Situation Reports

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced Sept. 29 that the United States is monitoring an "unprecedented" deployment of Serbian troops, artillery and tanks along the border with Kosovo.

Rice prices are up more than 40% in Southeast Asia since late 2022 amid India's rice export ban instituted on July 20 and El Nino conditions that are reducing rice output from harvests, BenarNews reported on Sept. 29.

Michael Chan, a Hong Kong passport holder and senior executive of U.S. risk advisory firm Kroll, has been barred from leaving mainland China since July, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 29.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with ex-commander of the paramilitary Wagner Group Andrei Troshev (who the Kremlin said now works for Russia's Defense Ministry) and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Reuters reported on Sept. 29.

Italy's 10-year government bond yields briefly rose to 4.96%, the highest since 2012, after the Italian government raised its fiscal deficit targets and cut its growth forecast for 2023 and 2024, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 28.

The United States is backing the construction of the Central Pacific Cable, a planned undersea internet cable covering thousands of miles that will link U.S. territories American Samoa and Guam before extending to 10 Pacific Island countries and territories, Reuters reported on Sept. 27.

The United Kingdom's Labour Party is committed to retaining the country's Trident nuclear deterrent and will look to strike a "security pact" with the European Union should it win the next general election, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey said in an op-ed in The Telegraph on Sept. 27.

Taiwan's military unveiled its first domestically built attack submarine, the "Hai Kun" (Narwhal), which will commence harbor testing on Oct. 1 and thereafter sea testing, Focus Taiwan reported on Sept. 28.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh said they were dissolving the breakaway statelet they had defended for three decades and that it would "cease to exist" by Jan. 1, Reuters reported on Sept. 28.

Ahmed al-Khateeb, the chair of Saudi Arabia's tourism commission, welcomed Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz to Saudi Arabia, the first public acknowledgment of an Israeli politician's visit to Saudi Arabia, The Times of Israel reported on Sept. 27.