foreignpolicy--2020-08-12--Kamala Harris for the People

Kamala Harris for the People

Kamala Harris , the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate , has once again made history .
After great anticipation , Joe Biden , the presumptive nominee for president for the Democratic Party , announced Tuesday afternoon his decision to have the California senator as his running mate in November .
Harris will be the first Black woman and the first Asian American to run for vice president on a major party ticket .
And , with Biden ’ s earlier indication that he will likely not seek a second term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is poised to be the first woman of color to run as the Democratic nominee for president in 2024 and possibly win the highest office .
The announcement comes five months after Biden boldly pledged in the final Democratic primary debate to run alongside a woman .
From then on , many observers made the case that his running mate should be a Black woman .
Strategists , among them Jotaka Eaddy , a former senior advisor for the NAACP , argued that a Black woman as a vice presidential nominee would mobilize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are considerably less enthusiastic about Biden than their parents and grandparents .
For their part , the political scientists Ismail White and Chryl Laird suggested that choosing a Black woman would honor the steadfast support of Black Americans—notably Black women—for the Democratic Party .
To be sure , many elected officials and political commentators have opined about Harris as a potential liability , citing aspects of her prosecutorial record as the district attorney for San Francisco and , later , as the attorney general for California .
As recently as two weeks ago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Biden ’ s top donors , were reportedly moving behind the scenes to disqualify her , claiming , according to CNBC , that she is “ too ambitious ” and would be disloyal to Biden .
Conveniently left out of many of these race-gendered commentaries is Harris ’ s wealth of knowledge , experience , and readiness for the job .
An outspoken advocate for working families , criminal justice reform , and LGBTQ+ rights , Harris will be an asset , both to the Biden campaign and , potentially , his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right time .
Although he has polled well in head-to-head matchups with Republican incumbent Donald Trump , Biden ’ s credibility on issues such as race remains in question and threatens to depress voter turnout in the elections .
Biden has repeatedly made cringeworthy , racially insensitive comments , many of which he and his surrogates have had to walk back .
Viewed charitably , his comments are unfortunate gaffes .
Viewed less charitably , they paint a picture of yet another out-of-touch white politician or , worse still , someone using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white moderates and conservatives at the expense of people of color .
Negative perceptions of Biden among younger voters and voters of color are compounded by controversial policy positions in the past , including his opposition to compulsory busing and his support for the 1994 crime bill .
At a time of national reawakening on race , Biden simply can not afford any more missteps .
Harris ’ s addition to the Democratic ticket will by no means be a panacea for Biden ’ s record .
And she will no doubt confront @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the current political moment by selecting a Black woman as a running mate is a step in the right direction for Biden , and it presents him an opportunity to learn and do better .
Harris is no stranger to the deep conflicts , erasures , and wounds interwoven in the American national fabric , and she is uniquely positioned to help a Biden administration address them .
For centuries now , Black women have served on the front lines of every progressive movement , creating what the race and religion scholar Ashon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is , radical , alternative ways of thinking and existing—in local communities , boardrooms , and policymaking bodies .
Always in a state of what the activist Frances M. Beal describes as “ double jeopardy , ” being both Black and a woman in a system designed for neither , Black women have sacrificed much to advance the cause and the promise of American democracy .
Harris follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan .
Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jordan followed , serving as the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South .
She boldly reclaimed “ We , the people ” as encompassing an increasingly diverse nation .
These women were “ unbossed and unbought , ” as Chisholm declared in her campaign and later in her autobiography , and women like them continue to be the bridge-builders of the American union , wholly deserving of a seat at the table .
Like the many others who have served in high office , Black women like Patricia Roberts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s administration , Edith Sampson , the first Black American appointed as a delegate to the United Nations , and many others still , Harris will face more obstacles .
But , like them , she is a tough and fearless leader , ready to go toe-to-toe with adversaries , both foreign and domestic .

Kamala Harris, the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate, has once again made history. After great anticipation, Joe Biden , the presumptive nominee for president for the Democratic Party, announced Tuesday afternoon his decision to have the California senator as his running mate in November.
Kamala Harris, the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate, has once again made history. After great anticipation, Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee for president for the Democratic Party, announced Tuesday afternoon his decision to have the California senator as his running mate in November.
Harris will be the first Black woman and the first Asian American to run for vice president on a major party ticket. And, with Biden’s earlier indication that he will likely not seek a second term should he win the presidency, she is poised to be the first woman of color to run as the Democratic nominee for president in 2024 and possibly win the highest office.
The announcement comes five months after Biden boldly pledged in the final Democratic primary debate to run alongside a woman. From then on, many observers made the case that his running mate should be a Black woman. Strategists, among them Jotaka Eaddy, a former senior advisor for the NAACP, argued that a Black woman as a vice presidential nominee would mobilize voters, including younger voters, who are considerably less enthusiastic about Biden than their parents and grandparents. For their part, the political scientists Ismail White and Chryl Laird suggested that choosing a Black woman would honor the steadfast support of Black Americans—notably Black women—for the Democratic Party.
To be sure, many elected officials and political commentators have opined about Harris as a potential liability, citing aspects of her prosecutorial record as the district attorney for San Francisco and, later, as the attorney general for California. As recently as two weeks ago, some establishment Democrats, including some of Biden’s top donors, were reportedly moving behind the scenes to disqualify her, claiming, according to CNBC, that she is “too ambitious” and would be disloyal to Biden.
Conveniently left out of many of these race-gendered commentaries is Harris’s wealth of knowledge, experience, and readiness for the job. An outspoken advocate for working families, criminal justice reform, and LGBTQ+ rights, Harris will be an asset, both to the Biden campaign and, potentially, his administration.
Harris joins Biden at just the right time. Although he has polled well in head-to-head matchups with Republican incumbent Donald Trump, Biden’s credibility on issues such as race remains in question and threatens to depress voter turnout in the elections. Biden has repeatedly made cringeworthy, racially insensitive comments, many of which he and his surrogates have had to walk back. Viewed charitably, his comments are unfortunate gaffes. Viewed less charitably, they paint a picture of yet another out-of-touch white politician or, worse still, someone using racial distancing to curry the favor of white moderates and conservatives at the expense of people of color.
Negative perceptions of Biden among younger voters and voters of color are compounded by controversial policy positions in the past, including his opposition to compulsory busing and his support for the 1994 crime bill. At a time of national reawakening on race, Biden simply cannot afford any more missteps.
Harris’s addition to the Democratic ticket will by no means be a panacea for Biden’s record. And she will no doubt confront her own opposition. However, meeting the current political moment by selecting a Black woman as a running mate is a step in the right direction for Biden, and it presents him an opportunity to learn and do better.
Harris is no stranger to the deep conflicts, erasures, and wounds interwoven in the American national fabric, and she is uniquely positioned to help a Biden administration address them. For centuries now, Black women have served on the front lines of every progressive movement, creating what the race and religion scholar Ashon Crawley calls “otherwise possibilities”—that is, radical, alternative ways of thinking and existing—in local communities, boardrooms, and policymaking bodies. Always in a state of what the activist Frances M. Beal describes as “double jeopardy,” being both Black and a woman in a system designed for neither, Black women have sacrificed much to advance the cause and the promise of American democracy.
Harris follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan. Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Jordan followed, serving as the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South. She boldly reclaimed “We, the people” as encompassing an increasingly diverse nation. These women were “unbossed and unbought,” as Chisholm declared in her campaign and later in her autobiography, and women like them continue to be the bridge-builders of the American union, wholly deserving of a seat at the table.
Like the many others who have served in high office, Black women like Patricia Roberts Harris, who served in Jimmy Carter’s administration, Edith Sampson, the first Black American appointed as a delegate to the United Nations, and many others still, Harris will face more obstacles. But, like them, she is a tough and fearless leader, ready to go toe-to-toe with adversaries, both foreign and domestic.


foreignpolicy--2020-08-13--Is Spain’s Royal Family Finished?

Is Spain’s Royal Family Finished?

