Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Tuesday, 04 October 2022.
PETRAEUS: U.S. WOULD DESTROY RUSSIAN MILITARY IF NUKES USED: Former CIA Director and retired 4-star General David Petraeus said that a Russian deployment of nuclear weapons could not go “unanswered” and would result in the destruction of the Russian military. “I mean, just to give you a hypothetical, we would respond by leading a NATO, a collective effort, that would take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black Sea,” Petraeus said. Characterizing Russian President Vladimir Putin as “desperate” and faced with an “irreversible” battlefield, Petraeus said the potential of Russia employing nuclear weapons was a threat that must be taken “seriously.”
MEXICO LEANS ON PRIVATE SECTOR TO CONTROL FOOD PRICES: In response to rising food prices, Mexican officials announced Monday that they were working with private companies to fight inflation. A dozen food producers and retailers agreed to a plan which will waive certain regulatory requirements and taxes. Participants in the plan will be exempt from quality checks by national health regulators and will not pay a general import tax on food products produced outside of Mexico. The plan will also temporarily halt the export of white corn, beans, sardines, and aluminum used in food packaging.
CHINA SHOWS OFF NEW NUCLEAR ATTACK SUBMARINE: Chinese state media released the first open-source video footage of China’s latest Type-094A nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine this week. The footage is set to highlight China’s naval capabilities ahead of the Chinese Communist Party Congress scheduled for the middle of this month. The submarine is its most sophisticated yet and can launch JL-3 ballistic missiles with a 10,000-meter range. The nuclear-capable missiles could easily strike targets on the U.S. mainland from the sub’s normal operating areas in the East and South China Seas.
U.S. TO ANNOUNCE NEW CURBS ON EXPORT OF HIGH-TECH TO CHINA: The U.S. is set to announce additional restrictions on the export of semiconductor manufacturing technology to China. The restrictions are intended to cut off China’s access to advanced technology. The U.S. and many western nations are hurriedly reshoring semiconductor manufacturing capabilities as China and Taiwan combined produce approximately 65% of all chips, while supply chain issues originating out of Asia have seriously damaged economies. The report added that the U.S. would also place restrictions on the sale of U.S.-made chips to China.
In today’s Early Warning, Mike looks at a host of domestic issues, including the latest warnings of a financial crisis, implications of foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, and the CIA Director’s latest comments on Russian nuclear weapons. Get access to the team’s full report here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe