The President's Daily Brief - August 26th, 2022. Big Five Update: China Gets a Heatwave During a Drought. Good News in the Wheat Wars. 150 Cops Arrested as Cartel Members in Mexico. California Bans Sales of Gas Cars.

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

It’s August 26th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ Welcome to a special edition of the PDB this morning: a Big Five Update for you. Five critical updates on stories we’ve covered previously that are shaping America — and the world. First, there’s a very bad drought and heat wave in China it’s getting worse. Odds are you will feel the effects here in America too. I’ll explain.   Second, some very good news in the Wheat Wars. The amount of Ukrainian grain getting to market hit a very important number. I’ll share it with you. Third, Mexico just arrested 150 police officers for working for a Mexican cartel. I’ll explain the latest. Fourth, California is banning the sale of gas powered cars. I’ll tell you exactly how it’s going to work — and when it starts. Finally, an update on the Battle for the South Pacific. A Prime Minister is paying off his political opponents with a slush fund full of Chinese cash. Plus, one more thing before I let you go. A personal request for what I think is going to be a very fun week starting Monday. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's August 26th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. Welcome to a special edition of the PDB this morning, a big five update for you, five critical updates on stories we've covered previously that are shaping America and the world. First, there's a very bad drought and heat wave in China, and it's getting worse. Odds are you will feel the effects here in America too. I'll explain. Second, some very good news in the wheat wars. The amount of Ukrainian grain getting to market hit a very important number.

I'll share it with you. Third, Mexico just arrested 150 police officers who were working for a Mexican cartel. I'll explain the latest. Fourth, California is banning the sale of gas-powered cars. I'll tell you exactly how it's going to work and when it starts. Finally, an update on the battle for the South Pacific. We've got a prime minister who is using cash from China to pay off his political opponents. Plus, one more thing before I let you go.

A personal request for what I think is going to be a very fun week starting Monday. But first, let's get to our Big Five update. Mother Nature is hard at work this morning in central and southern China, but unfortunately she is not being kind. For the past two months, those areas have been hit by a record drought and a record heat wave. Now, that combination has caused a global domino effect that, depending on how long it lasts, could affect prices that you pay for all sorts of things here in America. Let me explain.

First, we've got the heat wave. For the past 70 days, Central and Southern China have seen record-breaking heat, with temperatures hotter than at any point recorded in the past 60 years, between 100 and 110 degrees. Now, in turn, that has caused two things to happen. First, it's hammered their food supply. Rice, wheat, and corn crops are not looking good. I mean, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of acres destroyed, with millions more damaged. That means that the Chinese government will almost certainly have to buy replacement grains of all kinds, and maybe cattle and chicken too.

So as Beijing goes around the world in search of new replacement products, it'll crimps supply globally pushing up prices. Now, analysts are predicting that it could lead to. more inflationary pressures here at home too. In other words, prices at grocery stores in your hometown are probably going to be affected by weather in China. Meanwhile, as that heat wave reduces crop production, people throughout China are cranking up their air conditioning to stay cool. And that is causing major stress to their electricity grid. In fact, it can't keep up in central and southern China. And the reason? Yeah, it's that record drought. Those areas in central in southern China rely heavily on hydro power, about 80% of the production in some cities.

But the record drought that's accompanying this record heat wave is leaving dozens of rivers bone dry. The Yangtze River, for instance, is down to the lowest levels ever recorded in some places. The Chinese National Energy Administration has promised to ramp up coal-powered electricity, but even still, it's probably not going to be enough. So Beijing has told factories and citizens alike to get ready for power outages and rationing. So for companies, that means shutting down production or dramatically reducing operations. You might recognize some of the names of those companies. Apple, for instance, their suppliers in the region have had to shut down or reduce the production of the touch sensors and the display components on things like the iPhone.

