Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Friday, 29 April 2022. You can receive this daily briefing by signing up at https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
JIHADISTS: CHINA IS THE NEW INFIDEL: With China’s Belt and Road Initiative expanding across much of the Middle East and Soutwest Asia, analysts expect to see a rise in jihadist attacks against Chinese targets. Islamic State propaganda has begun targeting China for its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Uyghurs, and is calling for increased attacks on Chinese targets.
CHINA WARNS OF ‘UKRAINE-LIKE’ TRAGEDY IN THE PACIFIC: In a call last week with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that the expanding U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy risks a regional version of the “tragedy of Ukraine.” Wang went on to say that the Biden administration will “incite antagonism and confrontation” throughout Asia. Wang also highlighted China’s concerns over the upcoming U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit scheduled to take place in Washington in mid-May.
BALTIC STATES MEETING OUTCOME: Senior officials from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland met on Friday to discuss the NATO security situation in the Baltic region. The group agreed that NATO needs to deploy additional troops to the Baltics. “Some first steps have been taken [in this meeting] but new long-term solutions should be agreed at the NATO summit in Madrid in June,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.
ICE: ‘SMARTPHONE’ PROGRAM INEFFECTIVE: A leaked draft of a 2020 internal ICE report states that the “Alternatives to Detention” program, which has cost $1.46 billion since it started in 2004, has “little value.” The program uses ICE-provided ankle monitors and smartphones using the SmartLink program for tracking illegal immigrants released by authorities. An average of 84% of illegal immigrants leave the program, ditch devices, or delete tracking applications to live in the United States illegally. Some 216,000 illegal immigrants are currently enrolled in the program.
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