“President Biden faces a dilemma as the United States prepares for European security negotiations with Moscow amid the threat of a new Ukraine invasion: How much should Washington accommodate Russian President Vladimir Putin — and would any plausible concessions be enough for him to stand down?,” the Washington Post reports

“Those questions will be top of mind for U.S. officials and their European allies, who are in the early stages of organizing talks with the Russians on the myriad complaints Putin has made about Ukraine, NATO and a European security environment he says is overly threatening to Moscow.”

“Putin’s demands, and whether to make any concessions, are already testing the unity of the 30-country NATO alliance.”

A new YouGov survey in the United Kingdom finds Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an upside down favorability rating, 24% to 66%.

“An editorial in a Chinese state-run news website has suggested Communist party members are obliged to have three children for the good of the country, as Beijing seeks to address plummeting birthrates,” The Guardian reports.

“The editorial, which was first published last month, went viral this week and drew sharp reaction from Chinese internet users, with millions of shares, views and comments. As the wave of reaction grew, the original article disappeared from the website.”

New Yorker: “A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to an interview in which Donald Trump accused him of disloyalty, saying Israel’s alliance with the U.S. meant “it was important for me to congratulate the incoming president,” Axios reports.

Here’s how it’s playing in Israeli media:

“Boris Johnson is facing a major Conservative rebellion over Covid-19 restrictions next week, as a ‘sulphurous’ mood sweeps through Tory ranks over the UK prime minister’s leadership,” the Financial Times reports.

The Times of London notes Johnson’s party has “slumped to their worst poll rating in 11 months as the prime minister battles on several fronts.”

“Efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal have been hauled back from the brink of collapse as Tehran revised its stance after pressure from Russia and China and clear warnings that the EU and the US were preparing to walk away,” The Guardian reports.

Meanwhile, the US military commander for the Middle East told the Financial Times he has a “very robust range of military options” to deter Iran.

China has warned countries who have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics that they “will pay the price for their mistaken acts,” the BBC reports.

“Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore,” Axios reports.

“The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result.”

Said Trump: “I haven’t spoken to him since. Fuck him.”

“A British High Court ruled Friday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act,” the Washington Post reports.

“Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologized for going clubbing after coming into close contact with a Covid-19 case,” the BBC reports.

“The announcement that Boris Johnson’s wife gave birth to a baby girl offers the embattled U.K. prime minister some relief from the barrage of negative coverage he’s endured,” Bloomberg reports.

“The prime minister is believed to have fathered seven children, though the exact number is a matter of speculation.”

“The Biden administration is moving to tighten enforcement of sanctions against Iran, according to senior U.S. officials, the first sign of Washington increasing economic pressure on Tehran as diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 nuclear deal falter,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Joe Biden has picked big money political donor and former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman to be his ambassador to Kenya,” CNBC reports.

“Joe Biden has made a significant diplomatic concession to Moscow designed to prevent an invasion of Ukraine by signalling he wants to convene meetings between Nato allies and Russia to discuss Vladimir Putin’s grievances with the transatlantic security pact,” the Financial Times reports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that there would be “effectively a diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Beijing Olympics by Britain, which has now joined the United States and others in pulling its top officials from attendance of the Winter Games, the New York Times reports.

Australia, Canada and Lithuania have also announced a diplomatic boycott.

New York Times: “It is too early to tell whether the much-anticipated conversation, whose details were hard to elicit as both the White House and the Kremlin put their spin on it, will alleviate the immediate crisis in Ukraine, where roughly 70,000 Russian troops have massed, with more equipment and personnel arriving every day.”

“Mr. Putin gave no indication of his ultimate intent, leaving the world guessing whether he was actually planning an invasion early next year, or trying to get the West to pay attention to his demands by manufacturing a crisis.”