Coming Up This Week

• Pres. Biden is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah II for meetings in Washington today. The leaders are expected to discuss the war in Gaza and ideas for containing it.
• Indonesia votes for president on Wednesday. Outgoing president Joko Widodo (aka Jokowi) is supporting Prabowo Subianto - a controversial ex-general and son-in-law of Indonesia's former military dictator, Suharto - to succeed him.
• UN SecGen Guterres is leading a meeting of various countries' special envoys on Afghanistan to take place in Qatar on Sunday. The Taliban said it's considering "meaningful participation" in the summit, although it continues to oppose one of its key objectives: appointing a UN envoy to coordinate multilateral engagement with the interim government (the Taliban says there's "no need for the appointment of a new envoy").

Commodity Prices

• Aluminum: $2,216/ton
• Antimony (ingot min. 99.65% fob China): 13,250$/ton
• Cobalt: $28,550/ton
• Copper: $8,169/ton
• Gold: $2,021/toz
• Lead: $2,032/ton
• Natural Gas (Nymex): $1.84/MMbtu - this is a 3+ year low due to production levels approaching record highs
• WTI Crude Oil (Nymex): $76.12/barrel
• Zinc: $2,301/ton

Pakistan

• Pakistan's delayed election results surprised analysts with an apparent victory for former PM Imran Khan's populist party - despite the military's efforts to hinder its chances by forcing its candidates to run as "Independents" and rushing Khan himself through a quick trial and conviction to prevent him from running.
• The generals' efforts against Khan seem to have backfired and won him even more support as his party adeptly used social media to skirt the military's efforts to silence its message.
• The U.S., UK, and EU criticized Pakistan's electoral process, and the results aggravated violent protests across the country.

Gaza

• The Israeli military rescued two male hostages from Rafah, launching airstrikes as a diversion for the rescue operation. It was only the second known successful Oct. 7 hostage rescue. Israel estimates that militant groups in Gaza - mainly Hamas - are still holding up to 106 living hostages.
• PM Netanyahu said the military will soon begin its ground invasion of Rafah to target four Hamas battalions it believes are stationed there - but only after it has a plan to evacuate or protect the over one million civilians sheltering there (something the U.S. demanded).

Venezuela

• Venezuelan police arbitrarily arrested Rocio San Miguel - a lawyer and human rights activist known for calling out Venezuelan police for arbitrarily arresting activists and political opponents. They offered no reason for her arrest.
• Meanwhile, satellite images show that Venezuela has continued to deploy troops towards its disputed border with Guyana, despite promising during mediation talks in December to de-escalate and abstain from military action on the border. A CSIS analyst criticized Pres. Maduro for "pursuing a duplicitous policy."

Other News

• The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl LVIII 25-22 in overtime. You can see the best ads here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/arts/television/super-bowl-commercials-ads-best-worst.html.