Putin in Ankara | Philippines's Marcos Reemerges | Dalits Protest

Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. April 3, 2018 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA Putin in Ankara Ahead of Meeting on Syria Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday in Ankara, where they will follow the ground-breaking ceremony for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant (RFE/RL), built with Russian support, over video conference, the Kremlin said. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will join the pair on Wednesday to discuss trilateral efforts to negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict (Hurriyet). Relations between Ankara and Moscow hit a low point when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in 2015, but Putin and Erdogan have met several times over the last year and speak regularly by phone (AP). ANALYSIS "The prospect of Russia, Turkey and Iran agreeing what a new status quo inside Syria should look like is a short-term stopgap at best, and one that overlooks the underlying and unresolved causes of the war," Nick Paton Walsh writes for CNN. "Instead of trumpeting each new ceasefire as a first step toward peace – when their basic terms are the same as those of previous failed ceasefires—bogus ceasefires need to be seen as integral to Assad's military strategy," Mohammed Alaa Ghanem writes for Chatham House. "Turkey’s military campaign on [the Syrian city of] Afrin and the expansion of its own influence on the ground in Syria also means that the Syrian regime will find it difficult to extend its military control in the north west because that would put it in direct confrontation with Turkey. This further challenges the notion that the Syrian regime is 'winning' the war in Syria," Lina Khatib writes for Asharq Al-Awsat. PACIFIC RIM Fiji PM Warns of Threat From Climate Change Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said the Pacific island nation faces an “almost constant level of threat” (SBS) due to extreme weather. A cyclone that struck the island Sunday killed at least four people (AP) and displaced more than one thousand. PHILIPPINES: The Presidential Electoral Tribunal began a manual recount of the 2016 vice presidential election (PhilStar) in a move that could deliver the office to the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos (WSJ). SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA UN to Probe Afghan Air Strike on Kunduz School UN investigators (CBS/AFP) are probing an Afghan Air Force strike on a religious school on Monday that locals said killed fifty civilians (Tolo), including many children. The Afghan government said fifteen Taliban militants were killed. A CFR panel discusses U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. INDIA: Nine people were reported killed (Hindustan Times) in clashes in several northern states amid demonstrations against a Supreme Court order that could weaken protections for lower-caste Indians (BBC). MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Netanyahu Backtracks on Refugee Deal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled an agreement with the United Nations to resettle African asylum seekers and said he would continue to “exhaust all possibilities at our disposal to remove the infiltrators” (Haaretz). Sixteen thousand asylum seekers would be resettled in Western countries and an equal number would remain in Israel under the deal, which had been announced Monday (Ynet). SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Nigeria to Probe Cambridge Analytica Nigeria announced an investigation into whether the British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica broke local laws (Vanguard) when it worked for the People’s Democratic Party in the 2007 and 2015 general elections. SOUTH AFRICA: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died on Monday at age eighty-one. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that a state funeral will be held on April 14 (Citizen). EUROPE French Rail Workers Begin Strikes Workers began rolling strikes to pressure President Emmanuel Macron to drop a plan to reform the state rail operator (France 24), planning for stoppages to take place two out of every five days for the next three months. Air France staff and garbage collectors also staged walkouts on Tuesday. GERMANY: A German prosecutor requested that a court extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont (DW), who is being held as he awaits possible removal to Spain to face rebellion charges. The highest court in the northern Schleswig-Holstein State will hear his case. AMERICAS Mexico Rebuffs Trump’s Criticism on Migrants Mexico’s foreign ministry said that it is up to U.S. authorities to decide whether to grant entry to 1,100 migrants, many of them Central American asylum seekers, traveling to the United States, adding that it “does not make immigration decisions for the United States or any other nation” (CNN). President Trump criticized Mexico in a Sunday tweet for failing to stop the migrants. VENEZUELA: A security aide to Henri Falcon, who will challenge President Nicolas Maduro in the upcoming presidential election (Reuters), suffered a severe head injury in an attack at a campaign event. This CFR Backgrounder looks at Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. UNITED STATES Kremlin Says Trump Invited Putin to White House A Kremlin aide said that President Trump invited his Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House during a phone call congratulating Putin on his election win (WaPo) last month. The White House press secretary said a “number of of potential venues, including the White House” were discussed. CFR’s Stephen Sestanovich discusses the future of Russia’s relations with the West. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he will seek to roll back emissions standards for cars and light trucks (EPA), saying President Obama “set the standards too high.”         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: April 03, 2018 at 10:12PM