Covid

• Two court rulings block parts of Biden’s vaccine mandates. One ruling blocked the mandate for workers at healthcare facilities that accept federal tax dollars. A second ruling blocked the federal contractor mandate in three states. [Link]
• The Pentagon says members of the National Guard who do not take the covid vaccine will not be allowed to attend federally funded training. The training is required to remain in the National Guard. [Link]
• The Navy says unvaccinated sailors will have to undergo weekly covid tests to enter Department of Defense facilities. [Link]

US News

• On average, it cost a prisoner over five dollars to make a 15-minute phone call. The telecoms industry makes over $1 billion annually from prisons. [Link]
• Arizona police officer Ryan Remmington murdered Richard Lee Richards for stealing from Walmart and pulling a knife. Richards is confined to a wheelchair. [Link]
• Biden will nominate Bill LaPlante to be undersecretary of defense for acquisitions. [Link]
• The Commander of the 7th Fleet calls for more aircraft carriers in the Pacific. [Link]

Honduras

• Xiomara Castro wins Honduras’ presidential election. [Link]

Germany

• Three people were injured when a WWII bomb exploded in Munich. [Link]

Russia

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. [Link]
• Russia will seek guarantees from the West not to expand NATO further east or deploy new weapons systems near Russia’s borders. [Link]
• Russia will expel all American diplomats who have been in Russia for over three years on January 31st. Russia is responding to the US not renewing visas for several Russian diplomats. [Link]
• Belarus threatens to cut energy flows to Europe if Poland closes its border with Belarus. [Link]
• Belarus says it would be willing to host Russian nuclear weapons if NATO moved nuclear weapons into Eastern Europe. [Link]
• Ukraine’s prime minister claims Russia was behind a coup plot that was foiled by the Ukrainian government. [Link]
• Russia says Ukraine has deployed half of its army to the Donbas region. [Link]
• Ukraine calls for NATO to prepare sanctions against Russia. [Link]
• Ukraine says it needs to engage in talks with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine. [Link]

China

• Air Force Secretary Frank Kendell says the US and China are in a hypersonic weapons arms race. [Link]
• A US official says more countries could be welcomed into the AUKUS defense pact. [Link]

Korea

• The US and South Korea are expected to announce writing new defense plans. [Link]

Afghanistan

• US-Taliban talks opened in Qatar. [Link]
• The UN is developing a plan to create a $300 million fund to make cash payments to Afghan families with children or disabled members. [Link]

Middle East

• The US is upgrading a base in Jordan to make it more permanent. [Link]
• Iraq arrested several officers in connection to an attempted assassination of the prime minister. [Link]
• Iraq’s election commission confirms the Sadr Bloc won the most seats in the October election. [Link]
• Saudi Arabia used bribes and threats to kill a UN investigation into war crimes in Yemen. [Link]

Africa

• 800 soldiers from the Virginia National Guard and 200 from the Kentucky National Guard deploy to the Horn of Africa. [Link]
• The Ethiopian government recaptured several towns from Tigrayian forces in the Afar and Amhara regions. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is reported to be leading his forces. [Link]
• Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Ghana announce a new military operation against insurgents in the region. [Link]
• A top Sudanese general warns that if the West doesn’t support the Sudanese military then a migrant crisis would develop. [Link]
• A rebel attack in the Central African Republic left 30 civilians and two soldiers dead. [Link]