| | | | The Anti-Huawei Coalition Is Cracking | | Germany appears poised to follow the UK in letting Huawei build parts of its 5G network, signaling that as transatlantic relations deteriorate, the US is failing to sway some of its closest allies to ban the Chinese tech giant.
The UK threw Huawei a "lifeline" when British intelligence concluded, as reported on Sunday, that security risks will be manageable if Huawei builds 5G infrastructure in the UK, Robyn Mak argues at Reuters. The US has been pushing allies to ban Huawei from 5G development—Australia and New Zealand have done so—but so far, Europe has hung in the balance. The UK's assessment is important for Huawei because over half of the company's 5G commercial contracts are in Europe, Mak notes. | | Global jihad has a new model, and it isn't so global. Experts are beginning to observe a new strategy for al Qaeda's offshoots: Renouncing international terrorism, turning away from suicide attacks, deescalating violence against other Muslims, and focusing instead on local governance while reaching out, in some cases, to neighboring countries to offer reassurance.
Part of that trend is a backlash against ISIS's global ambitions and extreme violence, and it means a future for Sunni jihad that looks more like Hezbollah, Hassan Hassan has written in The Atlantic. Counterterrorism has to change with the times, and the answer is to focus on local governance issues—like the hiring of teachers—to fill the gaps before jihadi groups provide services and build bonds with local communities, Katherine Zimmerman writes in The Wall Street Journal. | | France Grapples With Anti-Semitism | | France is facing up to anti-Semitism anew, after the desecration of Jewish gravestones in Alsace, with a rally in Paris where the prime minister has predicted legislation in response.
Anti-Semitism has deep historical roots in France, but the current political polarization has put Jews in a difficult position, writes Shimon Samuels in The Jerusalem Post, voicing hope that the participation of a broad array of political parties in today's rally will signal a move to the center in French politics that will work against hate. And anti-Semitism has become a problem in the ranks of the gilets-jaunes, the movement that has come to epitomize left-right polarization in France, Le Monde editorializes, criticizing members for failing to clean up their own ranks. | | The Reintegration of Assad | | After being banished from the international community amid a civil war rife with chemical-weapons attacks, the torture of dissidents, and hunger used as a weapon, something perhaps inevitable has happened: Bashar al-Assad is slowly regaining diplomatic footing.
Arab states are reopening relations with Damascus, and Turkey, which had called for Assad's overthrow, has been quietly talking with his regime, Iyad Dakka writes in the World Politics Review. Europe and the US have long opposed Assad's rule, and Dakka points out that tensions will arise over who can do business in rebuilding Syria after the war.
Sanctions against Damascus remain in place, and with Assad's international backers helping militarily but pledging little support to rebuild Syria's devastated economy, international actors will face heavy dilemmas over whether and how to do business there without strengthening the government, its state-owned sectors, and war-profiteering businessmen, Chloe Cornish, Asser Khattab, and Andrew England write in The Financial Times. | | In the Trade War, What Happens to Chinese Manufacturing in the US? | | If one needs evidence of how complicated things can be, in an interconnected global economy weathering a trade war, look no further than the story of two Chinese companies, who've committed $3.1 billion to building chemical plants in Louisiana.
They're caught in the crosshairs of US/China trade disputes to a degree few can claim, as detailed in the South China Morning Post: Planning to export their processed products back to China, they face Chinese tariffs on US-produced chemicals; building their plants in the US, they face American tariffs on construction materials from China like steel and a chemical used in insulation.
The result: Tens of millions in added construction costs, and waiting to see how negotiations shake out. | | | | | | |
