| Health catastrophe | U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked down England for a third time after his medical officials warned that failure to act could push the 72-year-old National Health Service to the brink of collapse. As Tim Ross reports, such a result would be politically toxic for the man who promised Britain could save $475 million every week by leaving the European Union and spend it on health care instead. Mideast opening | Qatar's ruler landed in Saudi Arabia today to a warm embrace from host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hours after their nations re-established travel ties and eased a dispute that complicated U.S. efforts to isolate Iran. Regional leaders are meeting in the Saudi town of Al-Ula as Trump prepares to leave office and Biden pledges to renew diplomacy with Tehran. - Iran seized a South Korean-flagged tanker yesterday and announced it would ramp up its nuclear enrichment activities.
 The South Korean-flagged tanker is escorted by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Source: Anadolu Agency NYSE U-turn | The New York Stock Exchange backtracked on a plan to delist China's three biggest state-owned telecommunications companies that had threatened to escalate tensions between the world's largest economies. The NYSE declined to explain the change beyond citing "consultation with relevant regulatory authorities." The decision whipsawed investors and came just four days after the exchange said it would remove the shares to comply with a U.S. executive order barring investments in businesses owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Dark web | Internet shutdowns cost India $2.8 billion in 2020, putting the South Asian nation at the top of a list of countries that curbed citizens' web access. Belarus suffered the most after India, with $336.4 million lost in blackouts and curbs amid the protests that followed its contested presidential election. Changing of the guard | Vietnam, one of the world's five remaining Communist states, is about to get new leadership. The biggest moves will emerge from a secretive, twice-a-decade meeting — the National Party Congress — later this month. From general secretary on down, there'll be a shakeup of those who'll steer the Southeast Asian nation of 97.6 million people through a period of tense relations involving China and the U.S., John Boudreau and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen explain. What to Watch -
U.S. defense legislation passed in spite of Trump's veto will heighten the focus on diversity issues and efforts to combat white supremacy and extremist behavior within the military. -
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is consulting with regional officials and health experts today about extending lockdown measures after criticism over alleged failures in the government's vaccination program. -
Battling a resurgence in violence including a campaign of targeted killings of journalists, Afghanistan's government is set to resume peace talks with the Taliban today, with efforts focused on securing a cease-fire agreement in the last days of Trump's presidency. And finally ... Rotterdam and Amsterdam have taken their age-old rivalry to a new level: Which can rip out more tiles lining the cities' front gardens and replace them with plants, bushes and trees? Diederik Baazil explains that, while the exercise was designed to help the Netherlands meet a court-ordered 25% reduction in CO2 by the end of 2020, it can make only a small contribution to reducing its footprint as extreme heat, flooding, and droughts increase. But as Rotterdam city councilor Bert Wijbenga says, the idea is more about "involving the citizens in the green ambition."  Residents and workers prepare to replace tiles with plants in Rotterdam's Kop van Zuid neighborhood, where the resulting tile removal created the longest front garden in the Netherlands. Photographer: Sjon Heijenga | 
Sitaram Panchal died of cancer at 54 New Delhi: After Inder Kumar’s sudden death, Bollywood industry got another shock this mornin...
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