OSINTSUM: Thursday 9 May 2024

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OSINTSUM
Global Situation Update
Thursday 9 May 2024

International

Energy: Global oil prices have risen after falling US inventories and a rise in Chinese imports supported higher demand expectations.
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Health: A study by researchers from the University of Notre Dame has found biodiversity loss is the biggest environmental driver of infectious disease outbreaks, making them more dangerous and widespread.
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Africa

Sudan: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medicines Sans Frontiers) has been forced to suspend work and withdraw staff from Madani Teaching Hospital - the only functional hospital for the hundreds of thousands of people in the capital of Al Jazirah state - due to deteriorating security in the region.
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Somalia: Amnesty International has released a new report accusing the Somali military of killing 23 civilians, including 14 children and five women, during drone strikes conducted with support from Turkish drones on March 18, 2024.
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Sudan: Attacks by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and allied militias in El Geneina - the capital of West Darfur - saw thousands killed and hundreds of thousands more become refugees between April and November last year according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
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Tunisia: An anti-discrimination activist in Tunisia has been arrested in a money laundering investigation this week as the dangerous conditions facing migrants and their advocates worsen.
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Zambia/Zimbabwe: The ongoing drought in Southern Africa has led Zambia to request 500,000 tonnes of grain from Uganda, while Kenya’s president William Ruto has pledged to donate $1m worth of maize to Zimbabwe to alleviate its hunger crisis.
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Asia/Oceania

Australia: Australia has struck a new security pact with Tuvalu after critics complained the previous one created an Australian veto over any other agreement the South Pacific island nation may wish to pursue with a third country, such as China.
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China: Struggling property developer Country Garden said it was unable to pay two onshore coupons due today, but that the state-owned China Bond Insurance Company (CBIC) was willing to pay on its behalf. This would mark the first time CBIC had bailed out a bond issuer. Analysts say this would make the issuing of bonds more difficult in future.
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China: China’s imports and exports returned to growth in April after contracting in March, indicating an improvement in demand at home and overseas amid numerous challenges to its economy.
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North Korea: Kim Jong Un expressed "firm support and solidarity" for Russia in a congratulatory message to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Victory Day - in which Russia marks the 79th anniversary of the end of World War Two - state news KCNA said on Thursday.
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Philippines: Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro has called for an investigation into the alleged recording of a phone conversation between a Chinese official and a senior Philippine military commander regarding the South China Sea dispute, adding that if China had recorded the conversation it would amount to a breach of “international relations and Philippine laws”.
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China/US Relations

Espionage: A US cyber official reported he had confronted China’s government in Beijing last month over a cyber espionage campaign known as “Volt Typhoon” through which Chinese hackers breached dozens of American critical infrastructure organisations.
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TikTok: Bytedance, the owner of the social media platform TikTok, has filed a lawsuit against the United States government in an effort to block a law that would force it to divest from its US assets.
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Trade: A recent survey carried out by Washington-based trade association Biotechnology Innovation Organisation found that 79% of the 124 biotech companies it surveyed have at least one contract or product agreement with a manufacturer based in China or owned by China.
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Vehicles: US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo reported the Biden administration could take an "extreme action" and ban Chinese connected vehicles or opt to impose restrictions on them, in the first indication such a ban could be on the table.
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Europe

European Union: European Commission President Ursula von der Layen has warned the EU needs to prevent China from flooding the bloc’s market with heavily subsidised electric vehicles (EVs) to protect its manufacturing industry. The EU is currently conducting an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs to determine whether to impose tariffs on them.
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European Union: Ursula von der Layen’s centre-right European People’s Party - the largest group in the European Parliament - has refused to sign a letter condemning the far right and a spate of recent attacks on politicians across Europe, causing a diplomatic row in amongst the bloc’s politicians.
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Italy: Italy’s aviation authority has barred humanitarian migrant rescue groups from using a Sicilian airport to launch search and rescue flights over the Mediterranean, in the government’s latest crackdown on their activities.
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Georgia: Georgians continued to protest in cities across the country yesterday in the latest demonstrations opposing the foreign agents bill they say would stifle civil society. Following a police crackdown on earlier protests in Tbilisi, smaller rallies in Zugdidi, Kutaisi, and Gori took place without incident.
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Hungary: Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday, with the war in Ukraine and infrastructure projects high on the agenda, as he makes his third stop on his first European tour in five years.
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North Macedonia: The right-wing nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party won a clear victory in both presidential and parliamentary elections, raising concerns of colder relations with Balkan neighbours and more difficult membership negotiations with the European Union.
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Latin America/Caribbean

