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Biden Admin Launches Review of Trump Decision to Designate Yemen’s Houthis as Foreign Terrorist Organization (Kimberly Kindy, Mark Berman and Kim Bellware, Washington Post)
The State Department has initiated a review of the Trump administration’s decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), a spokesperson told CNN Friday. It is a swift move by the newly installed Biden administration to examine one of the most consequential 11th hour actions taken by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who announced the decision less than two weeks before leaving, with the designation going into effect just a day before the inauguration on Wednesday. “As noted by Secretary-Designate (Antony) Blinken, the State Department has initiated a review of Ansarallah’s terrorist designations,” the spokesperson said. Blinken, President Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, said at his nomination hearing Tuesday that his “deep concern about the designation that was made is that at least on its surface it seems to achieve nothing particularly practical in advancing the efforts against the Houthis and to bring them back to the negotiating table, while making it even more difficult than it already is to provide humanitarian assistance to people who desperately need it.

Is Algeria Once again Confronted with the Threat of Terrorism? (Africa Report)
Across Algeria, a growing number of attacks, arrests and weapons have come to light, indicating a possible resurgence in jihadist activity in the country; a chapter from the 1990s that many hoped would stay closed. At dawn on 14 January, a group of hunters from the town of Bir El Ater, in the province of Tébessa, set off towards their hunting area in a pick-up truck. Their vehicle drove over a home-made bomb operated from a distance. The resulting explosion killed five people and caused a stir among the town’s residents, who have long suffered from terrorism. This is not the first time that hunters or hikers have been victims of mines in the region, usually abandoned bombs from the 1990s. (Cont.)