OSINTSUM: Wednesday 24 April 2024

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OSINTSUM
Global Situation Update
Wednesday 24 April 2024

Africa

Senegal: New President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has called for a rethink of his country’s relationship with the EU following a visit by European Council President Charles Michel, including a renegotiation of oil and gas contracts as well as fishing agreements signed with the bloc.
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Somalia: The arrival of the first warship from Turkey at the port of Mogadishu took place at an event attended by the heads of state of both nations to mark the beginning of a 10-year bilateral agreement aimed at safeguarding the Somali coastline, boosting economic development, and combatting terror and crime.
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Asia/Oceania

China: Over 100,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the southern province of Guangdong as heavy rain continues to fall, with authorities raising the highest level of alarm over flooding yesterday.
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China: Chinese officials have criticised the passing of the US foreign aid bill - which includes $8bn for Taiwan - saying it was pushing the self-governing island into a “dangerous situation”.
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India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have begun to attack opposition rivals as “pro-Muslim” in what analysts believe is an attempt to invigorate their hardline base in the country’s general elections, which began on Friday.
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North Korea: A high-level economic delegation has travelled to Iran for what will be the countries’ first known talks since the Covid-19 pandemic, in what is being seen as an attempt by leader Kim Jong Un to build up cooperation with countries with a shared hostility to the United States and reduce its diplomatic isolation.
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Solomon Islands: The country’s general election has failed to deliver a clear winner, meaning pro-China Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare must now compete with less China-friendly opposition parties to form a majority coalition to lead the Pacific island nation.
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Europe

European Union: The European Parliament has approved legislation banning the sale, import, and export of goods made with forced labour in a move driven by concerns over human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province.
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France: Analysts believe the deaths of five migrants in the English Channel yesterday were the result of overcrowding caused by a group of migrants violently forcing their way on to the boat shortly before it launched, increasing the occupancy of a boat that could only carry a maximum of 20 people safely from 50 to 112.
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Germany: Police in Berlin have banned pro-Palestine protesters from singing in languages other than English or German unless police had a translator present in response to dozens of protesters signing songs in Irish in front of the German parliament building on Friday.
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Germany: An aide to a member of the European Parliament for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been arrested over allegations of “especially severe” espionage for China in the latest in a spate of such incidents across Europe recently.
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Netherlands: Intelligence agency AIVD said Western intelligence prevented at least 10 jihadist terror attacks across Europe last year, and that the current conflict between Israel and Hamas has increased the threat of further attacks.
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Spain: A Spanish judge has reopened an investigation into the suspected use of Pegasus spyware to spy on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s cellphone after receiving a request to collaborate on a similar probe in France.
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Turkey: Auditors from the European Union have said they are unable to determine whether some of the 6 billion euros given to Turkey by the bloc to help it cope with an influx of Syrian refugees is having any impact.
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Israel/Hamas

Israel: The US is expected to impose sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda Battalion - which was initially set up to accommodate Israeli’s ultra-Orthodox Jews but has expanded to include right-wing settlers - for alleged humanitarian abuses in the West Bank, marking the first time an Israeli unit has been sanctioned by the US.
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Gaza: The United Nations has called for a “clear, transparent, and credible investigation” into mass graves discovered at the site of two major hospitals in Gaza after being raided by Israeli troops.
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Qatar: Both the Qatari Foreign Ministry and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have denied reports alleging Doha is planning to deport Hamas leaders, with the foreign ministry saying there would be no point in doing so while negotiations are ongoing.
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UK: A legal challenge over the government’s role in supplying Israel with arms can be heard at the High Court later this year after a judges ruling in a case brought by Palestinian rights organisation Al-Haq and UK-based Global Legal Action Network yesterday.
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US: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign in the latest example of criticism from the ruling Democratic Party of the Israeli leader.
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Latin America

Argentina: Argentina has requested Interpol arrest Iran’s interior minister Ahmad Vahidi in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
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Colombia: The Constitutional Court has ruled that environmental calamities, either sudden or gradual, can be legally recognised as a cause of forced displacement, therefore bringing obligations on the state to recognise those affected as refugees.
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Mexico: The head of the Criminal Investigation Agency, Felipe de Jesus Gallo, admitted his country was the “champion” at producing synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, during a speech at the opening ceremony of the Multilateral Conference on Synthetic Drugs in Mexico City yesterday,
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Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro announced that a United Nations human rights office could resume operating in the country once again, after it was suspended and its staff ordered to leave in February.
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Middle East

Iraq: The United States military has urged Iraq’s government to take steps to protect American troops stationed in Iraq and Syria following a failed rocket attack launched from inside Iraq by the Iranian-backed Khata’ib Hezbollah militia group on a US base in Syria a day earlier.
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Syria: Opposition faction The Syrian Interim Government announced Turkey is to fund and equip a new military academy with space for 1,000 students in Afrin next June in an attempt to end infighting between rebel groups which are nominally part of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
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Turkey: President Tayyip Erdogan said he believes Iraq has seen the need to eliminate the Kurdish PKK from its territory and has the will to do so after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Baghdad to ask for his support in Turkey’s fight against the group.
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Russia/Ukraine

China: The United States is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system in an attempt to provide Washington with diplomatic leverage it can use to stop Beijing’s commercial support for Russia’s military production.
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Russia: A Russian court has ordered Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov be kept in custody on suspicion of accepting bribes in the country’s highest-profile corruption case since it began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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Ukraine: Russian forces have made gains of around 5km in the last ten days and taken the village of Ocheretyne in the east of Ukraine as an offensive - apparently aimed at taking territory before Western military aid arrives - appears to be gathering steam.
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Ukraine: Consular services for Ukrainian men of fighting age living abroad have been suspended by authorities, after announcing measures to bring them home to fight against Russia’s invasion due to increasing manpower shortages.
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US/Canada

Canada: Negotiators from 175 countries began UN-led talks in Ottawa yesterday on a proposed global treaty to reduce plastic pollution, having agreed in 2022 to finalise plans to deal with the issue by the end of this year.
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US: The Senate has passed the long-delayed foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, paving the way for President Joe Biden to sign it into law today.
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US: Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins said the State Department is likely, although not guaranteed, to meet a new deadline to finalise trade exemptions for the AUKUS defence alliance with Australia and the UK.
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US: A vote on a US-drafted resolution calling for countries to prevent an arms race in space will take place at the UN Security Council today, with Russia expected to veto it.
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US: Major artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, have agreed to implement new safety measures aimed at protecting children from exploitation and to bolster their existing defences.
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