Monday, Jan. 10

· President Joe Biden spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Biden commended Abiy on the recent release of several political prisoners but raised concerns about civilian deaths in recent air raids, per a White House statement.

· American and Russian diplomats met for security talks in Geneva, in which reportedly neither side indicated any progress toward narrowing their differences on Ukraine — on whose border Russia has amassed troops — nor wider European security issues. “Unfortunately we have a great disparity in our principled approaches to this. The U.S. and Russia in some ways have opposite views on what needs to be done,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters.

· The U.S. Mint sent into circulation quarter coins featuring poet Maya Angelou, making her the first Black woman to be featured on a U.S. quarter. “It is my honor to present our nation’s first circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history,” said Mint Deputy Director Ventris Gibson.

· The Coast Guard pulled 176 Haitian refugees from an overloaded 60-foot boat about 25 miles northeast of the Bahamas as it approached the coast of Florida.

Tuesday, Jan. 11

• Biden gave a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, in which he said he backs an effort to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate to pass voting rights legislation, which he argued would protect the “heart and soul” of American democracy. The Senate had two voting rights bills up for debate, which stalled because they do not have enough Republican and centrist Democrat votes to move past the filibuster.
• The White House announced it would donate an extra $308 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, bringing the total U.S. aid for Afghanistan and Afghan refugees to nearly $782 million since October. The funds will be channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development and various humanitarian organizations.

· Federal judge James Boasberg rejected Facebook’s attempt to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust complaint against it. The complaint alleges that the company abused its dominance and should be broken up. Boasberg ruled that the social media company must face the lawsuit. The FTC originally filed the lawsuit in June, but a judge dismissed the case until it was brought back in revised form, which Boasberg said is now “more robust and detailed.”

Wednesday, Jan. 12

• The Biden administration criticized China’s decision to cancel flights departing from the U.S. for China as a safety precaution due to the number of passengers who later tested positive for the coronavirus. “China’s actions are inconsistent with its obligations under the U.S.-China Air Transport Agreement. We are engaging with the [Chinese government] on this and we retain the right to take regulatory measures as appropriate,” a Transportation Department spokesperson said.
• The White House said that in an effort to “do all that it can to keep schools safely open for all students” it would send five million lab-based PCR tests and five million rapid tests to schools across the country monthly starting this month.

· The Labor Department released its Consumer Price Index, which showed that inflation last month surged to its highest annual rate in nearly 40 years.

· The Treasury Department sanctioned five North Korean citizens for their alleged roles in procuring goods to develop North Korean weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile-related programs. “The DPRK’s latest missile launches are further evidence that it continues to advance prohibited programs despite the international community’s calls for diplomacy and denuclearization,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

· The Defense Department released documents showing it approved the release of five more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, three of whom are from Yemen, one from Somalia, and the last from Kenya. Eighteen of the 39 detainees currently held at the facility in Cuba have been approved for release. None were ever charged with a crime.

· The State Department published a report arguing that China’s activities in the South China Sea “gravely undermine the rule of law” and that China “unlawfully claims sovereignty or some form of exclusive jurisdiction over” most of the trade route.

Thursday, Jan. 13

· The Supreme Court blocked Biden’s effort to require employees at large businesses to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, but ruled in favor of allowing the federal government to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers in the country.

· Biden announced the federal government would ramp up its COVID-19 preventative measures by doubling its supply of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests — 1 billion in total — and deploying over 120 military medical personnel to five states hit the hardest by surges spurred on by omicron variant cases: Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Rhode Island.

· Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers domestic terror group, was arrested along with 10 others on charges of seditious conspiracy related to their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Rhodes is the highest-ranking member of a far-right group to be arrested in relation to the attack. He is also the subject of the Justice Department’s first seditious conspiracy charge in connection with the riot.

· In a major step toward overhauling the federal prison system, the Justice Department published a new rule allowing thousands of federal inmates to become eligible for release by participating in a program that allows prisoners to earn shorter jail terms, and transfers eligible inmates to supervised release programs, residential re-entry centers or home confinement.

Friday, Jan. 14

· The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol subpoenaed the parent companies of Facebook, Google, Twitter and Reddit for information about “how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps — if any — social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds for radicalizing people to violence,” Chair Bennie Thompson said.

· U.S. officials joined with Ukrainian officials in claiming that Russia is preparing to conduct a “false flag operation” to create a pretext for invading Ukraine. “Russian influence actors are already starting to fabricate Ukrainian provocations in state and social media to justify a Russian intervention and sow divisions in Ukraine,” an official told Reuters. Russian officials meanwhile deny the story.

· Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines appointed Jeffrey Wichman as the national intelligence office’s new election threats executive.

Saturday, Jan. 15

• No news to report.

Sunday, Jan. 16

• No news to report.