The Evening: Coronavirus Travel Ban, Iran Options, You Ain’t Going Nowhere and More

March 12, 2020

Coronavirus Travel Ban

President Trump defended his European travel ban Thursday, as senior administration officials sought to deliver a more controlled line of messaging in the aftermath of his primetime speech on the White House's coronavirus response, as Politico’s Quint Forgey reports.

And, as the WSJ reports, the selloff in U.S. stocks gathered pace Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 10% in its worst day since the 1987 crash, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq joined it in bear-market territory.

Dive Deeper: Transcript of CSIS Press Call: "Geopolitics and the Novel Coronavirus."

All Options On Table

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said on Thursday that Iranian-backed militias were behind an attack on a joint U.S.-Iraqi base that killed two American service members and a soldier from Britain, as the NYT ’s Thomas Gibbons-Neff reports.

Russian Rally

Russia’s parliamentary head told lawmakers on Thursday to rally behind Vladimir Putin against what he said was a foreign campaign to discredit constitutional reforms that could allow the president to stay in power until 2036, as Reuters reports.

Climate Check

A new brief from CSIS's Stephen J. Naimoli and Sarah Ladislaw, the first in a series on achieving net-zero global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, explores different pathways to decarbonization.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify,” "What's Happening," "Preview," and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

$1.5 Trillion

The Fed said it would offer at least $1.5 trillion worth of short-term loans to banks today and tomorrow.

Source: New York Times

Critical Quote

"I don't want people dying. That's what I'm all about."

— President Donald Trump

iDeas Lab

A new feature from CSIS's Beyond Parallel analyzes imagery of the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center under construction in 1972. Yongbyon is now central to North Korea's nuclear program.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.

Optics

(Photo credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images). Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks at the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon in the Capitol today.

Recommended Reading

“What It Means to Contain and Mitigate the Coronavirus,” by the New Yorker’s Robert Baird.

This Town Tomorrow

At 10:00 a.m., the Hudson Institute will livestream remarks from Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly on how the U.S. Navy can meet the challenges of the U.S.-China strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.

Video

Amy Searight, senior adviser and director of the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS, testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation hearing on “The International Role of the U.S. Coast Guard.” Learn more about her testimony here.

Podcasts

With climate change creating new sea routes through the Arctic circle, China is making moves to assert navigation and scientific rights in the region. Host Mike Green is joined by CSIS's Heather Conley to discuss China’s role in this emerging region of the Asia Chessboard.

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Smiles

So many great cover tunes. As my best buddy Jon said the other day, our favorite band the Radiators are the king of covers. And whether it’s the Rads doing Van Morrison’s “Domino,” the Beatles’ “I’ve Got A Feeling,” the Stones’ “Dead Flowers,” or Little Feet’s “Dixie Chicken,” they really made those artists’ songs a bit of their own. Take their version of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” one of my all-time favs.