The Evening: Deadly Russian Attack, Hamas Threats, Straight Into Darkness, and More

Newsletter - September 4, 2024

Deadly Russian Attack

A Russian missile strike killed more than 50 people and injured scores of others on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a series of devastating bombardments of Ukraine and one of the deadliest attacks of the two-and-a-half-year war, as the NYT reports.

Hamas Threats

Palestinian militant group Hamas suggested it would execute more Israeli hostages if Israel's military attempted further rescue missions, as both sides double down on demands to end the war in Gaza, as the WSJ reports.

Venezuela Orders Arrest of Opposition Candidate Edmundo González

A Venezuelan judge has ordered the arrest of presidential candidate Edmundo González, who the United States and other governments say clearly beat the country's authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in its July 28 election, as The Washington Post reports.

Executive Education

Develop agile responses to unprecedented challenges. Join Global Foresight: Preparing for Future Trendsfrom 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:"Power Plays: Europe's Response to the Energy Crisis" with CSIS's Max Bergmann.

In That Number

161,030

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the campaign to vaccinate children in Gaza against polio had so far been more successful than expected, with 161,030 children vaccinated in the first two days of the operation.
Source: NYT

Critical Quote

Russia is taking away our most valuable asset, our lives.

- Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's First Lady

iDeas Lab

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China has options other than invasion to try to force Taiwan's unification, one of which is a blockade. In a new digital report, the CSIS China Power Project explores the potential motivations and strategic calculus for a blockade and maps out possible scenarios of how China could approach blockade operations.

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: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool/AFP/Getty Images.

Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of killed U.S.-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was recovered with five other hostages in Gaza, attend his funeral in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024.

Recommended Reading

"How China Could Blockade Taiwan" by CSIS's Bonny Lin, Brian Hart, Matthew P. Funaiole, and Truly Tinsley with Samantha Lu.

This Town Tomorrow

At 10:00 a.m., the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program welcomes officials from the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration to discuss bolstering data center growth, resilience, and security.

Also at 10:00 a.m., the CSIS Middle East Program unpacks Houthi aggression and a roadmap for peace in Yemen.

Earlier, at 9:00 a.m., the Carnegie Endowment discusses the future of U.S.-Taiwan economic cooperation.

Video

Last week, Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments, joined CSIS's Kathleen McInnis for a discussion on how she strives to close the racial wealth gap and create a better public understanding of financial literacy. Watch the full video here.

Podcasts

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CSIS Senior Vice President and director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center J. Stephen Morrison joins the podcast to discuss the current surge of Covid-19, the newest variants of the virus, and the politicization of vaccines before the 2024 election.

Listen on Spotify& Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

I hope that everyone had a terrific summer and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. The Evening is typically off the last few weeks in August, and happily, lots of smiles are collected during that time to share once we are back in September.

If you're like me and you terribly miss the late Tom Petty, any notice of new or rereleased material is cause for celebration. I'm happy to report that in mid-October, Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1982 album "Long After Dark" is being reissued with 12 bonus tracks (7 unreleased). To promote the new version of "Long After Dark," the Petty Legacy archives is also releasing a collection of videos from the era. Here's a cool video shot for French television that I'd never seen before of the album track "Straight Into Darkness."

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