President Joe Biden announced that the United States will end its support, including arms sales, for offensive operations in Yemen, splintering with six years of U.S. policy. Biden delivered the news in his first foreign policy speech (White House) as president, during which he declared that “America is back” and signaled a shift (NYT) in the United States’ approach to international issues.
 
The United States has long supported a Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, where millions of people face starvation (FT) amid a humanitarian crisis. The details of how the Biden administration plans to end its assistance for offensive operations are unclear (Politico), and Biden said the United States will continue to help Saudi Arabia “defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He also pledged an increase in U.S. diplomacy aimed at concluding the conflict, support for a cease-fire and peace talks, and humanitarian aid. Underscoring these commitments, Biden named career foreign service officer Tim Lenderking as the new envoy for Yemen.

China’s foreign ministry accused the BBC of producing “fake news” after the United Kingdom’s media regulating body revoked a Chinese news channel’s license (Reuters), citing concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on the outlet. In the last year, the UK expelled three people believed to be Chinese spies who posed as journalists, the Telegraph reports.
 
Hong Kong: New educational guidelines lay out how schools should approach issues such as the controversial national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year. Among other topics, students as young as six years old will study (Al Jazeera, Reuters) the “great importance” of the law that the Hong Kong government has used to suppress dissent.

The UN Security Council called for (Reuters) Myanmar’s military junta to release detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other officials, while the Biden administration said the military should relinquish power. Indonesia and Malaysia today urged a meeting (Straits Times) of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to discuss Myanmar.
 
This CFR Backgrounder explains ASEAN.
 
India: A foreign ministry spokesperson likened the recent storming of New Delhi’s historic Red Fort by farmers protesting agriculture laws to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The government has sought to quell (Al Jazeera) the ongoing protests, including by restricting social media.

Saudi Arabia temporarily freed (Al Jazeera) two U.S.-Saudi nationals after detaining them for more than three hundred days on terrorism-related charges that advocates say are unsubstantiated and intended to stamp out dissent. The pair will face a Saudi court next month.
 
Iran: The country received five hundred thousand doses (Al-Monitor) of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines Iran has received. Current coronavirus case numbers in Iran are much lower than their all-time high, but experts warn that another wave is likely as residents flout health protocols.
 
This CFR In Brief explains the global COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the last remaining candidate for the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) empty director general position after a South Korean contender ended her bid (Bloomberg). Okonjo-Iweala would be the first African and first woman to lead the organization.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at what’s next for the WTO.
 
Addis Ababa: This weekend, officials will attend (AFP, RFI) a two-day, virtual African Union summit that will include a vote on the bloc’s leadership. Discussion will focus on pandemic response and security challenges.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the European Union’s joint vaccine purchasing program and its decision not to grant vaccines emergency approval, but she acknowledged that officials “underestimated” the difficulty of securing a seamless distribution of vaccines. The EU has faced (Politico) vaccine shortages and criticism for the slow pace of inoculations.
 
EU/Russia: EU Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today in Moscow after a four-year pause (DW) in top EU officials’ visits to Russia. Afterward, both described a lack of trust in the other power but pledged to meet again this week.

Vale agreed to pay $7 billion (MercoPress) to the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais for the 2019 collapse of a dam at an iron ore mining complex that killed more than 270 people. The disaster, among Brazil’s greatest environmental tragedies, remains under investigation.
 
Mexico: A possible new COVID-19 variant thought to have originated (LAHT) in the state of Jalisco is under investigation. Researchers say the potential strain carries a mutation to which people with immunity to other forms of the coronavirus are susceptible.