The Evening: Lockdowns Loosen, Brazil Travel Ban, Help On The Way and More

May 26, 2020

Pandemic Lockdowns Loosen around the World

As the U.S. Covid-19 death toll approaches 100,000, reopenings accelerated in the United States and across the world as declining coronavirus cases and slowing death rates in some regions fueled hopes that the worst of the pandemic was over, as the WSJ's Jennifer Calfas and Andrew Restuccia report.

U.S. Imposes Travel Ban on Brazil

United States travel restrictions aimed at Brazil were scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday night, as the South American country struggled to contain the spread of the coronavirus amid relentless political turmoil and a plummeting economy, as the NYT reports.

Russia Accused of Sending Warplanes to Libya

The U.S. military accused Russia of deploying at least 14 fighter jets to Libya in support of Kremlin-linked mercenaries fighting alongside Khalifa Hifter, an eastern militia leader, a move that would represent a major escalation in Moscow’s involvement in the proxy war, as the NYT's Eric Schmitt and Declan Walsh report.

CSIS Executive Education

CSIS’s flagship course on Understanding Washington is now being offered in a real-time online format from June 8 to 10. This format eliminates the need for travel and includes a reduction in tuition. We recommend this course to corporate and government professionals responsible for their organization’s government relations portfolio. Register here.

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

6.6%

China has said that spending on national defense in 2020 would rise to 1.268 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6 percent—the lowest in decades.

Source: CSIS, “Breaking Down China’s 2020 Defense Budget”

Critical Quote

“Our region has become the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

— Carissa Etienne, WHO director for the Americas and head of the Pan American Health Organization

iDeas Lab

Even before the threat of Covid-19 to South Africans’ health and economic wellbeing, South Africa had an ongoing public health crisis. The CSIS Global Health Policy Center examines why the world’s largest HIV epidemic persists in South Africa.

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: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images). Botany Bay in Margate, England today.

Recommended Reading

“Implications of Tanzania’s Bungled Response to Covid-19,” CSIS's Judd Devermont and Marielle Harris.

Online Events

Tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m., CSIS’s Energy Security and Climate Change Program will convene the third session of its Climate Solutions Series, which will look at decarbonizing the transportation sector.

Later, at 1:00 p.m., CSIS will host a discussion on how Mexico's economic downturn due to Covid-19 is affecting migration patterns.

And, at 4:00 p.m., CSIS will host Rory Medcalf, professor and head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, to discuss his new book, Indo-Pacific Empire: China, America and the Contest for the World’s Pivotal Region .

Video

CSIS today hosted a panel discussion on how countries have conducted disinformation and political warfare in the past—including “active measures” during the Cold War—and how they are doing it today. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

CSIS Trade Guy, Scott Miller, and I have a new podcast, The Reopening. Each week, we'll speak with a leader from the world of business and finance about the future of the U.S. and global economies.

Our first episode features Jim McNerney, former CEO of Boeing, who spoke with us expansively about how he sees the near- and longer-term issues on the future of work, how industries will reengineer, higher education, U.S.-China relations, and more.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Smiles

One of my favorite Grateful Dead song sequences is “Help On the Way” into “Slipnot!” into “Franklin’s Tower.” In 1991, the Dead released “One From The Vault,” a live album recorded on August 13, 1975 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. It opens with an impassioned introduction by concert promoter Bill Graham and then blazes into the Help Slipnot Franklin’s sequence.

When the Dead and Company featuring John Mayer with Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzman, Mickey Hart, and bassist Oteil Burbridge starting playing it I was skeptical. My skepticism quickly turned to awe. This 2 016 version with Dead and Co live at Fenway Park features a special guest who shows up during Franklin’s who really made me smile…