Morning, Middle East dominates again.
Israel-
Overnight more IED balloons being launched. Faction in Gaza reportedly state they will act in unison to respond to any Israeli attack (presumably in response to ied balloons). Analysis of balloons indicate they have morphed from flying Molotov cocktails to more advanced explosives.
Iran -
Indicators of more antigovernment protests but few details.
Iraq -
Clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Tayran square, Baghdad. Protests continue to focus on corruption of Iraqi govt by Iran and its supported militias and politicians
Lebanon -
Saturday protests against govt corruption and associated Hezbollah (Iran) influence intensified. Protests started last October when Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned and Hezbollah started trying to put more favorable politicians in place. Govt corruption has caused a huge economic crisis as well. With no one in charge and nothing being done the population keeps getting worse off.
N Korea-
Ri Son Gwon has replaced Ri Yong Ho. Ri Son Gwon will be the new North Korean foreign minister. He is reported to have a fiery temper. Be interesting to see how long he lasts. Also a reputed hardliners.
CW2 -
VCDL calling for 10,000 volunteers to enter the “gun free zone” at the Capitol Monday to potentially “take one for the teams”. If turnout is the 50k+ expected they want armed Virginians surrounding the ‘cage’.
Wild cards are the Antifa affiliated gun groups and out of stare VCDL groups.
Natural disasters -
Taal volcano appears to be building to a major eruption- potentially of the scale of Pinetubo or larger. No direct threat to the US however an eruption of that magnitude is likely to generate significant global cooling. Combined with a Maunder Minimum sunspot cycle impacts to agriculture over the next few years could be significant.
China -
News of a new SARS virus spreading in China is gaining concern. China has been tight on information. This is of concern since the 2002 and 2003, SARS infected more than 8,000 people worldwide, and more than 700 of them ended up dying. This outbreak is still very new, they have never seen this virus before, and they are still trying to figure out exactly how dangerous it is. Concern has increased at US airports with screening of Chinese passengers given two events - one in japan and a second in Thailand where Chinese passengers came down with the virus.
thanx for the updates
hopefully a new Iran in the works
Afternoon
Iraq -
Violent protests in Baghdad over night there. Security forces fired on protestors using live rounds.
Europe -
Over the past few hours US and German officials responded to intelligence indicating an imminent attack. After investigation no threat was identified.
US -
Rumors of a Islamic illegals planning on bringing explosives into the US and conducting an attack. Sources are sketchy at best, but there are reports of jihadists making contacts and associates with Mexican narco-terrorist gangs.