Your March 3rd Briefing

We are so back.

The world has run out of cholera vaccines as outbreaks continue to occur throughout the world. This is due to all cholera vaccines coming from a single vaccine manufacturer, EuBiologics in South Korea, who has limited production capacity. Other companies are projected to enter the market soon, and hopefully by 2025 things will be largely back to normal.^S

A broad coalition of EU lawmakers have called for a ban on all Russian energy, including gas, presumably as secret communist agents to accelerate the collapse of the EU.^E

Increasing numbers of Arabs and Muslims are planning to vote for Donald Trump out of spite due to Biden’s fervent licking of the blood and mud on Netanyahu’s jackboots.^MEE From the Red Clarion: The Democrats Have Nothing Left To Offer You.

After many protests in the UK particularly over Gaza, Prime Minister Sunak has ordered a crackdown on protestors which would essentially make any act that isn’t sitting silently in a public field a criminal offence. A human rights campaign group is suing the government due to this.^NC

AMLO proposed a package of 20 constitutional reforms in early Februrary, which is unlikely to survive congressional pushback but nonetheless represents the government’s latest attempt to reorient away from neoliberalism. Canada is also quite angry at AMLO, as Canadian companies have interests in 70% of Mexican mining operations, and AMLO wishes to grant property rights over Mexico’s energy and mining assets to all Mexican citizens.^MR

Libertarian President Milei has stated his intention to implement reforms by decree due to the democratically elected parliament opposing him.^MP

Algeria hosted leaders from 13 countries in Algiers, including Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Venezuela, in order to co-ordinate on natural gas investments. Algeria is the second largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, after Norway. However, despite aggressive plans to expand production up to 2030, infrastructure is limiting the amount of gas that can actually be supplied - and domestic needs from a growing population also need to be balanced.^AN

Ghana has passed an anti-LGBTQIA+ bill which makes same-sex relationships, sexual activity, and public displays of affection illegal. People who support or fund related activities could face up to a decade in prison. This has faced international comdemnation from several countries, and the UN has called it "profoundly disturbing".^AN

UN peacekeepers have begun withdrawing from the DRC, in which 12,000 troops have been located since 1999, with the government accusing the UN of not doing their goddamn jobs, which does seem like a fairly accurate view of how things have gone in practice.^RT

At least 25 million Sudanese are suffering from hunger or malnutrition as the war continues to decimate the country. Less than 4% of the $2.7 billion in assistance that Sudan needs has been provided by donors so far this year, and last year, last than half was funded.^MEE

Russia's Rosatom has received applications from several African countries for the construction of new nuclear power plants, such as South Africa, which has expressed interest in a floating NPP. An Egyptian NPP is under construction and Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Uganda also want them.^BNE

Chinese company Transsion, with its three brands of Tecno, Infinix and iTel, have 48% of the African market share and are expanding into other markets, and experienced large growth in 2023 in both Africa and the Middle East, surpassing Samsung. This is due to a combination of relatively low prices, better marketing, and producing camera phones which work better with darker skin tones.^SCMP

China has warned New Zealand not to harm its own security interests after it expressed interest in an AUKUS security partnership on cyberwarfare, AI, and hypersonic weapons.^SCMP

The US has approved a $75 million weapons package to Taiwan which involves the Link 16 communications system - which completes Taiwan as the final link of the “transnational coalition kill chain”, giving Taiwan access to the jam-resistant tactical data network for co-ordinating NATO weapons systems that can be linked with countries like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the US.^GPE

The Biden administration has announced that they’re launching a probe into Chinese smart cars to protect the American car industry, with all the usual “Xi Jinping himself is spying on you through the car cameras and hidden microphones and, uh, kills a Ughyur every time you brake, or something.”.^RT

The US has revealed that they have struck 230 targets in Yemen in response to their blockade; notably, the focus on big number rather than effect (HUNDREDS of sanctions on Russia!!!) is a tacit admission of the actual impotence of the attacks. In general, we’re seeing a rather uninspiring repeat of the propaganda that the US has used against Russia; that they’re running out of missiles, etc. ^NC