☕ John Bolton's indictment, explained

Good morning!

Amazon Web Services (AWS) are coming out of a rough few hours.

The cloud computing giant was hit by a global outage overnight, causing major disruptions to some of the world’s largest websites and apps including Snapchat, Fortnite, Canva, Coinbase,Duolingo, Zoom, Roblox and Perplexity AI.

Oh, and Wordle. And Ring Doorbells. And PokemonGo.

I’ve got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

• The future of the ceasefire in Gaza is uncertain after increased violence between Israel and Hamas over the weekend. Both sides have accused each other of multiple breaches of the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on 10 October. Israel launched air strikes on Gaza on Sunday night and has paused humanitarian aid delivery, after it accused Hamas killing two soldiers. Officials in Gaza said Israel killed 44 Palestinians on Sunday.

• The Taliban and Pakistan reached a truce on Sunday. It comes a week after fighting intensified along the border after Pakistan allegedly attacked a senior Taliban figure. Islamabad has long accused the Taliban of supporting and harboring militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban denies. A temporary truce was reached on Wednesday, but it did not hold, making way for Sunday’s more substantial ceasefire.

• Two people have died after an Emirates Cargo plane swerved into their security vehicle when making a landing at Hong Kong on Monday morning. All four members of the plane’s crew survived despite the aircraft failing to stop in time and ending up partly submerged in the waters surrounding Hong Kong’s airport. Investigations are underway.

• The U.S Chamber of Commerce has launched a civil action against the Trump administration over its $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. The fee, announced in September, applies to the 85,000 annual H-1B visas that tech companies rely on to hire specialized workers. The Chamber, representing 300,000 businesses, argues Trump exceeded his authority and the fee forces companies to either drastically increase labor costs or hire fewer workers. Trump's order claims the H-1B program enables "large-scale replacement of American workers," while business groups say it addresses skilled worker shortages.

I’ve got 1 minute

Crown jewels displayed at the Parisian museum were stolen on Sunday (local time) in a four-minute daylight heist, according to authorities.

The thieves broke in through a window, using a mechanical ladder to reach an upper-floor gallery.

It’s reported they stole nine items from the French Crown Jewels display, including a necklace given by Napoleon to his wife.

A crown containing more than 1,300 diamonds was found broken outside the museum.

The heist

Shortly after the Louvre opened on Sunday, a truck fitted with a mechanical ladder was driven beneath a window on the Louvre’s Seine-facing side.

Two masked thieves ascended the ladder to a balcony, where they used an angle grinder to force the window and entered the Apollon Gallery of the Louvre, where the 23-piece Napoleonic jewels exhibition is displayed.

Thieves smashed the casings of two displays, stealing their contents and fled on motorbikes ridden by two others, leaving the truck and its mechanical ladder for investigators to pore over.

The alarm system was activated, and security directed all guests to leave the building, which remained closed for the remainder of Sunday.

What was taken?

The thieves took nine pieces, but dropped and damaged the priceless crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, on their way out.

The eight remaining royal jewels that were stolen include a sapphire diadem, a necklace and a single earring, an emerald necklace and earrings, and two brooches belonging to Empress Eugénie, plus her diadem.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France would “recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice”, but experts remain sceptical.

“Professional crews often break down and re-cut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, effectively erasing their provenance”, said a diamond expert quoted by the AP.

I’ve got 2 minutes

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton was indicted last week on charges of mishandling classified information. He becomes the third Trump critic to face prosecution in two months.

The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of transmitting and retaining national defense information while writing his 2020 White House memoir. Bolton denies wrongdoing and claims the charges are politically motivated.

Here's what you need to know.

The indictment

A Maryland grand jury charged Bolton with eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors allege Bolton used personal email and messaging devices to send pages of his memoir to two unidentified individuals. Media outlets report these individuals are Bolton's wife and daughter.

It is alleged that a “cyber actor” linked to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s email and accessed this information.

"These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations", the court papers say.

Each count carries up to 10 years in prison.

"I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power," Bolton said in a statement.

Trump vs Bolton

Bolton served as national security advisor in Trump's first administration before being fired in 2019. He became one of the administration's most vocal critics.

His 2020 memoir "The Room Where It Happened" detailed his White House experience. The indictment alleges the security breaches occurred while Bolton was composing this account.

The Trump administration initially tried to block the book's publication, claiming it contained classified information. A court cleared the memoir for publication.

When asked about the indictment last week, Trump said he had no knowledge of it but called Bolton a "bad guy."

The investigation

The investigation began during Trump's first presidency after the court case concluded.

The Biden administration dropped the case in 2021. The Department of Justice reopened it after a foreign intelligence service notified the U.S. government about Bolton's emails.

Politically motivated?

Last month, President Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute three political enemies. The President made the demand in a public Truth Social post that the Wall Street Journal later reported was supposed to be a private message.

Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have also been indicted in recent weeks. The head prosecutor in one of those cases and several DOJ members resigned, saying there was insufficient evidence.

However, Bolton's case differs in one key respect, which is that career federal prosecutors signed the indictment, unlike the other recent prosecutions Trump publicly called for.

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