“The Biden administration accused Russia on Friday of sending saboteurs into eastern Ukraine to stage an incident that could provide President Vladimir Putin with a pretext for ordering an invasion of parts or all of the country,” the New York Times reports.

“The White House did not release details of the evidence they had collected to back up its charge, though one official said it was a mix of intercepted communications and observations of the movements of individuals.”

“Boris Johnson’s office on Friday apologized to the royal family for holding a staff party in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral last year — the latest in a string of allegedly lockdown-breaching gatherings that are threatening to topple the British prime minister,” the AP reports.

The Telegraph reports the party took place on April 16, 2021 when the country was in strict lock down and went on until the early hours.

“As diplomats were holding negotiations over the Ukraine crisis this week, Russia began moving tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, rocket launchers and other military equipment westward from their bases in its Far East,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Russian officials signaled on Thursday that they might abandon diplomatic efforts to resolve the security crisis surrounding Ukraine, bringing a whirlwind week of European diplomacy to an ominous end and deflating hopes that negotiators could forge a path toward easing tensions in Eastern Europe,” the New York Times reports.

“Boris Johnson defied calls last night for his resignation over lockdown parties in Downing Street as the Tories fell to their lowest poll rating against Labour in almost a decade,” the Times of London reports.

Russia has rejected NATO’s offer of measures to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis, saying it made no sense to discuss incremental steps with a “hostile” alliance, the Telegraph reports.

Times of London: “NATO is ready to send troop reinforcements to eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary-general warned after talks with Moscow broke up without resolution.”

New York Times: “The Winter Olympics are three weeks away, but tickets have yet to go on sale. Airlines are shifting schedules, creating travel confusion. Now, a spate of coronavirus outbreaks around China — including some locally transmitted cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant — is adding to the uncertainty ahead of the Games in Beijing.”

“The White House sought Wednesday to reframe the Washington debate about the Iran nuclear deal, asserting that Trump’s decision to quit the agreement is what has led to an Iran on the verge of an atom bomb,” Politico reports.

John Harris: “After Rahm Emanuel limped to the end of two controversy-pocked terms as Chicago mayor in 2019, many people assumed he would be consigned at last to irrelevance. Some critics, especially on the Democratic left, thought a sullen fadeaway was too good for Emanuel — he deserved some place a bit hotter to spend his political afterlife.

“Less than three years later, Emanuel isn’t going to oblivion. And he isn’t going to hell, or at least not yet. He’s going to Tokyo. Emanuel leaves on Saturday to begin his term as President Joe Biden’s newly confirmed U.S. Ambassador to Japan. What gives?”

“Russian and NATO officials said that they remained far from agreement after four hours of talks on Wednesday that the United States and its allies hoped would hold off a further Russian invasion of Ukraine and calm tensions between Moscow and the West,” the New York Times reports.

“Facing a potentially lethal threat to his leadership, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain on Wednesday offered a contrite apology in Parliament for attending a garden party at 10 Downing Street while the country was under lockdown,” the New York Times reports.

“He acknowledged that he had deeply offended the public, even as he claimed that he had not breached his government’s regulations on gatherings during the early days of the pandemic.”

Said Johnson: “I want to apologize. I know there are things we simply did not get right, and I must simply take responsibility.”

BBC: “Leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer has called for Boris Johnson to resign.”

“Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday repeated his assertion that his successor and former rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, exhibited ‘crazy behavior’ as a high-profile defamation lawsuit between the two political heavyweights got underway,” the AP reports.

“The two fallen prime ministers faced off in a largely empty Tel Aviv courtroom in the opening of Netanyahu’s defamation suit against Olmert.”

“The White House has announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months ago,” the AP reports.