The President's Daily Brief - June 15th, 2022. An Update on Wheat Wars, Mining, and COVID Statistics,

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

It’s June 15th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ----- I’ve got some big updates, my friends. Three Big Stories, Three Big Updates.  So get out those maps — in your minds or on your computer screens — because we are going around the world this morning. First Up: Wheat Wars. Some good news, some bad news, and some news that’s… well, could be good but let’s see what happens news. That’s coming up. Second: We’re heading back to the Congo. I’ve got an update on the conflict there that could interrupt mining, and that in turn could mean higher prices for all of us. Third: Japanese scientists are reporting this morning a major finding on COVID. It could have important implications here if we listen. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's June 15th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright, who is feeling better, by the way. Your morning intel starts now. The brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events in the past 24 hours, all delivered to the President each day by the nation's spymasters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy and this is your brief. Here's what we're going to be talking about this morning. I've got some big updates, friends, three big stories, three big updates. So get out those maps, either in your minds or on your computer screens, because we are going

to go around the world this morning. First up, wheat wars, some good news, some bad news, and then some news that's, well, it could be good, but let's see what happens kind of news. That's coming up. Second, we're heading back to the Congo. I've got an update on a conflict there that could interrupt mining, and that could in turn mean higher prices for all of us. Third, Japanese scientists are reporting this morning

a major finding on COVID. And that could have important implications here. That's all up next on the president's daily brief. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato

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so let's grab those maps and let's get to work. First, the wheat wars. I've got good news, bad news, and news that could be good or bad depending on what happens. Before we dive into the latest, a reminder of why we care about this issue. Now, as we all know, the war in Ukraine is bottling up a bunch of wheat that people from all around the world depend on. And without it, a bunch of folks could starve to death. All right, that much we know. Plus, some of the countries impacted by this Ukrainian wheat issue, well, those folks are our trading partners. So the more that they're spending on wheat or to deal with hungry rioting people, well, that could mean fewer goods that we create and export. And that means fewer jobs here at home. All right, so let's dive into the wheat

wars this morning starting with some good news so take out those maps and let's start in Australia for the third year in a row our friends down under are looking at a record or near record wheat production so the good lord is smiling on them this morning literally with some good weather and that's meant that they've been able to put a good crop into the ground about 35.7 million acres and that's an all-time high now keep in mind that that's just the planting so what those seeds grow into come harvest time, it's still a bit of a rough guess, but farmers and market analysts think that we could have another record year. And that's a very good thing for our partners in Asia. The countries of Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand, well, they all get some of their wheat

from Ukraine, and that's supply that's obviously at grave risk. So with a bumper crop in nearby Australia, it'll help alleviate some of that pressure, at least in Asia. All right, let's talk more good news. So take a look at those maps and let's head north and west all the way across the Indian Ocean and stop at Egypt. So if you remember, Egypt was in big, big trouble because they import about 80% of their wheat, mostly from Russia and Ukraine. Now, Egypt is really important to us. And that's because they're a critical partner in our Middle Eastern strategy. And by that, I really mean because they control the Suez Canal. Now, that connects the Mediterranean Sea and Europe to the markets in Asia. And it handles about 12% of global trade. So if Egypt starts to have

troubles like domestic unrest or someone tries to sink a ship in the canal like they try to do back in 2013, well, that would spell trouble for the entire world, including us and our economy. So the good news to report this morning is this. The Egyptians have lined up a 500,000-ton deal with India, which is a pretty big deal for a couple of reasons. First, as I briefed you on before, India's own supplies of wheat, well, it's been in doubt this year because they had a really nasty heat wave and it destroyed about 30% of their crop yields. But even still, the country of India has agreed to send 500,000 tons of wheat to Egypt, and the first shipment just arrived. Now, the whole deal was extra dicey because a lot of people didn't think that the wheat would

past quality control tests. In the past, India has had problems with diseases and pests in their wheat exports, but thankfully, it all went well. So well, in fact, that Egypt is now reporting that their strategic reserves of wheat are now filling up so fast that they should be good through the end of this year. So all in all, great news to report. But like all things, this good news has to come to an end. So let's leave Egypt and head north and west all the way over to Ukraine. So the bad news here is that we've got 84 ships full of wheat all just sitting at the port in Odessa. They're not going to be moving anytime soon. And that's because as I reported on Monday, we've got a bunch of mines bobbing throughout the Black Sea, plus, you know, the Russian Navy is

parked nearby. Also bad news. The Russians are moving 300,000 tons of Ukraine's wheat back to Moscow. We got confirmation over the past couple of days that they're taking it from Ukraine's silos and they're putting it on their own trains and shipping it back to Russia. And it's not just wheat, by the way. We're talking about another 200,000 tons of sunflower seeds too. So Putin is calling this all liberated, quote-unquote, food stuff. But I think that we can all call a spade a spade on this one and say that it's stolen. Regardless, analysts are predicting that some of that stolen wheat will be sold into the international market.