On Aug. 3 , 82-year-old Juan Carlos I , the king of Spain from 1975 to 2014 , announced his decision to leave the country because of “ public repercussions that certain past events in my life are causing.
” In a letter published on the Spanish royal household ’ s website , he claimed his departure would also allow his son , King Felipe VI , to continue to perform his royal duties in “ tranquility.
” The letter was the final step in a downward spiral that began eight years ago—but the former monarch ’ s ignominious departure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solely , about shielding the reputation of a once adored Spanish institution ; it ’ s also about self-protection .
And it ’ s not the first time that a member of the House of Bourbon has resorted to such tactics in moments of crisis .
Things started to go wrong in 2012 , when the king took an ill-advised hunting trip to Botswana rumored to have cost around 40,000 euros ( about $ 60,000 ) , which was paid for by Mohamed Eyad Kayali—an advisor to the Saudi royal family who would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holder in the 2016 Panama Papers .
As the rest of Spain endured a recession and soaring unemployment , details of such a costly holiday couldn ’ t have come at a worse time for the Spanish royals .
Juan Carlos was also said to have been hunting elephants , despite then being the honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund : By the time he ’ d apologized for going to Botswana— “ I made a mistake , ” he said—a petition calling for his resignation from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ signatures .
Eventually bowing to public pressure , the king abdicated in 2014 , handing over the reins to his son , Felipe .
Yet Juan Carlos enjoyed great popularity throughout all but the last few years of his reign .
The fascist dictator Francisco Franco , who ruled Spain from the end of the civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975 , personally chose Juan Carlos as his successor as head of state in 1969 , passing over the future king ’ s father—Juan , Count of Barcelona—in the process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Juan Carlos won enormous respect among Spaniards for steering the country toward democracy , rather than perpetuating Francoism , as Franco had expected him to do .
Juan Carlos is also credited with defusing the attempted coup of February 1981 , when armed forces stormed the parliament in a rebellion against Spain ’ s nascent democracy .
The king made a televised address to the nation calling for the rule of law , much as Felipe would do 36 years later in response to escalating tensions between the central government and Catalan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surrendered without killing a single hostage .
Juan Carlos ’ s televised intervention in 1981 appeared to have been decisive in quelling a military coup aimed at destroying Spain ’ s fragile democracy .
But in recent years , public attention has switched from these laudable achievements to the former king ’ s alleged fraudulent activities .
In 2018 , the online newspaper El Español published transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between the German Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein—Juan Carlos ’ s former lover and his traveling companion on the 2012 Botswana trip—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allegedly talks about his money laundering efforts and is heard to say , “ The king has no concept of what is legal and what isn ’ t. ” Prompted by such rumors and reports , the Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa launched an investigation into Juan Carlos that same year , focused on an 88 million euro ( $ 104 million ) “ gift ” he received from the then-Saudi king in 2008 and suspected kickbacks for a 6.7 billion euro ( $ 7.9 billion ) contract to build a high-speed rail link @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Spanish consortium in 2012 .
Bertossa is also looking into the origin of offshore funds held in a Liechtenstein-based foundation linked to Swiss bank accounts .
Finally , this June , Spain ’ s Supreme Court opened inquiries seeking to determine if Juan Carlos was guilty of any crimes in relation to the Saudi money or the Medina-Mecca contract .
Attempting to protect the already tarnished public image of the royal household , Felipe has dissociated himself as much as possible from his father .
In March , the king took the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s annual state stipend of 200,000 euros ( $ 222,000 ) and renouncing his inheritance , reacting to rumors that he stood to benefit from some of his father ’ s offshore funds .
These moves aren ’ t without precedent : In June 2015 , Felipe stripped his sister Cristina of her Duchess of Palma de Mallorca title because her husband , Inaki Urdangarin , faced fraud charges .
In 2018—the same year that Swiss authorities started looking into Juan Carlos ’ s financial affairs—Urdangarin was sentenced to five years and 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funds .
It was not a good year for the Spanish royal family .
Juan Carlos ’ s hasty departure from Spain is not without precedent , either .
His grandfather , King Alfonso XIII , fled to Italy in 1931 , when that year ’ s elections deposed the monarchy and led to the declaration of the Second Republic , which lasted until Franco ’ s rebellion and the subsequent outbreak of civil war in 1939 .
Alfonso ’ s grandmother , Isabella II—Juan Carlos ’ s great-great-grandmother—also left the country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Glorious Revolution ” of 1868 , before formally abdicating in favor of her son , King Alfonso XII , in 1870 .
Juan Carlos himself was born in 1938 in Rome , where his grandfather and other members of the Spanish royal family settled after the formation of Spain ’ s Second Republic .
The most recent royal flight from Spain has been presented by both Juan Carlos and Felipe as a last-ditch attempt to save the monarchy from further reputational damage .
But it ’ s hard to believe that the former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ himself from Swiss and Spanish authorities and from the backlash that will follow if their inquiries prove justified .
( Although in a world of 24-hour international news , internet , and social media , it ’ s questionable whether he has really escaped the latter at all . )
Staying in Spain would also have prevented speculation about the extradition policies of the country for which he is headed , the key candidate currently being the Dominican Republic .
The former king ’ s lawyer has stated that , despite leaving Spain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to assist public prosecutors should it be necessary ; nevertheless , his choice of exile destination will be highly revealing .
A photo published by a Spanish news agency on Aug. 8 appeared to show him stepping off a plane in Abu Dhabi—perhaps a sign that the king still has contacts in the Middle East , as he did at the time of the Botswana scandal .
Political reaction in Spain to Juan Carlos ’ s departure has been divided .
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has signaled his respect for the decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ July , he described the allegations against the former king as “ disturbing ” and said there was “ no room for impunity ” in modern Spain .
Sánchez also suggested that he favored updating the 1978 Spanish Constitution , according to which the head of state is “ inviolable ” —in other words , Juan Carlos is legally immune from any offenses he may have committed before his abdication in 2014 .
The wider context of these remarks is an ongoing debate about constitutional reform in Spain , in which Sánchez ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its leftist governing partner Podemos are among the most vocal campaigners for redrafting parts of the original constitution .
Sánchez , however , has rejected all demands from Podemos and Catalan and Basque groups for a parliamentary inquiry into Juan Carlos ’ s alleged financial misdemeanors .
Somewhat less surprisingly , the conservative Popular Party ( PP ) , traditionally the party of choice for Spanish monarchists , showed its unwavering support for Juan Carlos , praising his “ determining and decisive role ” in Spain ’ s shift to democracy in 1975 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the former king ’ s departure would enable his son to “ carry out his functions in the best circumstances.
” The PP , it seems , is unwilling or unable to entertain the prospect that this once revered king is now guilty of financial crimes : As a result , the party will sustain some reputational damage of its own if Juan Carlos turns out to be guilty .
Ciudananos ’ s much vaguer statement , focusing on Felipe rather than the alleged offenses of his father , does not pin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias adopted a much less ambiguous line than his centrist rivals , announcing on Twitter that Juan Carlos ’ s flight was an “ undignified act ” and that he should “ respond to his actions in Spain and before the people ” —a course of action that would perhaps have been more indicative of innocence than flight to foreign shores .
Catalonia ’ s deputy premier , Pere Aragonès , expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote on Twitter that “ some people had to go into exile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because they are corrupt ” —an allusion to former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont , who fled to Belgium after orchestrating the illegal independence referendum of 2017 .
The Spanish monarchy is at a critical moment in its history , with polls suggesting that Spaniards are roughly split down the middle over whether Spain should remain a constitutional monarchy or become a republic once more .
Ahead of this year ’ s opening of parliament in February , Basque , Catalan , and Galician leftist parties jointly declared that “ we have no king @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as an “ anachronistic institution , ” a position that is shared , in its essentials , by the government ’ s junior coalition partner , Podemos .
Spaniards are tired of corruption , especially of scandals featuring already wealthy public figures allegedly accruing even larger fortunes at times of national hardship .
Just as details of Juan Carlos ’ s lavish hunting holiday to Botswana broke at the height of the last recession , so the most recent controversy comes as the coronavirus pandemic ’ s economic impact starts to bite .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be just as disastrous now as it was in 2012 .

