The Evening: Cease-Fire Approved, NK Weapons, Déjà vu and More

May 20, 2021

Cease-Fire Approved

Israel’s cabinet approved a cease-fire with Palestinian militant group Hamas late on Thursday. The cabinet voted to accept an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that will be bilateral and without any conditions. And, as the WSJ reports, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan confirmed the cease-fire and said it would begin at 2 a.m. local time.

NK Weapons Program

The staying power of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal as shown in new thermal infrared imagery analyzed by CSIS, highlights an uncomfortable truth as President Biden prepares to greet President Moon Jae-in of South Korea at the White House on Friday, as the NYT reports.

Dive Deeper: “Thermal Imagery Indicates Activity at Yongbyon Nuclear Reprocessing Facilities,” by CSIS’s Joseph Bermudez, Victor Cha, Andy Dinville and Dana Kim.

“The Biden-Moon Summit: Rejuvenating and Modernizing the Alliance,” by CSIS’s Victor Cha.

EU Agrees on Covid-19 Certificates

European policymakers struck a deal Thursday to sweep away travel barriers among European countries through a digital certificate system, another step toward normalizing global movement, as the Washington Post reports.

Executive Education

We invite you to apply to The Dynamics and Implications of China's Rise, a three-day course on China's domestic and elite politics, its growing international influence, and its economic development trajectory.

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

40.5 Million

Storms, floods, wildfires—and to a lesser degree, conflict—uprooted 40.5 million people globally in 2020, the largest human displacement in more than a decade.

Source: NYT

Critical Quote

“Every time we’re silent, every time we let hate flourish, we make a lie of who we are as a nation.”

— President Joe Biden, as he signed into law a bill to expedite a review of pandemic-related hate crimes, with an emphasis on an increase in attacks targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

iDeas Lab

One hundred and thirty countries have adopted or are discussing a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 target.

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: Amir Levy/Getty Images.)

Artillery unit soldiers kneel after hearing a siren warning of rocket fire from Gaza.

Recommended Reading

“The Biden-Moon Summit: Rejuvenating and Modernizing the Alliance,” by CSIS’s Victor Cha.

This Town Tomorrow

Tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m., the CSIS Missile Defense Project hosts Lieutenant General Daniel Karbler for a conversation on the U.S. Army's space and integrated air and missile defense plans.

Also, at 10:00 a.m., the Hudson Institute holds a webinar to discuss the outbreak of hostilities in Gaza and U.S.-Israeli relations in the Biden era, featuring former ambassador of Israel to the United States Ron Dermer.

And, at 12:00 p.m., the Woodrow Wilson Center hosts a panel of experts for a discussion of Nicaragua's November elections and prospects for democracy in the country.

Video

The CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies today hosted Representative Andy Kim (D-NJ) and a panel of experts for a discussion of the role of human capital in U.S.-China relations. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

On today's timely episode of the Impossible State, Victor Cha, Sue Mi Terry, and I discuss tomorrow's meeting of U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, the first summit meeting between the two leaders.

Listen on Spotify, Google Play, & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

CSNY’s 50th anniversary edition of “Déjà vu” and its 11 outtakes, alternate cuts and previously unreleased demos reveal a band at their peak. The best material comes from Stephen Stills and David Crosby who wrote brilliant songs that never made the original album. Outtakes such as “Ivory Tower,” “Know You Got to Run,” and “Laughing,” to name a few, could have been CSNY standards had they been released along with the original material.

Crosby would go on to issue a version of “Laughing” on his first solo record released in ’71,“If I Could Only Remember My Name,” featuring Jerry Garcia on pedal steel. Until this week, that was the only version of “Laughing” that most of us ever heard. But this stripped down version of “Laughing” on the 50th anniversary edition of “Déjà vu” begs the question: How could a song so beautiful have been left off of the original CSNY album?