Brazil: The southern state of Rio Grande do Sul is experiencing its worst flooding in 80 years, with over 100 people now confirmed killed and thousands more left homeless. In total, the floods have affected 1.45 million people and 417 of the state’s 497 cities.
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Colombia: A front of Colombian rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN) broke ranks with the group's central command yesterday - becoming the guerrillas' first dissident faction - as Colombia's government recognised it as an independent organisation.
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Panama: President-elect Jose Raul Mulino will urge lawmakers to approve a law enabling the building of large water reservoirs to supply the Panama Canal in the face of an unprecedented drought that has hit the capacity of the vital waterway, according to a statement made yesterday.
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Middle East

Gaza: A UN official has warned of “very significant levels” of contamination in Gaza’s estimated 37 million tons of rubble with unexploded ordinance, adding that clearing it was a costly operation.
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Iran: Iran will have no option but to build a nuclear bomb if Israel threatens its existence according to Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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Iran: The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has criticised Tehran’s cooperation as "completely unsatisfactory" after visiting Iran to urge its leaders to adopt "concrete" measures in order to address concerns over its nuclear programme.
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US: President Joe Biden has publicly warned Israel for the first time that the US would stop supplying it with weapons if Israeli forces launch a major invasion into the Gazan city of Rafah.
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Russia/Ukraine

Armenia: Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin yesterday amid increasingly strained relations between the two countries caused by the failure of Russia to protect Armenian interests in relation to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan.
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European Union: European Union ambassadors have agreed in principle on a plan to use frozen Russian assets being held in the bloc to pay for the defence of Ukraine, with 90% going towards military aid and 10% being used in other ways.
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Lithuania: Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has suggested an ad-hoc coalition of western countries could send military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, and also backed UK Foreign Minister David Cameron’s recent comments that Ukraine was permitted to use British-made weapons against Russia.
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Poland: Prime minister Donald Tusk said wants to revive a Polish commission investigating Russian influence yesterday, amid heightened fears about espionage after a Polish judge who had access to military secrets asked for asylum in Belarus.
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UK: An “undeclared” Russian military intelligence officer, named as Colonel Maxim Elovik, is to be expelled from the UK, several Russian diplomatic premises are to be closed, and new restrictions on diplomatic visas are to be introduced under a new package of measures being implemented in response to a “pattern of alleged Russian malign activity” according to Home Secretary James Cleverly.
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Ukraine: Russia will advance into the heart of Ukraine if it succeeds in taking the frontline town of Chasiv Yar and the wider Donbas region according to the governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, who added Russian forces were attacking with between 1,500 and 2,500 artillery rounds and airstrikes in the region each day.
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US/Canada

US: House Representatives have voted to reject an attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene by a majority of 359-43.
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US: Intelligence agencies in the US will limit how they buy and use data about Americans taken from smartphone apps and internet-connected devices such as cars and household appliances under a new directive issued by the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines.
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US: A bipartisan group of senior US senators has introduced legislation which would require officials involved in the AUKUS defence project with the UK and Australia to engage with them and Japan on how Japan could be included in the project.
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US: Russia has “targeted and neutralised” dozens of US intelligence agents using sonic weapons in a covert worldwide operation over the past few years according to expert witnesses speaking to a House committee panel which is investigating the phenomenon known as Havana Syndrome, so named due to some of the attacks taking place in Cuba’s capital.
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US: A group of over a dozen federal judges appointed by former president Donald Trump has pledged to blackball graduates of Columbia University, ratcheting up a pressure campaign against universities they deem hostile to conservatives.
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Note from the author: Find the OSINTSUM useful? Please help me keep it free by clicking on the ad below. Thank you!

Ready to revolutionize your workday with AI?

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Image credits: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2019 – Source: EP". (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)