Axios

Russia has been banned from participating in next year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea as a result of an extensive, systematic state-backed doping campaign uncovered during 2014's Sochi Winter Olympics, per The New York Times. The report branded the penalties against Russia as "so severe they were without precedent in Olympics history," though Russian athletes with impeccable drug-testing records might be allowed to compete under a neutral flag.

Why it matters: The decision will likely only serve to exacerbate tensions between Russia and the West as Russia routinely uses the Olympic Games to showcase its athletic prowess to the rest of the world. Case in point: Russia led the Sochi medal table — in both total medals and gold medals — before some of its medals were stripped under the investigation.

Trump's former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland's nomination to be ambassador to Singapore is "frozen" due to inconsistencies in her testimony at a Senate hearing, Sen. Bob Corker told CNN reporter Manu Raju.

Background: McFarland testified that she knew nothing of Michael Flynn's contacts with Russians, but the New York Times obtained an email in which McFarland discusses Flynn's conversation with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. McFarland was nominated in June, so the process was not exactly moving rapidly prior to the new revelations.

The crew on a Hong Kong-bound flight said they saw North Korea's latest missile test blow up over the Sea of Japan last week. Korean Air pilots on separate flights from California to Seoul also reported seeing flashes of light believed to be the missile while flying over Japan.

Get smart: Experts told AP that it's unlikely a missile test would hit a civilian airliner. Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear strategy at MIT, said North Korea likely selects splashdown points for each test to avoid airline routes.

The European Union and the United Kingdom failed to reach a Brexit deal today after a round of negotiations in Brussels. However, E.U. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Theresa May both expressed optimism during a joint press appearance that a deal could be reached as talks continue later this week.

The impasse: Most of the buzz surrounding today's negotiations centered on the Northern Ireland/Ireland border, with concerns that a potential deal might involve Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., remaining within the E.U.'s single market and customs union. That led to backlash from both May's allies in government, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, who vehemently oppose such a deal, and leaders in remain-heavy Scotland and London, who would want such a deal for themselves.