Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Wednesday, 30 November 2022.
GEOPOLITICS BRIEF
NATO PROMISES MORE AID FOR UKRAINE, MEMBERSHIP IN NATO: On Tuesday, NATO allies promised to send more aid money and weapons to Ukraine following Russian missile and drone strikes across the country. The strikes reportedly knocked out power and heat to a majority of Ukraine’s citizens. AP reported that foreign ministers from the NATO alliance, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, began a two-day meeting in Bucharest with NATO leaders saying, “Russia cannot stop the alliance’s expansion.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said regarding Ukraine, “NATO’s door is open.” Speaking to reporters, Ukraine’s foreign minister said his country desperately needed Patriot air defense weapons and transformers.
CHINA CANCELS SCHOOL, POLICE BEGIN CRACKDOWN ACROSS MAJOR URBAN AREAS: Chinese universities canceled school and sent students home on Tuesday following this weekend’s COVID unrest. Police patrols were out in force in Beijing, Shanghai, and other large mainland cities. Tuesday evening in the city of Guangzhou, protesters clashed with security forces clad in white hazmat suits. Police were observed stopping pedestrians, inspecting their phones, and deleting videos and social media posts of civil unrest. There were no official reports of detentions by security forces, although the AP reported that journalists witnessed a number of people being detained and taken away.
NORWAY TO HALT OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION: Norway, Europe’s largest natural gas supplier, announced it would halt oil and gas exploration in untapped areas of its extensive oil and gas fields. The moratorium on exploration will last at least through the current parliament, which ends in 2025. The decision was first reported by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK and confirmed by Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Terje Aasland, on Tuesday. According to Aasland, the decision was part of a minority government budget deal with the opposition Socialist Left Party (SV) in an effort to fight climate change. Aasland said the government could still issue licenses to drill for oil and gas in “mature areas” where oil and gas extraction is already taking place.
NAVY RESEARCH LAB CONDUCTING QUANTUM TECH RESEARCH: The Navy Research Lab (NRL) is conducting experiments with quantum sensors, computing, networking, and navigation. The stated intent is to create a ship that can predict corrosion patterns, navigate without GPS, develop hyper-accurate situational awareness, and eventually connect to all other sensors and weapons belonging to the Pentagon.
In today’s Early Warning, we look at more developments around the rail strike and a potential solution from Congress. For this, plus the latest domestic and geopolitical reporting, you can get the full report by subscribing at https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe
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