UK Will Cut EU Ties By End of 2020

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government said it would leave a post-Brexit transition period at the end of 2020, with or without a trade deal with the European Union, raising new concerns in Brussels and among businesses, as the WSJ’s Max Colchester and Laurence Norman report.

China Commissions 2^nd Aircraft Carrier

China commissioned its first domestically built aircraft carrier on Tuesday, reaching a new milestone in its ambitions to build a modern navy capable of challenging American dominance of the seas, as the NYT’s Steven Lee Myers reports.

Dive Deeper: Learn more about how China is modernizing its navy by visiting the CSIS ChinaPower microsite.

Trump Focused on EU Trade

USTR Robert Lighthizer today suggested that the Trump administration was ready to escalate its trade confrontation with the EU, potentially through new tariffs, as the FT’s James Politi reports.

CSIS Executive Education

Join CSIS December 9-11 for our course, Unpacking the Defense Enterprise. Get a competitive advantage in analyzing the changes within the defense domain and better understand the future of the U.S. defense enterprise.

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

$16 Trillion

The 27 member states that will remain in the EU after Britain’s departure have a $16 trillion economy.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Critical Quote

“China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor Mesut Ozil and Arsenal’s game all season long, but the truth will prevail. The CCP can’t hide its gross #humanrights violations perpetrated against Uighurs and other religious faiths from the world.”

— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

iDeas Lab

Satellite imagery from Beyond Parallel shows the Tonghae satellite launching ground, North Korea’s oldest ballistic missile and space launch facility.

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

Optics

(Photo credit: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images). Protesters march in Paris' Place de la Republique as strikes enter their third week.

This Town Tomorrow

At 9:30 a.m., the National Committee on North Korea and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea will hold a discussion about North Korea's information operations.

And, at 11:45 a.m., the Hudson Institute will host an expert panel discussion about China's human rights in the Xinjiang region and the U.S. response.

Later, at 2:00 p.m., Brookings will host a panel discussion on the unrest in Iran, what it means for the future of the country and region, and potential U.S. and international responses.

Video

CSIS's China Power Project hosted Assistant Secretary of State David R. Stilwell last week for an address on the historical lessons of U.S.-China bilateral relations. Watch the full speech here.

Podcasts

In this episode, the Trade Guys catch you up on everything USMCA. Plus, the U.S.-China saga continues while the WTO's appeals court is in limbo.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

The Jimi Hendrix “Band of Gypsys” live record first released in 1970 with only six tracks proved to be one of rock’s most influential albums. Songs like “Machine Gun,” “Power To Love,” and “Message To Love” fused the blues, rock, and funk into something that pops out of speakers even today.

So when the Hendrix estate released “Songs For Groovy Children,” a collection comprised of 43 more songs from those same live recordings the original Band of Gypsys album was culled from, I took notice of tracks like this previously unreleased version of “Message To Love" live at the Fillmore East.

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 Brad Honigberg.