Daily News Brief

June 11, 2024

Top of the Agenda

Fourteen members of the UN Security Council yesterday voted for (Al-Monitor) the resolution supporting a three-phase plan for a truce and hostage release deal in the Gaza Strip, while Russia abstained. The resolution’s adoption came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East for talks regarding the deal on his eighth wartime visit. Blinken said today that the world is now awaiting (NYT) the response of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Yesterday, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If implemented, the plan outlined in the UN resolution could see the return of more than one hundred remaining hostages held by Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and the enclave’s reconstruction. The resolution itself said that Israel had accepted the deal; after its approval, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas voiced their approval (Reuters) as well. 

Analysis

“[The UN resolution] means the Security Council joins a number of governments, as well as the [Group of Seven] of the world's richest nations, in backing the three-part plan that was unveiled by [U.S.] President Joe Biden in a televised statement on 31 May,” the BBC’s Raffi Berg and Ana Faguy write. “While Mr. Biden presented the peace initiative as an Israeli one, the U.S. is also aware Israel’s own fractious ruling coalition is approaching the plan with reluctance.”

“Negotiations are risky for terrorist groups because showing up at the bargaining table gives away useful intelligence and undercuts the narrative that there is no alternative but to engage in violence,” the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology’s Audrey Kurth Cronin writes in Foreign Affairs. “Hamas has fissures that could widen and even lead to its collapse. Its military and political leadership are not always in sync.”

Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.

Pacific Rim

Canadian judge Beverley McLachlin will leave (Bloomberg) Hong Kong’s top court when her term ends next month, saying in her announcement that she still had confidence in the court’s independence. Jonathan Sumption, one of two British judges to quit last week, wrote yesterday in the Financial Times that Hong Kong “is slowly becoming a totalitarian state.” A Hong Kong government spokesperson said (SCMP) that “there is absolutely no truth that the courts are under any political pressure from central authorities.”

This Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland and CFR’s Clara Fong looks at Hong Kong’s eroding freedoms. 

U.S./China: Four U.S. educators on a teaching exchange program in China were stabbed (Reuters) in a public park in northeast Jilin province yesterday, Chinese and U.S. officials said. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said they were immediately taken to the hospital and did not suffer life-threatening injuries. The attack is under investigation; it comes as both countries are working to increase educational exchanges following a cool in relations.

South and Central Asia

Beijing did not grant an upgraded deal on the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor during Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s five-day trip as Islamabad had hoped. Analysts said China is hesitant (Nikkei) to make major new investments in Pakistan given its economic struggles. Instead, Beijing agreed to advance its investments in a railway project between the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Peshawar.

India: The world’s biggest vaccine-maker, the Serum Institute of India, is expanding production (Bloomberg) to match what it believes will be a doubling in demand for its jabs in the next five years, the institute’s director said. These include vaccines for malaria and cervical cancer; approval for malaria vaccines is slowly increasing as countries add focus on their health budgets.  

Middle East and North Africa

The sanctioned people, ships, and companies help (Bloomberg) the Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthi rebel group earn revenue to facilitate illegal activities, a U.S. Treasury Department official said.

This In Brief by CFR’s Kali Robinson explains what to know about Iran’s support of the Houthis.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Vice President Saulos Chilima and the other passengers had been traveling on a short flight yesterday that hit bad weather (NYT), President Lazarus Chakwera said today in a national address. Chilima had been expected to run for president in next year’s election. Details of the crash are still under investigation.

Nigeria: The military illegally detained (Reuters) some women and girls who escaped Boko Haram captivity between 2015 and mid-2023, Amnesty International said in a new report published yesterday. Nigeria’s military denied the allegations. Amnesty said the Nigerian government had failed to adequately protect the women.

Europe

Around two thousand delegates from sixty countries are attending (DW) the two-day conference in Berlin. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Ukraine’s reconstruction needs were too big to be addressed by governments alone and argued there is a business case for helping rebuild in areas such as pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and information technology. Ahead of the event, Ukraine’s head of postwar reconstruction Mustafa Nayyem resigned (FT), saying the government was undermining his agency. 

This episode of the Why It Matters podcast dives into the case for rebuilding Ukraine. 

Belarus/Russia: The two countries will launch (Politico) a second stage of joint tactical nuclear weapons drills, Belarus’s defense ministry said yesterday. A first stage of such drills occurred last month in Russia and parts of Russia-occupied Ukraine. It was not immediately clear where the new drills will be carried out.

Americas

Pedro Castillo is accused of rebellion (Agencia Andina), abuse of authority, and disrupting the peace, and he faces a potential thirty-four-year prison sentence. He was removed (Reuters) from the presidency after attempting to dissolve the legislature in late 2022.

U.S./Colombia: A Florida jury ruled yesterday that banana company Chiquita must pay (Reuters) eight Colombian families $38.3 million in compensation for violence against their family members by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia paramilitary group. Chiquita pled guilty in a previous case accusing it of doing business with the group.

United States

The main entrance to the Port of Baltimore, one of the country’s busiest waterways, has been restored (WSJ) back to its original dimensions prior to the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday.

This Expert Brief by CFR Fellow Zongyuan Zoe Liu unpacks the supply chain challenge after Baltimore’s bridge collapse. 

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