Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Tuesday, 20 August 2024.
- Global Rollup
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Hamas rejected the U.S. proposal to bridge the differences between Israel and Hamas’ positions. A senior Hamas official says this contradicts reality and that Israel had actually rejected the deal.
- China’s Ministry of State Security announced that it had found additional foreign espionage measures taken through China’s postal system and numerous meteorological sites near sensitive Chinese government sites. (While the Chinese left the offending country unnamed, this is likely meant to counter the revelations of Chinese espionage in the West. – J.V.)
- China’s actions in the South China Sea do not cross the threshold of armed conflict, according to the Philippines Navy Spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
- General David Allvin, the Air Force Chief of Staff, announced that the U.S. Air Force will conduct mass deployment exercises called REFORPAC (Return of Forces to the Pacific) next summer. The Air Force will run the REFORPAC exercise in conjunction with Talisman Sabre 2025 to train an international coalition force in the Indo-Pacific.
- Planet Labs and NATO signed an agreement for NATO to access Planet’s imagery for the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS). Planet has hundreds of low-orbit, small imagery satellites around the world, with dozens going up each year. (The satellites can be developed and deployed faster than they can be destroyed and would be harder to target due to their small size. – 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.