US News

• Arizona may use its National Guard to fill staffing shortages at prisons. [Link]
• New York state will divest from Ben and Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, over the ice cream company’s decision not to sell ice cream in the West Bank settlements. [Link]
• A jury of eight military officers sentenced Gitmo detainee Majid Khan to the minimum sentence of 26 years. Seven of the eight jurors also wrote a letter to the court condemning the torture Khan faced at the hands of the US. [Link]

Taiwan

• The US will donate 1.5 million Covid vaccine doses to Taiwan. [Link]
• The de facto ambassador to Taiwan says the US is committed to helping defend the island. [Link]

Afghanistan 

• The Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, John Sopko, says the State Department pressured the SIGAR office to remove reports of State Department activities in Afghanistan from its website. Sopko says his office initially complied, then reinstated the documents after the State Department failed to provide any justification for removing the documents. [Link]
• Sopko said the Department of Defense rarely applied oversight to the money it gave to the Afghan security forces. [Link]
• The Taliban call for the US to release Afghan government funds. [Link]

Iran

• US officials are “highly skeptical” that renewed talks will save the Iran Nuclear Deal. [Link]
• The US sanctions two members of the IRGC and two Iranian companies. [Link]
• The US says it is in lockstep with Germany, France, and the UK on Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations. [Link]
• Biden says the US will respond to Iranian actions, including drone strikes. [Link]

Middle East

• Israel killed five militia members with a missile strike near Damascus. [Link]
• Saudi Arabia expelled the Lebanese Ambassador and banned Lebanese imports after a video surfaced of Lebanon’s Information Minister criticizing the Saudi-led war in Yemen. [Link]
• Twelve people were killed by a suicide bomber in Aden, Yemen. [Link]

Africa

• Seven soldiers in Mali were killed in two separate attacks. [Link]
• The Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Army seized cities from the Ethiopian government. [Link]
• The Ethiopian government claims Tigrayian forces executed 100 “youths” in one town that was seized. The government did not provide evidence of this alleged crime. [Link]
• Members of Sudan’s Beja tribal group lift their blockade of Sudan’s Red Sea port. [Link]