Daily News Brief

June 6, 2024

Top of the Agenda

U.S. President Joe Biden hailed those who “stand against tyranny” in a Normandy, France, address today marking the eightieth anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Biden drew a link between Ukraine’s current fight for self-defense and the Allied efforts during World War II. Citing global trends of “illegal aggression,” he said that democracy across the world is more at risk now than at any time since the second world war and praised the importance of alliances in protecting it. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is at the ceremony today and is meeting (NBC) with Biden this week over ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort. Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated with Washington’s slow pace of aid and criticisms of corruption in Ukraine. D-Day veterans and world leaders also gathered for the anniversary. It comes as European Union elections kick off (FT) today, with policy toward the war in Ukraine a key issue for voters. 

Analysis

“We’re coming off of a couple of years of transatlantic cooperation that is extraordinarily impressive,” CFR expert Charles A. Kupchan said in this media briefing. “I think in some ways you could say that there is even more solidarity and meeting of the minds [than] there was during much of the Cold War.”

“Ukraine, and the implications of a Russian threat, has become a go-to issue for [EU] centrists as they seek to fend off the populist challenge from left and right,” The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour writes. “The connections between Moscow’s interests and the extreme right, particularly those parties in the European parliament’s Identity and Democracy (ID) group, are seen as a rich seam.”

Pacific Rim

Yesterday’s joint U.S.-South Korea drill was meant to strengthen (Yonhap) the countries’ “combined defense posture,” the U.S. military said. The drill comes amid heightened tensions between North and South Korea; recently North Korea sent trash-filled balloons across the border, and South Korea suspended an inter-Korea military pact. 

China: The Five Eyes intelligence alliance of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom warned (CNN) that China is trying to recruit former Western military pilots to train their own, often through purportedly private companies. The Pentagon expects pilots to “keep their training specific to the United States,” a spokesperson said yesterday. The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment to VOA on the claim but said “companies’ normal business activities should be respected.”

South and Central Asia

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced (FT) the policy today, a shift from a previous stance of avoiding deportations to those countries due to security risks there. Immigrants who glorified or condoned terrorism would also be deported, Sholz said. The move comes after an Afghan national killed a police officer in southwest Germany last week. 

India/Taiwan: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X yesterday that he looks forward (Bloomberg) to closer ties with Taiwan following India’s general elections. Earlier that day, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te hailed the “fast-growing” bilateral partnership in a post congratulating Modi on his reelection. China’s foreign ministry said it protested to India over the statement.

For the Asia Unbound blog, CFR expert Manjari Chatterjee Miller looks at what Modi’s historic, sobering win means for India.

Middle East and North Africa

European members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposed (Bloomberg) the resolution, which calls on Iran (AP) to honor agreements that allow nuclear inspectors to access certain sites. The censure follows an IAEA report last week that Iran has continued to increase its stock of near-weapons-grade level uranium. The IAEA last censured Iran in 2022. 

Israel/Palestinian territories: An Israeli air strike hit a UN school building (NYT) in the central Gaza Strip today that Israel said was holding Hamas operatives; the Palestinian Authority’s news agency said several of those killed were displaced civilians. Yesterday, Israel’s military said it launched a new offensive against Hamas in the area.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Russia will continue to supply equipment and increase (AP) the number of security trainers supporting Burkina Faso’s military government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday on a visit to the country’s capital of Ouagadougou. Lavrov is on a three-country tour of West Africa that includes Guinea, which is also run by a military junta, and the Republic of Congo.

This Backgrounder by CFR’s Mariel Ferragamo explores Russia’s growing footprint in Africa.

Sudan: The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out attacks (Reuters) yesterday in a village in Gezira State as part of efforts to advance in central Sudan. A pro-democracy activist group said on social media that the RSF used heavy artillery against civilians and killed more than one hundred people, while the RSF said it attacked military and allied bases in the village and did not identify any civilian casualties. 

For the Africa in Transition blog, CFR expert Michelle Gavin calls attention to the world’s “shameful” neglect of the Sudan war. 

Europe

Spain decided (AP) to partner on South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “because of the ongoing military operation in Gaza,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said. Spain is the first European country to formally request to join the suit, though Ireland has previously said (Reuters) it plans to join South Africa’s case. Israel says the suit is baseless and its actions in Gaza are self-defense.

Americas

The countries are discussing (Reuters) a deal in which non-Mexican undocumented migrants would be deported to their home countries rather than sent to Mexico in light of new restrictions on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said yesterday. The first deportations under the new rule occurred yesterday (AP), unnamed senior U.S. homeland security officials told press, though they did not clarify how many. 

This Backgrounder by CFR’s Diana Roy unpacks the U.S. asylum process.

Mexico: A fifty-nine-year-old man who had contracted the H5N2 strain of avian flu without prior contact with animals has died (CBS), the World Health Organization said yesterday. This is the first H5N2 case reported in humans worldwide, and the first-ever human avian flu case in Mexico. It is different from the H5N1 strain currently circulating in livestock in the United States. The man’s contacts tested negative for the strain, Mexican health authorities said.

United States

Two NASA astronauts are aboard (CNN) the spacecraft, which is headed for the International Space Station. They are due to dock this afternoon and spend eight days carrying out tests there.

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