February 4, 2022

UKRAINE | Intelligence officials in both the U.S. and U.K. said yesterday they have evidence that Russia is developing staged videos and false propaganda concerning violence along Russia’s border with Ukraine for use as a pretext for invading Ukraine. [more]

WINTER STORM | More than 300,000 people remain without power this morning across a large part of the central U.S. as a result of a major winter storm. Memphis, Tennessee, alone has more than 100,000 reported outages. The storm is moving into the northeast U.S. today. [more]

SYRIA | U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that the target of a U.S. Special Forces raid in Syria earlier this week was Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who is reported to have taken over the leadership of ISIS in 2019. [more]

COVID-19 | According to a recent Brookings Institution report, as much as 15% of unfilled jobs in the U.S. could be due to "long covid," –  debilitating symptoms of the COVID-19 infection that last for months or even years. [more]

OLYMPICS | The 2022 Winter Olympics open in Beijing, China, this morning. Approximately 3,000 athletes from around the world will be competing in 109 events through February 20. [more]

RUSSIA-CHINA RELATIONS | Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met today in Beijing. The two leaders said relations between their countries are at an all-time high, and jointly called for limits on the expansion of NATO. [more]

COVID-19 | Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen signed a bill into law yesterday making Austria the first European country to implement a nationwide Covid-19 vaccine mandate. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY |  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta Conference on this date in 1945 to coordinate plans for the final defeat of Nazi Germany during the final stages of World War II. [more history]