Axios

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer is expected to visit Washington on Wednesday and meet White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior Biden administration officials for talks on the war in Gaza and Israel's plans for the day after the fighting ends, two sources briefed on the visit told Axios.

Why it matters: Dermer is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest and most trusted confidant. He has key insight into Netanyahu's thinking, including on the U.S.' post-war strategy of linking possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia to the creation of a pathway for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The four-day workweek has received tepid interest in the U.S., but in Latin America one country is giving it a shot, while others are moving to shorten work hours.

Driving the news: The Dominican Republic next month will start a six-month pilot program for a four-day workweek. The program mimics one in the U.K. that resulted in workers' stress levels dropping and job retention rising, according to a report released last year.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has reasserted the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party over the state's duties and actions. China's foreign affairs may be next.

Why it matters: Party-led diplomacy gives Beijing a powerful and largely unscrutinized backchannel with political power brokers in other countries. In the long run, it could reshape the norms of international relations to bring them more in line with Beijing's interests.

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was given a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday after it found she had "committed an anti-doping rule violation."

Why it matters: Team USA confirmed late Monday the U.S. figure skating team had been awarded a 2022 Winter Olympics gold medal as a consequence of the CAS backdating the ban to disqualify Valieva from all contests where she medaled during the affected period — including the Beijing Games.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday the state will continue installing razor wire at the U.S.-Mexico border, despite the Supreme Court ruling allowing the Biden administration to remove it.

The big picture: The Republican-led state has been pressuring the federal government to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico and as they say they're defending states from a border "invasion" in the face of a record number of migrants arriving.

Israeli Shin Bet security agency director Ronen Bar visited Cairo and met with his Egyptian counterpart, Abbas Kamel, on Monday amid tensions between Israel and Egypt over the war in Gaza and the possibility of the Israeli military expanding its operation to the Palestinian city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, two Israeli sources said.

Why it matters: Egypt is extremely concerned about the growing humanitarian crisis along its border with Gaza. More than 1 million Palestinians — the majority of whom were displaced during the war — are concentrated in Rafah.

Raging wildfires that have so far burned more than 40,000 acres across Colombia since November are expected to intensify and continue through March.

Driving the news: President Gustavo Petro last week declared a national emergency, allowing funding for other projects to be diverted to firefighting efforts.

President Biden and other top U.S. officials discussed Sunday a "significant military response" against pro-Iranian militias over the drone attack near the Jordan-Syria border that killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens of others, a U.S. official and another source briefed on the matter told Axios.

Why it matters: The White House and Pentagon are hoping to calibrate their retaliation to contain the growing risk of regional war. But pressure for more significant action is brewing on Capitol Hill, with hawks pushing for strikes inside Iran.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged an Iranian narcotics trafficker and two Canadian nationals on Monday in a murder-for-hire plot against two people in Maryland.

Why it matters: The Justice Department said the intended victims of the plot had previously fled to the U.S. after one of them defected from Iran.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Monday that U.S., Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials made "progress" this weekend in the talks aimed at securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The big picture: Qatari and Egyptian mediators plan to present Hamas with a framework this week for negotiations over a three-phase deal. The first phase would include a six-week pause in fighting and the release of roughly 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Israel freeing a significant number of Palestinian prisoners, according to Israeli and Qatari officials.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told U.S. officials last week that he and the Israeli military will not allow the rebuilding of illegal outposts or settlements by Israeli settlers inside the Gaza Strip, four U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: The Biden administration is concerned that a one-kilometer buffer zone Israel is planning to establish inside Gaza will be used for the rebuilding of the settlements that were dismantled during the 2005 Israeli pullout from the enclave.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens wounded in a drone strike by a pro-Iranian militia on a U.S. outpost in northeast Jordan overnight, President Biden said in a statement on Sunday.

Why it matters: This is the most serious attack on U.S. forces in the Middle East since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack and it is the first such attack in Jordan.

Senior national security officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority secretly met in Riyadh 10 days ago to coordinate plans for the day after the war in Gaza and discuss ways to involve a revitalized Palestinian Authority in governing there, three sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.

Why it matters: The meeting is another sign of the increased coordination between Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority in recent months, especially since the war in Gaza started.

China's embattled property firm Evergrande was ordered by a Hong Kong court to liquidate on Monday morning local time.

Why it matters: The slow-moving problems of Evergrande, once China's largest developer, underscore the country's deepening economic woes, which have sent the stock market swooning.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Sunday defended bipartisan border security package negotiations after facing criticism from some fellow Republicans, including former President Trump.

The big picture: Oklahoma Republican Party vice chair Wayne Hill announced in a statement Saturday that the state GOP had passed a resolution condemning and censuring Lankford over the border talks, threatened to withdraw support for him and accused him of "playing fast and loose with Democrats" on the issue.