as well as whether it occurred while he was in prison or when he was being transferred to a hospital.
Following mass protests in Belarus in 2020 over Lukashenko’s sixth—and disputed—election win, Minsk accelerated its crackdown on anti-government dissidents. Since then, more than 65,000 people have been arrested, including Shtermer, who was placed on a list of “extremists” and “terrorists” that resulted in him receiving harsh prison conditions. Hundreds of thousands of others fearing persecution have fled abroad in recent years to avoid detention.
According to Viasna, Shtermer was the eighth political prisoner to die in Belarusian custody since 2020.
Odds and Ends
It might be time to rethink that planned vacation to Spain this summer. On Monday, Madrid ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 listings from its platform for allegedly violating government rules. These include either lacking or having inaccurate licenses or failing to provide information on whether an individual or corporation runs the property. Spain is struggling to control its housing affordability crisis, and Madrid has pointed fingers at short-term rentals for driving up costs.
The post Trump, Netanyahu Condemn Killing of Israeli Embassy Staffers in D.C. appeared first on Foreign Policy.
