U.N. Announces Opening of Border Crossings Into Syria

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at aid to Syria after the earthquake, Australian insistence on “unequivocal” submarine control, and Israeli recognition of previously unauthorized West Bank settlements.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has opened two additional border crossings to the disaster-stricken country. Until Monday, the only crossing allowing aid and rescue workers into the country was Bab al-Hawa between the Turkish city of Antakya and the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The newly opened crossings—Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee—will be open “for an initial period of three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid,” Guterres said. “As the toll of the Feb. 6 earthquake continues to mount, delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies, and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency,” he added.

The announcement comes after a Syrian rebel leader urged the outside world to provide help for the northwest province of Idlib in the wake of last week’s deadly earthquake. Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was once the leader of the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda splinter group. The United States designated him a terrorist in 2013, and he has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

“The United Nations needs to understand that it’s required to help in a crisis,” Jolani told the Guardian. “From the first hour of the earthquake, we sent messages to the United Nations asking for aid. Unfortunately, no support for our search and rescue teams arrived as well as no specific aid to combat this crisis.”

Jolani is among the many people who have argued that Assad’s regime cannot be trusted to deliver aid to hard-hit rebel-held areas.

Australia wants “unequivocal” control of submarines. The head of Australia’s nuclear-power submarine task force, Vice Adm. Jonathan Mead, has stressed that Australia will have “unequivocal” control of the submarines, even if U.S. or British engineers are on board to provide technical guidance.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has questioned whether the so-called AUKUS deal between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States will compromise Australian sovereignty, asking the government to answer whether the submarines will be “operated, sustained, and maintained by Australia without the support or supervision of the U.S. Navy” and whether the deal would mean “sovereignty would be shared with the U.S.”

“We would expect anyone, whether it be a foreign engineer or an Australian engineer, to provide advice. Ultimately the commanding officer of that submarine—the Australian—would have command and control over the reactor, over the submarine, unequivocal,” Mead told ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson.

Israel to recognize unauthorized settlements. Israel’s security cabinet has announced it will recognize nine West Bank settlements that had been built without authorization. “In response to the murderous terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, the security cabinet decided unanimously to authorize nine communities,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Netanyahu said Sunday that he wants to “strengthen settlements,” which are regarded as illegal under international law.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “We are deeply troubled by Israel’s decision yesterday to advance reportedly nearly 10,000 settlement units and to begin a process to retroactively legalize nine outposts in the West Bank that were previously illegal under Israeli law.” Blinken also said, “We call on all parties to avoid additional actions that can further escalate tensions in the region and to take practical steps that can improve the well-being of the Palestinian people.” The European Union said it rejects the legalization.

Portuguese Catholic Church scandal. An independent commission charged with investigating the sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic Church has said it has documented cases suggesting there were more than 4,800 victims. The commission described this as “the tip of the iceberg.” The commission looked at cases dating back to 1950 and documented 564 experiences of abuse, many of which pointed to other abuses, bringing the number of estimated victims into the thousands. Twenty-five cases have reportedly been passed to public prosecutors. Others were outside the statute of limitations.

• Russia Has Already Lost in the Long Run by Brent Peabody

• The U.S. Overreacted to the Chinese Spy Balloon. That Scares Me. by Howard W. French

• Ukrainian Women’s Looks Are None of Your Business by Oleksandra Povoroznyk

Marco Goecke, head of Hanover State Opera’s ballet company, has been suspended and is now under investigation after smearing dog excrement on the face of a journalist who described one of his productions as “boring” in a review. Goecke, owner of a Dachshund named Gustav, is alleged to have first accosted the critic verbally and then pulled out a bag of dog feces from his coat. Goecke has been barred from the opera house, and a criminal complaint has been filed. Gustav the dog, who appears to have been an unwitting accomplice to the crime, is presumed innocent.