Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 25 September 2024.
- Global Rollup
- The State Department announced visa restrictions for travel agencies in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East that “facilitate irregular migration to the United States through countries in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.”
- The Defense Department (DOD) broke ground on the Project Pele transportable nuclear reactor test site in Idaho. The assembly of the final reactor will begin in February of 2025. The DOD will transport the reactor from Virginia to Idaho in 2026. The stated goal is to provide “power to mission-critical DOD operations in remote and austere environments.” (While this is likely to be dedicated to bases in the short term, a successful test would potentially give the U.S. the capability to have a “plug-and-play” nuclear reactor available for energy crises. – J.V.)
- The Defense Department announced a $16.2 million investment in a domestic tin smelting, refining and recycling facility to break dependency on Chinese smelting. According to the USGS, the U.S. has not smelted tin since 1989. Tin is used for soldering circuit cards, alloys, and chemical manufacturing.
- China publicized its launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean but did not publicize where the target area was. China reportedly warned the Japanese Coast Guard that “space debris” would fall near the northern Philippines and “south of Hawaii.” Japan reports this is China’s first public ICBM launch into the Pacific Ocean 44 years.
- Iran is reportedly mediating talks between Russia and the Houthis for Russia to deliver the Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile. The parties have not finalized the deal. (If this comes to fruition, the Houthis will gain a highly capable missile that is designed to defeat the modern U.S. Navy warships, risking a severe loss of faith in the U.S. Navy’s ability to secure maritime 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.