Tesla has been impacted too. In fact, they wrote a letter to the Chinese government begging for their suppliers to get special consideration for electricity. Now, we don't know how authorities responded, but we do know that Tesla is not alone. We've got Toyota, Honda, Mazda, and Volkswagen all asking Beijing for the same. Meanwhile, Chinese citizens are feeling the pinch, too. Office buildings are shutting off their AC units. People are working from home if they can. shopping malls, well, they can only operate between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. No air conditioning before those evening hours.

So the big question is, how long is this going to last? Well, cooler temperatures are forecasted, but the rivers and reservoirs, that's going to probably take months to replenish. So unless the coal fire plants can catch up, we are likely to see some pretty serious impacts on China's factory output, which is obviously bad for us. China is a major supplier for, well, everything, it seems, certainly for our electronic gear, but also solar panels and all those batteries for electric vehicles. So with less supply of all of those things, we're likely to see higher prices on factory items, too, not just agricultural products at your grocery store. As bad and frustrating as all of that is, there's another important national security consideration to all this as well.

In the next month or so, China's president is seeking a third term as head of the country. Now, it's an unprecedented move, and up until now, he's been expected to continue on in his rule. But if things continue to degrade, well, it could embolden some of the president's critics. All in all, Mother Nature has set off quite a domino effect, and as always, I will keep you posted as things develop. Second, some very good news to report on the Wheat Wars. So to refresh our memories on this topic, Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat and corn, barley, and sunflower. But after Russia invaded, very few of those crops were getting out to market.

But Ukraine and Russia reached a deal a few weeks back, collaborating with the country of Turkey and the United Nations. Well, they all agreed to allow some shipments to resume via the Black Sea. And boy, have those shipments resumed. Dozens of ships headed to at least six nations. all of whom have been in desperate need of food. In total, we're talking over 4 million metric tons of ag products just this month, and that's compared to 5 million tons before the war.

And that's pretty remarkable progress given where we were just a month ago. And by the way, it's not just a Black Sea route that is actually increasing its trade. There's a new rail line that just started operations going from Ukraine to the country of Moldova, plus expanded trucking efforts into Poland. Now, as we've talked about before, these other options aren't as good as compared to the ships on the Black Sea, but still, we are seeing some really fantastic progress on the Wheat Wars, and that is great to see. For your third update this morning, a sobering piece of news out of Mexico on who really runs that country. 150 Mexican police officers were arrested earlier this week when an undercover operation revealed that they were working not for the Mexican people,

but for the new generation Halisco cartel. So here are those details. About a year ago, officials in the state of Guanyahuato noticed that just as police officers were about to arrest a criminal or a cartel member, that suspect would escape or disappear. Officials suspected that they had a rotten cop or two, so they called in a specially trained unit,

actually trained by the United States, all to investigate their suspicion of this rotten apple or two. Well, over the course of, number of months, they discovered that it wasn't just a couple of bad cops. The number grew to well over 100 suspects. The investigation continued until this week when investigators dropped the hammer and arrested 150 cops. So all of them, it is believed, were working for the new generation Halisco cartel, which is one of the more dominant ones in Mexico. You may recall my briefs on these guys before when I described how new members of the gang are initiated. I won't go into detail

again, but as you might recall, it involves cannibalism. Despite the remarkable arrest of 150 cops, no one in Guanyahuato expects that this will bring an end to the corruption or the violence. In fact, there's been nothing but increases in cartel violence this year, all throughout the country. Guanyahuato has had 10 murders a day, one of the most violent rates in the country. Very distressing news here, but as always, I will keep you posted because the fallout of cartel violence has very real implications for our country. With that, we're going to take a quick break. But when we come back, I've got two more updates for you on cars in California and corruption in the South Pacific. We'll be right back. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's

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Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the PDB and our Big Five update. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. First, the state of California announced yesterday that gas-powered cars will be banned for purchase, starting in the year 2035. Governor Gavin Newsom's climate advisor called it a huge day, not only for California, but the entire world, all as the state moves away from oil.

