US News

• The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules against four Oklahoma death row inmates attempting to block their pending executions by lethal injection. [Link]  
• Biden nominates Robert Califf to head the FDA. Califf led the FDA in the final year of the Obama administration. [Link]
• AstraZeneca says it will begin taking profits from the covid vaccine. [Link]
• The head of Oklahoma’s National Guard Gen. Thomas Mancino says he will not enforce a covid vaccine mandate. [Link]
• An inspector general report finds the Pentagon is not addressing the rampant sexual abuse that occurs in the military. [Link] 
• The Senate is expected to vote on the 2022 NDAA this week. [Link]

Poland-Belarus Border Crisis

• Putin walks back a threat from Belarus to cut the gas supplied to the EU. [Link]
• Belarus is seeking to buy Russian Iskander missiles. The missiles have a range of 500 km. [Link]
• Turkey bans Iraqis, Syrian, and Yemenis from flying to Belarus. [Link]
• The EU is ready to add new sanctions on Belarus targeting airlines, travel agencies, and government officials. [Link]
• The UK deployed a team of ten soldiers to Poland to assist on the border with Belarus. [Link]

Russia

• UK chief of defense staff Gen. Nick Carter says there is a greater risk of accidental war with Russia today is greater than during the Cold War. [Link]
• Russia denies reports from the US that it has plans to invade Ukraine. [Link]
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is making a push on Twitter to get Biden to sanction the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. [Link]

China

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirms to Japan that the US will come to the defense of Japanese claims to uninhabited islands that are also claimed by China and Taiwan. [Link]
• Australia’s defense minister says his country would very likely join the American defense of Taiwan if China invaded. [Link]

Myanmar

• Last week, American journalist Danny Fenster was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Myanmar court. Fenster was convicted of dissent against the military and immigration crimes. Fenster was released on Monday and will be returning to the US. [Link]

Afghanistan

• Qatar will represent US diplomatic interest in Afghanistan. [Link]
• Six people were killed by a bus bombing, including Afghan journalist Hamid Saighani. Saighani worked for a mainstream Afghan media network. [Link]

Israel

• The Treasury Department announces a new partnership with Israel to combat ransomware attacks. [Link]
• Israel agreed to release Miqdad Qawasmeh from prison in February 2022. Qawasmeh was on a 113 hunger strike demanding his freedom. He is being held without charge or trial. [Link]
• An Israeli human rights group reports 450 settler attacks on Palestinians in the past two years. Two-thirds of the time, Israeli security forces chose not to respond to the attack. Nearly every time Israeli forces arrived they allowed the attack to happen or aided the settlers. In only 13 cases did the Israeli forces intervene to protect Palestinians. [Link]
• Israeli settler outposts – backed by the Israeli military – block Palestinians from accessing key farmland. [Link]
• The Israeli military loosens its rules for firing on suspected smugglers and weapons thieves. [Link]

Iran

• US defense officials say Iran was unlikely behind the assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister and Iran has struggled to have control over Shia militias in Iraq since the US assassinated Iranian Gen Soleimani in January 2020. [Link]
• The head of the IAEA says he is disappointed about the lack of contact between his group and the new Iranian government. [Link]
• The Saudi foreign minister says talks with Iran will continue. He said the first four rounds of talks were exploratory. [Link]

Middle East

• In March 2019, a US airstrike in Syria killed at least 64 civilians. The Pentagon covered up the war crime despite it being reported by several officers. The NYT reporting reveals CENTCOM was labeling women and children killed by the US as potential militants. [Link] CENTCOM responded to the report by saying the strike was legitimate. [Link]
• Yemeni government forces withdrew from some positions in Hodeida. [Link]

Africa

• A Somali court convicts five Ugandan soldiers – part of the African Union force – for killing seven Somali civilians. Two of the guilty will be executed and the other three will be returned to Uganda to serve their sentences. [Link] 
• Said al-Islam – the son of Gaddafi – files paperwork to run in Libya’s coming presidential election. [Link]
• The US sanctions the Eritrean military and several Eritreans for alleged war crimes in Tigray, Ethiopia. [Link]
• At least six protesters have been killed since Saturday by Sudanese security forces. The bureau chief of Al-Jazeera in Sudan was arrested. [Link]
• At least 19 people were killed when militants attacked a military outpost in Burkina Faso. [Link]