The Evening: Protests, Mutating Virus, Guitar Gently Weeps and More

June 2, 2020

Protests Continue

Governors in 28 states and the District of Columbia had called in the National Guard as of this morning, deploying more than 20,400 troops to focus on containing the unrest after protesters began marching on U.S. cities again Tuesday, after a night of damage and arrests prompted officials to impose tougher curfews, as the WSJ reports.

Mutating Virus

Experts are pushing back on recent reports claiming that the coronavirus is becoming less lethal, although many infectious-disease specialists say the virus will eventually mutate in ways that make it less deadly to humans. And, as the Washington Post reports, the number of reported coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed 1.8 million, including more than 104,000 deaths.

EU Rejects Adding Russia to G7

The European Union on Tuesday rejected any suggestion that the Group of Seven advanced economies could be expanded to include Russia and warned Washington that it could not change the rules for the group on its own, as Reuters reports.

CSIS Executive Education

Enrollment is now open for CSIS and Syracuse University’s joint Executive Master’s in International Relations. This first-of-its-kind degree allows working professionals in the nation’s capital to benefit from the academic strengths of the #1 graduate school in public affairs and the policy know-how of #1 think tank in the U.S. Learn more and apply today.

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

39%

Latin America now accounts for 39 percent of global deaths from Covid-19.

Source: FT

Critical Quote

“There is time for China to reconsider, there is a moment for China to step back from the brink and respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and respect China’s own international obligations.”

— British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

iDeas Lab

Between 2002 and 2018, overall spending on health care in China jumped from just $70 billion to more than $893 billion. A new China Power Project feature examines the strength of China's health security.

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

Optics

(Photo credit: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images.) Pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui is removed by security during a scuffle with pro-Beijing lawmakers in a meeting of Hong Kong's Legislative Council today.

Recommended Reading

“Options on Hong Kong: A Suggested NSC Memo," by CSIS's Jude Blanchette, Victor Cha, Bonnie Glaser, Michael J. Green, and Scott Kennedy.

Online Events

Tomorrow, at 8:00 a.m., CSIS will host a virtual public conference on East Asian regional responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, featuring opening remarks by Stanley Kao, representative to TECRO in the United States.

Later, at 1:00 p.m., CSIS will hold a panel discussion on the impact of Covid-19 on grand strategy, as part of the 2020 Future Strategy Forum.

And, at 4:00 p.m., author and scholar P.W. Singer joins CSIS for a discussion of his new book, Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution.

Video

Former under secretary of defense for policy Michèle Flournoy discussed the impact of Covid-19 on national security with CSIS's Kathleen Hicks today. Watch the full event here.

Podcasts

My colleague Steve Morrison and I spoke with Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a preeminent HIV scientist based in Durban, South Africa, who chairs the country's scientific Covid-19 advisory group. We discussed South Africa's response to the pandemic and evaluated the successes and failures of President Cyril Ramaphosa's actions.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Smiles

“I look at you all, see the love there that's sleeping

While my guitar gently weeps”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y