Council of Foreign Relations 2/13/2020

Daily News Brief February 13, 2023

Top of the Agenda U.S. Shoots Down Three More Airborne Objects After Upping Radar Sensitivity  U.S. fighter jets shot down (NYT) one unidentified object per day starting on Friday, firing on targets flying over Alaska, Michigan, and Canada. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) raised the sensitivity of its radar system following the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon on February 4, which a U.S. defense official said could partly explain the increased UFO sightings. Officials said the function and ownership of the more recently downed objects would be confirmed after U.S. and Canadian investigators examined the debris. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said today that ten U.S. high-altitude balloons have illegally flown (AP) over Chinese airspace in the past year. Wenbin did not provide details about the alleged balloons. Washington denied that it operates such devices over China. On Friday, the United States blacklisted six Chinese entities it said were linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs.

Analysis “The frenzy of activity, coupled with a lack of detail, threatens to sow panic among Americans that the skies are littered with devices peering at them. The reality is we simply don’t know,” Bloomberg’s Rosalind Mathieson writes.  “At the urging of Congress, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies have intensified their study of unexplained incidents near military bases in recent years. The studies on what the intelligence community calls unidentified aerial phenomena have pinpointed previously undetected efforts to conduct surveillance on American military exercises and bases,” the New York Times’ Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, and Edward Wong write.

Pacific Rim Cambodian Leader Shutters One of Country’s Last Independent Media Outlets The outlet, the Voice of Democracy, last week published a story that strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen said had “hurt” the government’s reputation (BBC). The move comes ahead of general elections in July.  China/Qatar: Seeking to diversify its energy sources, China is set to close a twenty-seven-year deal (Reuters) to buy liquefied natural gas from Qatar.

South and Central Asia Taliban Interior Minister Criticizes Group’s Leader During a speech at a religious school in Khost Province, Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani indirectly criticized (Bloomberg) the Taliban’s supreme commander, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, for monopolizing power and defaming the government. Akhundzada was behind recent orders that banned women and girls from attending school.   This Backgrounder looks at the Taliban.   Pakistan: Police arrested at least fifty people (AP) linked to the kidnapping and lynching of a prisoner accused of blasphemy. This Backgrounder compares approaches to blasphemy in countries that practice Islamic law.

Middle East and North Africa UN: Extremist Group Is Blocking Syrians’ Access to Quake Aid In opposition-held northwestern Syria, aid for survivors of last week’s earthquake is being hampered (Reuters) by a lack of approval from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a UN spokesperson said. Most deaths in Syria have occurred in areas largely controlled by the group.   Israel: Tens of thousands of people protested in Jerusalem (Haaretz) against bills that aim to overhaul Israel’s judiciary. The bills face their first parliamentary votes this week.

Sub-Saharan Africa Sudan’s Ruling Military Approves Plan for Russian Naval Base The base on the Red Sea would only be built (AP) if a yet-to-be-formed civilian government and legislature ratified it. Sudan has not had a legislature since President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019.   China/Zambia: Zambia’s finance minister criticized China’s demand (FT) that multilateral lenders such as the World Bank participate in the country’s debt restructuring, saying that would further prolong the process, which has already faced delays. CFR’s Brad W. Setser examines the debt crisis facing emerging markets.

Europe Ankara Issues Arrest Warrants for Contractors Tied to Collapsed Buildings After Quake Last week’s earthquake killed some thirty thousand people in Turkey, with poor building construction being blamed for the high death toll. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has itself been criticized (NYT) for pushing for legislation that forgave construction violations without requiring building owners to keep their properties up to code. Germany: Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party lost a Berlin election rerun (FT) to the conservative Christian Democratic Union. German media said it was the Social Democrats’ worst performance in Germany’s capital since World War II.

Americas Pope Voices Concern for Sentenced Nicaraguan Bishop Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a prominent critic of Nicaragua’s government, was sentenced to twenty-six years in prison (AP) after choosing not to fly to the United States as part of a mass release of political prisoners last week. His whereabouts and safety could not immediately be confirmed. Argentina/Russia: More than five thousand pregnant Russian women have entered Argentina (BBC) in recent months, likely so their babies would have Argentine citizenship, officials said. Russians can enter Argentina visa-free.

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