On Aug. 3, 82-year-old Juan Carlos I, the king of Spain from 1975 to 2014, announced his decision to leave the country because of “public repercussions that certain past events in my life are causing.” In a letter published on the Spanish royal household’s website, he claimed his departure would also allow his son, King Felipe VI, to continue to perform his royal duties in “tranquility.”
On Aug. 3, 82-year-old Juan Carlos I, the king of Spain from 1975 to 2014, announced his decision to leave the country because of “public repercussions that certain past events in my life are causing.” In a letter published on the Spanish royal household’s website, he claimed his departure would also allow his son, King Felipe VI, to continue to perform his royal duties in “tranquility.”
The letter was the final step in a downward spiral that began eight years ago—but the former monarch’s ignominious departure is not, or at least not solely, about shielding the reputation of a once adored Spanish institution; it’s also about self-protection. And it’s not the first time that a member of the House of Bourbon has resorted to such tactics in moments of crisis.
Things started to go wrong in 2012, when the king took an ill-advised hunting trip to Botswana rumored to have cost around 40,000 euros (about $60,000), which was paid for by Mohamed Eyad Kayali—an advisor to the Saudi royal family who would later be named as an offshore account holder in the 2016 Panama Papers. As the rest of Spain endured a recession and soaring unemployment, details of such a costly holiday couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Spanish royals.
Juan Carlos was also said to have been hunting elephants, despite then being the honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund: By the time he’d apologized for going to Botswana—“I made a mistake,” he said—a petition calling for his resignation from the charity’s presidency had collected 85,000 signatures. Eventually bowing to public pressure, the king abdicated in 2014, handing over the reins to his son, Felipe.
Yet Juan Carlos enjoyed great popularity throughout all but the last few years of his reign. The fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the end of the civil war in 1939 to his death in 1975, personally chose Juan Carlos as his successor as head of state in 1969, passing over the future king’s father—Juan, Count of Barcelona—in the process.
On taking over from the generalissimo, Juan Carlos won enormous respect among Spaniards for steering the country toward democracy, rather than perpetuating Francoism, as Franco had expected him to do.
Juan Carlos is also credited with defusing the attempted coup of February 1981, when armed forces stormed the parliament in a rebellion against Spain’s nascent democracy. The king made a televised address to the nation calling for the rule of law, much as Felipe would do 36 years later in response to escalating tensions between the central government and Catalan separatists. Shortly afterward, the rebels surrendered without killing a single hostage. Juan Carlos’s televised intervention in 1981 appeared to have been decisive in quelling a military coup aimed at destroying Spain’s fragile democracy.
But in recent years, public attention has switched from these laudable achievements to the former king’s alleged fraudulent activities. In 2018, the online newspaper El Español published transcripts of secretly recorded conversations between the German Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein—Juan Carlos’s former lover and his traveling companion on the 2012 Botswana trip—and an ex-police officer, in which she allegedly talks about his money laundering efforts and is heard to say, “The king has no concept of what is legal and what isn’t.”
Prompted by such rumors and reports, the Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa launched an investigation into Juan Carlos that same year, focused on an 88 million euro ($104 million) “gift” he received from the then-Saudi king in 2008 and suspected kickbacks for a 6.7 billion euro ($7.9 billion) contract to build a high-speed rail link between Medina and Mecca, secured by a Spanish consortium in 2012.
Bertossa is also looking into the origin of offshore funds held in a Liechtenstein-based foundation linked to Swiss bank accounts. Finally, this June, Spain’s Supreme Court opened inquiries seeking to determine if Juan Carlos was guilty of any crimes in relation to the Saudi money or the Medina-Mecca contract.
Attempting to protect the already tarnished public image of the royal household, Felipe has dissociated himself as much as possible from his father. In March, the king took the extreme measures of cancelling Juan Carlos’s annual state stipend of 200,000 euros ($222,000) and renouncing his inheritance, reacting to rumors that he stood to benefit from some of his father’s offshore funds.
These moves aren’t without precedent: In June 2015, Felipe stripped his sister Cristina of her Duchess of Palma de Mallorca title because her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, faced fraud charges. In 2018—the same year that Swiss authorities started looking into Juan Carlos’s financial affairs—Urdangarin was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for embezzlement of public funds. It was not a good year for the Spanish royal family.
Juan Carlos’s hasty departure from Spain is not without precedent, either. His grandfather, King Alfonso XIII, fled to Italy in 1931, when that year’s elections deposed the monarchy and led to the declaration of the Second Republic, which lasted until Franco’s rebellion and the subsequent outbreak of civil war in 1939.
Alfonso’s grandmother, Isabella II—Juan Carlos’s great-great-grandmother—also left the country, heading to France after the so-called “Glorious Revolution” of 1868, before formally abdicating in favor of her son, King Alfonso XII, in 1870. Juan Carlos himself was born in 1938 in Rome, where his grandfather and other members of the Spanish royal family settled after the formation of Spain’s Second Republic.
The most recent royal flight from Spain has been presented by both Juan Carlos and Felipe as a last-ditch attempt to save the monarchy from further reputational damage. But it’s hard to believe that the former king is not more concerned about protecting himself from Swiss and Spanish authorities and from the backlash that will follow if their inquiries prove justified. (Although in a world of 24-hour international news, internet, and social media, it’s questionable whether he has really escaped the latter at all.)
Staying in Spain would also have prevented speculation about the extradition policies of the country for which he is headed, the key candidate currently being the Dominican Republic. The former king’s lawyer has stated that, despite leaving Spain, Juan Carlos will still be available to assist public prosecutors should it be necessary; nevertheless, his choice of exile destination will be highly revealing. A photo published by a Spanish news agency on Aug. 8 appeared to show him stepping off a plane in Abu Dhabi—perhaps a sign that the king still has contacts in the Middle East, as he did at the time of the Botswana scandal.
Political reaction in Spain to Juan Carlos’s departure has been divided. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has signaled his respect for the decision, but in an interview in early July, he described the allegations against the former king as “disturbing” and said there was “no room for impunity” in modern Spain.
Sánchez also suggested that he favored updating the 1978 Spanish Constitution, according to which the head of state is “inviolable”—in other words, Juan Carlos is legally immune from any offenses he may have committed before his abdication in 2014. The wider context of these remarks is an ongoing debate about constitutional reform in Spain, in which Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its leftist governing partner Podemos are among the most vocal campaigners for redrafting parts of the original constitution.
Sánchez, however, has rejected all demands from Podemos and Catalan and Basque groups for a parliamentary inquiry into Juan Carlos’s alleged financial misdemeanors. Somewhat less surprisingly, the conservative Popular Party (PP), traditionally the party of choice for Spanish monarchists, showed its unwavering support for Juan Carlos, praising his “determining and decisive role” in Spain’s shift to democracy in 1975. The centrist Ciudadanos, meanwhile, said the former king’s departure would enable his son to “carry out his functions in the best circumstances.”
The PP, it seems, is unwilling or unable to entertain the prospect that this once revered king is now guilty of financial crimes: As a result, the party will sustain some reputational damage of its own if Juan Carlos turns out to be guilty. Ciudananos’s much vaguer statement, focusing on Felipe rather than the alleged offenses of his father, does not pin the newer party into any such corner.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias adopted a much less ambiguous line than his centrist rivals, announcing on Twitter that Juan Carlos’s flight was an “undignified act” and that he should “respond to his actions in Spain and before the people”—a course of action that would perhaps have been more indicative of innocence than flight to foreign shores. Catalonia’s deputy premier, Pere Aragonès, expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote on Twitter that “some people had to go into exile because they were democrats; others leave because they are corrupt”—an allusion to former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after orchestrating the illegal independence referendum of 2017.
The Spanish monarchy is at a critical moment in its history, with polls suggesting that Spaniards are roughly split down the middle over whether Spain should remain a constitutional monarchy or become a republic once more. Ahead of this year’s opening of parliament in February, Basque, Catalan, and Galician leftist parties jointly declared that “we have no king” and described the Spanish royal family as an “anachronistic institution,” a position that is shared, in its essentials, by the government’s junior coalition partner, Podemos.
Spaniards are tired of corruption, especially of scandals featuring already wealthy public figures allegedly accruing even larger fortunes at times of national hardship. Just as details of Juan Carlos’s lavish hunting holiday to Botswana broke at the height of the last recession, so the most recent controversy comes as the coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact starts to bite. For the Spanish royals, the timing could be just as disastrous now as it was in 2012.


