Daily News Brief

February 28, 2024

Top of the Agenda

The law sets a target (Reuters) to restore at least a fifth of European Union (EU) land and sea by 2030. It is one of the EU’s main pieces of environmental legislation and also includes specific targets for restoring natural habitats such as peatlands so that they can absorb carbon dioxide emissions. By 2050, it requires restoration for all EU ecosystems that need it. Environmental groups celebrated (The Guardian) the passage of the law. 

The law passed the European Parliament despite becoming a target of weekslong farmer protests across the bloc. Farmers’ objections included the assertion that the law would excessively impose bureaucracy on them. In yesterday’s 329–275 vote approving the law, the center-right European People’s Party voted against it, agreeing with farmers that the law added too much red tape. The law still requires final approval by European countries before it enters into effect.

Analysis

“On paper, Tuesday was a good day for liberal and left-wing European Parliament members, who managed to pass a landmark nature preservation bill despite multiple attempts to shoot it down. But the law’s narrow survival underscored broader trends likely to hamper green lawmaking following this summer’s bloc-wide election,” Politico’s Louise Guillot and Zia Weise write.

“Voters in general remain fearful about climate change, but tend to prioritize a lower cost of living over the climate impact. EU governments, meanwhile, fear the consequences of not appeasing the agricultural lobby,” the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Susi Dennison writes.

Pacific Rim

Yesterday’s changes to the law establish (WSJ) a new category of “work secrets” that could face restrictions, potentially creating new risks for foreign businesses operating in China. Beijing has also passed a data security law and rewritten an anti-espionage law in recent years. Separately, U.S. President Joe Biden is due (Bloomberg) to sign an executive order today intended to prevent “countries of concern,” such as China, from accessing Americans’ personal data. 

This timeline traces U.S.-China relations. 

Japan: Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will attend (Nikkei) a parliamentary ethics panel tomorrow amid a funding scandal regarding his party. He would be the first incumbent premier to attend such a panel, the last of which was held in 2009. He said he aimed to fulfill accountability on the matter and restore public trust in politics.

South and Central Asia

Armenia and Azerbaijan have disagreed (Bloomberg) about border lines for decades, but tensions were further provoked after Azerbaijan launched a military campaign in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh last year. German officials have stepped up mediation efforts in recent months over the conflict; Germany’s foreign minister will host Armenian and Azerbaijani officials for a two-day peace discussion beginning today.

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

Pakistan: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife pleaded not guilty (AP) yesterday to corruption charges alleging they improperly received a gift of land in exchange for large quantities of laundered funds. Khan is currently serving multiple prison terms and has some 170 legal cases pending against him.

Middle East and North Africa

Planes from Egypt, France, and the United Arab Emirates joined (NYT) a Jordanian aid drop along the coast of the Gaza Strip yesterday, Jordan’s military said. Humanitarian groups usually only drop aid by plane as a last resort when it is difficult to reach recipients via ground transport. The United States also announced $53 million in new humanitarian aid for Gaza yesterday, bringing total U.S. aid to Gaza during the current war to $180 million.

Saudi Arabia/Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with (AP) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh yesterday to discuss Ukraine’s peace plan for the current war with Russia and the possible return of Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

In this Council of Councils Global Memo, thirteen experts weigh in on how to end the war in Ukraine. 

Sub-Saharan Africa

The country’s central bank raised (FT) interest rates to 22.75 percent yesterday at its first meeting since July as protests against President Bola Tinubu’s pro-market economic reform policies roil the country. The central bank governor said he aimed to stamp out rising inflation. Nigeria’s naira has fallen to record lows almost weekly in recent months.

Senegal: A commission of civic, political, and religious leaders participating in a national dialogue regarding the country’s electoral schedule proposed (Bloomberg) that the presidential vote occur on June 2. It was previously set for this month, but Senegalese President Macky Sall postponed it.  

Europe

The EU administrative watchdog found that the current protocols for border and coast guard agency Frontex risk (AP) making the bloc “complicit in actions that violate fundamental rights and cost lives.” Frontex is often subject to the operational protocols of member countries’ coast guards, some of which have failed to respond quickly to migrant disasters at sea. The ombudsman’s report called for a change in those rules.

Americas

Salvatore Mancuso was sent back (AP) to Colombia yesterday, where the former paramilitary leader faces a prison sentence related to more than 1,500 acts of murder and disappearances. He will seek a reduced prison sentence as part of a special tribunal created in the country’s 2016 peace deal. Colombian human rights groups have called for him to disclose details of murders and disappearances that remain unsolved.

Chile: A Chilean court required (Reuters) Google to improve the environmental standards at a proposed data center in the country, saying yesterday that it would partially withhold the permit for the center in the interim. Residents of the capital, Santiago, have voiced concern about the center’s impact on the city’s water supply.

United States

President Joe Biden won (NYT) more than 81 percent of votes in yesterday’s Michigan Democratic primary, while former President Donald Trump won more than 68 percent of votes in the state’s Republican primary. Trump’s margin of victory over his closest challenger, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, was more than 40 percent. In the Democratic primary, some 13 percent of voters chose “uncommitted,” largely believed to be in protest (Reuters) of U.S. support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.

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