Today's Headlines and Commentary

The second impeachment trial of former President Trump will begin tomorrow on the Senate floor, reports the New York Times. Trump is charged with incitement of insurrection for his role in sparking the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The impeachment managers plan to rely heavily on video, rather than live testimony, and are prepared to conclude the Senate trial in as little as a week. As noted in the Times, a conviction is unlikely: At least 17 Republican senators would need to join all 50 Democrats in order to reach the two-thirds majority vote needed.

Today, Trump’s legal defense team challenged the constitutionality of impeachment proceedings and denied that he encouraged the Jan. 6 violence, writes Reuters.

Tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in Myanmar to signal their opposition to last week’s military coup, in which the country’s junta deposed the country’s democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reports the Wall Street Journal. Demonstrators gathered in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, where they chanted “We don’t want military dictatorship, we want democracy” and demanded the release of Suu Kyi and other leaders who were detained during the coup. The Myanmar military ordered an internet blackout over the weekend to quell the mass mobilization of protests, and many fear the junta will escalate to violently crack down on activists. The military has employed suppressive tactics in the past in order to prevent widespread protest.

The United States will rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council, marking a reversal in the Trump-era decision to withdraw from the body in June 2018, according to the Washington Post. In a statement today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed the value of the council, asserting that it “shines a spotlight on countries with the worst human rights records and can serve as an important forum for those fighting injustice and tyranny.”

It appears that Beijing has restricted access to Clubhouse, a new audio-only social media app, in China, reports the Wall Street Journal. Thousands of Chinese users had flocked to the app over the past few weeks, as it provided a rare space to talk openly about topics that are typically censored by China’s internet firewall, such as the government’s treatment of Uighur Muslims or the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989.

Iran and the U.S. remain in a standoff on whether Tehran will return to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal before sanctions are lifted, according to Politico. The Biden administration has signaled that it could rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—a treaty limiting Iran’s nuclear expansion that Trump withdrew from in 2018—and remove sanctions if Iran first returns to compliance with the pact. But Tehran has refused, stating that the U.S. must lift all sanctions against Iran first. On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Washington to move quickly, noting that a new Iranian parliamentary bill will force Tehran to harden its nuclear stance if American sanctions are not eased by Feb. 21.

An Israeli cybersecurity firm, Check Point, has released a new report on Iranian cyber operations, writes the Washington Post. Researchers uncovered the identities of more than 1,000 victims targeted by two hacking groups with ties to the Iranian government. The report alleges that the hackers used the attacks to spy on victims’ phone calls, location data, messages and access other sensitive personal information.

ICYMI: This Weekend on Lawfare

Jayita Sarkar detailed how the Biden administration can take small steps in line with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to support the agreement without signing on and adhering to it directly.

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