Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 14 August 2024.
- Global Rollup
- China and Thailand will run their annual air force drills from 18 to 29 August. This year’s exercise will include special operations forces, which would potentially practice “assault on positions behind hostile defense lines, including air fields, surface-to-air missile positions and ports,” according to China-based military experts. The Chinese were explicit that Thailand’s ownership of Western air platforms and practice of Western tactics are why the Chinese exercise with Thailand.
- Cyprus announced that it had completed preparations to receive refugees from a potential Israel-Lebanon war.
- Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani announced he would propose a project to develop a Palestinian state with the G7 in September. The state would exclude Hamas from leadership in favor of the Palestinian National Authority. Tajani claims the U.S. requested the Carabinieri, Italian military police, train the Palestinian security forces.
- China reports that Chinese militias in their Eastern provinces conducted a large exercise to integrate drones into Search and Rescue operations, emergency supply loading, reconnaissance, emergency communications support, and “real-world troop confrontation.”
- China is resubmitting a request to build a larger embassy in the U.K. after its initial request was denied in 2022 over increased espionage potential under a Conservative Party government.
- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would step down in September and allow the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) to choose a new party President. Japan has no general election this year, so the majority party, the LDP, is favored to retain the Prime Minister’s office.
- The Russian Foreign Minister announced that peace talks with Ukraine are indefinitely suspended due to the actions in Kursk.
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.