Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Monday, 28 October 2024.
- ISRAEL STRIKES IRAN: Israel retaliated against Iran with more than 100 aircraft and strikes on military sites in Iran, particularly around Tehran.
- Prior to the strikes, Iranian officials reportedly told Arab officials that they wouldn’t seek to retaliate and broaden the war if Israel limited attacks to military and government targets.
- Iran claims their air defense system worked well but some Israeli missiles got through, causing limited damage to only military targets, killing four Iranian soldiers.
- Iran’s Foreign Minister issued a letter to the United Nations detailing Iran’s assessment of the situation and clarifying that, “in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter and within the framework of international law, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its inherent right to respond to this criminal act of aggression.”
Why It Matters: Iran’s pre-strike qualifiers and post-strike letter indicate that Iran could potentially refuse to retaliate to gain international legitimacy by being perceived as measured. – J.V.
- Global Rollup
- Taiwan and the U.K. are preparing to undercut China’s technology and food resources. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) halted shipments to a mainland Chinese company after TSMC chips were found inside Huawei AI chips. Meanwhile, The U.K.’s Prime Minister is expected to announce increased Royal Navy Pacific deployments today to help smaller nations like Samoa counter illegal Chinese fishing in their waters. (Both of these moves are intended to prevent China from maintaining its limited food security and technology market dominance. China is likely to respond with a form of limited economic warfare and corporate espionage. – J.V.)
- Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party won 54% of the seats in their parliament. The President and the Western-backed minority parties are calling the election fraudulent and “Russian-style,” and promising to continue reforms to join the European Union. Several of the minority coalitions are calling for protests today, with the support of Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili.
- Indian companies are circumventing U.S. and EU restrictions on dual-use technology exports to Russia, with Indian pharmaceuticals selling servers with Nvidia chips worth $300 million to trading companies linked to Russia’s military industrial complex. Since the start of the Ukraine war, India has become a major intermediary for Russia and now is the country’s second-biggest supplier of restricted technology after China.
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.