Issue 33
January 22, 2024
FLASH Desantis drops out from Republican presidential primary, endorses Trump, attacks Haley
1 Americans much more upbeat about the economy
2 Steady drumbeat of attacks against American bases in Iraq, Syria risk wider war
3 Diesel truck makers bet big on batteries
4 Meanwhile in China…
5 North Korea takes advantage of world in turmoil
1/22/1973 Roe v. Wade is decided
Sports
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
1 Americans much more upbeat about the economy
Consumer sentiment surged 29% since November, the biggest two-month increase since 1991, the University of Michigan said Friday, adding to gauges showing improving moods. It’s a sharp turn after persistently high inflation, the lingering shock from the pandemic’s destruction and fears that a recession was around the corner had put a damper on feelings about the economy in recent years, despite solid growth and consistent hiring.
Consumer sentiment leapt 13% in the first half of January from December, the Michigan survey said, after a sharp rise the prior month.
WSJ
2 Steady drumbeat of attacks against American bases in Iraq, Syria risk wider war
Another day, another barrage of rockets and another spark that American officials fear could set off a wildfire of violence across the Middle East. The latest attack on American troops in the region over the weekend resulted in no deaths, but President Biden and his advisers worry that it is only a matter of time. Whenever a report of a strike arrives at the White House Situation Room, officials wonder whether this will be the one that forces a more decisive retaliation and results in a broader regional war. The assault on American troops based at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq on Saturday night was by one measure the most successful believed to be carried out by a militia sponsored by Iran since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Two out of an estimated 17 rockets and short-range ballistic missiles fired at the base made it through air defense systems. An unspecified number of American military personnel were reported injured, but none were said to have been killed. But it was just the latest in a regular string of relatively low-level assaults that have become a way of life in the Middle East for U.S. forces since the Hamas attack. As of Thursday, Iranian-backed militias had already carried out 140 attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria, with nearly 70 U.S. personnel wounded, some of them suffering traumatic brain injuries. All but a few have been able to return to duty in short order, according to the Pentagon.
While there have been no known American fatalities from enemy fire since Oct. 7, two Navy SEALs went missing this month during a nighttime commando raid on a boat carrying Iranian-made ballistic-missile and cruise-missile components to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. On Sunday, U.S. Central Command said that the SEALs had died and it had ended its search. One of the SEALs slipped off a boarding ladder or was swept off by a high wave, while the other jumped in to try to save him, according to news reports.
NYT
3 Diesel truck makers bet big on batteries
The U.S.’s biggest commercial truck and engine builders are betting that the freight industry is ready to swap diesel fuel pumps for battery chargers. The diesel engine maker Cummins and the truck builders Daimler Truck and Paccar plan to build a $2 billion battery factory in Mississippi to produce batteries for commercial trucks. The plant, which the companies will operate as a joint venture, is expected to begin producing battery cells in 2027.
WSJ
4 Meanwhile in China…
Country “uninvestable”
"China is--exports are down, population is down, the markets down 30%... real estate debt issues, government debt issues, no new construction, and their politics has gone from a party dictatorship to a person dictatorship. So they're moving in the wrong direction. I don't like the exposure to China, I don't like it right now. China is almost uninvestable.”
X
https://x.com/indopac_info/status/1748877870116803031?s=46&t=nVb-5uC_WM3Cp0R0dGiqHQ
“Fastest growing” nuclear arsenal in world
The modernization of China’s nuclear arsenal has both accelerated and expanded in recent years. In this issue of the Nuclear Notebook, we estimate that China now possesses roughly 500 nuclear warheads, with more in production to arm future delivery systems. China is now believed to have one of the fastest-growing nuclear arsenals among the nine nuclear-armed states.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
https://thebulletin.org/premium/2024-01/chinese-nuclear-weapons-2024/
5 North Korea takes advantage of world in turmoil
North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells in waters near South Korean border islands on Jan. 5. Last week, it said it no longer regarded the South as inhabited by “fellow countrymen” but as a “hostile state” it would subjugate through a nuclear war. On Friday, it said it had tested an underwater nuclear drone to help repel U.S. Navy fleets. That new drumbeat of threats, while the United States and its allies have been preoccupied with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, has set foreign officials and analysts wondering whether the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has moved beyond posturing and is planning to assert more military force.
NYT
1/22/1973 Roe v. Wade is decided
Thanks for reading!
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