Politico – Alexander Ward and Jonathan Lemire / ‘Even if it hurts’: Biden’s Middle East trip could bring short-term pain for long-term gain

• President Joe Biden had different plans for engaging the Middle East. But the world has a way of intervening.
• Biden had spent the last 18 months mainly ignoring the region — a far cry from former President Donald Trump, who relished in cozying up to Israel and Saudi Arabia for domestic political purposes and to counter Iran.
• Biden sought to downgrade the importance of the Middle East so as not to wade into intractable problems like brokering a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. In a sign that he was planning to conduct himself differently than his predecessors, he also pledged to end the customary coziness with Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident.
• But over the past few months, the posture has changed, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Now Biden and his team have concluded they must ramp up Washington’s presence in the Middle East so China and Russia don’t fill an America-sized hole, so that Tehran can be kept at bay, so that a ceasefire in Yemen can hold, faster modernizations can happen in Saudi society, and maybe even better relations between officials in Jerusalem and Riyadh.
• Foreign Policy – John Hannah / Biden should revive the Carter Doctrine for the Middle East

The Guardian – Linda Geddes / ‘Centaurus’: virologists express concern at new Covid subvariant

• Virologists have voiced concerns about the emergence of another fast-spreading Omicron variant, which is rapidly gaining ground in India and has already arrived in the UK.
• The warning came as MPs called for redoubled efforts to persuade the nearly 3 million adults in England who have not yet received a single dose of Covid vaccine, to take up the offer of vaccination.
• The BA.2.75 variant – nicknamed “Centaurus” – was first detected in India in early May. Cases in the UK have since risen steeply – and apparently faster than those of the extremely transmissible BA.5 variant, which is also present in India, and is rapidly displacing the previously dominant BA.2 variant in many countries.
• BA.2.75 has also since been detected in about 10 other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada.
• Financial Times – Donato Paolo Mancini / European health agencies back second Covid booster for over-60s

The Guardian – Hannah Ellis-Petersen / Sri Lanka declares state of emergency as president flees country

• The Sri Lankan president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has fled to the Maldives on a military jet hours before he was due to resign on Wednesday, following days of extraordinary scenes including his presidential palace and office being taken over by anti-government protesters.
• Following his departure, the prime minister’s office said a state of emergency had been declared as protesters continued to try to storm government offices.
• The airforce confirmed that Rajapaksa, his wife and two security guards boarded a military aircraft in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after he invoked executive powers to enable his escape.
• “Under the provisions of the constitution and on a request by the government, the Sri Lanka air force provided a plane early today to fly the president, his wife and two security officials to the Maldives,” a statement said.
• Foreign Policy – Neil DeVotta / Sri Lanka’s road to ruin was political, not economic

Financial Times – Kiran Stacey / Donald Trump ‘electrified’ mob ahead of January 6 riot, committee says

• Donald Trump electrified his far-right supporters by calling on them to protest in Washington on January 6, 2021 before making a carefully-planned plea for them to march on the Capitol, a congressional committee has heard.
• Members of the bipartisan panel investigating last year’s mob attack argued during a public hearing on Tuesday that the former president was directly responsible for inciting violence among his supporters who believed Joe Biden had stolen the 2020 election.
• Liz Cheney, the Republican deputy chair of the committee, also disclosed that the former president had attempted to contact an unidentified witness who is expected to testify before the committee next week. That witness did not pick up the phone, she said, but instead contacted their lawyer, who told the committee.
• “This committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice, she said. “We will take any efforts to influence witness testimony very seriously.”
• The Washington Post – Editorial Board / The Jan. 6 hearing showed how lies can kill

Today’s longer reads:

• Foreign Policy – Stephen M. Walt / Biden needs architects, not mechanics, to fix US foreign policy
• Project Syndicate – Daniel Yergin / The energy crisis will deepen

If you would like to subscribe to EsadeGeo News, please register using this link. If you would like to stay up to date with Javier Solana's daily review of the most relevant global news, please register here.