Zelensky Visits Reclaimed Territory

President Volodymyr Zelensky made a dramatic visit to newly reclaimed Izium on Wednesday, raising the Ukrainian flag over the strategic city in a show of bravado that highlighted the failure of Russia’s campaign in the northeast, as the NYT reports.

EU Seeks to Raise $140 Billion Clawing Back Energy Profits

The European Union outlined a sweeping plan to direct about $140 billion in profits and revenue from energy companies to consumers in the wake of high prices in a bid to stabilize the bloc’s energy markets in response to Russia’s punishing assault on the continent’s economy, as the WSJ reports.

No Bailout Coming

The U.S. shale industry has warned it cannot rescue Europe with increased oil and gas supplies this winter amid fears that a plunge in Russian exports will send crude prices soaring back above $100 a barrel, as the FT reports.

Executive Education

Wargaming: Constructing Simulations and Competitive Strategy Exercises is Washington’s innovative, new course for mid-to senior-level professionals responsible for designing, managing, and interpreting the results of wargames and other strategic simulations.

Video Shorts

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

In That Number

8,000

President Zelensky stated Ukraine is fortifying its hold over 8,000 square kilometers of retaken territory in the Kharkiv region.

Source: BBC

Critical Quote

“Today, when we look up, we are looking for only one thing — the flag of Ukraine. Our blue and yellow flag is already flying in the de-occupied Izium. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

iDeas Lab

Last week, the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security hosted a fireside chat with Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. Watch the recap here.

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: Daniel Leal/Pool/Getty Images.) The gun carriage bearing the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II departs Buckingham Palace, transferring the coffin to the Palace of Westminster on September 14, 2022 in London, United Kingdom.

This Town Tomorrow

At 2:00 p.m., the CSIS Human Rights Initiative hosts a discussion on the new ILO-IOM-Walk Free Global Estimates of Modern Slavery Report.

Earlier, at 11:30 a.m., the Atlantic Council hosts a conversation on Brazilian democracy ahead of and beyond upcoming elections.

Later, at 1:00 p.m., the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace holds a conversation on the Russian invasion of Ukraine from Ukrainian civil society perspectives.

Video

This week, the CSIS Strategic Technologies program hosted a discussion on how new gene manipulation technologies could benefit the Department of Defense. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

CSIS’s Seth Jones joins the podcast to discuss Ukraine’s stunning battlefield advances.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

Thanks to all of you who have weighed in on the “rock is dead” discussion this week. What’s most encouraging to me is that several of my young colleagues have expressed that “no, rock is most certainly not dead,” and have gone on to discuss the rock cred of acts like Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Miley Cyrus, Larkin Poe, Goose, and so on.

What rock is these days, is disaggregated — just like most of everything in our society. When I was growing up, an album release by the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, or U2 was a monumental unifying cultural event. These days, many artists don’t even release full length records because streaming has obliterated the notion of an album. So I doubt that we’ll see an album like “Exile on Main Street,” “Rumors,” or “Joshua Tree” anytime soon.

It’s also hard to get excited about any one album these days when for ten bucks per month you can own just about every album that’s ever been made and listen to it anywhere you go. And you can span eras and genres within seconds—in one moment you can listen to early Roy Orbison and in another Radiohead. Not to mention the playlist has taken up colossal space in listeners' habits. You can now create a playlist in minutes and share it with friends in nanoseconds. In the old days you had to painstakingly create a cassette mixtape. If you were artistic you would even draw the label!

Just think about that—we have access to everything all the time so we want for nothing. There’s no quest for a hot record that’s been sold out of your local shop. There’s no passing an album around the block until the store restocked. Heck, there is no record store really, unless you live someplace genuinely cool like New Orleans or Los Angeles.

And it is true that we haven’t witnessed a new rock “scene” like we did with grunge in the '90s. But what we are seeing is a vibrant live music scene just about everywhere in wake of Covid’s darkest days. From Glastonbury to Lockn’, rock festivals are more popular and exciting than ever. Which makes jam bands a very big deal and a scene unto themselves. Jam bands and jam artists are great musicians, young and old, expressing rock music in an authentic way. Check out Billy Strings, Marcus King, Galactic, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Government Mule. And of course, Dead & Co and Phish.

Many of the best new artists start out the way scores of now legendary musicians did, they cover tunes by established artists. The Stones and Grateful Dead sure did. Here’s one of my favorite young rockers, Daniel Darato, covering Phish a few months ago.

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: Paige Montfort, Claire Dannenbaum, and Claire Smrt.