EU Officials Call for Palestinian State at Meeting With Israeli Foreign Minister |
At a meeting in Brussels yesterday, European Union (EU) officials called for (NYT) Palestinian statehood to be part of any arrangement that follows the current war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz shied away from addressing future governance of the Gaza Strip during the meeting, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against the prospect of Palestinian statehood in recent days.
While the Brussels meeting highlighted divisions over sustained security agreements in the Middle East, inside Israel, relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza stormed (The Guardian) a parliamentary session yesterday, calling for the government to do more to secure the captives’ release. Israel also experienced the deadliest single day (NYT) of its ground campaign yesterday, with twenty-four soldiers killed in Gaza. In the broader region, U.S. and United Kingdom (UK) forces carried out a new round of strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen in an effort to reduce Houthi militant attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
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“For years, negotiators, including Palestinians, have discussed a demilitarized Palestinian state as a component of a two-state solution. It is time to take demilitarization more seriously, even as all sides work seriously to revive the prospect of Palestinian independence,” the Brookings Institution’s Natan Sachs writes for Foreign Affairs.
“America does not want to be dragged into another long Middle Eastern conflict. The Houthis have no such qualms. They outlasted [former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah] Saleh, who fought a series of brutal counterinsurgency campaigns against them,” the Economist writes.
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict. |
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Western Countries Press China on Human Rights Record at UN Meeting |
Today’s review at the United Nations in Geneva was the first since the body’s senior rights official released a report in 2022 saying that Beijing’s detention of Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region could constitute crimes against humanity. While China reportedly lobbied (Reuters) non-Western countries to defend its record ahead of the meeting, envoys from Western countries called on (WaPo) China to protect ethnic minorities and repeal a harsh security law in Hong Kong.
For the Asia Unbound blog, CFR expert Joshua Kurlantzick describes how China’s public image is worsening.
Philippines: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will not cooperate (Nikkei) with an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into suspected human rights violations during the previous administration’s violent campaign against illicit drug use. The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019.
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India’s Stock Market Grows to Become World’s Fourth Largest |
India’s stock market capitalization surpassed (Bloomberg) that of Hong Kong yesterday. A combined $4.33 trillion in shares were listed on Indian exchanges when they closed yesterday, whereas Hong Kong is experiencing a historic slump.
India/Myanmar: At least eight people were injured after a Myanmar military plane carrying soldiers bound for Myanmar overshot a runway (Reuters) in northern India today. Nearly seven hundred Myanmar soldiers have crossed into India in the past two months amid violence between the junta and rebel groups.
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Middle East and North Africa |
United States Imposes New Sanctions on Hamas, Iraqi Airline |
This is the fifth (AP) round of sanctions imposed on Hamas since its October 7 attack on Israel and the first on the Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad, which the United States said is providing assistance to Iran’s military and its proxy groups in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. |
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Blinken Visits Four African Countries on His Fourth Tour of Continent |
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip this week to Angola, Cape Verde, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria is focused (AFP) on bolstering U.S. ties to those countries and discussing the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is traveling (U.S. Mission to the United Nations) this week to Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
This episode of the Why It Matters podcast discusses why the future is African.
Nigeria: Officials in the country’s most populous state of Lagos called for immediate implementation (Africanews) of a ban on styrofoam and other single-use plastics due to their effect on the environment.
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NATO Signs $1.2 Billion Artillery Contract for Ukraine |
The contract signed today will permit the purchase (Reuters) of around 220,000 rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition. According to the contract’s terms, several North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members will either send shells to Ukraine or use them to restock their own inventories.
UK: The upper house of Parliament voted against (FT) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and called for the government to demonstrate that Rwanda is safe to receive migrants. The UK Supreme Court previously ruled that Sunak’s plan was unlawful.
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Canada Announces Two-Year Ceiling on Quota of International Students |
Due to a national housing crunch, the Canadian government announced yesterday that it is reducing (CBC) the number of international undergraduate students approved to enter the country by 35 percent in 2024 to around 360,000 students. In some provinces, it will be as high as 50 percent.
U.S./Mexico: A U.S. appeals panel in Boston voted yesterday that a 2021 Mexican lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers can proceed (NYT), reversing a previous decision that blocked it. The suit claims gunmakers should be liable for failure to track their firearms that end up in the hands of violent Mexican cartels.
This Backgrounder unpacks Mexico’s long war with violence, crime, and cartels.
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Supreme Court Rules Federal Government Can Remove Razor Wire on Border With Mexico |
Texas authorities said they installed the razor wire on part of the state’s border with Mexico to deter unauthorized migration. While the justices did not provide an explanation for their 5–4 vote, the wire has injured several migrants and the Joe Biden administration has argued (AP) the wire inhibits federal authorities’ ability to do their jobs. |
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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