Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 05 June 2024.
- Global Rollup
- China is expanding its grain and corn purchases again, according to a notice from the state-run agricultural stockpiler Sinograin. The purchases will more heavily favor Chinese domestic producers as Russian and European producers are facing lesser yields in the second half of 2024.
- Turkey would like to join BRICS+, according to Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during a public talk during his trip to China. Fidan will attend the BRICS+ Foreign Minister’s Meeting next week in Russia.
- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to announce a three-year plan with Italy at the G7 Summit next week to conduct more high-level security talks and defense drills and shore up food, semiconductor, and rare earth mineral supply chains.
- A Syrian man fired upon the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. American troops returned fire, wounding the man, and Lebanese police promptly arrested him. No motive or group affiliation has been released yet.
- Iran is promising retaliation against Israel after Israel killed another Iranian military advisor in Syria over the weekend.
- Israel mobilized 50,000 reservists due to tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised, “We are prepared for very strong action in the north. One way or another, we will restore security in the north.”
- Last night, the U.S. Air Force test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The Air Force said it was a routine reliability test and not a response to any current world events. (Despite the framing by the Air Force, every ICBM launch sends a message of readiness or unreadiness to adversaries and allies. – 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.