Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Friday, 12 July 2024.
- CNN CLAIMS U.S. AND GERMANY STOPPED RUSSIAN ASSASSINATIONS: According to a report from CNN yesterday, U.S. and German authorities thwarted the assassination of Rheinmetall’s CEO. Rheinmetall is a German weapons manufacturer.
- CNN claims the intelligence officials told them numerous sabotage and assassination plots are underway across the West using local proxies.
- On Monday at a pre-NATO Summit panel, CNN reporter Jim Sciutto asked Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billström if fear was “the driving force” in how Billström sold NATO membership to the Swedes.
- German government and Rheinmetall spokesmen refused to comment on the report when asked about it directly.
Why It Matters: Russian leaders have for weeks promised reprisals for Ukrainian attacks using U.S. weapons against Russian territory. If this report is true, it’s an ominous sign for escalation against the West. – M.S.
- Global Rollup
- China’s Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on Anduril Industries, Maritime Tactical Systems, Pacific Rim Defense, AEVEX Aerospace, LKD Aerospace, and Summit Technologies for weapons sales to Taiwan.
- Taiwan’s National Defense Minister, Wellington Koo, told the legislative yuan yesterday that the military is preparing for a fight with no front lines, establishing supply depots in residential areas, and did not deny using temples for caches.
- South Korea and the U.S. formally signed bilateral nuclear deterrence guidelines, which stipulate a continuous deployment of nuclear forces to South Korea in order to respond if North Korea nukes South Korea.
- Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced at the NATO summit that he would veto any NATO cooperation or partnership with Israel until peace in Palestine was restored. He also said he intends to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a China-run security and economic bloc. Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said Turkey’s membership in NATO creates a conflict of interest with the SCO’s founding documents and would delay the full accession.
THAT’S A WRAP: This does it for today’s edition. Thank you for reading. If you know folks who would also like to receive this email, would you please forward it to them? We appreciate you spreading the word. – M.S.