Good morning. Here’s your Daily SITREP for Friday, 24 November 2023.
Forward Observer’s Black Friday deals are live. Next year is going to be turbulent. Protests, riots, civil unrest, supply chains, markets, elections — you name it, it’s going to get disrupted. You don’t have to go it alone in 2024. The Early Warning intel team keeps you informed on what matters, when you need to know it. Put us on your team with a new Early Warning membership.
- (1) OIG: DOE FAILS TO KEEP TRACK OF CONTRACTORS IN SECURITY LAPSE: An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report said it “discovered a very troubling fact” that the Department of Energy (DOE) does not maintain the most basic information on personnel who have access to sensitive DOE government sites, raising “serious security concerns.”
- According to the report, unprecedented challenges from recent legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act, include a “real risk of funding entities controlled or owned by foreign adversaries.”
- The report also noted that the DOE has put up roadblocks between the OIG and workforce data that the OIG says has been used recently to uncover criminal activity by DOE contractors.
- Why It Matters: The news that the DOE does not keep track of who has access to sensitive sites is troubling, as the DOE controls sensitive nuclear defense sights like Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratory, which are responsible for the maintenance and security of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. DHS is also still dealing with the expired Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program, leaving both chemical and nuclear sites vulnerable to infiltration. – R.C.
- (2) EV PUSH HITS CONSUMER DISINTEREST WALL: Ford Motor Company is scaling back plans for a Michigan electric vehicle (EV) battery plant and is delaying $12 billion in EV investments after sales of its signature EV fell 46% in the second half of 2023.
- Ford Chief Comms Officer Mark Truby said EV adoption rates “are not growing at the pace that I think ourselves and the industry had expected.”
- Truby added that the decision to pull back on the Michigan plant was made after the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford reached a new contract agreement to raise wages to $42 an hour.
- Why It Matters: One of the factors driving a lack of consumer interest in EVs is the lack of charging infrastructure, which some states like California have sought federal dollars to build. Even if the charging infrastructure existed, the U.S. grid could not handle the load of mass EV adoption. – R.C.
- (3) DUBLIN SEES WORST VIOLENCE “IN DECADES”: Rioters in Dublin, Ireland took part in “an extraordinary outbreak of violence” after a reportedly Algerian migrant injured five people, including three children, in a stabbing rampage.
- Irish police officials are blaming soccer hooligans “driven by far-right ideology” for the anti-migrant outburst. Supporters are demanding the Irish government curb their migration plan, which still aims to take in refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Authorities are “keeping an open mind” about the motivation behind the stabbing attack as police cordoned the Irish Parliament building out of fears that unrest could spread.
- Police have made 34 arrests so far and say that more arrests are on the way. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who is of Indian descent, said that he would work to tighten anti-hate legislation in response.
- Why It Matters: Protestors carried banners that read “Irish Lives Matter”, around which a protest movement could coalesce. Meanwhile, ex-MMA fighter Conor McGregor exclaimed on Twitter/X, “Ireland, we are at war,” adding publicity to the attacks and protest movement. Elite involvement in these movements is an early warning indicator of their growth. – M.S.
Forward Observer’s Black Friday deals are live. Next year is going to be turbulent. Protests, riots, civil unrest, supply chains, markets, elections — you name it, it’s going to get disrupted. You don’t have to go it alone in 2024. The Early Warning intel team keeps you informed on what matters, when you need to know it. Put us on your team with a new Early Warning membership.