Good Evening,
It's Monday, February 6th.
Note: The Evening will be "Gone Fishin'" until February 14th. |
Powerful Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing more than 3,400 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble, as the AP reports. |
U.S. Military Failed to Detect Prior Chinese Incursions
The top U.S. general responsible for protecting North American skies said Monday that past incursions by Chinese balloons went undetected by the Pentagon, exposing what he characterized as a worrisome deficiency that must be addressed, as The Washington Post reports.
Meanwhile, as the WSJ reports, China confirmed that it was the source of a balloon detected flying over Latin America, describing it in similar terms to the suspected surveillance balloon that the U.S. shot down over the weekend. |
Russia’s Largest Offensive
Russian forces attacked dozens of Ukrainian positions across the eastern front, the Ukrainian military said on Monday, as Moscow’s assaults widen and intensify ahead of what Kyiv has warned could be the Kremlin’s largest offensive since the first weeks of the war, as the NYT reports. |
Executive Education
Gain key insights on what the Biden administration's FY 2024 budget and strategy documents reveal about strategic priorities from CSIS experts and practitioners in the one-day course offering, Inside DOD's FY 2024 Budget. Participants will have a unique opportunity to dive deeply into how these changes will affect the defense enterprise, leaving with the most critical data and information for their own organizations. |
Video Shorts
Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “The Recap,” “Data Unpacked,” “Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel! |
In That Number
66,000
Over 66,000 additional alleged war crimes have been reported to Ukrainian authorities since the Russian invasion began in February, according to Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General.
Source: The Washington Post |
Critical Quote
“Anywhere else in the world this would be an emergency. What we have in Syria is an emergency within an emergency.”
— Mark Kaye, spokesman for the International Rescue Committee |
iDeas Lab
To meet its vast energy needs, China is expanding its footprint along the Strait of Hormuz—a vital chokepoint for transporting oil. As Beijing looks to secure its interests in the region, it may leverage commercial inroads to further military and intelligence activities, according to a new CSIS digital feature.
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: Can Erok/AFP/Getty Images.) A woman reacts as rescuers search for survivors through the rubble of collapsed buildings in Adana, Turkey on February 6, 2023 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country. |
Recommended Reading
“Chinese Spy Balloons: The Sky’s the Limit” by CSIS’s James Andrew Lewis. |
This Town This Week
Tomorrow, at 11:00 a.m., the CSIS Trustee Chair hosts a Big Data China event analyzing the influence of the Chinese party-state on Chinese companies.
And on Wednesday, at 1:30 p.m., the CSIS Human Rights Initiative discusses the roadmap to the 2023 Summit for Democracy.
Thursday, at 11:30 a.m., the CSIS Economics Program hosts U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen for a keynote address on evolving the multilateral development banks to address growing global challenges. |
Video
Last week, Kari A. Bingen, director of the CSIS Aerospace Security Project, testified before Congress on the state of the satellite marketplace and steps the United States can take to maintain its leadership position in space. In the latest CSIS Testify video, Kari discusses what she told Congress—in about 2 minutes. |
Podcasts
CSIS’s Eliot Cohen joins the podcast to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine and how Israel and the United States have increasing concerns about Iran’s military and nuclear weapons program.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. |
Smiles
“Look out, the saints are coming through
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue”
Last week was Bob Dylan “Time Out of Mind” week. Today, I thought it would be fun to hear from one of the great interpreters of Dylan’s music. |
| I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz |
