The Evening: Iranian Ultimatum, NK Attempted Vaccine Theft, Mardi Gras and More

February 16, 2021

Iran Tells IAEA It Plans to Scale Back Cooperation in a Week

Iran has warned it would tear up much of the international monitoring of its nuclear activities next week if the United States doesn’t lift economic sanctions, in a fresh bid to pressure the Biden administration to drop the sanctions, as the WSJ reports.

North Korea Tried to Steal Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Information

North Korea tried to hack into the servers of U.S. drugmaker Pfizer to steal coronavirus vaccine information, South Korean intelligence officials reported today, despite leader Kim Jong-un's professed view that his isolated dictatorship is untouched by the pandemic, as the Washington Post reports.

Biden Plans to “Recalibrate” Saudi Relations

President Joe Biden plans to shift U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia and will conduct diplomacy through Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz rather than his powerful son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as Reuters reports .

Executive Education

CSIS is now accepting applications for the Spring 2021 Belt and Road Executive Course. Drawing insights from leading experts and the CSIS Reconnecting Asia Project, this course reveals how China's $1 trillion foreign policy effort is impacting commercial and strategic realities on the ground.

Global Forecast 2021

Global Forecast is an annual collection of essays by CSIS experts focused on the critical issues facing the United States and the world in the year ahead.

Coronavirus Crisis Update

The Coronavirus Crisis Update podcast brings you the latest updates and analysis from CSIS experts and the leaders directing the global response. Past guests include NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, IHME Director Dr. Chris Murray, Covid-19 Advisory Group members Dr. Luciana Borio and Dr. Celine Gounder, chef Jose Andres, and more. Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Data Unpacked,” Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

13.5 Million

The White House today said that states collectively would begin receiving 13.5 million doses each week—a jump of over two million doses due in part to a shift in the way the government is allocating doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.

Source: NYT

Critical Quote

“How long it is going to take to get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, I don’t think anybody disagrees that that is going to be well into the end of the summer and we get into the early fall.”

— Dr. Anthony Fauci

iDeas Lab

While top Chinese global cities attract significant business activities, they score lower in political engagement relative to their counterparts in North America and Europe. Few influential international organizations are located in Chinese cities compared to Washington, D.C.; Brussels; Geneva; and New York.

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: Montinique Monroe/Getty Images.) Pedestrians walk on along a snow-covered street in Austin, Texas.

Recommended Reading

“SolarWinds and the Three Rs,” by CSIS’s James Andrew Lewis.

This Town Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., join CSIS's Daniel F. Runde for an armchair conversation with Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Inter-American Development Bank. They will discuss President Claver-Carone’s first months in office and the IDB's efforts at charting a course for recovery after the devastating regional impacts of Covid-19.

Later, at 2:00 p.m., CSIS welcomes Ambassador Nina Hachigian and Representative Ted Lieu to discuss the importance of U.S. cities in shaping foreign policy. The conversation will showcase urban centers’ growing role in national foreign policy and explore opportunities to promote greater U.S. diplomacy at the subnational level abroad.

Also, at 10:00 a.m., AEI will host Reinhard Felke of the European Commission for a discussion on Europe's Covid-19 recovery, with a focus on business survival in hard-hit economic sectors, fiscal sustainability, and job creation.

Video

CSIS recently hosted General David Petraeus to discuss the conditions surrounding a troop drawn down in Afghanistan and the construction of parameters for future support to Afghan security forces and the Afghan government. The conversation also covered how the important economic, social, and political gains made in the last 19 years in Afghanistan can be protected to set conditions for a stable peace. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

On yesterday's episode of Energy 360, CSIS's Lachlan Carey sat down with Justin Wu of BloombergNEF to discuss all things climate and energy related across Asia. In addition to discussing the outlook for U.S.-China relations on climate under the Biden administration, they hit on recent carbon neutral targets announced by Japan and South Korea; Covid-19 recovery efforts and the clean energy agenda in Vietnam, Indonesia, and India; and Australia and its technology-forward climate policy.

Listen on Spotify, Google Podcasts, & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

“If you've ever been saved by music, here is your chance to return the favor.”

When I lived in New Orleans, just about every night I would fall asleep to the distant sounds of music drifting in through the French doors to my second floor bedroom off of the balcony of our house Uptown. And when I would leave in the morning for school or work, the radio would be humming with the Crescent City soundtrack of WWOZ, the Big Easy’s incomparable listener supported radio station. As I would drive through the neighborhoods, day or night, there would be music in the streets, in the bars, hotels, parks—the joyful noise was everywhere. And on Mardi Gras, the musicians turned it up a notch…

Of course, this year Mardi Gras is different. They are calling it “Yardi Gras” because New Orleanians have created Mardi Gras floats at their houses and in their front yards as parades have been canceled. It’s a resilient Mardi Gras this year.

But the very heartbeat of the City That Care Forgot is in trouble. The world class local musicians of New Orleans, so many of them, are barely holding on without live gigs to play due to Covid. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation produced this video to raise awareness to the situation. As they say, “If you've ever been saved by music, here is your chance to return the favor.”