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The Evening: Witch Hunt, Russian Malware, Chris Stapleton and More
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** Good Evening,
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It's Thursday, May 18th.

Note: The Evening will be “gone fishin’” until next Monday, May 22. Have a nice weekend and Smile.


** Witch Hunt
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President Trump today said he respected the appointment of a special counsel to investigate ties with Russia. “The entire thing has been a witch hunt,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s no collusion between, certainly, myself and my campaign—but I can only speak for myself—and the Russians—zero,” as the
New York Times’ Mark Landler and Glenn Thrush reported (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/us/politics/trump-back-on-twitter-complains-of-witch-hunt.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) late this afternoon.

Dive Deeper: Our latest Bob Schieffer’s “About The News” podcast was recorded this morning with the Times’ chief White House correspondent Peter Baker: “Witch Hunt: NYT’s Peter Baker on WH turmoil.” Listen on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-journalism/id1124101295?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) or via the CSIS website (http://cs.is/29WgPau?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .


** Russia’s Malware
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Russia may have used Twitter as a tool of international espionage. An article published today in
Time describes an official report that circulated through the intelligence community, claiming agents of the Russian government sent malware-laced Twitter messages to more than 10,000 employees of the US Department of Defense, as Time’s Massimo Calabresi reports (http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .

Dive Deeper: See CSIS’s Heather Conley’s report, The Kremlin Playbook (https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook/?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) , the results of a 16-month study to understand the nature of Russian influence campaigns in Eastern Europe


** Launching NAFTA Talks
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The Trump administration has informed US lawmakers that it intends to launch formal negotiations on overhauling the North American Free Trade Agreement, a gamble by President Trump that he can win concessions from Canada and Mexico and push a deal through Congress, as the
Wall Street Journal’s William Mauldin reports (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-notifies-congress-of-intent-to-launch-nafta-talks-1495119629?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .

Dive Deeper: See the Peterson Institute’s Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott on “Correcting the Record on NAFTA (https://piie.com/blogs/trade-investment-policy-watch/correcting-record-nafta?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .”


**
Brazil’s Political Crisis
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Brazil’s President Michel Temer has refused to resign despite allegations in a leading national newspaper that he assented to bribe-paying to buy the silence of a former coalition ally, as the FT’s Joe Leahy and Andres Schipani report (https://www.ft.com/content/0b4dc6ea-3c03-11e7-ac89-b01cc67cfeec?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .


**
Iran’s Election
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Iranians vote on Friday in a bitter presidential contest between pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani and hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi that could determine the pace of economic and social reform and Iran's re-engagement with the world, as Reuters’ Parisa Hafezi and William Maclean report (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-election-idUSKCN18E2Y8?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .

Dive Deeper: See the Washington Institute’s Dennis Ross and Jason Brodsky’s “Iran’s Election Will Change Nothing (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-election-will-change-nothing?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) ”


** In That Number
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** 400
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The number of people who are being monitored in a remote corner of Congo amid an Ebola outbreak, according to the WHO. Source: AP (https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/05/18/world/africa/ap-af-congo-ebola.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Faponline-news&_r=0&utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .


** Critical Quote
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** “Having China be the world’s leading advocate for globalization is like having Al Capone be put in charge of tax reform.”
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—CSIS’s Scott Kennedy on China’s propaganda efforts surrounding the Silk Road Economic Belt. Source: Washington Post, Ana Swanson (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/18/chinese-propagandists-are-using-adorable-kids-to-take-on-donald-trump/?utm_term=.3715b2518c7d&utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .


** iDeas Lab
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CSIS’s iDeas Lab produced this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4W5UM9uVUg&t=2s&utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) that was featured at the report launch for Missile Defense 2020: Next Steps for Defending the Homeland (https://www.csis.org/events/missile-defense-2020-next-steps-defending-homeland?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) . The report explains how the current U.S. missile defense system works, current and potential plans to modernize the system, and offers recommendations for its evolution.

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


** Optics
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(Photo Credit: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images.)
A police officer tries to take pictures of the scene as other police officers secure the area near a car after it plunged into pedestrians today in New York. The man who drove a car into a crowd in Times Square, killing one person and injuring 22 others, served in the U.S. Navy and has a criminal record, New York’s mayor said, adding authorities did not believe it was a terror attack.


** Recommended Reading
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“Danger zones along new Silk Road an opportunity for Chinese security firms (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2094717/chinese-security-contractors-eye-bigger-role-guarding?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) ” via the
South China Morning Post’s Frank Tang.


** This Town Tomorrow
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Join CSIS’s International Security Program at 10:00 a.m. for the launch of a new report by Jeff Bialos, former deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial affairs, Against the Odds: Driving Defense Innovation in a Change-Resistant Ecosystem (https://www.csis.org/events/implementing-innovation-series-defense-innovation-change-resistant-ecosystem?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .

Join CSIS’s Project on Prosperity and Development at 1:00 p.m. for “Why Should the United States Care about Ukraine? (https://www.csis.org/events/why-should-united-states-care-about-ukraine?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) ”

And join the Wilson Center at 9:00 a.m. for a discussion on the role of education in soft power competition (https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/chinese-students-america-who-returns-who-remains-who-benefits?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) and academic cooperation between the United States and China.


** On Demand
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Today, CSIS hosted Germany’s minister for foreign affairs for “The Marshall Plan at 70: What We Must Remember and What We Must Do for the Future (https://www.csis.org/events/marshall-plan-70-what-we-must-remember-and-what-we-must-do-future?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .”


** Sounds
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“What You Need to Know about Trump’s First Foreign Trip (http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-first-foreign-trip/?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) ” via Global Dispatches.


** Smiles
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The best new rock album to drop in years isn’t by a traditional rocker per se—it’s by a guy who many fold into the Country music category or more specifically the “Outlaw” Country music genre. His name is Chris Stapleton and his latest record “From A Room: Volume 1” is all I want to listen to these days. I don’t care what you call Stapleton’s album, this is music that will stand the test of time. And, while the album is best listened to as a whole, there are songs that stand out, like “I Was Wrong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLOb6KIs8TM&utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789) .”
I invite you to email me at aschwartz@csis.org and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz (https://www.twitter.com/handrewschwartz?utm_source=CSIS+All&utm_campaign=ec023fee85-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f326fc46b6-ec023fee85-145367789)

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The Evening is my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day. It is composed with the External Relations team: Colm Quinn, Brandon Schwartz, and Jackie Ramsay.

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