Nearly $2 Billion for Vaccine

The U.S. has agreed to pay Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE nearly $2 billion to secure 100 million doses of their experimental Covid-19 vaccine to provide to Americans free of charge, the latest sign the government is readying plans to make vaccines available if proved to work safely, as the WSJ reports.

$1 Trillion Relief Bill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is pushing to unveil an approximately $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill, legislation that would include a new round of payments to individual Americans and tens of billions of dollars for schools, with some of the money tied to classrooms reopening. But McConnell is still working to overcome divisions with the White House, as President Trump has insisted on the inclusion of a payroll tax cut that is deeply unpopular with Senate Republicans, as the Washington Post reports.

U.S. Orders China to Close Houston Consulate

The United States has abruptly ordered China to close its diplomatic consulate in Houston by Friday, accusing diplomats of aiding a nationwide pattern of economic espionage and attempted theft of scientific research, as the NYT reports.

CSIS Executive Education

Rolling applications are still open for the CSIS and Syracuse University’s joint Executive Master’s in International Relations, a first-of-its-kind degree allowing working professionals in the nation’s capital to benefit from the strengths of the #1 graduate school in public affairs and the #1 think tank in the United States.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify,” "What's Happening," "Preview," and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

1,013

New Department of Defense (DoD) cases of Covid-19 are continuing to rise at a steady rate. The 7-day average of new cases between July 10 and July 17 rose from 785 to 1,013. This 29 percent increase, up from the previous week’s 26 percent increase, is particularly notable as the average new daily cases crossed the 1,000 threshold for the first time.

Source: CSIS Defense 360

Critical Quote

“Realistically it is going to be the first part of next year before we start seeing people getting vaccinated.”

— Mike Ryan, World Health Organization (WHO)

iDeas Lab

China is the dominant global supplier of rare earth minerals, which are crucial to advanced technologies. The ChinaPower Project released a new feature of interactive data visualizations to look at the possible threat China poses to rare earth supply chains.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia.

Optics

(Photo credit: Nathan Howard/AFP/Getty Images.) Protesters use umbrellas and shields to block less-lethal rounds fired by federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse.

This Town Tomorrow

At 9:30 a.m., don't miss a discussion on Venezuela's deepening political and economic crisis with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). Featured will be civil society leaders to share possible scenarios for change.

Then, at 1 2:00 p.m. tune into a Hudson Institute webinar on the trajectory of U.S.-Japan defense cooperation against Chinese and North Korean missile threats with former ambassador to Japan Nobushige Takamizawa.

Finally, at 2:15 p.m. join CSIS as they host Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mark Warner (D-VA) to discuss their bipartisan proposal to allocate billions of dollars to support the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry and increase competitiveness in the digital economy.

Video

In the latest installment of the Schieffer Series, Senator Mitt Romney spoke with CSIS about breaking developments in U.S.-China relations spanning trade to national security. He also shared some thoughts on the current state of the GOP. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

in this week's Smart Women Smart Power, CSIS senior scholars Dr. Alice Hunt Friend and Shannon Culbertson discuss lessons learned as government officials dealing with the 2012 Benghazi attacks and the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

I know you all want to hear one more from Pigpen, the Grateful Dead’s late, great bluesman. Enjoy this cut from the Port Chester show that was just released with the 50^th Anniversary Workingman’s Dead collection.

I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz

The Evening is my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day. It is composed with the External Relations team: Emma Colbran, Caleb Diamond, and Kendal Gee.