Good Evening,
It's Monday, August 17 |
UNC to go All-Remote
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the largest schools in the country to bring students to campus for in-person teaching, said Monday it will pivot to all-remote instruction for undergraduates after testing showed a pattern of rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, as the Washington Post reports. |
Plan to Open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Oil and Gas
The Trump administration on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development, a move that overturns six decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States, as the NYT reports. |
Belarus Power Play
Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, facing growing nationwide protests, said he was ready to share power, but only on his own terms, as the main opposition leader said she was ready to lead the Eastern European country, as the WSJ 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!
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In That Number
170,000
The US coronavirus death toll surpasses 170,000 ahead of fall flu season.
Source: Reuters |
Critical Quote
“I’m not a saint.”
— Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko |
iDeas Lab
A new feature from CSISMag reveals that some worrying trends have emerged in the labor market.
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: -/AFP via Getty Images) An aerial view taken in Mauritius on August 17, 2020, shows the MV Wakashio bulk carrier, belonging to a Japanese company but Panamanian-flagged, that had run aground and broke into two parts near Blue Bay Marine Park. |
Recommended Reading
“The Normalization of UAE-Israel Relations,” by CSIS’s Jon Alterman. |
This Town Tomorrow
Tomorrow, at 11:00 a.m., join CSIS for a discussion on the recent political developments in Belarus, the future of the opposition, and the response of the EU and US.
Then, at 1:00 p.m., join The Arab Studies Institute for a conversation between several scholars on the transition, policies, institutions, uprising, and mayhem that characterizes Syrian president Bashar Al-Asad's rule.
Later, at 3:00 p.m., CSIS is hosting a discussion with Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick on his new book, America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. |
Video
The CSIS Global Health Policy Center (GHPC) released episode two of "The Pandemic Paradox - HIV on the Edge" that explores how the plague was experienced—confusion, stigma, hysteria, denial—and the historic actions taken to change medical practice. Watch the full video here. |
Podcasts
In the latest The Truth of the Matter episode, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens discusses the concepts of one-state and two-state solutions for Israel, and what steps could be taken to have a peaceful resolution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. |
Smiles
The National Independent Venues Association (NIVA), a group dedicated to preserve the ecosystem of independent live music venues in the United States, estimates that if the Covid shutdown of music clubs continues through the fall, 90 percent of these businesses could close. To put this in a bit more perspective, Live Nation, one of the largest concert promoters, put on 24 concerts in Q2 of 2020 compared with 7,213 in Q2 of 2019.
On an upcoming podcast episode of “The Reopening,” Scott Miller and I spoke with Peter Shapiro, the rock and roll legend who owns the Brooklyn Bowl franchise, the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, Relix magazine, and puts on the annual Lockn’ Festival among other cool things. Peter has done the impossible in the past, he’s the guy who brought the Grateful Dead back together for their 50th anniversary “Fare Thee Well” shows. We asked him about the future of live music and you’ll really want to hear what he has to say.
One of the key things we asked Shapiro about was streaming. I believe music clubs need to push forward into the webcasting business and do it with an organic authenticity that only locals can.
My favorite club in the world is Tipitina’s in New Orleans and its owners, the NOLA funk band Galactic have set up “Tipitina’s TV,” where you can purchase a ticket to a single show or get a Season 1 pass—guess which option I choose? See here for Season 1 info.
You need to buy the ticket to take the ride so I can’t show you here just how powerfully funky Galactic performed in an empty Tipitina’s on Saturday night save for the camera crew and NOLA artist Frenchy who live painted a magnificent piece of the band during their set. The camera crew captured Galactic in a way I have never seen another band filmed inside of Tips. It was astonishingly great. If you get the pass now, you can see the rest of the season and watch the Galactic show VOD.
But in the meantime, I don’t want to leave you without a Galactic clip so check out this show at the Louisiana Music Factory, a French Quarter record shop in May of 2019. Great set, but doesn’t come close to the power of performing at Tips, whether the club is empty or full. I’m betting on streaming: you can dance in your living room and chances are you won’t wear out the carpet.
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I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow
me on Twitter @handrewschwartz
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