foreignpolicy--2020-08-13--U.S. Seeks to Extend Arms Embargo on Iran

U.S. Seeks to Extend Arms Embargo on Iran Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : Washington pushes to extend the arms embargo on Iran , thousands are arrested in crackdowns in Belarus , and Israel could face another election .
We welcome your feedback at morningbrief @ foreignpolicy.com .
The United States introduced a resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to extend the embargo on weapons sales to Iran , which is scheduled to expire in October under the 2015 nuclear deal .
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that if the vote fails , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snapback ” mechanism of the nuclear deal , restoring all pre-2015 U.N. sanctions on Iran .
The Security Council is expected to vote on the resolution later today , but it could take place on Friday .
Russia and China have already stated their intention to veto the resolution , but they may not need to .
The resolution still hasn ’ t gained the backing of a simple majority on the 15-member Security Council , including from U.S. allies France , Germany , and the United Kingdom .
As Ariane Tabatabai and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are several legal questions surrounding the move , including whether the United States even has the right to trigger the snapback mechanism since it is no longer a party to the deal .
Walkback .
Recognizing that it didn ’ t have enough support to push the resolution through , the United States walked back many of its initial demands , reducing the original document from seven pages to just four paragraphs and removing many of its harsher clauses .
The new draft “ takes council views into account and simply does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arms embargo to prevent Iran from freely buying and selling conventional weapons , ” said U.S .
Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft .
Gulf unity .
In a rare display of unity , the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC ) —Bahrain , Kuwait , Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and the United Arab Emirates—urged the Security Council to extend the embargo .
In a joint statement , the six GCC member states said the embargo is necessary “ until Iran gives up its destabilizing activities in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sectarian organizations with weapons.
” China ’ s interests in Iran .
There are important geopolitical considerations at play .
China and Iran have reportedly entered into a 25-year economic agreement that includes some security stipulations .
In an article in Foreign Policy last week , Alam Saleh and Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas wrote that the agreement offers an economic lifeline to Iran , allowing the country to bypass U.S. sanctions and sell oil and gas to China in exchange for letting China exercise extraordinary influence over Iranian companies it invests in and allowing Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic interests in the country .
Supporters of the resolution in Washington claim that China intends to veto the arms embargo resolution in order to sell arms to Iran and allow it to develop its military capabilities .
Harris ’ s global perspective .
Sen. Kamala Harris , Democratic candidate Joe Biden ’ s pick to be his running mate , is a historic choice in more ways than one .
Widely noted as the first Black woman to ever run on a major party ticket , Harris is expected to boost a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race relations in a country that has never fully come to terms with its history , as Claire Crawford and Kelebogile Zvobgo write for Foreign Policy .
What has been largely ignored , however , is that Harris ’ s mother was born in India , which also makes her the first Asian-American person to ever run on a major party ticket .
Harris would be expected to take on an outsized domestic portfolio while Biden mostly handles foreign policy , but as Neil Makhija writes for FP , Harris ’ s background @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could help the administration repair many of its damaged relationships abroad .
Mass arrests in Belarus .
More than 6,000 people have been arrested as part of a widespread crackdown by Belarusian security forces on protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko .
Protests began on Sunday after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in last weekend ’ s presidential election , despite facing his strongest opposition in his entire 26-year presidency .
The demonstrations turned increasingly violent as security forces cracked down , and footage from the Telegram messaging app showed police beating protesters with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ramming cars .
Belarusian officials confirmed on Wednesday that live ammunition was used on protesters .
In light of this week ’ s events , the European Union is reportedly considering reimposing sanctions on Belarus .
It previously lifted sanctions in 2016 as Lukashenko sought to strengthen his country ’ s ties with the West .
Turkish drone hits Iraqi commanders .
Relations between Iraq and Turkey have worsened after a Turkish aerial drone killed two high-ranking Iraqi commanders in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq—the first Iraqi military personnel to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the region in June .
The attack provoked a strong reaction from Baghdad , with the Iraqi government canceling a meeting with the Turkish defense minister scheduled for Thursday .
Turkish military activity in northern Iraq has risen sharply in recent weeks .
On July 22 , Reuters reported that Turkish forces had penetrated deep into northern Iraqi territory , establishing bases and deploying drones in an effort to deny sanctuary to Kurdish militants operating in Turkey .
ISIS in Mozambique .
Militants linked to the Islamic State have reportedly captured the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Praia in northeastern Mozambique on Tuesday in a major blow to Mozambican security forces .
Some unconfirmed reports said the militants are claiming the town as the Islamic State ’ s new capital .
The campaign to take Mocímboa da Praia began on the night of Aug. 5 , and while much of the town quickly succumbed to the onslaught , security forces continued to defend the port until they were forced to flee on Tuesday after running out of ammunition .
The victory puts the militants in close proximity to a series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 60 million .
As Tonderayi Mukeredzi argued in Foreign Policy in July , “ Northern Mozambique now risks becoming a regional center of Islamist extremism , and the security threat requires a coordinated response … before the broader region faces a similar threat.
” Israeli coalition teeters on the brink .
The fragile Israeli governing coalition looks set to collapse and send voters back to the polls for the fourth time since April 2019 .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party disagree with coalition partner Benny Gantz and his Blue and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two-year budget or two one-year budgets .
The dispute has been exacerbated by intense animosity between the two sides , owing in large part to the three previous hotly-contested election campaigns .
The original deadline to reach a deal was Aug. 24 , but the Israeli parliament voted on Wednesday to extend the deadline to Dec. 3 .
But few expect the coalition to survive much longer .
As Joshua Mitnick writes for Foreign Policy , dissolving the government could be a ploy by Netanyahu to avoid his pending corruption trial .
Namibia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Geingrob said on Wednesday that his government rejected an offer for reparations from former colonial ruler Germany over crimes it committed a century ago , after the latest round of negotiations between the two countries .
Details of the offer were not made public .
Germany ruled Namibia from 1884 to 1915 .
In response to an anti-colonial uprising , colonial forces systematically massacred some 80,000 members of the ethnic Herero and Nama communities between 1904 and 1908 , developing some of the genocidal techniques Germany later used during the Holocaust .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven development projects as reparations for the massacre , primarily in areas inhabited by descendants of the victims of the genocide .
The lasting damage done by the Trump administration is a regular topic of debate , but one of the little-reported , long-term consequences of Trump ’ s presidency could be the rush to abandon U.S. citizenship .
According to Bambridge Accountants , a New York-based accounting firm specializing in various expat issues , more than 5,800 Americans have renounced their citizenship so far in 2020 , up from 2,072 people in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. citizens living abroad renounce their citizenship annually , the jump this year is believed to be rooted in the current political climate .
Americans are fed up with “ everything happening with President Donald Trump , how the coronavirus pandemic is being handled , and the political policies in the U.S. at the moment , ” a Bambridge partner told CNN .
For more from FP , visit foreignpolicy.com , subscribe here , or sign up for our other newsletters .
Send your tips , comments , questions , or corrections to @ @ @ @

