Senate Action

The Senate approved a relief package to provide sick leave, unemployment benefits, free coronavirus testing, and food and medical aid to people impacted by the pandemic, sending it to the president, who is expected to sign it, as the NYT reports.

And, as the WSJ’s Paul Davies reports, a rush for cash shook the financial system Wednesday, as companies and investors hunkered down for a prolonged economic stall, taking the recent market turmoil into a new, more troubling liquidation phase.

The Washington Post reports that the United States and Canada have agreed to close their 5,500-mile border to “all nonessential travel.”

Dive Deeper: “Time to Pull the G20 Fire Bell,” by CSIS’s Matthew Goodman and Mark Sobel.

“Use of Military Forces in the COVID-19 Emergency,” by CSIS’s Mark Cancian.

Criticism of China

President Trump on Wednesday ratcheted up his rhetoric against China over the coronavirus, saying Beijing should have acted faster to warn the world and dismissing criticism that his labeling it the “Chinese virus” was racist, as Reuters reports.

Under the Nuclear Shadow: Situational Awareness Technology and Crisis Decisionmaking

CSIS’s latest interactive report by CSIS’s Rebecca Hersman, Reja Younis, Bryce Farabaugh, Bethany Goldblum and Andrew Reddie.

CSIS Executive Education

We invite you to apply to The Dynamics and Implications of China's Rise, a three-day course on China's domestic and elite politics, its growing international influence, and its economic development trajectory.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify,” "What's Happening," "Preview," and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

$500 Billion

The Trump Administration is proposing two rounds of direct payments to Americans totaling $500 billion to respond to the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: WSJ

Critical Quote

“The shared sacrifice is essential to help those on the front lines.”

— Seema Verma, administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

iDeas Lab

Informed by research and eight tabletop exercises conducted with nearly 150 participants overall, this two-year study conducted by CSIS’s Project on Nuclear Issues and the Nuclear Policy Working Group examines implications of the emerging strategic situational awareness ecosystem and its impact on crisis decision making.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.

Optics

(Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images). A healthcare worker screens a patient for COVID-19 at a drive-through coronavirus testing site in Arlington, Virginia.

Video

As the global economy plummets amidst, CSIS offers insight on global trade from January. Former Chairman, President, and CEO of Boeing Jim McNerney explains why rules-based free trade is essential to American companies remaining the most innovative in the world. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

On a new episode of the Smart Women Smart Power podcast, host Beverly Kirk speaks with Grete Faremo, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS), about avoiding gender-blind decisions in infrastructure.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

As knowledge on COVID-19 evolves, Coronavirus Crisis Update will bring you the latest updates and analysis from CSIS experts and the leaders directing the global response.

Subscribe on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

In an interview on his 80^th birthday in September 0f 2005, BB King told me “If I have to go down to New Orleans and stand in the water or stand in the mud to play at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this spring, I will.”

B’s words gave me great comfort. Only a month prior to that interview, Hurricane Katrina had decimated my adopted city, taken so many innocent lives and shuttered my beloved Tulane University. I didn’t think there would even be a Jazz Fest in the spring of 2006—more on that later.

Well, as you might imagine, Jazz Fest this spring is canceled and tentatively rescheduled for next fall. I had grand plans to take my middle son, a high school junior, on an official visit to my beloved alma mater and to his first Jazz Fest. We’ll have to table those plans for now and I’m pretty bummed out. But I have some perspective on this.

Back to the spring of 2006, it turned out to be Bruce Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions Band that delivered the catharsis BB King had expressed to me months earlier. People always ask me what is the best performance I ever saw at Jazz Fest. I can name many that I saw in person: Neville Brothers, Radiators, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Daniel Lanois to name just a few. But it is this one by the Boss that I’ve only seen on video tape that is the most important, powerful and memorable. Sometimes, when we miss the things we love, they are even sweeter when we get them back.

I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz

The Evening is my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day. It is composed with the External Relations team: Emma Colbran, Caleb Diamond, and Brad Honigberg.