Migrant Caravan | India's Russian Missile Buy | Portugal's Renewables

Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. April 5, 2018 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA Mexico, U.S. Defuse Border Standoff Hours after signing an order to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald J. Trump praised Mexico in a morning tweet for averting a "giant scene" (AP) by enforcing its immigration laws. Organizers of an annual caravan of Central American migrants and asylum seekers attempting to reach the United States said that approximately two hundred members of a group that originally comprised 1,100 people will attempt to cross the border in the coming days (CNN). The Mexican foreign ministry said that Secretary Luis Videgaray received assurances from U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen that national guardsmen would be unarmed and only assist the Border Patrol (SRE). ANALYSIS "Asylum-seekers are leaving their homes and seeking protection because countries like El Salvador, Venezuela, and Honduras are among the most violent places in the world," Adam Isacson and Elyssa Pachico write for the Washington Office on Latin America. "Southern governors and previous presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, have also called on the National Guard to supplement border-security agents, even though troops are not encouraged to engage in military activity on American soil," Mairead McArdle writes for the National Review. "Although the president has repeatedly warned about the dangers of illegal immigrants pouring over the border, the numbers have fallen. U.S. border authorities reported a 26 percent decline in the number of people detained along the Mexico border in 2017 compared with the previous year," Joshua Partlow writes for the Washington Post. PACIFIC RIM China’s Envoy to U.S. Urges Against Protectionism China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, met Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan on Wednesday in a bid to ease tensions over proposed tariffs. The State Department said Sullivan emphasized the need to "restore fairness and balance to our economic ties" (Nikkei). CFR's Elizabeth C. Economy writes that Trump and Xi are in a race to the bottom on trade. SOUTH KOREA: Envoys from North and South Korea met on the southern side of their shared border to discuss logistics for an April 27 meeting (Korea Times) between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Robert Jervis and Mira Rapp-Hooper discuss how misperception can lead to an unwanted war on the Korean Peninsula in Foreign Affairs. SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA India in Talks to Buy Russian Missile System India’s defense minister is in Moscow finalizing a deal worth $6 billion to buy a Russian missile-defense system (Hindustan Times), which could be signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi in October. The deal would violate U.S. sanctions (NYT) against Russia. NEPAL: Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli will make a three-day visit to India starting Friday. During his previous stint as prime minister, India opposed Nepal’s new constitution (Hindustan Times) and imposed an unofficial blockade (Nikkei), obstructing food, fuel, and medicine. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Trump Backs Off Immediate Syria Pullout President Trump told military commanders to wind down U.S. operations in Syria so that U.S. troops can leave within months (NYT), administration officials said. Some two thousand troops in Syria are working with local militias to fight remnants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State and stabilize territory the group once held. Rula Asad and Mariam Jalabi discuss what's next in the Syrian war at a CFR event. SAUDI ARABIA: Following a three-and-a-half-decade ban, Saudi Arabia will open its first movie theater on April 18 (Forbes) in Riyadh. Its inaugural screening is expected to be of the U.S. superhero film Black Panther. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Former Junta Leader Wins Sierra Leone Presidency Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio, a former military junta leader who ruled Sierra Leone in 1996, won a presidential runoff with 51.8 percent of the vote (CNN). He was sworn in shortly after (Al Jazeera) he was declared the winner. RWANDA: The Trump administration said it will suspend duty-free status for Rwandan-made clothing (Quartz) within sixty days. The announcement comes as Rwanda raised tariffs on secondhand clothing imports to support local garment manufacturing (Africa News). EUROPE U.S. Diplomats Believed to Be Leaving Moscow Three buses believed to be carrying U.S. diplomats departed the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Russia had ordered sixty U.S. foreign service officers to leave by Thursday (AP) in retaliation for the United Kingdom and its allies’ expulsions of some 150 Russian diplomats. Daniel Fried writes in Foreign Affairs that past diplomatic expulsions have had mixed results. PORTUGAL: Production of renewable energy (Reuters) exceeded power demand in the country’s mainland in March, a marker an industry group expects to become more common. CFR's Varun Sivaram argues that solar power is in danger of stalling in his new book, Taming the Sun. AMERICAS Brazil Court Rules Lula Must Be Jailed Brazil's supreme court ruled that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must enter prison for his corruption conviction before he can pursue further appeals. A lower court judge is expected to issue the prison order early next week (WaPo). UNITED STATES Facebook Raises Estimate of Compromised Accounts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said eighty-seven million users may have had their personal data inappropriately shared with the data firm Cambridge Analytica (FT), which worked on President Trump’s campaign. Zuckerberg will testify before U.S. congressional committees (NPR) next Tuesday and Wednesday. The United States is spending about $1 million to maintain detention facilities run by Kurdish militias in northern Syria to hold suspected Islamic State militants and their families, the New York Times reports. U.S. and Kurdish officials have said several thousand people are detained in the camps.         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 05, 2018 at 10:08PM