So let's dive into the details of the plan. Under the new rules, 100% of new cars sold in the state of California must be zero emissions by the year 2035. Heavy trucks, like semis, get somewhat of a reprieve. They have until 2045 to be zero emissions. Now, there is a little bit of wiggle room here. Up to 20% of cars sold can be plugged. and hybrids, which as you probably know, have both electric motors and gas engines. Also,

people can still buy new gas powered cars from other states if you can find them. Finally, you will still be able to buy and sell used gas cars and like trucks, but not just anything new off of the dealer's lot. So while making this announcement, the state acknowledged that electric vehicles are really expensive, averaging $66,000 right now. And that might be a problem for some people, especially poor people. So they are working on a plan for middle class and poor Californians, details to be determined. The real impact here is not just in California, but in how this changes the whole country. And that's because California's automobile market is so big that auto manufacturers change their entire lineups just to meet California's requirements.

So as California goes on this issue, so goes the number. nation, like it or not. So for what it's worth, environmentalists in California are actually not happy about this new rule. An attorney for the group Earth Justice said that the 2035 timeline is, quote, not that ambitious, end quote, she pointed to Washington State's deadline of 2030 as much better. There is one challenge here that the state acknowledged. What happens if auto manufacturers build these electric vehicles, but consumers won't. buy them. Well, the state of California during their announcement said, quote, we always reserve the right to amend the regulations at any point, end quote. I'm not sure if that is a threat or a

willingness to be flexible, but either way, I'll keep you posted. Finally, this morning, we've got an update on the battle for the South Pacific. As a reminder to listeners, this is a series I've delivered to you on the fight between China and the U.S. for influence in the South Pacific. Specifically their relationships with island nations like Kiribash and Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. And it's the Solomons that I have quite an update for you this morning, but to really appreciate it, we need some quick history. Back in 2019, the country elected Prime Minister Sogavare, and he switched the island's diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing and has been pushing his country ever closer to China ever since. That hasn't been a very popular move. And that's

because there is a lot of tension between the native people of the Solomons and the Chinese businessman on the island, with allegations of Chinese racism directed towards the locals. Those tensions boiled over last fall with riots and protests plus anti-government rallies. Prime Minister Sogavari called in international help to include the Chinese government to put it all down. And that made his political opponents really angry, so they scheduled a vote of no confidence in parliament to potentially throw him out. And that's where this update becomes very interesting. We're now learning from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Beijing gave the Prime Minister, Sogavari, a slush fund of about $2.5 million that he could use for, well, whatever he wanted. And he did. He gave just over a million

dollars to 39 lawmakers just before the no-confidence vote, and then another round of cash just after the vote. And guess what? He survived the vote and he remains Prime Minister. When news of this Chinese slush fund broke in the past couple of days, a spokesperson for the prime minister denied anything was corrupt about his behavior and said that the journalists who reported the information were promoting, quote, racism and racial stereotyping, end quote. The spokesperson added that the Prime Minister may ban journalists from ever entering his country again if they are, quote, disrespectful and demeaning, end quote. Which, ironically enough, sounds very much like something Beijing would say.

And that, folks, is your big five update for this Friday morning. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. And it's a personal request. We'll be right back. This is a Bose moment. You've been there before. Somebody's apartment, small talk that's going nowhere, plastic cup, that's almost empty. It's not great.

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I'm guessing that you have a favorite show or two. I know that I do. So all next week, we are going to bring those shows back. But not in the same way. I want to give you fresh research, new data, an updated analysis. And then we'll see if our minds have changed on anything or if we look at the world, a touch differently. Now, there are lots of shows to choose from,

but I know that some of the big ones based on feedback include the one about vaccines, the science behind why we should or shouldn't mandate that someone get vaccinated. Or the one about why we have so many illegal migrants from Central America and what to do about it. Or the one about how we bring back American companies who went to China years ago. How do you bring those folks back home? So here's my ask of you. If you have a favorite show, let me know. specifically what other questions can I answer that with the passage of time could help you better

understand the issue or the country a little bit better so send me an email with what you think and as always the address is pdb at thefirsttvv.com again that's p as in presidents d is in daily and b as in brief at the first tv.com next week is going to be a lot of fun because it is an entire week driven by you. So, put me to work. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show,

reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.