European Parliament’s Presidential Election, COVID-19 Case Rates Surge, and More

The European Parliament elects a new president, COVID-19 case rates surge across the globe, and diplomacy continues over Russian security demands in Europe.

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Hosts
  • Robert McMahon
    Managing Editor
  • Matthias Matthijs
    Senior Fellow for Europe

Show Notes

The European Parliament elects a new president, COVID-19 case rates surge across the globe, and diplomacy continues over Russian security demands in Europe.

 

Articles Mentioned in the Podcast

 

Mary Beth Sheridan, “Mexico has refused to close its borders during the covid-19 pandemic. Does that make sense?” Washington Post, January 12, 2022

 

Stephen Sestanovich, “The Russia-Ukraine Crisis: A Scorecard on Biden’s Response,” CFR.org, December 23, 2021

 

Adam Tooze, “Chartbook #68 Putin’s Challenge to Western hegemony - the 2022 edition,” January 12, 2022

India

Concerns grow over the widening Middle East conflict after Iran launches three hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel; European Union (EU) leaders discuss how to bolster aid to Ukraine amid an uptick in Russian attacks and the situation unfolding in the Middle East; India kicks off the world’s largest democratic election—spanning more than forty-four days—where the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win again; and warming water temperatures cause a mass bleaching of coral reefs.

Sudan

Congress returns from recess and grapples with contentious agenda items, including reauthorization of a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and a Ukraine aid package; Sudan enters a second year of civil war with more than half of the country’s population in need of aid and millions more displaced; and Ecuadorian police breach international law by raiding the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas. 

Rwanda

Rwanda marks thirty years since its genocide against the Tutsis; U.S. President Joe Biden hosts the first trilateral leaders’ summit with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.; music fans celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Swedish pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win; and Ekrem İmamoğlu is elected mayor of Istanbul, in a rebuke to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.

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The two-year-old war in Ukraine—which is far from deadlocked—could pivot dramatically in the coming months. U.S. decisions will play a decisive role.

Egypt

International lenders have pumped tens of billions of dollars into Egypt’s faltering economy amid the war in the Gaza Strip, but experts say the country’s economic crisis is not yet resolved.