The U.S. and Japan on Monday announced an agreement that will end steel tariffs imposed by former President Trump.
State of play: The U.S. remove the 25% tariff for a limited amount of steel products, specifically 1.25 million pounds, coming in from Japan, according to senior U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Commerce officials.
President Biden repeatedly and vigorously defended Germany's reliability as an ally at a press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday, insisting that "there is no need to win back trust" when it comes to Berlin's approach to NATO and Ukraine.
Why it matters: Scholz's first visit to the White House since he succeeded Angela Merkel in December has been overshadowed by accusations that Germany is unwilling to stand up for Ukraine as it faces the threat of a large-scale invasion by Russia.
The president of George Washington University in D.C. has reversed his earlier decision to remove campus posters protesting the Beijing Olympics, which Chinese student groups had said "incited racial hatred and ethnic tensions."
The big picture: Universities in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere are navigating how to protect Chinese students from rising anti-Asian hate crimes, while protecting speech and art that criticizes Chinese government oppression from censorship by some Chinese students on campus who view that criticism as racist.
A top German lawmaker representing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party told Axios that "of course" Ukraine is right to call Nord Stream 2 an "existential threat" to its security, and that past German governments were wrong to dub the pipeline a "purely commercial project."
Why it matters: Nord Stream 2 has been a major headache for the Biden administration, which waived sanctions on the operator of the Russia-to-Germany pipeline in order to help repair relations with Berlin damaged during the Trump era.
Peng Shuai announced she's retiring from tennis and called sexual abuse allegations she'd made against a former Chinese government official a "huge misunderstanding," in an interview with French sports news outlet L'Équipe published Monday.
Australia will reopen its borders from Feb. 21 to foreign travelers who have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Monday.
Why it matters: Australia's borders have been shut to most non-residents since March 2020. Its tough pandemic policies made headlines last month when world men's tennis no. 1 Novak Djokovic was deported from the country for being unvaccinated.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency Sunday in response to 10 days of massive demonstrations in Canada's capital protesting pandemic restrictions, which have since spread to other provinces.
Driving the news: "Declaring a state of emergency reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government," per a statement from the mayor's office.
Why it matters: The call during which Biden accepted an invitation to visit Israel later this year came as the nuclear talks have entered a crucial crunch period.
