A group of Russia experts urged National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to send more arms to the Ukrainians when he spoke with them ahead of this week’s high-stakes diplomatic meetings with Russian officials, participants told Axios.
Why it matters: By soliciting advice from the hawkish pockets in the foreign policy establishment, including those who served under former President Trump, the Biden administration is considering all options while weighing how to discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine — and punish him if he does.
The Ukrainian government is publicly urging senators to vote for Sen. Ted Cruz's bill sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline — calling the project "no less an existential threat to our security" than the Russian troops on its border.
Why it matters: With U.S. officials in Europe for talks with Russia this week, Democrats face an uncomfortable choice — either buck President Biden or vote against sanctions on a pipeline they have long publicly opposed. The decision comes at a moment of crisis for Ukraine.
Officials in the city of Tianjin began mass testing the entire 14 million population for COVID-19 on Sunday after discovering a cluster of cases, AP reported.
Why it matters: Beijing, roughly 70 miles from Tianjin, will host the Olympics in less than a month.
Iran on Saturday sanctioned more than 50 U.S. officials over the 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani, one of the regime's most powerful military figures.
The big picture: The additional sanctions announced by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday come after the second anniversary of the Jan. 3, 2020, drone strike that killed Soleimani, the commander of Iran's regional network of proxies and international intelligence and terror operations.
Japan and the U.S. have reached a "basic agreement" to prohibit U.S. soldiers from leaving their bases in an effort to contain a recent surge in COVID-19 infections, AP reports.
