China’s New World Order & Comeygeddon Part Deux

PNUT GALLERY We got a little too excited about James Comey’s Senate testimony (can you blame us?) and incorrectly reported that it was taking place yesterday. But no, it’s happening just a few hours from now at 10 am Eastern time. If you haven’t had a chance to brush up on Comey’s prepared opening remarks, here they are, annotated. Here’s one interesting fact from his statement: Comey recalls that he had nine one-on-one conversations with Trump between January 6 and May 9, the day he was fired by Trump. In contrast, Comey had just two (!) one-on-one conversations with President Obama in four years. Today is also the UK’s general election, which is far closer than polls had predicted even just a few weeks ago. Reuters outlines potential outcomes in case you want to speculate on the results before they come in tonight, and a New York Times article describes a group of volunteers in Northern England who tried to shed light on how political campaigns are using Facebook and other digital services. IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ California and China Go to Paris: California Governor Jerry Brown just returned from a six-day trip to China focusing on combating climate change. After stops in Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces, Brown gave a speech on Tuesday in Beijing during the Clean Energy Ministerial Conference, which unites public and private delegations to focus on clean energy development. The meeting took place just days after President Trump announced plans to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord. Xi’s government knows that Governor Brown has been highly critical of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement. And yet they went ahead with a one-on-one meeting, making sure it got positive reviews in state-controlled media. China has not explicitly criticized the US decision to leave the Paris Agreement, but Xi’s meeting with Brown could be interpreted as a message to the Trump administration: China believes climate change is a problem and doesn’t think the US is doing enough to solve it. China’s president rarely meets with officials below top cabinet level, and China’s government is also wary of meetings with representatives of non-nation states, given sensitivities over sovereignty issues in places such as Tibet and Taiwan. Thus, Xi’s meeting with a state governor (well, who also happens to oversee the world’s sixth-largest economy) on such a public stage could signal how serious China is about fighting climate change. NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ Over 100,000 Cholera Cases in Yemen: The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has risen to more than 100,000 since an outbreak began on April 27, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. “To date, 101,820 suspected cholera cases and 789 deaths have been reported in 19 governorates,” a WHO spokesperson said. India and Pakistan (Still the Angry Divorced Couple) Join China-Led Military Alliance: India and Pakistan will join the China-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as full members when the security bloc holds its annual summit in the Kazak capital of Astana starting on Thursday. It is the first time the two South Asian countries will be part of the group, a NATO-like alliance that seeks security and military cooperation among member countries that include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Counter-terrorism is one of the biggest concerns for the group that was ostensibly formed to fight threats posed by Islamist groups and drug trafficking from Afghanistan. There are those who argue that the alliance provides a rare opportunity for the militaries of Pakistan and India to come together under the SCO framework, but some Central Asian members have expressed concerns about India-Pakistan issues coming to a head at the SCO. Their concerns are not unfounded–tensions remain high between the two countries. For Russia, India would add heft to the grouping and check SCO from becoming a China-dominated alliance. At the same time, India will be concerned about China’s ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative getting an SCO branding. KEEPING OUR EYE ON North Korea Launches Missiles as South Korea Delays Installment of Anti-Missile System: North Korea fired what appeared to be several land-to-ship missiles off its east coast on Thursday, South Korea’s military said. The launches come less than a week after the United Nations Security Council passed fresh sanctions on the reclusive state. On Wednesday, South Korea postponed full deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a controversial U.S. anti-missile system designed to deter a North Korean attack. Its installment in South Korea has angered China, North Korea’s main ally. Thursday’s launch is the fourth missile test by North Korea since South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office on May 10, pledging to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang. Moon says sanctions and pressure alone have failed to resolve the growing threat from the North’s advancing nuclear program and has also promised to review the deployment of the THAAD system in South Korea, a decision that was made by the government of his conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye. Trump Selects New FBI Director: In an early morning tweet on Wednesday, US President Trump named a seasoned Washington lawyer to head up the FBI, calling him a “man of impeccable credentials.” Christopher Wray, who has a law degree from Yale, was the government’s top criminal prosecutor in 2004 when then-FBI director Robert Mueller and then-deputy attorney general James Comey threatened to quit the Bush administration over a controversial surveillance program. Friends and former colleagues say Wray is more low-key and deliberative than either Mueller or Comey and should bring a more subtle management style to the FBI. Wray is a safe, mainstream pick from a president who at one point was considering politicians for a job that has historically been shielded from partisanship. SPONSORED NUTS: LOVEPOP Ok so, here’s the deal. 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Yes, I want to sound marginally more intelligent: