The Evening: Euro Resurgence, Affirming American Leadership, Crazy Love and More

September 17, 2020

Serious Resurgence in Europe

The World Health Organization today warned of a “very serious” resurgence of the coronavirus across Europe but said that transmission could be contained by local rather than national measures, as the NYT reports.

Trump to Issue Executive Order to Punish Arms Trade with Iran

President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose U.S. sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, as Reuters reports.

Affirming American Leadership: A Call to Action

Today, the CSIS Trade Commission on Affirming American Leadership, co-chaired by former USTR Charlene Barshefsky, former U.S. Senator and USTR Bill Brock, and FedEx CEO Fred Smith, issued “A Call to Action” based on their year-long work developing recommendations to cement U.S. global leadership in light of twenty-first-century challenges.

Climate Check

CSIS hosted the fifth session in the Climate Solutions Series on Tuesday, which explored emissions from the buildings sector and the opportunities and challenges for its decarbonization.

CSIS Executive Education

CSIS's Risk and Foresight Group is hosting a new global executive education program that weaves together important issues, trends, and revolutions that government and business leaders must understand as they position themselves for the next 25 years. Register for the course 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

26

Another 860,000 people applied for unemployment insurance claims last week—the 26th-straight week that unemployment claims remained above a pre-pandemic record dating to the 1960s.

Source: Washington Post

Critical Quote

“Globally, around 14 percent of covid-19 cases reported to WHO are among health workers, and in some countries it’s as much as 35 percent.”

— Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Heath Organization director-general

iDeas Lab

With operations in as many as 30 countries across 4 continents, Russian private military companies are part of a larger campaign to expand Moscow’s influence in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Check out a new CSIS analysis from the Transnational Threats Project and iDeas Lab to learn what role PMCs will play in strategic competition going forward.

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: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.) An aerial view from a drone shows a flooded street in Gulf Shores, Alabama, after Hurricane Sally passed through the area.

Recommended Reading

“Whose America Is It?” by the NYT’s Thomas Edsall.

This Town Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 9:30 a.m., the Atlantic Council hosts Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, to discuss democracy in Belarus.

And then at 10:00 a.m., the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute will discuss the results of Russia's recent local elections on the country's political landscape.

Later, at 12:30 p.m., the Atlantic Council hosts a panel discussion on the impact of digital technologies on future of trade flows in a post Covid-19 world.

Video

Guest moderator Nina Easton spoke with the three co-chairs of the CSIS Trade Commission on Affirming American Leadership, Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, Senator William E. Brock, and Mr. Frederick W. Smith, for the latest installment of the Schieffer Series, held today. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and global energy expert Daniel Yergin talks with Scott Miller and I about his latest book, The New Map, and the way technology revolutions in energy are influencing geopolitics, security, climate, and health on the latest episode of The Reopening.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

Smiles

Hard to top Bronagh Gallagher’s Van Morrison cover we played yesterday. This Damien Rice interpretation of Morrison’s “Crazy Love” is mighty fine though.