International Envoys Call for Accountability, Aid, and Peace in Syria Amid Transition |
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen says that the war in Syria has not fully ended. In a testimony to the UN Security Council yesterday, he flagged the risk of ongoing fighting between armed groups in the country’s north. A cease-fire between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and Turkish-backed forces in the town of Manbij was extended to the end of this week, Washington announced. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that continued combat could impede the flow of aid into Syria, where the UN refugee agency expects some one million refugees to return in the first six months of 2025. An agency official called on countries not to force refugees to return.
Some three million refugees are in Turkey. Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged more than $1 billion to support Syrian refugees in or returning from Turkey, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for an upgrade to Turkey’s relationship with the European Union. Meanwhile, as mass graves in Syria have become accessible to outside investigators, the U.S. government, UN bodies, and human rights groups have begun compiling evidence on abuses under the Bashar al-Assad regime in order to seek accountability. (AFP, Reuters, Euronews)
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“Hope must be tempered by caution. Across the Middle East, the removal of strongmen has generally produced violent chaos, not stable and inclusive governance,” CFR Senior Fellow Charles A. Kupchan and EDAM’s Sinan Ülgen write for Project Syndicate. “Syria’s diverse population could easily fall prey to the politics of ethnic and sectarian division.”
“For refugees to return in a meaningful, sustainable way, Syria needs to be a place where people can actually live—somewhere that is safe, with public services and reliable jobs. Even Syrian refugees overjoyed at the fall of Assad will be unable to return home if law and order breaks down or if they cannot find ways to support their families,” the Century Foundation’s Sam Heller writes for Foreign Affairs.
CFR experts discuss what’s next for Syria after the fall of the Assad regime. |
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Watchdog: Half of U.S. at Risk of Power Shortfall in Next Decade Amid Rising Demand |
Power infrastructure is not being built fast enough to keep up with rising demand due to artificial intelligence (AI) and electrification, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation said in its latest annual report. It projected that around half of the United States would be at increased risk of shortages in the next decade; these shortages could cause blackouts in peak demand periods in both the United States and Canada. (Reuters, FT)
CFR Senior Fellow Varun Sivaram lays out the energy use concerns surrounding AI on the Why It Matters podcast.
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Japan’s Honda and Nissan Consider Merger Amid EV Competition |
The potential merger between two of Japan’s major automobile producers underscores the stiff competition they face from Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle (EV) companies. They are also exploring bringing in Mitsubishi Motors, creating the third-largest auto manufacturer group in the world. (Nikkei)
CFR Senior Fellow Brad W. Setser looks into China’s role in the global auto industry.
Taiwan: The government is discussing collaborating with Amazon’s Project Kuiper on satellite-based communications, officials said. Taipei aims to make mobile phone and internet infrastructure more resilient as tensions rise with China. Taiwanese officials said that factors including Elon Musk’s past comments on Taiwan’s political status and future ruled out working with Starlink, the Financial Times reported. Amazon and Starlink owner SpaceX did not comment. (FT)
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Senior Chinese, Indian Officials Revive Bilateral Talks in Beijing |
Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed recent steps to de-escalate border tensions today, reviving a channel for talks that had been dormant since 2019. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said ahead of the talks that Beijing hoped to bring bilateral relations back on track “as soon as possible.” (Times of India)
China/Kazakhstan/Russia: Russian nuclear giant Rosatom plans to sell some of its stakes in Kazakhstan’s uranium mines to Chinese-owned companies. Kazakhstan’s state nuclear company announced the plans; it previously warned that Russian participation in its mines was making it more difficult to sell to Western clients. (AFP, Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
CIA Chief Reportedly Travels to Doha for Talks on Gaza |
CIA chief William Burns is meeting today with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza, an unnamed source familiar with the matter told Axios. The CIA did not comment. Indirect negotiations have been underway since Israel gave Hamas an updated proposal for a deal three weeks ago. (Axios) |
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Mauritius Calls for Renegotiation of Deal With UK on Chagos Islands Base |
The prime minister of Mauritius said that a recent draft deal with the United Kingdom (UK) on the future of a U.S.-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect.” The country’s new position came after an election last month brought in a new government. Under the draft agreement, the UK would cede its claims to the Chagos Islands but retain control of Diego Garcia. (Bloomberg, AFP)
DRC: The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) filed criminal complaints against tech giant Apple’s subsidiaries in Belgium and France alleging that they relied on using conflict minerals. Apple rejected the accusations and said it holds its suppliers to “the highest standards in industry.” (BBC)
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Russian Authorities Say They Detained Uzbek Man in Probe of General’s Death |
Russia’s Federal Security Service did not name the suspect but said he was an Uzbek man who had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence agencies for yesterday’s killing of Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow. (AP)
Germany: The country’s center-right bloc, which leads in the polls for a February election, released a platform that proposes to severely restrict asylum admissions, decrease taxes, and maintain support for Ukraine. (Euronews)
CFR Senior Fellow Matthias Matthijs discusses what political instability in France and Germany mean for Europe’s place on the world stage. |
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Canada to Spend $1.3 Billion on Beefing up Border Security
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Canada will introduce a new joint “strike force” to go after organized crime on the border as well as drones, surveillance towers, and chemical detection tools, officials announced. The measures come after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian imports over concerns about migration and illegal drugs. (CBC)
Ecuador: The country announced a debt-for-nature swap that was put together with Bank of America, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The transactions are designed to save the government almost half a billion dollars in debt payments over seventeen years. The money will instead go to protecting land and freshwater ecosystems in the Amazon Rainforest. (Reuters)
CFR’s Diana Roy explores how countries are responding to deforestation in the Amazon. |
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