Daily News Brief

August 1, 2024

Top of the Agenda

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two of his accomplices who have been in U.S. custody at the Guantánamo Bay detention center since 2003 and are accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks agreed yesterday to plead guilty to the charges. In exchange for their admission, the men will receive life sentences of a minimum 2,976 years rather than a death penalty trial, prosecutors said. Prosecutors added the deal was intended to bring some “finality and justice” to the case for the families of the nearly three thousand people killed in the attack. 

The men had been charged with conspiracy and murder in a long-running case that has been complicated by questions of whether their abuse in detention had contaminated evidence in the trial. One family member of September 11 victims reacted with frustration at the result, while another said the prosecutors “beat time.” The prosecutor in the case said that the men would have to respond to questions from the victims’ families as part of the deal. (NYT, FT)

Analysis

“The deal stirred both anger and relief among the thousands of relatives of those killed on Sept. 11,” the New York Times’s Carol Rosenberg writes. “Some family members had been fearful that the case would never reach a resolution, and that the defendants would die in U.S. custody without a conviction. Others, wanting a death penalty, had pushed the government to get the case to trial, even at the risk of the sentence being later overturned.”

“A plea bargain frees the government from having to defend its treatment of the defendants after their capture and the risk that a military judge or appellate court would punish U.S. government misconduct by taking the death penalty off the table. The defendants, who in earlier proceedings attempted to plead guilty, would in turn be spared the executioner’s needle and instead serve life in prison,” the Wall Street Journal’s Jess Bravin writes.

This article by CFR’s Jonathan Masters looks at more than twenty years of controversy at Guantánamo Bay.

Europe

Several Russian activists and one American citizen were abruptly moved inside of Russian prisons in recent days, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, suggesting a prisoner swap could be near. This morning, unnamed sources told Bloomberg that American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. marine Paul Whelan are being released from detention in Russia. (RFE/RL, Bloomberg)

China/Germany: Germany made its complaint to China after a three-year inquiry into a 2021 attack on its precision mapping system. Germany’s interior minister said such attacks “threaten the digital sovereignty of Germany and Europe.” The Chinese embassy in Germany said today that it firmly rejected the claims, calling them “groundless.” (FT, Reuters)

Pacific Rim

The companies will offer drivers incentives to switch to electric vehicles (EVs) and work to incorporate Chinese firm BYD’s self-driving technologies into rideshare company Uber’s platform, they said. The pair’s business plan will be rolled out first in Europe and Latin America before expanding to other regions. Chinese carmakers face high tariffs in the United States, where Uber has said it is working with Tesla to promote EV adoption. (BBC)

Indonesia/Russia: Indonesian President-Elect Prabowo Subianto met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday and said he hoped to continue cooperation on defense and nuclear energy, calling Russia a “great friend.” (Reuters) 

South and Central Asia

The government cited “acts of terrorist and ethnic armed groups” as it stretched the emergency rule that has been in place since the country’s 2021 coup for the sixth time. Militarily, the junta has been on the back foot in recent months; a group of former United Nations experts calculated in late May that rebels controlled at least 86 percent of the country’s territory. (Bloomberg, Al Jazeera)

For the Asia Unbound blog, CFR expert Joshua Kurlantzick points out why Myanmar’s junta is becoming increasingly isolated. 

Pakistan: Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have voiced concerns over a crackdown on demonstrators in the Balochistan region, where civilians have protested for days against alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of ethnic minorities. (RFE/RL, Human Rights Watch)

Middle East and North Africa

The military said it obtained intelligence today confirming that Mohammed Deif died in the strike last month in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the confirmation was a “big step” toward eradicating Hamas. Deif is believed to have orchestrated Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who remains at large. (Times of Israel, FT)

This Backgrounder by CFR’s Kali Robinson explains Hamas’s leadership structure. 

Sub-Saharan Africa

Guinea’s criminal court convicted former military leader Moussa Camara and several other senior officials yesterday for their role in a 2009 massacre in a stadium that killed at least 157 people and sexually assaulted dozens of women. (AP)

CAR/Kenya: Nairobi announced an outbreak of mpox yesterday, following a Central African Republic (CAR) report on Monday. While vaccines and treatments have helped contain outbreaks of the disease in Western countries, fewer such technologies are available in parts of Africa that have reported its spread in the past few months. The disease has also hit South Africa and wracked the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeks. (AP) 

For Think Global Health, Linda Nordling looks at South Africa as an example illustrating the health inequalities of mpox.  

Americas

Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro joined international calls yesterday for Venezuela to publish detailed and verifiable results from its Sunday presidential election. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said he won the election but electoral authorities have broken from tradition in failing to produce disaggregated polling data. Petro’s call is notable as in the past, he has aligned with Maduro on many issues. (Bloomberg)

Bolivia: Transport unions blocked roads in the capital of La Paz and at some other points across the country yesterday to protest fuel shortages. President Luis Arce said fuel was on the way from Russia but had been held up by poor weather conditions. (Reuters) 

U.S. Campaign 2024

In an interview yesterday at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, former President Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” pardon people who assaulted police officers in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. When the interviewer said they had been convicted, Trump said “they were convicted by a very tough system.” (NBC) 

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