Lower Gaza Death Toll

The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory. And, as the NYT reports, the change in the UN’s numbers—and the confusion over the discrepancy—has added fuel to a debate over the credibility of the Gazan authorities’ tallies of fatalities in the war.

Blinken to Kyiv

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, the start of a two-day visit to Ukraine to buttress morale and help channel the delivery of newly approved U.S. aid to help resist a grinding Russian offensive, as the AP reports.

Inflation and Rates

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell affirmed the central bank’s plans to hold interest rates at the highest level in more than two decades as it awaits evidence that a slowdown in inflation will resume after setbacks this year, as the WSJ reports.

Executive Education

From production to procurement, explore the defense acquisition process with Mapping the U.S. DOD Acquisition Ecosystem. Join us at CSIS in-person or virtually on May 29 to dive into the requirements process, funding stages, and how the government acquires and maintains capabilities. Register here by May 21.

Audio Briefs

CSIS experts give short, spoken-word summaries on the biggest takeaways from their latest reports, white papers, and commentaries—in their own words.

Listen here: "The Essequibo Pressure Cooker: Runaway Nationalism and Maduro’s Compellence Strategy" with CSIS's Ryan C. Berg and Christopher Hernandez-Roy.

In That Number

90 percent

The European Union agreed in principle that they would be willing to use 90 percent of the profits gained from frozen Russian assets for arms for Ukraine through the European Peace Facility.
Source: NYT

Critical Quote

“We’re just going to have to see where the inflation data fall out.”

—Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair

iDeas Lab

Recent satellite images reveal that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela have deployed significant numbers of personnel and equipment near the disputed border with Guyana, with steady military buildup at Anacoco Island and the construction of a bridge over the Cuyuni River to the island. Read the full analysis here.

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

Optics

(Photo credit: Mirian Meladze/Anadolu/Getty Images.) Police officers stand guard as protesters try to breach the security perimeter of the Georgian Parliament building following the announcement of the voting outcomes for the 'transparency of foreign influence' bill in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 14, 2024.

This Town Tomorrow

At 9:00 a.m., the CSIS Humanitarian Agenda hosts the 2024 Washington Humanitarian Forum to examine the intersection of climate change, humanitarian conflicts, and finance.

Then, at 10:00 a.m., the CSIS Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative welcomes CSIS Horizon Fellow Di Cooke to discuss the countermeasures against deepfakes that can mitigate dangers they present.

Also, at 10:30 a.m., the Atlantic Council hosts a conversation on the importance of the security and stability of the Black Sea region since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Video

Today, the CSIS Americas Program welcomed Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of National Drug Control Policy, to discuss cooperative approaches to counter-narcotics in Colombia and Ecuador. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

Tinatin Japaridze and Eto Buziashvili join the podcast to discuss the ongoing protests and civil unrest taking place in Georgia following the controversial "foreign agents" law being pushed by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

This one is kind of a smile and a little bit of a frown. In two days, Dead and Company will kick off their residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas. A huge smile! More live shows from Dead and Co, who seemed to call it quits after “The Final Tour” last summer. So what, might you ask, is a bit of a bummer? It’s been announced that the Sphere shows will NOT be streamed live for those of us who can’t make it to Vegas. And, to make it worse, there doesn't seem to be a plan to distribute the audio from the shows either. Last summer and on previous tours, the Dead made all of this available to subscribers of Nugs.net. Speculation is circulating that the Dead is having a hard time selling out tickets for the residency, which lasts into mid-July, and thus, no streaming.

All of this is counter to the counter cultural force and financial genius that is the Grateful Dead and Dead and Company. These are the guys who invented sharing concert audio music for free, and in later years for reasonable cost. Overall, that strategy has been a stunning success. It has expanded the audience year over year and the band’s revenue. I’m not suggesting that video and audio of live shows should be free nowadays—far from it. Subscription fees and pay-per-view options are just fine. Maybe the bottom line isn’t exactly the bottom line, and the Dead should figure something out to keep the spark going for folks who can’t/won’t travel Sin City. When it comes to scale, it seems like a bad plan to shrink the overarching audience in the hopes of selling a few more seats in the Sphere’s rafters. If there is anything that we have learned in the streaming age, it is that when it comes to keeping and growing audience, regular content feeding is essential.

I don’t think any hard core Deadheads will lose interest in the band because of this. We’ll just grumble and hope that audio from the shows will eventually get out. But what about the younger siblings who didn’t get a chance to hear or stream video of a live performance last summer or in past years? For now, they will just have to settle for watching the amazing archival footage from last summer.

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 by Lauren Adler, Ava Rose, and the External Relations team.