Daily News Brief

January 15, 2025

Top of the Agenda

U.S. President Joe Biden moved yesterday to shield California lands from mining and energy development and remove Cuba from a terrorism list as part of a prisoner-release deal, in some of the final executive actions of his presidency. He designated two new national monuments in California in areas that are considered sacred by several Native American tribes, a move that will restrict oil and gas drilling and other industrial activity. On Cuba, Biden’s plan to lift the “state sponsor of terrorism” label and ease some other economic restrictions came as part of a deal negotiated by the Catholic Church; Havana agreed to release 553 prisoners.

These moves could just as swiftly be undone or minimized by the incoming administration. Donald Trump shrank the size of two national monuments in Utah during his first presidency, a step that Biden had later reversed. Similarly, the designation on Cuba that Biden is lifting was applied during the first Trump administration. (WaPo, AP, CNN, LA Times)

Analysis

“[Bills to protect the California lands] have stalled in the divided Congress, prompting Biden to invoke his executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906,” Maxine Joselow and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. write for the Washington Post. “[The designation] comes after months of private negotiations between White House officials and renewable energy developers that have sought to build solar farms, long-distance power lines and other projects in this stretch of desert.”

“Trump will almost certainly return to a more adversarial approach toward all three dictatorships [in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela], which are particularly important causes for [Marco] Rubio and others among Trump’s Florida-heavy team of advisors,” Americas Quarterly’s Brian Winter writes for Foreign Affairs. “Yet there appears to be a split between those who believe the regimes are ‘weak and teetering,’ as Florida Representative Mario Díaz-Balart recently contended, and other Republicans who, burned by the experience of Trump’s first term, argue that major new sanctions and other pressure tactics would stand little chance of restoring democracy and risk unleashing yet another large wave of outward migration.”

This Backgrounder looks at U.S.-Cuba relations.

Pacific Rim

Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol became the country’s first leader to be detained after previously refusing to comply with an arrest warrant. The accusations of insurrection—related to his December declaration of martial law—supersede South Korea’s standard immunity from criminal prosecution. Yoon said the arrest was illegal but that he complied to prevent a “bloody” standoff. (Yonhap, NYT)

Australia/Russia: Australia’s prime minister has summoned the Russian ambassador after reports that Oscar Jenkins, an Australian man captured while fighting for Ukraine, had been killed. Australia’s foreign minister said Canberra would take the “strongest action possible” if Jenkins was harmed. (The Guardian, ABC)

South and Central Asia

Tulip Siddiq, who stepped down from the United Kingdom (UK) anticorruption ministry, is the niece of ousted Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina; Siddiq had been named in a Bangladesh embezzlement investigation in December. She denied wrongdoing but said continuing in her government role “is likely to be a distraction.” (Indian Express, NYT)

China/Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Dissanayake’s second foreign trip following his visit to India last month. Sri Lanka is seeking support from both nations to shore up its struggling economy. (AP)

Middle East and North Africa

As Israel and Hamas reportedly drew closer to a cease-fire deal, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a speech yesterday described an immediate phase in which the Palestinian Authority (PA) worked together with international partners and eventually took on governance responsibilities for a “fully reformed PA administration.” Biden’s team will hand the proposal to the Trump administration. (CNN) 

In this Backgrounder, Kali Robinson unpacks who governs the Palestinians.

Libya: The UN mission in Libya said it was investigating suspected footage of “torture and ill-treatment” at an eastern Libyan detention facility, saying it was consistent with “documented patterns of human rights violations in detention facilities across Libya.” (Reuters)

Sub-Saharan Africa

A party spokesman did not provide details on how it would take these steps when he publicly acknowledged the plan. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s second and final term is due to end in 2028; he came into power via a 2017 coup. (Reuters)

Burkina Faso/Gambia/Guinea/Senegal: Interpol carried out raids in the four countries and arrested two hundred people as part of a probe into illegal gold mining. (AP)

Europe

The attacks used drones as well as long-range missiles and targeted oil and military facilities, marking some of Ukraine’s biggest recent pushes on Russian territory. Two unnamed associates of President-elect Trump, meanwhile, told Reuters that a deal to end the war is now months away at the earliest. (WSJ, Reuters)

This Council Special Initiative looks at how to secure Ukraine’s future.

U.S./Denmark: Copenhagen has sought back-channel talks with the incoming Trump administration over U.S. economic and security goals regarding Greenland, unnamed Danish officials told the Wall Street Journal. Denmark asked that the conversation occur behind closed doors after Trump has repeatedly posted on social media about wanting to own the territory. The Trump team did not comment. (WSJ)

Americas

Ottawa is racing to suggest new agreements that meet the incoming Trump administration’s priorities in hopes of preventing new tariffs that could cause a recession in Canada. That could include replacing Chinese minerals in the U.S. supply chain as well as purchases of U.S. military hardware, Canada’s energy minister said. He echoed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments that the country would meet potential new U.S. tariffs with tariffs of its own. (FT, Bloomberg)

Argentina: Buenos Aires will temper its monthly devaluation of the peso in February, its central bank said. The measure has been a central part of President Javier Milei’s efforts to slow inflation, but it has also raised concerns about the competitiveness of Argentine businesses. (FT)

United States

Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi as well as a handful of other Trump administration nominees will be questioned at Senate hearings today. Pete Hegseth did not directly answer questions about whether he would comply with potential orders to use U.S. force to claim other countries or whether the United States should comply with the Geneva conventions. (WaPo, Axios)

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