Apparent Ukrainian Attack Kills Russian General in Moscow |
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical defense forces, was killed alongside his assistant in an explosion in Moscow this morning. An unnamed Ukrainian official told multiple news outlets that Kyiv had carried out the killing. Yesterday, Ukraine’s domestic security service charged Kirillov in absentia for using banned chemical weapons against Ukrainians; he is the highest-ranking Russian general to be killed outside the battlefield since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
While the Ukrainian official said Kirillov was a “legitimate target,” Russia’s investigative service classified the killing as a suspected “terrorist act.” The deputy head of Russia’s Security Council pledged “inevitable retribution” on Ukraine’s senior military-political leadership. The assassinations come as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is trying to coax talks to end the war. Trump said yesterday in his press conference that Ukraine needs to be prepared to make a deal with Russia. (WaPo, WSJ, Bloomberg)
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“Tuesday’s bombing bore hallmarks of the work of Ukraine’s spy agencies inside Russia, where they have cultivated a network of covert operatives to carry out targeted killings of key military personnel and acts of sabotage against their enemies’ war machine to disrupt Moscow’s ongoing invasion,” the Financial Times’ Christopher Miller and Max Seddon write.
“For the United States to have any hope at brokering a just peace, the first step is to give Putin a stronger incentive to end the war on terms that fall short of his maximalist aims. The most effective way to do this is by altering his perception that time is working in his favor—by tightening sanctions and accelerating the timeline of Russia’s economic reckoning,” Columbia University’s Edward Fishman writes in this CFR article.
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Japan to Embrace Nuclear Energy, Up Renewables Target |
Tokyo will increase its power generation from renewables to 40 to 50 percent by 2040, drawing on nuclear energy for around 20 percent of its full energy mix, according to a new draft plan. That’s a shift from its stance to limit nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. (Kyodo)
China/Taiwan: Chinese officials made a rare visit to Taiwan for the annual Taipei Shanghai City Forum, one of the few venues for high-level dialogue after China cut off a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan’s government in 2016. Taipei’s mayor said he hoped for “more dialogue and less confrontation.” Shanghai’s vice mayor said tours from his city to Taipei would restart, though Beijing continued to send warplanes and ships into the Taiwan strait even as the forum was taking place. (Reuters)
CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow show U.S. support to Taiwan in five charts. |
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Bangladesh Interim Government Plans Elections in Late 2025 or Early 2026 |
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus announced the plan for a parliamentary vote in a televised address. The exact timeline depends on recommendations from the country’s electoral reform commission, he said. (Indian Express)
India: Authorities in Delhi directed some schools to move to hybrid classes and imposed restrictions on car use in the capital and adjoining regions in an effort to respond to worsening air quality recorded yesterday. (Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
Syrian Rebel Leader Meets With Foreign Journalists, Officials |
The leader of the recent takeover of Syria called for international help in rebuilding the country in his first press conference. He has begun going by Ahmed al-Shara rather than his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Al-Shara criticized Israel’s advance onto Syrian territory and Iranian militia activity, though he did not mention Russia. He said Syria’s future government would “not interfere in personal freedoms in a deep way” and had made contact with minority leaders. French and German officials are in Damascus today, and the European Union plans to reopen its office there. (NYT, AFP)
CFR’s experts discuss what’s next for Syria at this media briefing.
Palestinian territories: More than forty-five thousand Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current war prompted by Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, officials from the Gaza health ministry said. They don’t distinguish between civilian and military deaths but say more than half of those killed were women and children. The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have stepped up efforts to broker a cease-fire in recent days. (AP)
In this YouTube Short, experts debate how Palestinians view Hamas.
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Cyclone in French Territory of Mayotte Estimated to Have Killed Hundreds |
France sent rescue ships and military aircraft to its Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, near Madagascar, after it faced its most destructive cyclone in almost a century. Authorities worry that the death toll could even be in the thousands; Mayotte is the poorest territory in the European Union. (AP)
Sudan: Fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have raped women from Sudan’s South Kordofan state and held some as sex slaves for more than a year, a Human Rights Watch report found. It called for a UN and African Union mission to protect civilians in Sudan from the RSF’s large-scale sexual violence. (Sudan Tribune)
For Think Global Health, Nahid Widaatalla looks deeper into how women have become battlefield collateral in Sudan’s war. |
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Germany Barrels Toward Early Elections After Confidence Vote |
Berlin will hold early parliamentary elections on February 23 after center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost yesterday’s confidence vote, with the 394–207 vote tipping favor against the government. The center-right Christian Democratic Union leads polls ahead of the election. (DW) |
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Canada’s Finance Minister Abruptly Resigns |
Chrystia Freeland served simultaneously as finance minister and deputy prime minister. She cited differences with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over how to prepare for the “coming tariff war” in her resignation letter, saying Canada needs to keep “our fiscal powder dry.” She has held senior cabinet positions for the entirety of his nine years as Canada’s leader, and her departure prompted Canada’s opposition leader to call for Trudeau to step down. Trudeau appointed his public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc as her replacement. (Bloomberg, CBC)
Chrystia Freeland came to CFR this fall for a discussion on economics and democracy in a time of geopolitical tensions.
Argentina: The country exited a recession in the third quarter of this year, according to new government data. Libertarian President Javier Milei’s shock therapy has slowed the country’s economy. JPMorgan estimates that the country’s economy will contract by 3 percent at the end of this year but predicts a 5.2 percent growth in 2025. (FT)
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Trump Meets With TikTok CEO, Suggests Is Still Deciding on Ban |
Trump met with CEO Shou Chew in Florida yesterday, CNN reports—the same day that TikTok also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court aiming to pause the law requiring it to cut ties with its Chinese parent company or face a ban. In his press conference, Trump said he would “take a look” at TikTok’s case. In his first term, he backed a ban. (CBS)
CFR’s Adam Segal and Zoë Moore explore what moves TikTok has despite the push to ban it.
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