Daily News Brief

August 13, 2024

Top of the Agenda

The wildfires prompting evacuations in Greece this week are the latest sign of how rising temperatures have upended life in Europe. More than forty-seven thousand people died in heat-related deaths on the continent last year, a study published yesterday in Nature estimated. It also comes as a group of Nobel laureates speak out against the removal of the term “fossil fuels” from a draft statement for a UN summit next month. Nearly eighty Nobel winners and former world leaders called in a joint letter for the term to be included in the pact at the center of next month’s Summit for the Future, which will be held in New York.

Regarding heat-related deaths in Europe, the Nature authors calculated that the toll would be around 80 percent higher without adaptation measures such as air conditioning, health care advances, and warnings about the need to stay hydrated. The lead author of the study said that climate change must be considered “as a health issue.” (CNN, Nature, FT, NYT)

Analysis

“Climate change has increased the intensity, speed, and size of wildfires,” CFR expert Alice C. Hill and Tess Turner write for Renewing America. “Wildfires and their smoke also come at an enormous financial cost.”

“We’re quickly approaching the limits to what the human body can withstand,” Duke University’s Jordan Clark tells the New York Times. 

This article by CFR’s Noah Berman and Sabine Baumgartner looks at some of the destruction in the northern hemisphere summer of 2023, the hottest year on record.

Middle East and North Africa

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are discussing the war in the Gaza Strip. Today’s meeting comes as the UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting to discuss a strike last week on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, where the death toll is closing in on 40,000, according to the local health ministry. (The National)

Iraq/Turkey: Turkish air strikes “neutralized” seventeen members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq, Turkey’s defense minister said. Ankara considers the PKK a terrorist group, as do the United States and European Union. (Reuters)

Pacific Rim

The territory’s top court dismissed an attempt to overturn the convictions of pro-democracy newspaper founder Jimmy Lai and six others charged with unlawful assembly during 2019 protests. (Reuters)

This Backgrounder by Lindsay Maizland and CFR’s Clara Fong explains what to know about Hong Kong’s dwindling freedoms. 

U.S./China: Washington removed Chinese firm Hesai from a technology blacklist, the Financial Times reported. The company sued the Pentagon after being added to the list in January, arguing that its products were not being used for military purposes as U.S. officials originally ruled. The firm makes sensors for electric cars. (FT)

South and Central Asia

Faiz Hameed will face court-martial proceedings of corruption and political meddling, officials said. Hameed is the first current or former intelligence leader to face such proceedings and is an ally of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The move is widely seen as part of the country’s crackdown on Khan’s inner circle. (Dawn, NYT)

India: The government withdrew a draft of a bill to regulate online content after criticism from freedom of expression groups, who said it put unfair burdens on online content creators. Analysts said the withdrawal showed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party needs more public buy-in on its initiatives after its legislative bench shrank coming out of elections earlier this year. (Indian Express, FT)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sierra Leone currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council and aims to propel a long-standing push for stronger representation for African countries. Africa’s decadeslong history of being “manifestly underrepresented on [the] Security Council is simply wrong,” UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis added, emphasizing the need to reform the Council. (AP, Anadolu) 

Guinea: The military-led government published a draft constitution online yesterday that would limit leaders to two five-year terms. It is due to be considered by voters before the end of the year. (Africanews)

Europe

The deal between the Polish government and U.S. defense contractor Raytheon comes as part of a European military modernization drive. The U.S. ambassador to Poland said bilateral relations have “never been so close.” (Bloomberg)

Americas

Shortages of gasoline led Bolivians to protest at fuel stations yesterday. President Luis Arce also swapped the country’s labor and rural development ministers. (Reuters)

China/Uruguay: Officials from the two countries held talks in Montevideo yesterday about a potential trade deal between China and the South American trade bloc Mercosur. (MercoPress) 

This Backgrounder unpacks the fractious South American trade bloc.

U.S. Campaign 2024

X owner Elon Musk interviewed former President Donald Trump on the social media site yesterday; Trump had previously been banned for spreading disinformation, but his account was reinstated after Musk bought the platform in 2022. In the interview, Trump said that he hopes to “get along well” with Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, adding that better relations with China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia were desirable given the threat of nuclear war. He also made false claims about election fraud in 2020 and the number of migrants who crossed the border under the Joe Biden administration. (AP, Nikkei, NYT)

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