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Daily Brief: Zimbabwe's New President to Be Sworn In Friday

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Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. November 22, 2017 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA Zimbabwe's New President to Be Sworn In Friday Editor’s Note: There will be no Daily Brief on Thursday, November 23, and Friday, November 24, for Thanksgiving. Former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as president (Al Jazeera) on Friday, following the resignation of Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for thirty-seven years. Mnangagwa will return to the country from South Africa (Guardian), where he fled two weeks ago after Mugabe fired him in an apparent move to clear the way for his wife, Grace, to assume the presidency. Mnangagwa's dismissal triggered a political crisis in which both the military and officials from the ruling party, ZANU-PF, demanded Mugabe step down. A top U.S. diplomat said the United States seeks "genuine" economic and political reforms (VOA) in Zimbabwe and hopes to lift sanctions against the southern African country. ANALYSIS "The military and Mugabe himself may have concluded that it was no longer possible for ZANU-PF to keep the Zimbabwean people out, and the popular demonstrations indicated that they wanted him to go; this was confirmed by celebrations in the streets and in the house of parliament after learning of his resignation," writes CFR’s John Campbell. "This is no revolution giving the power to the people. The army has done its duty in giving the power back to the party," writes African Arguments. "Mnangagwa and his military backers are likely to go for authoritarian state capitalism along the Chinese model. There will be liberalization of the economy without democratization as long-term political and economic trajectories," Pedzisai Ruhanya writes for Al Jazeera. EUROPE Mladic Convicted for Massacre of Bosnian Muslims A UN war crimes tribunal has convicted former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide for the mass murders of Bosnian Muslims (NYT) during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The tribunal found that Mladic was the principal organizer of a campaign to drive non-Serbs from their lands. SWITZERLAND: FIFA, the international soccer governing body, has handed life bans to former association presidents (BBC) in Guam, Nicaragua, and Venezuela for corruption in their issuing of broadcast and marketing contracts.  PACIFIC RIM U.S. Navy Aircraft Crashes Near Japan A U.S. Navy aircraft carrying eleven crew and passengers crashed into the Pacific (FT) while en route to the carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Wednesday. Japan's defense minister said eight people had been rescued and that search operations continue for the remaining three. NORTH KOREA: The United Nations has accused Pyongyang of violating a 1950s armistice agreement (Korea Times) by firing across the border at a North Korean soldier as he defected to the South last week. A panel of CFR experts discussed U.S. options regarding North Korea. SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA Pakistan Welcomes U.S. Military Offer on Afghan Border The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said the United States will "act against" militants attempting cross-border raids (VOA) into Pakistan. The comments came after Pakistani forces reportedly fired hundreds of mortars over several days into the Afghan province of Kunar, forcing villagers to flee. Pakistani defense officials welcomed the move. AFGHANISTAN: President Ashraf Ghani has endorsed a new U.S. military campaign to carry out air strikes against alleged narcotics facilities (WaPo) used by the Taliban. Local authorities said on Tuesday that ten such strikes had been carried out in the past week in Helmand Province. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Lebanon's Hariri Suspends Resignation Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he will put his resignation on hold (WSJ) after returning to Beirut and speaking with President Michel Aoun. Hariri announced the surprise resignation earlier this month while in Saudi Arabia, saying he feared for his life. Mohamad Bazzi discusses Hariri's resignation in this CFR interview. IRAQ: The United Nations has welcomed a proposal by Iraq (DW) to resume payments to Kuwait for the $4.6 billion it owes (Reuters) the country for the destruction of its oil infrastructure in the 1990–91 Gulf War.  SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Strike in Somalia Killed a Hundred Militants, U.S. Says The U.S. military said it carried out an air strike in Somalia (WSJ) on Tuesday that killed more than a hundred militants linked to the militant group al-Shabab. A U.S. Africa Command spokesman said the strike hit a training camp northwest of the capital Mogadishu and that it was "obvious" that those targeted were militants (VOA). Stig Jarle Hansen and Christopher Anzalone discuss the state of al-Shabab in Foreign Affairs. AMERICAS Canada's Trudeau to Apologize for 'Gay Purge' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will formally apologize next Tuesday to thousands of Canadians in the military, public service, and police (NYT) who lost their jobs and faced discrimination for being homosexual over several decades up to the early 1990s. The apology may include financial compensation to victims. MEXICO: The country's minimum wage commission has approved raising the minimum wage above inflation (WSJ) to 88.36 pesos, or $4.69. UNITED STATES Trump, Putin Back UN Effort for Peace in Syria U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to back UN efforts to peacefully resolve Syria's seven-year civil war (VOA). The two leaders said Syrian refugees should be able to return to a stable country "free of malign intervention and terrorist safe havens." About a dozen U.S. diplomats, writing in a confidential State Department memo, have accused U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (Reuters) of violating federal law by excluding Iraq, Myanmar, and Afghanistan from a list of countries known to use child soldiers.         Council on Foreign Relations — 58 East 68th Street — New York, NY 10065 CFR does not share email addresses with third parties. Forward This Email | Subscribe to CFR Newsletters | Unsubscribe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

From: dailybrief@e.cfr.org

Date: November 22, 2017 at 10:53PM