And it's going to be very, very tough to stop. All right. Now for some news that might be good, but too early to time. tell. Joe Biden and European nations confirmed yesterday that they intend to build grain silos along the border of Poland and Ukraine. So the idea here is that Ukraine's harvest, as we all know, is coming up the next month or two, and they got to put it somewhere. So there's a scramble to build these new silos probably just inside Poland, just away from Russian attack, also that Ukrainian trucks and trains can dump it off. And at that point, Polish workers will

load it all up via train and then ship it to the Baltic Sea. where it'll go to global markets. We've got no real good details on the exact locations or the deadlines of when these silos will be built, but we do know that officials are working on it. And I will absolutely keep you posted as I learn of progress. All right, my friends, let's pack up and move south, and I mean way south, all the way to the continent of Africa and a place that we've been to before on the PDB, and that's the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now, you may remember the first brief that I gave you on this. There was a brewing war in eastern Congo, and it's a region that we care about because of mining operations that are really important to the global supply of things like tin. And further south, there are more mines of copper and cobalt. Both of those are really critical for all sorts of products that we use. Now, to understand this brief, you might want to really pay attention to that map and look very closely for the city of Goma. It's between Lake Kivu and a bunch of volcanoes to the northwest, right on that border of Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda. Well, there's a rebel group in that area, and they're called M23.

And they're backed by that country I just mentioned, Rwanda, that you see to the east. So explaining this conflict and who this group is, it gets very complicated. So let me just boil it down and say that this fight and this group, well, it has everything to do with countries in that area that just don't get a lot. long, and they're engaged in tribal warfare, have been for centuries. Plus, there's revenge that they seek from the genocide that was in Rwanda, and that happened back in the 1990s. So with that in mind, here's the update. M23 Rebels took over the border town of Bunangana.

Now, you can barely find this town on a map. It's just north of Mount Sabineo. I want you to look for a road that's called RN28. Well, 30,000 people fled this town. and they went into neighboring Uganda. It's horrible, of course. Our hearts break for all those people. But this town is really important for other reasons too.

Namely, if you want to control trade of things like tin and gold and diamonds, well, you want to take over that route, RN28. And that's because that's where a lot of the minerals go to the international market. And again, that's what the rebels took over. Now, it's too early to say what exactly is going to happen. Now, obviously, the government of Congo is pretty angry and the government of Rwanda which apparently is backing this rebel group, is saying, well, they have no idea what's going on.

Far-fetched, obviously, but nevertheless, that's what they're claiming. The fear is that this conflict is going to end up starting a regional war, one that spreads and affects all kinds of people and all kinds of minds. And that would be a very bad deal for our economy, even though it's over 7,000 miles away. So I'm going to keep watching this story to see if the rebels hold that town or that they take over more territory, including those all-important minds.

I'll keep you posted. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Big news for your kids' lunchbox. Welch's fruit snacks are now made without any artificial dyes. A snack parents can feel good about and the same delicious taste kids can't get enough of. All made with no artificial dyes. Try Welch's fruit snacks today.

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way east all the way to the country of Japan. And we've got a very important report out this morning from an organization called Our World and Data. It's a website that tallies, amongst other things, COVID-19 statistics. And boy, do they have some important data for us to consider? Because it helps explain why we got hit harder than other places. So researchers looked at the total number of Japanese people who died from COVID-19. and they figured that it was 245 people per million citizens.

But in the U.S., we were at 3,038 people per million citizens. That's an over 10 times greater fatality rate. Plus, researchers found that the Japanese folks also contracted the virus less often, and those who did rarely ended up in the hospital. So the obvious question here is why. What explains why the Japanese people fared so well while we fared so much worse? Researchers aren't exactly sure, but one big reason? Well, it has to do with being big.

The rate of obesity in Japan is 4.2%. The rate in the United States is 42%. That's right. That's right. Our death rate from COVID was about 10 times as bad. as Japan, roughly matching the 10 times difference from obesity. And that's something that we've spoken about on the PDB before, haven't we? Data from very early on in the pandemic showed that 70 to 80% of people hospitalized from COVID were obese. And the CDC continues to very quietly

report the exact same thing. Being obese triples the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection. And that's because obesity impairs immune function and it decreases our lung capacity. And that's a big deal when you're dealing with respiratory virus like COVID. Now, this brief, I think, is important for a lot of reasons. But the one thing that I want to leave you with is this. The next time that we go through a pandemic, and we will, it's just a matter of time, we have got to learn a lesson from this pandemic. We've got to be honest about risk. We had no national campaign to talk about or tackle obesity in this country when we knew that it was the greatest risk factor. The White House didn't lead that campaign. Hollywood didn't talk about it. The CDC didn't do anything. Tony Fauci? My goodness, he didn't discuss it either.

In fact, our state and local governments, they shut down our parks and our gyms. Folks, we gained on average 29 pounds of fat through the pandemic, and that only made us sicker, all because it wasn't politically correct to talk about the direct connection between obesity and COVID. If you recall, people every once in a while tried, but it was fatphobic, right? It was mean, it was hurtful. And that cost all of us a lot. from the damaging effects of remote learning in our kids when we shut down our schools,

to throwing incredibly fit people out of the military and ruining their lives because they wouldn't get the jab, to the increased cases of dementia and our elderly people because we locked them away. That story I gave you in a brief just last week. So friends, we've got to be smarter next time around. We can't let our pride get in the way of an uncomfortable but loving conversation. And more importantly, we cannot let politicians and egotistical public health officials stop the kind of conversation that we needed to have. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief.

Thank you, thank you for all of the great emails with well wishes. Whatever bug I had is not still around, but it's on the run. I've got some good antibiotics, about a gallon of half of coffee today, and a sincere desire to bring you all the latest. Those things got me back to the mic. So again, I say to you, thank you. And 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. How many discounts does USA Auto-Indexam? insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount. Storage discount.

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