Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Tuesday, 17 September 2024.
- U.S. PROBES INTO NUCLEAR SUPPLY VULNERABILITIES: The Biden Administration announced an investigation into U.S. imports of Chinese enriched uranium due to concerns that China is helping Russia work around sanctions.
- China’s imports to the U.S. went from zero in 2022 to 535,700 pounds in May 2023, the beginning of the U.S. ban on importing Russian uranium.
Why It Matters: If the U.S. is indirectly importing Russian enriched uranium and using China to do it, this makes U.S. nuclear power, carrier, submarine, and missile production partially dependent on two potentially hostile powers, undermining national and energy security. – J.V.
- Global Rollup
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order to increase the Russian army by 180,000 troops beginning on 01 December 2024. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the increase is due to an “extremely hostile environment” on the Western borders and instability in the East.
- The State and Treasury departments announced additional sanctions on Georgian Interior Ministry personnel and media personalities for “violently suppressing the exercise of the freedom of peaceful assembly.”
- Israel officially made stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in Northern Israel a war goal. A U.S. diplomat reportedly tried to deescalate the situation in Northern Israel on the grounds that a war in Lebanon would widen the conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the concerns saying, Israel will “do what is necessary to safeguard its security.”
- Hong Kong’s head of state, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, threatened retaliation if the U.S. closes Hong Kong’s three Economic and Trade Offices in America. (The Trade Offices are unofficial embassies with diplomatic protections that could lose their protections under a new bill from the U.S. House of Representatives. – J.V.)
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.