Russia and North Korea

• After "exchang[ing] their pent-up innermost thoughts," Pres. Putin and Kim Jong Un signed an updated defense pact agreeing to "mutual assistance in the event of aggression." This agreement replaces one from 1961, and North Korean media claimed that - like the agreement it replaced - it requires Russia and North Korea to militarily intervene if the other is attacked (though, as in any mutual defense pact, the scope and scale of military intervention would depend on what unfolds).
• Putin also asserted that "Pyongyang has the right to take reasonable measures to strengthen its own defense capability, ensure national security and protect sovereignty." That suggests he's no longer going to help enforce non-proliferation measures on North Korea.
• Putin then traveled to Hanoi to meet newly-inaugurated president To Lam. Vietnam has been playing all sides: Russia remains its main weapons supplier, but Lam's predecessor warmly welcomed Pres. Biden (and Pres. Xi) for a visit last year. The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi criticized its host country for "giv[ing] Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression."
• Separately, a Russian court sentenced U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black to almost four years in low-security prison for threatening and stealing from a Russian woman he was romantically involved with. While Black wasn't exactly wrongfully detained (he pleaded guilty to some counts of theft, but denied threatening his ex-lover), several Russian legal experts say his sentence was harsher than one a Russian would have received for the same charges.

Gaza

• Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, seemed to publicly contradict Prime Minister Netanyahu's vow to eliminate Hamas: "This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public. Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong."
• Hagari's statement was another example of a growing rift between Netanyahu's government and Israel's military leadership.

Iran

• Canada formally listed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, meaning senior IRGC officials will be banned from entering Canada. Iran called the designation "unwise and unconventional."

South Africa

• Pres. Ramaphosa was sworn in to a second term yesterday and promised a "new era" in which his African National Congress (ANC) party and its new national unity government partners would "put aside animosity and dissent, to abandon narrow interests, and to pursue together only that which benefits the nation."
• The ANC - which previously enjoyed a parliamentary majority that enabled it to stoke animosity and ram its narrow interests through the legislature - was forced to invite rival parties like the Democratic Alliance into a unity government after losing its majority.

Other News

• Ecuador suffered a nationwide blackout mid-afternoon local time yesterday. The Public Works Minister blamed underinvestment in grid maintenance: "For years we have stopped investing in these systems and today we are experiencing the consequences."