Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Tuesday, 25 June 2024.
- Global Rollup
- China’s Ambassador to South Korea told them to “learn a painful lesson and ensure that similar accidents do not occur in the future, effectively protecting the life, health, and safety of Chinese citizens in Korea” after a factory fire this morning left 17 Chinese migrant workers dead in Seoul. (Contrasting with the extreme dismissal of Chinese citizens attacking Japanese and American citizens with knives in recent weeks, this behavior is likely to feed anti-Chinese sentiment in the Asian Pacific. – J.V.)
- China’s largest Coast Guard vessel, the Zhaotou-class, is deployed at the Second Thomas Shoal. This vessel is larger than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and capable of providing helicopter and naval gun support to its allies. (China sends these vessels when it wants to project indomitable power over its neighbors. We are likely seeing them preparing to conduct larger operations over the Second Thomas Shoal, possibly the first arrest made under China’s expanded Coast Guard Law. – J.V.)
- Li Qiang, China’s Premier, opened up the World Economic Forum New Champions meeting in Dalian, China, by declaring that the world should oppose decoupling from China lest it heads into “into a destructive spiral where the fierce competition for a larger slice ends up in a diminishing pie.”
- Israel’s Supreme Court authorized the government to conscript orthodox Jews for the first time since Ben Gurion was Prime Minister due to orthodox Jews making up more than 14% of the war-eligible male population.
- The European Union began accession negotiations for Ukraine to join the economic bloc.
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.