Daily News Brief

August 10, 2023

Top of the Agenda

According to the executive order unveiled yesterday, Washington will draw up a ban (NYT) on new private equity, venture capital, and joint venture investments in Chinese quantum computing, semiconductors, and some artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The White House also declared a national emergency (SCMP) due to China’s “threat of advancement” in sensitive military-related technologies. 

While U.S. officials have described the long-expected measures as targeted security interventions, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington said they will “seriously undermine the interests of Chinese and American companies and investors” and urged the United States to follow through on U.S. President Joe Biden’s pledge not to decouple from China. The draft rule is subject to a public comment period and is set to take effect (FT) next year. 

Analysis

“If you’re running a business or fund, there is the over the horizon threat that more sectors can be added, categories expanded, and more. The political signal is unmistakable. However ‘narrow’ this may be, will have a broad effect on prudent business and investment planning,” the Carnegie Endowment’s Evan Feigenbaum posts.

“The lengthy delay in issuing the order—there were expectations last year that the White House would move quicker—reflects the complex nature of figuring out where to draw lines around dual-use technologies such as artificial intelligence,” the Washington Post’s David J. Lynch and Ellen Nakashima write.

Pacific Rim

Kim Jong Un replaced the country’s top general and said Pyongyang’s military should prepare for a possible war (Yonhap) in an “offensive” way at a military meeting, state media reported. The move comes as South Korea and the United States are planning joint military drills for later this month, which North Korea has denounced. 

South and Central Asia

While many versions of the bill have been previously debated, this version gives the central government (FT) the right to disregard data protection standards on issues of “security of the state” and “maintenance of public order.” Civil rights groups have voiced concerns about the bill’s exemptions, but it is expected that the president will sign it into law in the coming days. 

India: More than three thousand Muslims fled the business hub of Gurugram outside of New Delhi following Hindu-Muslim clashes, Reuters reported. While police quelled the original violence that broke out in late July, sporadic attacks have continued.

Middle East and North Africa

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said during a visit to Iraq yesterday that the country’s severe water shortages due to climate change and government mismanagement could have significant regional reverberations (AP). He also discussed prison overcrowding and the freedom of expression, and called on authorities to end the death penalty.

This Backgrounder by Claire Klobucista and CFR’s Kali Robinson examines the global scale of water scarcity. 

Israel/Saudi Arabia/U.S.: The United States and Saudi Arabia reached broad tenets of a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal that would see Saudi Arabia distance itself from China in exchange for concessions to the Palestinians, the Wall Street Journal reported. A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said there was still “no agreed-to framework.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Niger’s military junta named twenty-one ministers (France 24, AFP, AP, Reuters) to make up their government on state television yesterday while countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) begin talks today on their regional response to the two-week-old coup at an emergency summit in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The summit comes four days after the junta defied ECOWAS’s deadline to reinstate Niger’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum.

Sudan: A plane that the United Arab Emirates said was sending humanitarian aid to war-torn Sudan instead carried ammunition for General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, leader of the rival paramilitary group, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Europe

Former International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a report released this week that there is a “reasonable basis” to conclude that Azerbaijan is committing genocide (AP) against ethnic Armenians by blockading food, medical supplies, and other essential aid to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Ocampo called for the UN Security Council to bring the matter before the ICC.

The Center for Preventive Action tracks the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Poland: The government said it plans to station ten thousand troops (AP) on its border with Belarus amid rising concerns over activity there by the Russian private military company Wagner Group, as well as migrants trying to cross the border.

Americas

Anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot (NYT) outside of a Quito rally ahead of Ecuador’s August 20 presidential election. Nine other people were also shot, officials said. Villavicencio’s death marks the first time that a presidential candidate has been assassinated in the country and comes amid escalating gang violence. President Guillermo Lasso declared a two-month nationwide state of emergency and called the killing “a political crime.” 

Colombia: The National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group has denied that they plan to kill Colombia’s attorney general (BBC) after his office said it received information that he was being targeted.

United States

The fires that moved across the island yesterday were some of the deadliest in recent years (AP). Once rare, wildfires have become more likely (Vox) on the island as Hawaii becomes drier due to climate change, experts say.

CFR’s Alice C. Hill and Tess Turner look at how wildfires are becoming more common as the world warms.

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