The Evening: Mali Coup, Covid Euro Surge, Samantha Fish and More

August 19, 2020

Mali Coup

Tuesday's stunning coup in Mali—in which mutinous soldiers stormed the capital and arrested the country's president—has opened a power vacuum that West African leaders sought to avoid, injecting instability into the heart of the fight against the world's fastest-growing Islamist insurgency, as the Washington Post reports.

Dive Deeper : “The Malian Military Ousts a Wayward Government,” by CSIS’s Judd Devermont.

Covid European Surge

Coronavirus infections are surging again across much of Europe and governments are racing to prevent a full-fledged second wave of the pandemic—without resorting to the kind of broad lockdowns that devastated their economies in the spring, as the WSJ reports.

Local Officials in China Hid Covid Dangers from Beijing

A new U.S. intelligence report says top officials in Beijing were in the dark in early January on the true dangers of the virus, as the NYT reports.

CSIS Executive Education

Join CSIS’s Trade Guys for their next crash course on trade policy. This two-day program breaks down the fundamentals of how U.S. trade policy is formulated, the legalities of trade in an international arena, and the impact of Covid-19 on supply chains. 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

790

Facebook said on Wednesday that it had removed 790 QAnon groups from its site and was restricting another 1,950 groups, 440 pages and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts related to the right-wing conspiracy theory, in the social network’s most sweeping action against the fast-growing movement.

Source: NYT

Critical Quote

“The ‘V’ is there. The question is will it continue, and we believe it will.”

— National Economic Council chief economist Joseph LaVorgna on a “V-Shaped” U.S. economic recovery

iDeas Lab

China’s maritime forces deployed around the contested Senkaku Islands have become more capable and more determined. In response, Japan is upgrading its ability to project power from the nearby Ryukyus, or Southwest Islands. Check out the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative's new interactives.

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: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images.) A home burns in Vacaville, California during the LNU Lightning Complex fire.

Recommended Reading

Check out Issue Number 1 of the new CSIS Magazine, “Covid-19 and the Global Economy.”

This Town Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 9:00 a.m., join the CSIS Wadhwani Chair in U.S.-India policy studies as they host key stakeholders in U.S.-India higher education and discuss future models of education likely to emerge as a result of the pandemic.

Then, at 2:00 p.m., The United States Institute of Peace will hold a discussion with Iraqi Migration and Displacement Minister Evan Faeq Jabro and Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Fuad Hussein to discuss bilateral relations.

Later, at 7:00 p.m. , the George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian studies will host author Ian Hall to discuss his book “Modi and the Reinvention of Indian Foreign Policy”.

Video

In the second episode of CSIS’s documentary series Pandemic Paradox: HIV on the Edge, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health experts recall the "plague years", when he and others could do little to stop the surging pandemic which was stealing the lives of previously healthy young men. Watch the full episode here.

Podcasts

This week's Reopening featured former secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. He shared his views on the post-Covid world, including how changed patterns of work may place new demands on infrastructure and cybersecurity. We also discuss disaster preparedness, election security, and countering disinformation.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

I know you all like covers, so here’s another great one by an artist some of you may not have heard of. Her name is Samantha Fish and she is a terrific blues singer/guitarist. She’s part of the first season of Tipitina’s TV that I mentioned the other day and you can buy tickets for that here. But first, check her out performing Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ classic, “I Put A Spell On You” just a few months ago at the Howlin’ Wolf in New Orleans.