//The Wire//2300Z May 21, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT VISITS WHITE HOUSE. AX ATTACK STRIKES FRANCE, ONE JUVENILE FATALITY. KNIFE ATTACK OCCURS IN AMSTERDAM, MULTIPLE DEAD AND WOUNDED.//

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-International Events-

France: Yesterday evening a 14-year-old boy was murdered by an assailant in Nogent-sur-Oise, a small town north of Paris. Local authorities have not released any information regarding the attack, however locals who witnessed the incident state that the assailant murdered the boy with an ax in the parking lot of a grocery store.

Netherlands: A stabbing attack was reported in Amsterdam yesterday, resulting in two fatalities, and the wounding of two responding police officers.

AC: This situation does not appear to be a random attack, but rather a domestic situation that occurred in an area well known for heavy drug use. As such, the circumstances of the two fatalities are not clear; Dutch authorities have stated that the responding officers did fire their weapons during this incident, however very few details have indicated what actually happened here.

-HomeFront-

Midwest: Disaster recovery efforts continue throughout the region, following the severe weather systems that have caused devastation throughout the region. Local authorities in St. Louis are investigating their emergency response procedures after a substantial tornado ripped through the downtown metro area on Friday. 

AC: Today local authorities stated that the city's tornado siren network was not functioning at the time it was needed, resulting in no tornado warnings being sounded. The head of the St. Louis City Emergency Management Agency has been placed on leave after it became clear that the citywide siren system didn't actually work, and possibly had not been operationally tested in decades. Routine tests are normally mandatory, however when asked about it the interim CEMA official (a Fire Captain temporarily appointed to the job while the investigation continues) did not provide a date as to when the system was last tested, other than when it was installed in 1999. From the descriptions of what possibly happened, it sounds like the physical button and/or switch to activate the tornado sirens did not work when officials attempted to activate it.

Washington D.C. - This morning South African President Cyril Ramaphosa conducted a state visit to the White House. During the visit, the main point of focus was the domestic situation in South Africa, with President Trump pressing Ramaphosa regarding the concerns of genocide within his nation.

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Analyst Comments: Despite the smiles and handshakes presented to the media, the state visit by South African leadership did not go well. Though the tone was not as openly hostile as Zelenskyy's infamous visit, the ideas conveyed were equally serious (if not moreso). When President Ramaphosa echoed his previous statements flat-out denying that any genocide was taking place, President Trump's team played various video clips showing evidence that these statements are false. Considering that this audio/visual presentation was pre-arranged (but interestingly, not announced beforehand), the White House probably knew how this situation might go and had planned this meticulously.

In short, this visit was probably the White House's attempt to put South African leadership on notice regarding their aspirations for ethnic cleansing. Before the civilizational decline of recent times South Africa was a powerful player in the region, and the White House is probably trying to curb the increasingly exponential rise in cultural violence that is driving South Africa further into a state of decline. Whether or not these efforts will pan out, is anyone's guess.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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