The Evening: U.S. Presses Israel, AI Capable of Reasoning, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, and More

Newsletter - September 12, 2024

U.S. Will Keep Pressing Israel to Spare Gaza Humanitarian Sites

U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken said Thursday that the United States will continue to press Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed 14 people, including six UN staffers, as the AP reports.

U.S. and Chinese Militaries Find Reason to Start Talking Again

The U.S. and Chinese militaries are taking tentative steps to re-engage diplomatically after a two-year freeze in relations, seeking to dial back the risk of confrontation while tensions simmer over Beijing's activities in the South China Sea and its support of Russia, as the WSJreports.

OpenAI Launches AI Models it Says Are Capable of Reasoning

OpenAI will launch an AI product it claims is capable of reasoning, allowing it to solve hard problems in math, coding, and science in a critical step towards achieving humanlike cognition in machines, as the FTreports.

Executive Education

Develop agile responses to unprecedented challenges. Join Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trends from October 21-24 to gain strategic foresight tools-from identifying drivers of change to modeling future scenarios-and learn to anticipate external challenges. Register by October 9.

Audio Briefs

CSIS experts give short, spoken-word summaries on the biggest takeaways from their latest reports, white papers, and commentaries-in their own words.

Listen here: "Strategic Equilibrium: The United States' Manufacturing Resurgence and the Role of Natural Gas in a Carbon-Competitive World" with CSIS's Joseph Majkut.

In That Number

$1.3 billion

The Biden administration will not withhold any of the United States' annual military aid to Egypt, the State Department said Wednesday. The State Department informed Congress of its intent to provide all $1.3 billion typically allotted for Egypt each year, the agency said in a statement.
Source: The Washington Post

Critical Quote

No one is safe in Gaza.

- UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

iDeas Lab

Photo: CSIS

National oil companies produce about half of the world's oil and gas, and these companies play a key role in global methane reductions. Watch the full video 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: Audu Marte/AFP/Getty Images

People affected by floods are escorted through flood water on a military boat in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on September 12, 2024.

Recommended Reading

"Strategic Equilibrium: The United States' Manufacturing Resurgence and the Role of Natural Gas in a Carbon-Competitive World" by CSIS's Jane Nakano and Joseph Majkut.

This Town Upcoming

Tomorrow, at 2:00 p.m., the CSIS Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies hosts a discussion on the warfighter's adoption of emerging technologies.

Monday, at 9:00 a.m., the CSIS Korea Chair, with the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab, explores evidence from a large-scale analysis of Congressional discourse on U.S. rivals and more.

On Tuesday, at 4:30 p.m., the CSIS Human Rights Initiative welcomes Thea Lee, Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the Department of Labor, to discuss the state of forced labor globally .

Video

Today, CSIS President and CEO Dr. John J. Hamre hosted Ambassador John J. Sullivan, former United States Ambassador to Russia, to discuss his newest memoir, Midnight in Moscow. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

Image

CSIS's Eliot Cohen joins the podcast to discuss the latest in Ukraine's war with Russia and Israel's war with Hamas.

Listen on Spotify & CSIS.org.

Smiles

This is a terrific smile, Grammy winning Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway covering Bob Dylan live this summer.

I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz