Family Separation | Afghan Cease-Fire | Conservative Wins in Colombia

Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. June 18, 2018 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA UN Condemns U.S. Policy of Migrant Family Separations UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein condemned the U.S. policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border as "unconscionable" in remarks on Monday, calling the practice "abuse" against children (USA Today). Democratic lawmakers protested the policy over the weekend and visited detention facilities, as some Republicans echoed their criticisms (WaPo). The administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump said two thousand children had been separated from their parents in six weeks between April and May, after the administration announced a "zero-tolerance" policy in which it would prosecute undocumented border crossers for illegal entry (NYT). The House of Representatives is expected this week to vote on two Republican-drafted bills, both of which would have children detained in facilities along with their parents (WSJ) or else released to relatives. ANALYSIS "A decades-old court settlement bars the U.S. government from jailing migrant children. Until recently, the result was that families who crossed the border seeking asylum were often released into the U.S. while their cases are pursued," Louise Radnofsky, Michelle Hackman, and Alicia A. Caldwell write for the Wall Street Journal. "Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen expressed alarm that 300,000 would-be border crossers are apprehended yearly. But this is a stark drop from just 18 years ago, when more than 1.6 million were stopped. At the same time, more people are now leaving the U.S. to return to Mexico than arriving from Mexico," Mona Charen writes for the National Review. "While [former White House advisor Steve] Bannon and others see the hardline policy as a way to motivate Republican supporters of the president ahead of midterm elections in which control of Congress is up for grabs, Democrats have also seized on it as a sign of how they see Mr Trump repeatedly violating American norms and values," Shawn Donnan writes for the Financial Times. PACIFIC RIM Three Reported Dead in Japan Quake More than three hundred others were injured after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck Osaka Prefecture Monday morning (Japan Times). SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA Taliban Reject Cease-Fire Extension in Afghanistan The Taliban rejected a call by President Ashraf Ghani to extend a cease-fire observed during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, saying in a statement that the militants will resume operations against “foreign invaders and their internal supporters” (WaPo). Two attacks in Nangarhar Province that killed at least forty people (Tolo) over the weekend were attributed to the Islamic State, which the government had excluded from the truce. INDIA: The government announced that a cease-fire in place in Kashmir since mid-May (Hindustan Times) for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan will be discontinued. It was the first such truce in the region in more than a decade and a half. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Libyan Oil Corporation Warns of Damage to Facility The National Oil Corporation said a militia attack at the Ras Lanuf terminal (FT) has halved its oil storage capacity at the port. The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, announced an offensive on Sunday (Al Jazeera) against the militia. YEMEN: Witnesses reported air strikes on the airport in Hodeidah (AP) as the Saudi-led coalition seeking to restore Yemen's exiled government battles to take control of the port city, a lifeline for most Yemenis. CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker follows the conflict in Yemen. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Thirty-One Killed in Nigeria Suicide Attacks Twin attacks carried out by suspected Boko Haram militants in northeastern Borno State (Premium Times) left an additional forty-eight people injured, according to witnesses. The victims had been celebrating Eid al-Fitr (Vanguard). In Foreign Affairs, Vanda Felbab-Brown discusses the problems with Nigeria's counterinsurgency strategy. ETHIOPIA/SOMALIA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in Mogadishu, where the pair agreed to "strengthen their brotherly bilateral relations" and enhance their countries’ diplomatic and trade relations (VOA). Abiy is the first Ethiopian leader to visit neighboring Somalia in more than four decades (Bloomberg). EUROPE German Coalition Feuds Over Immigration Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, met separately on Monday over the CSU’s bid to turn asylum seekers registered elsewhere in Europe away at the German border (FT). Merkel has argued that the move, advocated by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, would imperil a consensus on refugee policy at an EU summit in late June. AMERICAS Conservative Wins Colombia's Presidential Runoff Ivan Duque led his leftist opponent 54 to 42 percent (WaPo), with nearly all votes tallied. Duque has called for “structural changes” to a landmark peace deal with Marxist rebels from the FARC rebel group. The right-wing candidate is a protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, who was blocked by term limits (NYT) from running. NICARAGUA: The government of President Daniel Ortega will allow an international probe (CNN) into violence at anti-government protests that have seen dozens of people killed since April, Nicaragua’s Catholic bishops announced. United States Banks Poised to Hand Out Record Investor Payouts The top twenty-two U.S. banks are expected to pay investors a record $170 billion in dividends and stock buybacks. The payout exceeds what they have generated, a first since the 2008 financial crisis, raising fears that they are not keeping enough capital to weather another shock without a taxpayer bailout (FT). GLOBAL Watchdog Warns Over Nuclear Weapons Development There are an estimated 14,465 nuclear weapons in the world, in the hands of nine countries, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which warned of the risks of countries modernizing their aging stockpiles (DW). Some 122 UN states have pledged to abstain from nuclear weapons. This CFR Backgrounder looks at the modernization of the U.S. arsenal.         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: June 18, 2018 at 10:22PM