The Wire Weekly Rollup - February 25-March 2, 2024

this is the wire weekly rollup for the week of February 25th through March 2nd 2024 beginning with international events in the Red Sea Horn of Africa region following the houthi cruise missile strike on the merchant vessel rubar in the redc 2 weeks ago this nondescript vessel was discovered to be a drift and likely dragging her anchor following her crew abandoning ship after the strike in the Far East Japan has announced the revitalization of Homeland defense policies amid the steady increase in tension throughout Asia Japanese defense officials are planning to examine the need and implementation requirements for the creation of bunkers and bomb shelters for residents living on some of Japan's more remote outlying Islands in eastern Europe on Tuesday the Breakaway of Republic of transnistria voted to request to become a protectorate of Russia this largely unknown and semi-autonomous region situated in eastern mova along the Ukrainian border has suffered the impacts of poor relations with Moldova leading to this recent vote analyst comment it is unclear as to what Russia's response will be however as the information war is in full effect the implication that transnistria could become another denet is palpable as roughly 250,000 self-described Russians inhabit this region however though the transnistrian issue is unlikely to become an additional front in the Ukrainian War both Russia and the West could seek to capitalize on these fears in order to stoke even more defense funding and pressure NATO members even further Russia could also be motivated to use this as a way to turn the screws to the West as Sweden's accession to Nato is all but certain in Canada several bills have been introduced in Parliament with the goal of suppressing and criminalizing speech and establishing in law the concept of pre- crime Bill C63 as introduced for the first reading this week seeks to modify the criminal code to create a new hate crime offense that specifically introduces life sentences for some speech crimes this bill also allows for the preemptive house arrest of anyone who authorities suspect May commit a hate speech crime in the future this follows the introduction of bill c372 which was tabled earlier this month month which intends to criminalize the promotion of fossil fuels this bill as it stands was allegedly intended to restrict corporate advertising however most of the restrictions apply to Everyday citizens who could face jail time for simply stating that fossil fuels are cheaper or more reliable than allegedly renewable energy sources on the home front in Texas severe wildfires impacted substantial parts of the Panhandle this week following a rapid increase in favorable fire weather conditions The Smokehouse Creek Fire suddenly became the largest fire in Texas history and the second largest in US history reaching a size of over 1 million Acres this week Friday morning precipitation greatly aided firefighting efforts but several large wildfires continued to impact much of Northern Texas analyst comments for this wire though the merchant vessel rubar seems Unworthy of such focused attention shortly after this incident began Telecom providers in the region reported issues with their undersea cables possibly indicating that up to four cables have been severed as houie forces have repeatedly threatened to Target submarine cables the natural assumption was that houti forces may have been involved however as AR rubar is confirmed to have been dragging her anchor for 2 weeks it is possible that this is the cause of these reported outages as a reminder the overwhelming majority of cable cutting incidents involve either vessels dragging anchor or under sea seismic events consequently though no independent verification can be made at this time it is worth considering that the rubba Mar's anchor may have been the reason for the recent telecoms issues likewise as the vessel has possibly finished sinking in comparatively shallow water in one of the most heavily trafficked waterways on Earth the second and third order effects should be considered of subsequent successful houy strikes this concludes the wire weekly rollup for the week of February 25th through March 2nd 2024