The Evening: ISIS, Stock Records, Not Fade Away Redux and More
ISIS Claims Responsibility for Sri Lanka Attacks
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings that killed more than 300 people in Sri Lanka and posted a video that it said showed the suicide bombers, dressed in black robes, declaring their loyalty to the group, as the WSJ’s Niharika Mandhana and Jon Emont report.
Dive Deeper: “After the ‘Caliphate’ The Metrics of Daesh and the Ongoing Challenge of Extremism,” by CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman.
“Sri Lanka Bombings: What We Know,” by CFR’s Bruce Hoffman.
U.S.-ROK Begin Air Force Drills
The United States and South Korea have launched joint air force drills, officials said Tuesday, as the allies maintain efforts to keep military exercises low-key amid nuclear talks with the North, as Stars and Stripes’ Kim Gamel and Yoo Kyong Chang report.
New Records
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite set new records on Tuesday, as investors seized on dovish signals from central banks to extend a months-long recovery, despite continued uncertainty over the outlook for the global economy, as the FT’s Peter Wells and Richard Henderson report.
Enroll for Fall
Now enrolling for the Fall, CSIS & Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs offer a new Executive Master's in International Relations. Information here.
Video Shorts
Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify” and “High Resolution.” In under 90 seconds, CSIS experts tell you what they told Congress in testimony, or use high-resolution satellite images and advanced mapping to break down national security issues. And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!
In That Number
$22 Billion
The F-35 jet, the world’s most expensive weapons program, just got even costlier. The estimated total price for research and procurement has increased by $22 billion in current dollars adjusted for inflation, for a total of $428.4 billion in acquisition costs.
Source: Bloomberg
Critical Quote
“Why wasn’t there any action?”
— Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka on the Sri Lankan government's failure to act on an intelligence report that warned of a potential attack on churches.
iDeas Lab
A new report from the CSIS Global Infrastructure Task Force examines the upcoming infrastructure build-out. Over the next 15 years, more hard infrastructure is projected to be built around the world than currently exists.
The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.
Optics
(Photo credit: Chesnot/Getty Images). French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prior to their meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris.
Recommended Reading
“Stop the Misinformation Virus: Don’t Be a Carrier,” by Alan Miller.
This Town Tomorrow
At 9:00 a.m., join CSIS for an event to mark the launch of a new report on Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), featuring a keynote message from ATA’s CEO, Khalid Bomba.
Later, at 1:00 p.m., return to CSIS for a discussion on the initiatives to prevent, identify, and respond to threats stemming from the software supply chain throughout the acquisition process.
And, at 3:30 p.m., stick around CSIS for a report launch of Shifting the Burden Responsibly, featuring a keynote address from James Anderson, assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities.
Video
CSIS today hosted an event to roll out a new report on how the United States can strategically shape the global infrastructure buildout. Watch the full event here.
Podcasts
In the latest The Trade Guys episode, Andrew and the Trade Guys catch up on the latest WTO dispute settlement news, review the latest economic analysis of the USMCA, and somehow manage to weave in a Game of Thrones update
Listen on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or Spotify.
Smiles
“Love is loving and not fade away…”
The notes from you all about “Not Fade Away,” Buddy Holly, the Grateful Dead, Winterland, and Cornell ’77 really made me smile.
There is no video of the Dead’s performance on May 8, 1977, at Barton Hall, Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. But as I mentioned, the band released the show as an album in 2017 after so many years of it existing as the platinum standard for GD bootlegs. The album was sourced by the original soundboard recordings by Betty Cantor-Jackson, which had been long sought after.
In 2012, the Library of Congress added the famous concert to its collection of National Recording Registry sounds that shaped the American cultural landscape.
Take a listen to that historic sound in the form of “Not Fade Away.”