U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak on the phone today (CNN), following a verbal confrontation between their countries’ envoys at the UN Security Council yesterday. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations warned that consequences would be “horrific” if Russia further invades Ukraine and said intelligence shows Moscow intends to amass more than thirty thousand troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border this month. Russia’s ambassador accused Washington of “whipping up tensions and rhetoric.”
 
Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to publicly address (NYT) Russia’s crisis with Ukraine for the first time since December. An unnamed U.S. official yesterday told the Washington Post that Washington received a written follow-up from Moscow in an ongoing exchange about Russia’s security demands, but Russian state media reported that Moscow is still working on its latest response (Moscow Times).

Japan’s House of Representatives called for accountability (Kyodo) regarding the “serious human rights situations” in the Xinjiang region, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Hong Kong, saying human rights are an international concern. The resolution does not blame the Chinese government for abuses.
 
Taiwan: Taiwanese athletes will attend (SCMP) the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Beijing after initially saying they would not.

Businesses across Myanmar closed their doors (FT) today as part of a “silent strike” to protest on the one-year anniversary of a military coup. The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (UK) imposed new sanctions (Nikkei) against the junta.
 
This Backgrounder looks at how the coup has led to a civil war and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
 
Afghanistan: The Taliban agreed to allow Qatar Airways to charter two evacuation flights from Kabul’s airport per week, Qatar’s foreign minister told Axios.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced the designation (NYT) before Qatar’s emir visited the White House yesterday. Seventeen other countries hold this status.
 
At this meeting, Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, discusses U.S.-Qatar relations.
 
Syria: The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said forty of their troops, seventy-seven prison guards, and four civilians died in clashes (Reuters) after the self-proclaimed Islamic State began trying to free some of its fighters from prison on January 20.

The bloc voted to suspend (AFP) Burkina Faso yesterday, one week after the country’s military coup. West African and UN envoys are now in Burkina Faso to hold talks with the junta.
 
Mali: The country gave France’s ambassador seventy-two hours to leave Mali (BBC) after he said its junta was “illegitimate” and “out of control.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a barrage of criticism (Politico) in the House of Commons yesterday after an inquiry into government parties held during a COVID-19 lockdown cited officials’ “serious failure” to observe the standards expected of them.

Prime Minister Mirtha Vasquez announced yesterday that she is resigning (MercoPress) “due to the impossibility of achieving consensus” in President Pedro Castillo’s cabinet.
 
CFR’s Paul J. Angelo and Chloé Mauvais unpack the polarization that surrounded Castillo’s election.
 
Argentina: The majority leader of the lower house of Congress resigned in disapproval (MercoPress) of an agreement that President Alberto Fernandez’s administration reached with the International Monetary Fund. Congressional approval is needed to ratify the deal.

The state’s corrections department is beginning the process of dismantling (Guardian) the prison’s death row, which is the second-largest in the United States, and will repurpose it to focus on rehabilitation. California last carried out an execution in 2006.