Republican National Convention Begins Amid Concerns Over Assassination Attempt |
Former President Donald Trump will attend the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee today following a failed attempt to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. The shooter fired multiple rounds, grazing Trump, killing one spectator, and wounding two others before being shot and killed by authorities. The event prompted steadfast condemnations from Trump, President Joe Biden, and leaders across the world. Separately, both Trump and Biden called for national unity. Biden said in an address yesterday that “there is no place in America for this kind of violence,” while Trump urged Americans to remain “defiant in the face of wickedness.”
The FBI is investigating the attack, with little immediately known about the shooter’s motive. Biden said yesterday he would order an independent national security review of the events. The four-day Republican convention is expected to unveil Trump’s vice presidential pick and deliver him the formal nomination for the presidency. The Biden campaign said it would pause all public messaging in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Biden yesterday called on Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics” as “politics must never be a battlefield.” (NYT, ABC, FT)
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“Most critically, politicians of both major political parties need to commit to more productive and uniting political rhetoric, rather than language that continues to divide Americans,” CFR Fellow Jacob Ware writes in this Expert Brief. “The attack continues an ongoing trend of political extremists seeking to silence their political rivals through violence, rather than the ballot box.”
“Will [the assassination attempt] lead to a de-escalation of tensions in our toxic political culture—or add more fuel to the fire?” CFR expert Max Boot writes for the Washington Post. “All we can say for sure is that Trump’s close brush with death will change the course of history.”
This CFR timeline explores the changing role of foreign policy at the U.S. national political conventions.
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China Begins Four-Day Meeting to Set Direction for Economy |
The plenum that opened today in Beijing will focus on industrial policy and economic benchmarks for 2035. These meetings occur every five years and have often been used to reveal big shifts in economic planning. They come as China aims to convince international investors to overcome concerns about its economic prospects. (SCMP, Bloomberg)
At this CFR event, the Treasury Department’s Jay Shambaugh discusses how the United States should consider its economic relations with China.
Indonesia: Authorities made data backups mandatory for government agencies after ransomware attacks last month extracted encrypted data from 282 government agencies. Experts say the attacks underscore the need for better cyber defenses. (Nikkei)
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Bangladesh PM Says She Prefers India Over China for $1 Billion River Development Project |
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina discussed the Teesta River project with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a visit to India last month, and gave her thoughts at a news conference yesterday. Both China and India have expressed interest in the project. (Hindustan Times)
Pakistan: The government plans to ban former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party for involvement in a case over foreign funding and May 2023 riots, the government’s information minister said today. The party posted that such a ban is “tantamount to uprooting the foundations of Pakistan.” (Dawn)
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Middle East and North Africa |
Israeli Strike on Gaza Targets Hamas Military Chief |
The Israeli air strike on Saturday killed at least ninety people in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said. Israel was targeting Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif; Hamas said yesterday that he was in good health following the attack. Meanwhile, the Israeli military said Hamas commander Rafa Salama, described as one of Deif’s closest associates, was killed. A Hamas spokesperson said on Sunday that cease-fire talks with Israel are ongoing despite the fact the recent strike would “impact” negotiations. (AP)
Kuwait: The national oil company announced yesterday it discovered “huge commercial quantities” of oil and gas in an offshore field that could yield some 2.1 billion barrels of oil. Kuwait is the fifth-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and plans to boost its oil output capacity by some 60 percent by 2035. (The National, Bloomberg)
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Rwandans Vote in Election Expected to Give Kagame Fourth Term |
President Paul Kagame is running against two opponents who he faced in 2017 and defeated by winning 99 percent of the vote. Election authorities blocked six candidates from running on procedural issues and two for previous criminal convictions. (WSJ) In this YouTube Short, CFR expert Michelle Gavin gives the rundown on Rwanda’s predictable election.
Ivory Coast: The country becomes the first in the world to administer the R21 malaria vaccine today. It is the second malaria jab to go into use after being greenlit by the World Health Organization last year. The first round of shots will cover 250,000 children across sixteen regions of the Ivory Coast, where four people per day die from the disease, according to the country’s health ministry. (Bloomberg)
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Italy’s Meloni Administration Plans to Reintroduce Nuclear Energy |
The government plans to introduce legislation to allow investments in small modular nuclear reactors for the sake of lowering carbon emissions, Italy’s environment and energy security minister told the Financial Times. The new reactors could potentially be ready in ten years. Italy closed its last nuclear power plant thirty-five years ago. (FT)
This tracker by CFR expert Benn Steil gauges global energy trends.
France: Regulators confirmed today they have opened a probe into the world’s largest chipmaker Nvidia over alleged anti-competitive practices. When Reuters reported on the expected investigation earlier this month, Nvidia declined to comment. (Reuters)
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Five People Sentenced in Ecuador for 2023 Murder of Presidential Candidate |
A court doled out sentences of more than thirty-four years in prison to two of the accused and twelve years to three others in a probe of Fernando Villavicencio’s death on the campaign trail last year. One of the accused is the alleged leader of the gang Los Lobos; prosecutors have said a separate investigation remains ongoing into who ordered Los Lobos to carry out the killing. (AFP, BBC)
Peru: Former President Alberto Fujimori will seek a third presidential term in 2026, his daughter said yesterday. In December, Peru’s Constitutional Court upheld a pardon for Fujimori that allowed him to end a prison sentence for convicted crimes against humanity. (MercoPress)
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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