“The Biden administration is weighing new options, including providing more arms to Ukraine to resist a Russian occupation, to try to raise the costs for Russian President Vladimir Putin should he decide to invade the country,” CNN reports.

“The discussions, described by multiple sources familiar with them, reflect a sense of pessimism in the administration following last week’s diplomatic talks with Russian officials that yielded no breakthroughs and as Russia has continued to raise its force levels in the last few days.”

Axios: “The U.S. believes that Russia may use joint military exercises inside Belarus as cover for an invasion of Ukraine from the north.”

“Taliban fighters confronted female protesters and doused them with pepper spray as they marched through Kabul demanding rights to work and education,” the Times of London reports.

“Dozens of women took to the streets yesterday with banners and posters against forced wearing of the hijab, harassment by the Taliban and the requirement of needing a male relative chaperone, or mahram, to be able to go out in public.”

“I don’t regret it for a second.”

— Alexei Navalny, quoted by Deutsche Welle, of his decision to return to Russia a year ago, only to be arrested.

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Berlin and Kyiv to rally allies after a week of stalled negotiations meant to head off a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine,” USA Today reports.

“China had already barred foreign spectators from attending the Winter Games that begin in Beijing in less than a month. On Monday, it announced that most Chinese people won’t be able to attend either,” the New York Times reports.

“Citing the evolving threat from the coronavirus pandemic, the Beijing 2022 organizing committee announced that it was ending ticket sales to the events ‘to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators.'”

“The decision came less than two days after health authorities reported Beijing’s first case of the Omicron variant and ordered an immediate lockdown and mass testing in one of the capital’s neighborhoods.”

“Russian military forces and hardware began arriving in ex-Soviet Belarus for joint drills starting in February, Minsk said on Monday, amid soaring tensions between East and West over Ukraine,” Reuters reports.

Boris Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings accused the premier of lying to Parliament, saying he would “swear under oath” that the premier both was aware of and allowed a drinks party at Downing Street at the height of lockdown during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reports.

“The week before intensive diplomatic meetings began over the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, American and Ukrainian officials watched from afar as Russia began emptying out its embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital,” the New York Times reports.

“On Jan. 5, 18 people — mostly the children and wives of Russian diplomats — boarded buses and embarked on a 15-hour drive home to Moscow… About 30 more followed in the next few days, from Kyiv and a consulate in Lviv, in western Ukraine.”

“A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is in Ukraine to show solidarity with the Eastern European country as it faces ongoing tension with Russia,” the Washington Post reports.

“The seven U.S. senators plan to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials on Monday, they announced. The visit comes amid a showdown between Russia and the West over Ukraine’s territory and the threat of further Russian incursion.”

“Boris Johnson is facing a perilous week as Conservative MPs return to Westminster after being deluged with demands from local party members and voters that they force the prime minister out of office,” the Financial Times reports.

“Johnson has drawn up a plan to save his job — including a clear-out of his Downing Street operation — as he attempts to pin the blame on his backroom staff for the ‘culture’ of drinking and Covid-19 lockdown parties.”

“But Tory MPs on Monday will be in a febrile mood, with some claiming that between 20 and 30 colleagues have submitted letters demanding a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.”

Times of London: Boris Johnson won’t recover in the polls.

“China’s population crisis continued to worsen in 2021, with the latest birth figures again sliding despite government efforts to encourage families to have more children,” Bloomberg reports.

“Microsoft warned on Saturday evening that it had detected a highly destructive form of malware in dozens of government and private computer networks in Ukraine that appeared to be waiting to be triggered by an unknown actor,” the New York Times reports.

“Europe’s relations with Russia are sinking to depths unprecedented in the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

After more than 20 years in power, President Vladimir Putin is rattling his European neighbors more than ever, signaling that he might invade Ukraine, deploying troops to shore up the autocracy in Kazakhstan, weaponizing his country’s natural-gas exports and demanding sweeping security concessions from the West.

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee is encouraging Team USA to use disposable or “burner” phones instead of bringing their own devices to China, because of possible surveillance during the Games that begin Feb. 4, the Washington Post reports.

“No one expected much progress from this past week’s diplomatic marathon to defuse the security crisis Russia has ignited in Eastern Europe by surrounding Ukraine on three sides with 100,000 troops and then, by the White House’s accounting, sending in saboteurs to create a pretext for invasion,” the New York Times reports.

“But as the Biden administration and NATO conduct tabletop simulations about how the next few months could unfold, they are increasingly wary of another set of options for President Vladimir V. Putin, steps that are more far-reaching than simply rolling his troops and armor over Ukraine’s border.”

“North Korea conducted its third weapons test of the year, the military in Seoul said, shortly after Pyongyang issued a blistering response over new American sanctions on the Kim regime,” the Wall Street Journal reports.