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Washington pushes to extend the arms embargo on Iran , thousands are arrested in crackdowns in Belarus , and Israel could face another election.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Washington pushes to extend the arms embargo on Iran, thousands are arrested in crackdowns in Belarus, and Israel could face another election.
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.
U.N. Security Council to Vote on Iran Arms Embargo
The United States introduced a resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to extend the embargo on weapons sales to Iran, which is scheduled to expire in October under the 2015 nuclear deal. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that if the vote fails, the United States will trigger the “snapback” mechanism of the nuclear deal, restoring all pre-2015 U.N. sanctions on Iran. The Security Council is expected to vote on the resolution later today, but it could take place on Friday.
Russia and China have already stated their intention to veto the resolution, but they may not need to. The resolution still hasn’t gained the backing of a simple majority on the 15-member Security Council, including from U.S. allies France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. As Ariane Tabatabai and Or Rabinowitz wrote for Foreign Policy, there are several legal questions surrounding the move, including whether the United States even has the right to trigger the snapback mechanism since it is no longer a party to the deal.
Walkback. Recognizing that it didn’t have enough support to push the resolution through, the United States walked back many of its initial demands, reducing the original document from seven pages to just four paragraphs and removing many of its harsher clauses. The new draft “takes council views into account and simply does what everyone knows should be done—extend the arms embargo to prevent Iran from freely buying and selling conventional weapons,” said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft.
Gulf unity. In a rare display of unity, the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—urged the Security Council to extend the embargo. In a joint statement, the six GCC member states said the embargo is necessary “until Iran gives up its destabilizing activities in the region and stops supplying terrorist and sectarian organizations with weapons.”
China’s interests in Iran. There are important geopolitical considerations at play. China and Iran have reportedly entered into a 25-year economic agreement that includes some security stipulations. In an article in Foreign Policy last week, Alam Saleh and Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas wrote that the agreement offers an economic lifeline to Iran, allowing the country to bypass U.S. sanctions and sell oil and gas to China in exchange for letting China exercise extraordinary influence over Iranian companies it invests in and allowing Chinese security personnel to protect Beijing’s economic interests in the country.
Supporters of the resolution in Washington claim that China intends to veto the arms embargo resolution in order to sell arms to Iran and allow it to develop its military capabilities.
What We’re Following Today
Harris’s global perspective. Sen. Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s pick to be his running mate, is a historic choice in more ways than one. Widely noted as the first Black woman to ever run on a major party ticket, Harris is expected to boost a Biden administration’s efforts to heal race relations in a country that has never fully come to terms with its history, as Claire Crawford and Kelebogile Zvobgo write for Foreign Policy.
What has been largely ignored, however, is that Harris’s mother was born in India, which also makes her the first Asian-American person to ever run on a major party ticket. Harris would be expected to take on an outsized domestic portfolio while Biden mostly handles foreign policy, but as Neil Makhija writes for FP, Harris’s background gives her a unique global perspective that could help the administration repair many of its damaged relationships abroad.
Mass arrests in Belarus. More than 6,000 people have been arrested as part of a widespread crackdown by Belarusian security forces on protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Protests began on Sunday after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in last weekend’s presidential election, despite facing his strongest opposition in his entire 26-year presidency. The demonstrations turned increasingly violent as security forces cracked down, and footage from the Telegram messaging app showed police beating protesters with batons, firing plastic bullets, and ramming cars.
Belarusian officials confirmed on Wednesday that live ammunition was used on protesters. In light of this week’s events, the European Union is reportedly considering reimposing sanctions on Belarus. It previously lifted sanctions in 2016 as Lukashenko sought to strengthen his country’s ties with the West.
Turkish drone hits Iraqi commanders. Relations between Iraq and Turkey have worsened after a Turkish aerial drone killed two high-ranking Iraqi commanders in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq—the first Iraqi military personnel to be killed since Turkey launched a ground operation into the region in June. The attack provoked a strong reaction from Baghdad, with the Iraqi government canceling a meeting with the Turkish defense minister scheduled for Thursday.
Turkish military activity in northern Iraq has risen sharply in recent weeks. On July 22, Reuters reported that Turkish forces had penetrated deep into northern Iraqi territory, establishing bases and deploying drones in an effort to deny sanctuary to Kurdish militants operating in Turkey.
ISIS in Mozambique. Militants linked to the Islamic State have reportedly captured the heavily fortified port town of Mocímboa da Praia in northeastern Mozambique on Tuesday in a major blow to Mozambican security forces. Some unconfirmed reports said the militants are claiming the town as the Islamic State’s new capital.
The campaign to take Mocímboa da Praia began on the night of Aug. 5, and while much of the town quickly succumbed to the onslaught, security forces continued to defend the port until they were forced to flee on Tuesday after running out of ammunition. The victory puts the militants in close proximity to a series of natural gas projects worth around $60 million.
As Tonderayi Mukeredzi argued in Foreign Policy in July, “Northern Mozambique now risks becoming a regional center of Islamist extremism, and the security threat requires a coordinated response … before the broader region faces a similar threat.”
Keep an Eye On
Israeli coalition teeters on the brink. The fragile Israeli governing coalition looks set to collapse and send voters back to the polls for the fourth time since April 2019. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party disagree with coalition partner Benny Gantz and his Blue and White alliance over whether to pass one two-year budget or two one-year budgets.
The dispute has been exacerbated by intense animosity between the two sides, owing in large part to the three previous hotly-contested election campaigns. The original deadline to reach a deal was Aug. 24, but the Israeli parliament voted on Wednesday to extend the deadline to Dec. 3. But few expect the coalition to survive much longer. As Joshua Mitnick writes for Foreign Policy, dissolving the government could be a ploy by Netanyahu to avoid his pending corruption trial.
Namibia seeks German reparations. Namibian President Hage Geingrob said on Wednesday that his government rejected an offer for reparations from former colonial ruler Germany over crimes it committed a century ago, after the latest round of negotiations between the two countries. Details of the offer were not made public.
Germany ruled Namibia from 1884 to 1915. In response to an anti-colonial uprising, colonial forces systematically massacred some 80,000 members of the ethnic Herero and Nama communities between 1904 and 1908, developing some of the genocidal techniques Germany later used during the Holocaust.
The Namibian government is asking Germany to fund seven development projects as reparations for the massacre, primarily in areas inhabited by descendants of the victims of the genocide.
Odds and Ends
The lasting damage done by the Trump administration is a regular topic of debate, but one of the little-reported, long-term consequences of Trump’s presidency could be the rush to abandon U.S. citizenship. According to Bambridge Accountants, a New York-based accounting firm specializing in various expat issues, more than 5,800 Americans have renounced their citizenship so far in 2020, up from 2,072 people in all of 2019.
Although hundreds of U.S. citizens living abroad renounce their citizenship annually, the jump this year is believed to be rooted in the current political climate. Americans are fed up with “everything happening with President Donald Trump, how the coronavirus pandemic is being handled, and the political policies in the U.S. at the moment,” a Bambridge partner told CNN.
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.


