The Evening: Covid Aid Package, UN Clash, Scarlet Fire and More

September 24, 2020

New Coronavirus Aid Proposal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is readying a new, scaled-down package on coronavirus aid that would include assistance to airlines, restaurants and small businesses. Pelosi is aiming for a price tag of around $2.4 trillion, down from the $3.5 trillion bill that Democrats passed in May, but in the range of what Pelosi has said she would be willing to move to in negotiations with the White House and Republicans, who have called for a smaller bill, as the WSJ reports.

Clash at the UN

The United States butted heads with China and Russia at the United Nations today over responsibility for the pandemic that has interrupted the world, trading allegations about who mishandled and politicized the virus in one of the few real-time exchanges among top officials at this year’s Covid-distanced UN General Assembly meeting, as the AP reports.

New Iran Sanctions

The United States today blacklisted several Iranian officials and entities over alleged gross violations of human rights, including slapping sanctions on a judge it said was involved in the case of an Iranian wrestler sentenced to death, as Reuters reports.

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

4.5

The average window for a North Korean provocation bracketed around all U.S. national elections is 4.5 weeks.

Source: CSIS

Critical Quote

“I think there’s good enough data to say that aerosol transmission does occur. Aerosol means the droplets don’t drop immediately. They hang around for a period of time.”

— Dr. Anthony Fauci

iDeas Lab

Chinese tech companies, Huawei in particular, view Serbia as a launching pad and testing ground for new surveillance systems. A new CSIS report examines Serbia in greater detail to shed more light on China’s political and economic objectives, its mechanisms for influence, and the implications of its activities, including a second wave of digital infrastructure projects.

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: Alex Wong/Getty Images.) President Donald Trump and first lady Melanie Trump pay their respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's flag-draped casket today.

Recommended Reading

“Dire Straits,” a collection of short essays on U.S. support for Taiwan in Foreign Affairs by CSIS’s Bonnie Glaser, RAND’s Michael J. Mazarr, the Fletcher School’s Michael J. Glennon, and CFR’s Richard Haass and David Sacks.

This Town Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 9:00 a.m., the CSIS Economics Program hosts Michael Froman, vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard and former U.S. trade representative, for a discussion of the post-Covid-19 global economy and trading system.

And then at 10:30 a.m., the CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development will release a prerecorded discussion about possible pathways investors and businesses can pursue to help build resilience in the supply chains.

Later, at 9:00 a.m., the United States Institute of Peace will host a panel discussion exploring the regional impacts of Syria's civil war, featuring CSIS senior fellow Natasha Hall.

Video

Representative Ami Bera (D-CA) spoke with CSIS's Victor Cha, Sue Mi Terry, and Mark Lippert this morning on the U.S.-South Korea alliance, U.S. policy toward North Korea, and Covid-19 challenges. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

On the most recent episode of Pekingology, CSIS's Jude Blanchette is joined by Michigan State University's Erica Frantz to discuss her co-authored paper, "When Dictators Die." With the removal of the only term limit on office in March 2018, Xi Jinping stands to rule indefinitely. But what happens if he suddenly dies in office? How will China's political and economic system respond?

Listen on Spotify, Google Play, & Apple Podcasts

Smiles

“Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right”

Perhaps the best loved Grateful Dead pairing of all songs is the “Scarlet Begonias” transition into “Fire On The Mountain,” aka “Scarlet Fire.”

The first time the Dead performed the combo was March 18, 1977. After that the two songs almost always appeared together and were played at a total of 254 Dead shows. May 8, 1977 in Ithaca, NY at Cornell University’s Barton Hall is widely recognized as the greatest of all renditions. Alas, that performance wasn’t captured on video. Fortunately, just a few days before the Cornell show, we have March 27, 1977 at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey on video. Enjoy, and smile.