June 7, 2021

Daily News Brief

June 7, 2021

Top of the Agenda

Harris Kicks Off First Trip Abroad, Focuses on Migration

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in Guatemala today to lay the ground for a new U.S. effort to reduce migration from Central America (USA Today) by improving conditions in the region. She heads to Mexico tomorrow to complete her first overseas trip.

Harris will focus on economic development, as well as climate and food insecurity, White House officials said. She aims to enable aid to be distributed through the private sector and civil society, while still keeping political channels open with leaders including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, both of whom she will meet. Anticorruption measures (AP), a newly announced pillar of U.S. foreign policy, will also be a theme of Harris’s trip. U.S. President Joe Biden helmed a similar strategy (NYT) to reduce migration while he was vice president in the Barack Obama administration, but migration remained high.

Analysis

“Government-to-government aid [by the Biden administration] would be strictly conditioned on the implementation of anticorruption measures. Such targeted assistance would likely not bear immediate results but represents the only enduring option to reduce irregular migration from the region,” CFR’s Paul J. Angelo writes.

“It may be more realistic for the United States to focus on managing the consequences of [El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras’s] troubles, and trying to contribute to long-term development, than attempting to fundamentally change these countries’ nature from the outside,” Brian Winter writes for Americas Quarterly.

Europe

G7 Nations Agree to Global Minimum Corporate Tax

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed to back a global minimum tax rate (NYT) of at least 15 percent for corporations. The breakthrough after years of talks still needs approval (FT) at wider negotiations that include 139 countries.

Germany: The ruling Christian Democratic Union of Germany party won a sizable victory (Politico) against the far-right Alternative for Germany in a regional election seen as a final test before the September general election.

Pacific Rim

U.S. to Give 750,000 COVID-19 Vaccines to Taiwan

A group of U.S. senators announced the planned donation (FT) on a visit to Taiwan yesterday. They arrived in the first U.S. military plane to land on the island since 1999. Taipei has accused Beijing of meddling in its attempts to obtain vaccines.

This Backgrounder explains why China-Taiwan relations are so tense.

South Korea: A Seoul court dismissed a lawsuit by South Koreans (Kyodo) who say Japanese companies forced them into labor during Japan’s 1910–1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The court said the plaintiffs did not have litigation rights (Yonhap). The case is the largest of several similar forced labor lawsuits.

South and Central Asia

ASEAN Officials Conclude Visit to Myanmar

Officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) visited military and humanitarian leaders (Bloomberg) in Myanmar, where they discussed how ASEAN could help facilitate dialogue and humanitarian assistance in the wake of the country’s February coup.

India: Federal authorities warned Twitter (AFP) it will face consequences if it does not comply with new requirements that technology companies disclose details about the “first originator” of posts that undermine India’s sovereignty, state security, or public order. 

Middle East and North Africa

Yemen Explosion Kills Seventeen

An explosion that Yemen’s Saudi-backed government blamed on a Houthi missile strike killed at least seventeen people (Reuters), including a five-year-old girl, at a gas station in the Marib Governorate. U.S. and British envoys called for the Houthis to end their offensive in northern Yemen.

Israel: Security forces detained Muna el-Kurd (BBC), a Palestinian activist who was prominent in last month’s anti-eviction demonstrations in East Jerusalem, on accusations of rioting. Her brother Mohammed was also summoned to a police station, and both were released after questioning.

CFR’s Steven A. Cook explains how evictions in Jerusalem led to Israeli-Palestinian violence.

This Day in History: June 7, 1942

The Battle of Midway, a four-day sea and air battle during World War II, ends in a decisive victory against Japan for the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet, turning the tide of the Pacific War.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria Bans Twitter

Nigerian authorities temporarily banned Twitter (NYT) and ordered people using it to be prosecuted. The suspension came two days after Twitter deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari for violating its policy on abusive behavior. Twitter said it was “deeply concerned” by the ban and that it will work to restore access.

Burkina Faso: Gunmen killed at least 160 civilians (Africanews, AFP) in a village in northern Burkina Faso. It was the country’s deadliest attack since 2015. Jihadis linked to al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State have been targeting civilians and soldiers in the region.

Americas

Peru’s Presidential Election Too Close to Call

Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori led left-wing Pedro Castillo (Reuters) in Peru’s presidential runoff election early this morning, with 50.5 percent to Castillo’s 49.5 percent and over 90 percent of votes counted. Voter preferences broke sharply along an urban-rural divide, with urban voters favoring Fujimori.  

CFR’s Paul J. Angelo unpacks Peru’s polarized election.

Mexico: In midterm elections, President Lopez Obrador’s governing coalition maintained its majority but lost its supermajority (WaPo) in Mexico’s lower house of Congress, according to preliminary results. It picked up several governorships but faced setbacks in Mexico City.

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