foreignpolicy--2020-08-13--What Kamala Harris Means for India

What Kamala Harris Means for India

Welcome to Foreign Policy ’ s South Asia Brief , the newsletter that keeps you up to date on a region that is home to one-fourth of humanity .
This week : Indians cheer Joe Biden ’ s pick of Kamala Harris as his running mate , what to make of Pakistan ’ s surprising coronavirus numbers , the key positions in Sri Lanka ’ s new cabinet , and Afghanistan moves one step closer to intra-Afghan peace talks .
If you would like to receive South Asia Brief in your inbox every Thursday , please sign up here .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the first Black and Indian American woman on a major party ticket in a U.S. presidential election .
While her selection as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden ’ s running mate is rightly seen as pathbreaking in the United States , it has also generated pride and discussion in India—where her mother grew up and which Harris visited frequently as a child .
In a 2018 speech , Harris spoke of how walks with her grandfather on the beach in Chennai “ had a profound impact ” on her .
And in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harris spoke candidly of how her mother “ was very proud of her Indian heritage ” and how India ’ s democratic nature “ had a great deal of influence on what I do today and who I am.
” Now India is proud of Harris .
In the wake of Biden ’ s announcement on Tuesday , Harris was trending on Twitter in India , and television cameras lined up outside the Chennai home Harris visited as a young girl .
Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) leader Ram Madhav tweeted a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy .
Kamala is the Hindi and Sanskrit word for lotus , the flower that is also the symbol of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’ s BJP .
While Harris herself is a relative foreign-policy unknown , some of her views on India suggest she may clash with the current Indian government .
When Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar visited Washington last December , he refused to meet members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee if Rep. Pramila Jayapal—who has criticized India ’ s Kashmir policy—was present , and the meeting was canceled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jaishankar ’ s actions , saying , “ It ’ s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill.
” And in October 2019 , two months after India revoked the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir , Harris had a warning for New Delhi : “ We are watching.
” As Harris ’ s uncle Gopalan Balachandran told the Hindustan Times this week , Harris “ likes India .
… But that doesn ’ t mean she gives a free pass to everything that India @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden administration would likely walk a fine line between strengthening ties with India—a bipartisan trend in Washington for the last two decades—and finding ways to gently chide New Delhi for perceived missteps .
When President Barack Obama visited New Delhi in 2015 , the Indian media dubbed his embrace of Modi as the start of a “ bromance.
” But in a speech at a town hall in the city , Obama warned Indians about a rise in Hindu-Muslim tensions without mentioning Modi by name : “ India will succeed so long as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of religious faith , as long as it is not splintered along any lines , and it is unified as one nation , ” he said .
It is likely that Biden would hew to Obama ’ s path on dealing with Modi ’ s India—no matter the influence of his new running mate .
Harris may play a greater role on other issues important to Indians and South Asians .
She could represent an important soft-power boon for America ’ s battered global image , as Krithika Varagur argues in Foreign Policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FP , when the Trump administration suspended visas for highly skilled immigrants , most of which go to South Asians , Harris “ confronted Trump ’ s nativism … introducing legislation to remove national caps on H-1B visas that lead to lengthy delays for Indian immigrants seeking green cards.
” South Asia ’ s coronavirus cases hit 3 million .
Several top Indian politicians are battling COVID-19 , including former President Pranab Mukherjee , who is in critical condition .
Last week , Home Minister Amit Shah contracted the virus .
With nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now recording more daily coronavirus cases than any other country .
And the situation could be worse , given that its testing rate of around 19,431 per million is far lower than Brazil ’ s 62,197 per million or the United States ’ 205,032 per million .
As shown above , India now has nearly 2.5 million total cases , with more than 47,000 deaths .
Meanwhile , both Pakistan and Bangladesh have dramatically slowed their rates of discovery of new cases .
In Pakistan , the Wall Street Journal reports that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why ?
It is a bit of a mystery .
Pakistan is testing just 9,964 people per million—half of India ’ s rate—and lifted many of its restrictions as early as May .
One reason could be that Pakistan has a young population , even by South Asian standards , as the Journal points out : Only 4 percent of its population is older than 65 , and the average age is 22 .
Furthermore , there are no bars or nightclubs , very few homes for the elderly—all sites of increased transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home .
Pax Rajapaksa ?
After last week ’ s elections in Sri Lanka , four Rajapaksa family members hold cabinet positions in the new government .
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will continue to oversee defense , while his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa , the prime minister , will take charge of finance , urban development , and Buddhist affairs .
Two other brothers , Chamal Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa , will oversee the irrigation and sports ministries , respectively .
The president ’ s personal lawyer , Ali Sabry , was appointed justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ successful handling of the pandemic has somewhat masked the Rajapaksa brothers ’ illiberal tendencies , as Neil DeVotta argues in FP .
“ Both Mahinda and Gotabaya are Sinhalese Buddhist supremacists , ” he writes , describing the recent strengthening of the government as “ particularly scary for the country ’ s Muslims.
” It ’ s all part of a broader trend of illiberal leadership across South Asia , including in India and Bangladesh , as FP columnist James Crabtree pointed out last year .
Afghan prisoner release .
Afghanistan has moved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government and the Taliban after a grand assembly of elders approved the release of a final batch of Taliban prisoners this week .
On Monday , Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a formal decree enacting the decision .
Reports indicate that brokered talks between the Taliban and Ghani ’ s government could begin in Doha as soon as this weekend .
When the talks do begin , participants may want to heed the words of Roya Rahmani , Afghanistan ’ s ambassador to the United States .
Rahmani , the first woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the increased inclusion of women in the peace talks to not only aid the negotiations but also ensure the long-term success of any agreement .
India press attack .
On Tuesday , three journalists from India ’ s Caravan magazine were attacked by a mob in Delhi .
One of the journalists was sexually assaulted .
The Caravan team was investigating a communal incident that took place in northeast Delhi on Aug. 5 , the day Modi broke ground on a controversial Hindu temple .
According to a statement from the Press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking into police complicity in the communal violence .
As of this writing , Delhi police still haven ’ t filed a so-called “ first incident report , ” which would begin an investigation into Tuesday ’ s attack on press freedom .
As FP has reported previously , Delhi ’ s police force reports to the central government and has been accused of standing by as Hindu mobs attacked Muslims in February .
On Thursday , India announced a $ 500 million infrastructure package for one of its South Asian neighbors in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Which country was the recipient of this aid ?
Scroll down for the answer .
Self-defense through self-reliance ?
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has announced a ban on the import of certain types of military equipment in a bid to boost local defense manufacturing .
“ We can not depend on foreign governments , foreign suppliers , and foreign defence products to meet our defence needs , ” he tweeted .
The move is part of Modi ’ s push for greater self-reliance , in light of recent skirmishes with China and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrival of five Rafale fighter jets from France , a switch to local procurement may not be so easy .
In one of the most-read articles in FP this week , Harsh V. Pant and Angad Singh wrote that “ the Indian Air Force has repeatedly sought to invest in its own force multipliers but has always ended up stymied by funding issues or procurement rules.
” Nepal ’ s growing unemployment .
A top central bank official in Nepal says businesses in that country have laid off nearly a quarter of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A survey of the country ’ s economy showed hotels and restaurants particularly hurt by a drop in economic activity and tourism .
The $ 500 million Indian aid package announced Thursday will connect the capital , Male , to three nearby islands in the Maldives .
India has sought to expand its influence in the Maldives , especially since 2018 , when President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih came to power .
Solih ’ s predecessor , Abdulla Yameen , was seen as pro-China and was sentenced to prison last year for money laundering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s it for this week .
We welcome your feedback at newsletters @ foreignpolicy.com .
You can find older editions of South Asia Brief here .
For more from FP , subscribe here or sign up for our other newsletters .

