The Evening: Ukrainian Corruption Cleanup, Fed Raise, Standing in the Doorway, and More

Corruption Cleanup in Ukraine

The Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday carried out dozens of searches across the country in connection with corruption allegations, two days before President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to host leaders of the European Union to discuss issues including his government’s efforts to clamp down on longstanding graft in Ukraine, as the NYT reports.

Fed Slows Its Tightening With Quarter-Point Interest Rate Rise

The Federal Reserve approved an interest-rate increase of a quarter-percentage point and signaled plans to raise rates again next month to continue lowering inflation, as the WSJ reports.

Erdogan: Sweden can’t join NATO if Quran-burning is allowed

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkey won’t allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as the Scandinavian country permits protests desecrating Islam’s holy book to take place, as the AP reports.

Executive Education

Gain key insights on what the Biden administration's FY 2024 budget and strategy documents reveal about strategic priorities from CSIS experts and practitioners in the one-day course offering, Inside DOD's FY 2024 Budget. Participants will have a unique opportunity to dive deeply into how these changes will affect the defense enterprise, leaving with the most critical data and information for their own organizations.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “The Recap,” “Data Unpacked,” “Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

320,000

Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Russia now has more than 320,000 soldiers in the country — roughly twice the size of Moscow’s initial invasion force.

Source: NYT

Critical Quote

iDeas Lab

Last week, CSIS's Max Bergmann was joined by Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union Thierry Breton for a discussion on cooperation in support of Ukraine and collaboration on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Watch the ReCap here.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia.

Optics

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on February 1, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Recommended Reading

“Building a U.S.-Japan-Philippines Triad” by CSIS’s Gregory B. Poling, Andreyka Natalegawa, and Danielle Fallin. 

This Town Tomorrow

At 9:00 a.m., Brookings holds a discussion on Nigeria’s elections and their security, economic, and crime implications.

And, at 9:30 a.m., the Atlantic Council hosts its first annual Freedom and Prosperity Research Conference.

Then, at 11:00 a.m., the Wilson Center holds a conversation on the challenges and benefits of regular and widespread vaccination.

Video

Today, the CSIS Global Food Security Program welcomed the U.S. State Department's Special Envoy for Global Food Security Dr. Cary Fowler for a discussion on the new "Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS)" initiative with remarks by Ambassador Cindy McCain. Watch the full event here.

Podcasts

CSIS's Kathleen McInnis sits down with Ambassador Kelly Currie, former Deputy U.S. Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, at the 2022 Halifax International Security Forum. Ambassador Currie discusses her role in discovering the horrific genocide taking place in China against the Uyghur community.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Smiles

One of the most interesting elements of the new Bob Dylan collection, “Fragments– Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17,” is that they remixed the original album tracks so that the listener can hear these songs with a brighter countenance minus some of the swampy atmospherics created by producer Daniel Lanois. On some of these tracks, the results are stunning, and you don’t have to be a certified Dylanologist to crank it up and listen. If you listen to this remixed version of “Standing in the Doorway” really loud, you will get it.

I invite you to email me at aschwartz@csis.org and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz