Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 22 May 2024.
- Global Rollup
- Ireland, Spain, and Norway will recognize Palestine’s sovereignty beginning on 28 May. Israel recalled all of its ambassadors from these countries and summoned their envoys. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz promised “severe consequences” for “undermining [Israel’s] sovereignty and endangering its security.”
- The Program Executive Officer for the U.S. Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (PEO of SIOP) has an ongoing “once-in-100-years investment” into the Navy’s nuclear-capable shipyards. The four nuclear shipyards have a total of $6 billion in ongoing construction and half a billion dollars in equipment procurement, with 138 pieces of industrial equipment already delivered.
- The Army received four high-powered microwave weapons and is immediately sending them to the Middle East for testing against drone swarms, according to Army Chief of Staff General Randy George. This is part of a directed energy weapons suite that includes high-powered lasers as well. (So far, all of these anti-drone weapons are vehicle-mounted, but success in any of these concepts could result in miniaturization for personnel use. – J.V.)
- China activated the Linglong One Small Modular Reactor last night. This small nuclear reactor started construction in July of 2021. The International Atomic Energy Agency declared it the “first of its kind” as it was purpose-built to power a small city, scale with the city’s growth, and provide water desalination.
- The Maldives is officially switching to paying China and India for their imports in their respective currencies. The Maldives expects to save about half of the import costs in these currencies compared to what they would pay using the dollar. (If the Maldivian model results in a 50% savings, this could entice other countries that are primarily tied to the U.S. through the dollar to switch to local currency trade. – 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.