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief, the newsletter that keeps you up to date on a region that is home to one-fourth of humanity.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief, the newsletter that keeps you up to date on a region that is home to one-fourth of humanity.
This week: Indians cheer Joe Biden’s pick of Kamala Harris as his running mate, what to make of Pakistan’s surprising coronavirus numbers, the key positions in Sri Lanka’s new cabinet, and Afghanistan moves one step closer to intra-Afghan peace talks.
If you would like to receive South Asia Brief in your inbox every Thursday, please sign up here.
Kamala Harris’s Indian Roots
Kamala Devi Harris made history this week as the first Black and Indian American woman on a major party ticket in a U.S. presidential election. While her selection as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate is rightly seen as pathbreaking in the United States, it has also generated pride and discussion in India—where her mother grew up and which Harris visited frequently as a child.
In a 2018 speech, Harris spoke of how walks with her grandfather on the beach in Chennai “had a profound impact” on her. And in a 2009 interview with India Abroad, Harris spoke candidly of how her mother “was very proud of her Indian heritage” and how India’s democratic nature “had a great deal of influence on what I do today and who I am.”
Now India is proud of Harris. In the wake of Biden’s announcement on Tuesday, Harris was trending on Twitter in India, and television cameras lined up outside the Chennai home Harris visited as a young girl. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Madhav tweeted a thumbs-up emoji, congratulating Harris.
India policy. Kamala is the Hindi and Sanskrit word for lotus, the flower that is also the symbol of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. While Harris herself is a relative foreign-policy unknown, some of her views on India suggest she may clash with the current Indian government.
When Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar visited Washington last December, he refused to meet members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee if Rep. Pramila Jayapal—who has criticized India’s Kashmir policy—was present, and the meeting was canceled. At the time, Harris criticized Jaishankar’s actions, saying, “It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill.”
And in October 2019, two months after India revoked the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir, Harris had a warning for New Delhi: “We are watching.” As Harris’s uncle Gopalan Balachandran told the Hindustan Times this week, Harris “likes India. … But that doesn’t mean she gives a free pass to everything that India does.”
Broader trends. A potential Biden administration would likely walk a fine line between strengthening ties with India—a bipartisan trend in Washington for the last two decades—and finding ways to gently chide New Delhi for perceived missteps. When President Barack Obama visited New Delhi in 2015, the Indian media dubbed his embrace of Modi as the start of a “bromance.”
But in a speech at a town hall in the city, Obama warned Indians about a rise in Hindu-Muslim tensions without mentioning Modi by name: “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith, as long as it is not splintered along any lines, and it is unified as one nation,” he said. It is likely that Biden would hew to Obama’s path on dealing with Modi’s India—no matter the influence of his new running mate.
Harris may play a greater role on other issues important to Indians and South Asians. She could represent an important soft-power boon for America’s battered global image, as Krithika Varagur argues in Foreign Policy. And as Neil Makhija writes in FP, when the Trump administration suspended visas for highly skilled immigrants, most of which go to South Asians, Harris “confronted Trump’s nativism … introducing legislation to remove national caps on H-1B visas that lead to lengthy delays for Indian immigrants seeking green cards.”
What We’re Following
South Asia’s coronavirus cases hit 3 million. Several top Indian politicians are battling COVID-19, including former President Pranab Mukherjee, who is in critical condition. Last week, Home Minister Amit Shah contracted the virus. With nearly 64,000 new cases on Thursday, India is now recording more daily coronavirus cases than any other country. And the situation could be worse, given that its testing rate of around 19,431 per million is far lower than Brazil’s 62,197 per million or the United States’ 205,032 per million.
As shown above, India now has nearly 2.5 million total cases, with more than 47,000 deaths. Meanwhile, both Pakistan and Bangladesh have dramatically slowed their rates of discovery of new cases. In Pakistan, the Wall Street Journal reports that once overflowing coronavirus wards are emptying.
Why? It is a bit of a mystery. Pakistan is testing just 9,964 people per million—half of India’s rate—and lifted many of its restrictions as early as May. One reason could be that Pakistan has a young population, even by South Asian standards, as the Journal points out: Only 4 percent of its population is older than 65, and the average age is 22. Furthermore, there are no bars or nightclubs, very few homes for the elderly—all sites of increased transmission in other countries—and women tend to stay home.
Pax Rajapaksa? After last week’s elections in Sri Lanka, four Rajapaksa family members hold cabinet positions in the new government. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will continue to oversee defense, while his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, the prime minister, will take charge of finance, urban development, and Buddhist affairs. Two other brothers, Chamal Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa, will oversee the irrigation and sports ministries, respectively. The president’s personal lawyer, Ali Sabry, was appointed justice minister.
Sri Lanka’s relatively successful handling of the pandemic has somewhat masked the Rajapaksa brothers’ illiberal tendencies, as Neil DeVotta argues in FP. “Both Mahinda and Gotabaya are Sinhalese Buddhist supremacists,” he writes, describing the recent strengthening of the government as “particularly scary for the country’s Muslims.” It’s all part of a broader trend of illiberal leadership across South Asia, including in India and Bangladesh, as FP columnist James Crabtree pointed out last year.
Afghan prisoner release. Afghanistan has moved one step closer to peace talks between the government and the Taliban after a grand assembly of elders approved the release of a final batch of Taliban prisoners this week. On Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a formal decree enacting the decision. Reports indicate that brokered talks between the Taliban and Ghani’s government could begin in Doha as soon as this weekend.
When the talks do begin, participants may want to heed the words of Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States. Rahmani, the first woman in her position, argues in FP for the increased inclusion of women in the peace talks to not only aid the negotiations but also ensure the long-term success of any agreement.
India press attack. On Tuesday, three journalists from India’s Caravan magazine were attacked by a mob in Delhi. One of the journalists was sexually assaulted. The Caravan team was investigating a communal incident that took place in northeast Delhi on Aug. 5, the day Modi broke ground on a controversial Hindu temple. According to a statement from the Press Club of India, the reporters were looking into police complicity in the communal violence.
As of this writing, Delhi police still haven’t filed a so-called “first incident report,” which would begin an investigation into Tuesday’s attack on press freedom. As FP has reported previously, Delhi’s police force reports to the central government and has been accused of standing by as Hindu mobs attacked Muslims in February.
Question of the Week
On Thursday, India announced a $500 million infrastructure package for one of its South Asian neighbors in a bid to counter Chinese influence. Which country was the recipient of this aid?
A) The Maldives
B) Sri Lanka
C) Bhutan
D) Nepal
Scroll down for the answer.
South Asia Inc.
Self-defense through self-reliance? Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has announced a ban on the import of certain types of military equipment in a bid to boost local defense manufacturing. “We cannot depend on foreign governments, foreign suppliers, and foreign defence products to meet our defence needs,” he tweeted. The move is part of Modi’s push for greater self-reliance, in light of recent skirmishes with China and Pakistan.
While India recently welcomed the arrival of five Rafale fighter jets from France, a switch to local procurement may not be so easy. In one of the most-read articles in FP this week, Harsh V. Pant and Angad Singh wrote that “the Indian Air Force has repeatedly sought to invest in its own force multipliers but has always ended up stymied by funding issues or procurement rules.”
Nepal’s growing unemployment. A top central bank official in Nepal says businesses in that country have laid off nearly a quarter of their workers because of the coronavirus pandemic. A survey of the country’s economy showed hotels and restaurants particularly hurt by a drop in economic activity and tourism.
And the Answer Is…
A) The Maldives.
The $500 million Indian aid package announced Thursday will connect the capital, Male, to three nearby islands in the Maldives. India has sought to expand its influence in the Maldives, especially since 2018, when President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih came to power. Solih’s predecessor, Abdulla Yameen, was seen as pro-China and was sentenced to prison last year for money laundering linked to Chinese companies.
That’s it for this week.
We welcome your feedback at newsletters@foreignpolicy.com. You can find older editions of South Asia Brief here. For more from FP, subscribe here or sign up for our other newsletters.


foreignpolicy--2020-08-13--Normalization Deal Between Israel and the UAE Signals a Shift in the Region

