⚫️🇲🇱❌🇳🇪 JNIM claimed an attack on a border post at Assamaka, northern Niger, near the Algerian border. This would be the group’s first attack in far northern Niger.

Nigerien Tuareg rebels (FAL) gave a competing claim for the attack but have not published evidence as JNIM has.

The competing claims possibly indicate that the two groups are coordinating their operations, as JNIM has done with Tuareg rebels in Mali.

CTP has assessed since 2023 that JNIM is at least deconflicting its activity with the Malian Tuareg rebels.

🔗 Critical Threats

📊 Results from a new survey:

Free speech is now ranked the second-most important issue for Americans in the upcoming election — more important than health care, crime and immigration.

@CIG_telegram

🐣📈♀️ Could a right to remote work stop declining birth rates?

One benefit of remote work is that it allows parents to spend more time on childcare and housework—potentially reducing the barriers to starting a family. Indeed, some preliminary research in the U.S. shows that remote work is associated with higher fertility for some demographic groups, such as wealthier or higher-educated women. Meanwhile, most developed countries are grappling with persistent declines in fertility rates, raising concerns over aging populations and economic stagnation. Although the decline in fertility rates is a complex and multifaceted problem, the recent trend in remote work raises questions around if and how flexible work arrangements could help fertility rates rebound. Specifically, could a right to request flexible work that is enshrined in law combat declining birth rates?

https://www.brookings.edu/events/could-a-right-to-remote-work-stop-declining-birth-rates/

🇺🇸U.S. Army’s Watercraft Fleet in Crisis: Government Watchdog Reveals Less Than 40% of Vessels Are Ready For Action

In a scathing report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Army’s watercraft fleet has been found to be in dire straits, with less than 40% of its vessels currently capable of performing their missions.

The revelation comes at a time when demand for these critical assets is on the rise, particularly in the strategically important Indo-Pacific region.

The report highlights a stark decline in the operational readiness of the Army’s 70-vessel watercraft fleet. From a fully mission capable rate of 75% in 2020, the fleet’s readiness has plummeted to below 40% in 2024, the GAO report has revealed. This dramatic downturn severely hampers the Army’s ability to meet its mission requirements, conduct essential training, and maintain operational readiness.

https://gcaptain.com/u-s-armys-watercraft-fleet-in-crisis-government-watchdog-reveals-less-than-40-of-vessels-are-ready-for-action/

☢️🇹🇼🇺🇸 TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife

Mark Nelson on X: "TSMC's Arizona plant is nuclear-powered, from 3 giant reactors in the middle of the desert using Phoenix's treated waste water.

Meanwhile Taiwan is about to crash its electricity grid in an insane crusade to close all their nuclear plants and run on imported fossil fuels."

The share of chips manufactured at TSMC’s facility in Phoenix that are usable is about 4 percentage points higher than comparable facilities in Taiwan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push

https://archive.ph/MckxG

☢️ 🇺🇸🏗 Construction has started on a liquid sodium test facility for TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/10/22/construction-underway-on-testing-facility-at-terrapowers-wyoming-nuclear-plant-site/

📎 James Hopf

🇺🇸🇨🇳China-Based Chemical Manufacturing Companies and Employees Indicted for Alleged Fentanyl Manufacturing and Distribution

Today, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of indictments against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees charging federal crimes, including attempted distribution of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, and money laundering. The indictments were filed under seal in the Middle District of Florida over the past year.

“The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies based in China. In order to break this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Justice Department has aggressively investigated and prosecuted these companies. We will continue to target every organization and individual that fuels the deadly drug trade.”

As described in the unsealed indictments, the defendants openly advertised their ability to thwart border officials and deliver the synthetic opioids or the chemicals used to make fentanyl to the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere in the United States. The defendants deliberately engaged in evasive activities, such as mislabeling the contents of shipments to ensure the illicit chemicals and controlled substances went undetected. As a result, these companies were able to sell a stable supply of precursor chemicals to clients in Mexico and the United States for years. One of the companies even represented that every month it sends “more than 20 kilograms to the United States, Africa, Canada, and other countries.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-employees-indicted-alleged-fentanyl

Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, discussing personal topics, business, and geopolitics. Putin even asked him to avoid activating Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping, according to several U.S, European, and Russian officials - WSJ

https://wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187

📎 Faytuks

🇬🇧 BBC sparks fury after questioning if term 'ethnic minority' should be replaced by 'global majority'

In recent years, various organisations across the UK, including the Government, have dropped the acronym Bame, which stands for black, Asian, and minority ethnic, and in its place are opting to use the new phrase “global majority”.

The term was coined in 2003 by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens, a British-Jamaican academic, and refers to people who are “black, Asian, brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities'”.

Campbell-Stephens said in 2020 that the group accounts for more than 80 per cent of the world’s population.

🔗 https://www.gbnews.com/news/bbc-sparks-fury-questioning-ethnic-minority-replaced-global-majority

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe to compensate white farmers who lost land in seizures 20 years ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe says it will compensate local and foreign white farmers who lost land and property more than 20 years ago in farm seizures meant to redress some of the wrongs of colonialism.

About 4,000 white farmers lost their homes and swathes of land when the Black-majority country’s then-president, Robert Mugabe, launched the often-chaotic redistribution program in 2000, which turned violent at times. Mugabe, who died in 2019, said it was aimed at addressing colonial-era land inequities after the southern African nation gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced Wednesday at a meeting with diplomats that his government approved 441 applications for compensation worth $351.6 million from local white farmers and 94 applications from foreigners worth $196.6 million, but only 1%, or $3.5 million, will be paid in cash to local farmers who lost land. The balance, Ncube said, will be paid through the issuance of treasury bonds.

Foreigners will receive an initial $20 million to be shared equally among the 94 claimants from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and several countries in eastern Europe, he said.

White farmers who owned the majority of prime farmland were removed from their farms, often forcibly by violent mobs led by veterans of the country’s 1970s independence war. Some farmers and their workers died or were seriously injured in the violence that included beatings and rape, according to Human Rights Watch.

The seizures badly impacted commercial farming, forcing a country that was a key regional food producer and exporter to rely on assistance from donors. Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector has rebounded in recent years, but recent droughts are now the main challenge.

https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-white-farmers-land-colonialism-mugabe-8ef1747c1f02d92487b0c47bb1be1f4d

🇨🇦 Justin Trudeau admits the unrestricted mass migration of Indians to Canada has created too many problems and promises to restrict immigration "for the next two years".

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Parliament pretty narrowly endorsed the British Rwanda Plan/Italy-Albania scheme of deporting rejected migrants to 3rd countries while they await repatriation.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Parliament voted in favour of building physical border walls on its reaches after mass opposing such a move for more than a decade.

📝: The right has won the debate on migration, even leftist politicians are beginning to take borders and migration seriously, not because they believe migrants are bad, but because they fear losing their support base to right-wing parties.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇳🇱🇧🇮🇱 UNIFIL on X:
"On 22 October, UN peacekeepers on duty at a permanent observation post near Dhayra were observing IDF soldiers conducting house clearing operations nearby. Upon realizing they were being observed, the IDF soldiers fired at the post. The duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot.

The IDF has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged camera, lighting, and communications equipment at some of these positions.

Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in position and on task. We will continue to undertake our mandated tasks to monitor and report.

We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property. Any deliberate attack on them is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Resolution 1701."

📎 UNIFIL

🇬🇧 Tommy Robinson charged with terror offence

Tommy Robinson has been charged with a terror offence after refusing to give police access to his mobile phone.

🔗 https://archive.ph/tzQSW