Normalization Deal Between Israel and the UAE Signals a Shift in the Region TEL AVIV , Israel—Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to begin normalizing relations in a deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and hailed as a breakthrough between the two countries .
It is only the third such agreement between Israel and a regional Arab state , and the first by a Gulf kingdom .
In return , Israel agreed to “ suspend ” plans to annex its West Bank settlements as had been initially slated for this summer—though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future .
The surprise agreement was first announced by Trump in the Oval Office , with a trilateral call held between him , Netanyahu , and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed , the de facto ruler of the UAE .
Despite growing covert ties in recent years , the two countries were officially foes .
Israeli and Emirati teams will be meeting soon to negotiate the details of the agreement on a host of issues including security , economic investment , reciprocal embassies , direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Israeli media reported that a full signing ceremony would likely take place in Washington before November ’ s U.S. general election .
A beaming Netanyahu , speaking at a prime-time news conference , termed it a “ historic evening ” that “ opened a new era in Israel ’ s relations with the Arab world.
” Comparing the UAE favorably to Israel , Netanyahu described both states as growing world powers that had “ turned the desert into blooming lands.
” In a paradigm shift from the old “ land for peace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Middle East peace efforts , Netanyahu described the new deal as “ peace for peace , and peace via strength .
Here too we made a breakthrough.
” For his part , Mohammed bin Zayed was less effusive and chose to lead with the price Israel had paid , tweeting : “ An agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories .
The UAE and Israel also agreed to cooperation and setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship.
” But the fact that the agreement required nothing of Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ underway in at least parts of the Arab world .
Emirati officials had expressed concern regarding the fallout from any such annexation push , with the foreign minister tonight calling it a “ ticking bomb ” that they had successfully defused .
The Emirati ambassador to Washington , Yousef al-Otaiba , had earlier this summer taken the unprecedented step of publishing a front-page op-ed , in Hebrew , in a mass-circulation Israeli daily , hinting at the quid pro quo announced Thursday .
“ We have conducted quiet diplomacy and sent very public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promote the possible , ” Otaiba wrote .
Yet an Israeli annexation , he added , “ will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security , economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with UAE.
” The Israeli American businessman Haim Saban , speaking to Israel ’ s Channel 12 earlier Thursday , confirmed that Otaiba ’ s op-ed “ started the snowball ” of framing the diplomatic agenda as “ non-annexation for normalization.
” The backtrack on annexation , which Netanyahu had promised repeatedly during successive election campaigns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harsh responses from his right-wing settler base .
“ I voted for Bibi , not [ Shimon ] Peres , ” one prominent settler leader said in a television interview , alluding to the former left-wing Israeli prime minister .
To deflect concerns , Netanyahu in his press conference said that there had been no shift in his plans , but that it was Trump who had requested a “ temporary halt ” to annexation .
Netanyahu added that he was still fully committed to moving ahead with annexation , but that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coordination with the U.S. administration.
” The official statement issued by the three sides did only call on Israel to “ suspend ” annexation , raising the possibility of a clash once Israeli and Emirati negotiators got into a room together .
Yet the prospect of Netanyahu actually moving forward on annexation had already diminished in recent weeks , in direct proportion to the upsurge in COVID-19 cases and unemployment numbers during a harsh second wave .
One recent poll indicated that only 4 percent of the Israeli public viewed annexing West Bank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 69 percent who said the economy was most important .
With another Israeli election growing increasing likely and Netanyahu ’ s poll numbers declining , a peace deal with a neighboring Arab state is a significant achievement for the long-serving incumbent .
Annexation was viewed as an existential threat by Palestinian officials , yet there was no rejoicing in the West Bank .
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas , apparently surprised by the announcement , called for an emergency meeting of the leadership to formulate an official response .
A statement by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ betrayal of Jerusalem , Al-Aqsa [ Mosque ] and the Palestinian cause , ” and criticized the UAE ’ s “ disgraceful decision … bartering an illegal annexation suspension for Emirati normalization and using the Palestinian cause as a cover for this purpose.
” The response also called the UAE-Israel deal a violation of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative , one of whose main provisions is that no normalization could take place until Israel fully withdrew from the West Bank and a Palestinian state was established .
Earlier in the day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Twitter that “ the UAE has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalization with Israel .
Please don ’ t do us a favor .
We are nobody ’ s fig leaf !
” The UAE and other Gulf states have been strengthening ties with Israel for years—in part based on the shared threats emanating from Iran and its regional proxies , and Sunni jihadi groups .
Security and intelligence cooperation had become commonplace , Israeli firms have sold Gulf states advanced cyberweapons , and Israeli politicians and athletes even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been inching toward better relations with the Gulf , and credit also has to go to the Trump administration for developing very intimate ties on their part with most Gulf states too , ” Dore Gold , the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former senior Israeli diplomat , told Foreign Policy .
Indeed , in 2015 Gold opened an official Israeli representative office in Abu Dhabi to an international renewable energy consortium ; Israeli economic offices also exist in Qatar and Oman .
But full and official diplomatic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the offing so long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict festered .
“ You won ’ t get someone on a soapbox to say the Palestinian issue is irrelevant , ” Gold added .
“ But its profile has dropped significantly in the past 10 years.
” Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel , signing a treaty in 1979 in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula .
Jordan followed suit 15 years later , but only after the Israelis and Palestinians concluded their own interim agreement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

TEL AVIV, Israel—Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to begin normalizing relations in a deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and hailed as a breakthrough between the two countries.
TEL AVIV, Israel—Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to begin normalizing relations in a deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and hailed as a breakthrough between the two countries.
It is only the third such agreement between Israel and a regional Arab state, and the first by a Gulf kingdom. In return, Israel agreed to “suspend” plans to annex its West Bank settlements as had been initially slated for this summer—though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was still committed to annexation in the future.
The surprise agreement was first announced by Trump in the Oval Office, with a trilateral call held between him, Netanyahu, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the UAE. Despite growing covert ties in recent years, the two countries were officially foes.
Israeli and Emirati teams will be meeting soon to negotiate the details of the agreement on a host of issues including security, economic investment, reciprocal embassies, direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, and joint work on a coronavirus vaccine. Israeli media reported that a full signing ceremony would likely take place in Washington before November’s U.S. general election.
A beaming Netanyahu, speaking at a prime-time news conference, termed it a “historic evening” that “opened a new era in Israel’s relations with the Arab world.” Comparing the UAE favorably to Israel, Netanyahu described both states as growing world powers that had “turned the desert into blooming lands.”
In a paradigm shift from the old “land for peace” formula that has dictated decades of Middle East peace efforts, Netanyahu described the new deal as “peace for peace, and peace via strength. Here too we made a breakthrough.”
For his part, Mohammed bin Zayed was less effusive and chose to lead with the price Israel had paid, tweeting: “An agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories. The UAE and Israel also agreed to cooperation and setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship.”
But the fact that the agreement required nothing of Israel on the Palestinian front underscored a shift underway in at least parts of the Arab world.
Emirati officials had expressed concern regarding the fallout from any such annexation push, with the foreign minister tonight calling it a “ticking bomb” that they had successfully defused. The Emirati ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, had earlier this summer taken the unprecedented step of publishing a front-page op-ed, in Hebrew, in a mass-circulation Israeli daily, hinting at the quid pro quo announced Thursday.
“We have conducted quiet diplomacy and sent very public signals to help shift the dynamics and promote the possible,” Otaiba wrote. Yet an Israeli annexation, he added, “will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with UAE.”
The Israeli American businessman Haim Saban, speaking to Israel’s Channel 12 earlier Thursday, confirmed that Otaiba’s op-ed “started the snowball” of framing the diplomatic agenda as “non-annexation for normalization.”
The backtrack on annexation, which Netanyahu had promised repeatedly during successive election campaigns over the past year, met with harsh responses from his right-wing settler base. “I voted for Bibi, not [Shimon] Peres,” one prominent settler leader said in a television interview, alluding to the former left-wing Israeli prime minister.
To deflect concerns, Netanyahu in his press conference said that there had been no shift in his plans, but that it was Trump who had requested a “temporary halt” to annexation. Netanyahu added that he was still fully committed to moving ahead with annexation, but that it had to be done “in full coordination with the U.S. administration.” The official statement issued by the three sides did only call on Israel to “suspend” annexation, raising the possibility of a clash once Israeli and Emirati negotiators got into a room together.
Yet the prospect of Netanyahu actually moving forward on annexation had already diminished in recent weeks, in direct proportion to the upsurge in COVID-19 cases and unemployment numbers during a harsh second wave. One recent poll indicated that only 4 percent of the Israeli public viewed annexing West Bank settlements as a priority, in contrast to 69 percent who said the economy was most important.
With another Israeli election growing increasing likely and Netanyahu’s poll numbers declining, a peace deal with a neighboring Arab state is a significant achievement for the long-serving incumbent.
Annexation was viewed as an existential threat by Palestinian officials, yet there was no rejoicing in the West Bank. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, apparently surprised by the announcement, called for an emergency meeting of the leadership to formulate an official response.
A statement by the Palestinian leadership described the agreement as a “betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and the Palestinian cause,” and criticized the UAE’s “disgraceful decision … bartering an illegal annexation suspension for Emirati normalization and using the Palestinian cause as a cover for this purpose.”
The response also called the UAE-Israel deal a violation of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, one of whose main provisions is that no normalization could take place until Israel fully withdrew from the West Bank and a Palestinian state was established.
Earlier in the day, Palestine Liberation Organization official Hanan Ashrawi wrote on Twitter that “the UAE has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalization with Israel. Please don’t do us a favor. We are nobody’s fig leaf!”
The UAE and other Gulf states have been strengthening ties with Israel for years—in part based on the shared threats emanating from Iran and its regional proxies, and Sunni jihadi groups. Security and intelligence cooperation had become commonplace, Israeli firms have sold Gulf states advanced cyberweapons, and Israeli politicians and athletes even began making visits.
“We had been inching toward better relations with the Gulf, and credit also has to go to the Trump administration for developing very intimate ties on their part with most Gulf states too,” Dore Gold, the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former senior Israeli diplomat, told Foreign Policy. Indeed, in 2015 Gold opened an official Israeli representative office in Abu Dhabi to an international renewable energy consortium; Israeli economic offices also exist in Qatar and Oman.
But full and official diplomatic ties were not believed to be in the offing so long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict festered. “You won’t get someone on a soapbox to say the Palestinian issue is irrelevant,” Gold added. “But its profile has dropped significantly in the past 10 years.”
Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, signing a treaty in 1979 in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan followed suit 15 years later, but only after the Israelis and Palestinians concluded their own interim agreement over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.