Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 12, 2022 · 4:03 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of April 10, 2022)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of April 10, 2022.

Global News

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the war in Ukraine has caused global grain prices to rise by 17.1 percent. Russia and Ukraine account for a large portion of global grain and corn exports.

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The latest COVID variant, BA.2, and what we know about it.

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Methane, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, has been steadily growing in the atmosphere. This is a major threat in the fight against climate change.

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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports 18 countries have reduced their emissions and kept growing their economies. The model they followed could be exported to other nations.

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Americas

In the United States of America, some of the hardest places to raise children and start families are also passing some of the strictest anti-abortion laws.

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The government of Guyana struck a deal with ExxonMobil for the Yellowtail project. While the company has about 2 billion dollars set aside for unexpected problems like an oil spill, environmental activist are still concerned about the projects’ potential damage to the ecosystem.

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There may be only eight Vaquita porpoises left in Mexico due to governmental officials not enforcing protections for the critically endangered species. Poachers and illegal fishers leave nets in the vaquita’s habitat that snare the porpoises and drown them.

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Africa

South Sudan is facing hunger for 2/3 of the population, resulting from climate change and ongoing conflicts.

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Spain’s attempt to boost ties with Morocco may hurt both the Spanish government and Algerian relations.

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Gambians are voting for a new National Assembly on Sunday. The economy will be one of the main issues facing the government, along with tensions with Senegal.

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Europe

Moscow targets Polish tensions with Ukraine for disinformation and propaganda. While both suffered under Soviet era rule, Russian propaganda aims at historical tensions and stoking anti-refugee sentiment.

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Oleg Orlov, Russian human rights activist and critic of Vladimir Putin, has been arrested again. Member of the banned human rights organization Memorial, Orlov was protesting the Russian invasion and war in Ukraine.

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Explainer: Why the French election matters outside of France.

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Middle East

Cities around Iran experienced high levels of air pollution on Friday, with Tehran being the most polluted city in the world in air quality. This follows a year in which only two days had clean air quality.

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Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s new presidential council, announced plans on ending the war in Yemen via a peace process.

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Lebanon is one step closer to a 3-billion-dollar deal for financial aid deal with the International Monetary Fund.

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Saudi Arabia will allow 1 million pilgrims for the Hajj this year, provided they’re vaccinated and under 65 years old. While higher than last year, the average pre pandemic was 2.5 million pilgrims.

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Asia

The government of Sri Lanka is facing mounting calls for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Lack of food, fuel, the country’s debt and a lack of progress in the investigation of terrorist attacks are major sources of anger.

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Explainer: The people behind the fall of former prime minister Imran Khan.

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Armenia and Azerbaijan are preparing to hold another peace conference to resolve the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

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Imran Khan’s fall explained.

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Japan and the Philippines are discussing a possible defense agreement.

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The current president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, denied rumors of his administration trying to delay the elections in 2024.

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March 23, 2022 · 3:14 am

Global Tech Stories (March 22, 2022)

Returning from our break, we have more tech stories for this Tuesday!

Here’s what’s going on in the world of technology for this Tuesday.

The renewable energy produced by wind energy could have already replaced coal in Texas. Yet the energy grid is a mess.

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The Lapsus$ hacking gang compromised a super user account in Okta, a password management platform responsible for using multiple services securely without using a password for each service.

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Researchers at John Hopkins University in Maryland are working on an autonomous medical robot.

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A new way to phish passwords that anyone can use.

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Scientists developed a way to repel dust and even moisture from solar panels in the desert.

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February 14, 2022 · 6:39 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of February 13, 2022)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of Feb. 13, 2022.

Global News

Climate change threatens the ability of some regions of the world to adapt.

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The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet and more variants are likely according to the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan.

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Deloitte’s 2022 Global Health Care Outlook highlights the six major issues affecting global health for the coming year. Some of these issues include mental health, access to care, and digital changes and the environment.

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Americas

Canadian police have cleared protestors from Ambassador bridge on Sunday. The bridge accounts for 25% of US-Canadian trade traffic. The majority of Canadians do not support the ongoing protests in Ottawa.

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Fact Check: Canadian protestors and the “Freedom Convoy”.

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Africa

Somaliland foreign minister Essa Kayd told China the country cannot dictate their relationship with Taiwan. Beijing has largely undermined Taiwan’s recognition in Africa, with only eSwatini having full recognition by Taiwan.

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European Union officials are now focusing on assisting African nations with COVID-19 vaccination challenges such as low shelf life, vaccine training, hesitancy and logistics of distribution of the vaccines. However, African nations such as South Africa are also focusing on developing their own capacity to produce vaccines domestically to avoid over-reliance on imported vaccines.

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Women farmers in Sierra Leone are utilizing swamp lands for agriculture through a agricultural collective. The collective is not only using a potentially greater yielding environment for farming, it’s also providing autonomy and economic growth opportunities for the community.

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Europe

Finland, a non-NATO member sharing a border with Russia, has bought dozens of F-35 stealth aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles from Lockheed Martin. This is part of the country’s ongoing work to improve their military and not related to current tensions between Russia, Ukraine and NATO.

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A former senior general has called for Putin to resign over the Ukraine crisis and other issues related to Putin’s rule of the country.

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Leaders from several political parties met to work on a government after Erdogan, including former members of the current President’s own party.

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Explainer: Putin’s negotiation strategy over Ukraine, according to analysts.

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Middle East

Israel is working on a systemic integration of AI and digital technologies throughout all branches of the military.

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Daesh remains a transnational threat despite prior losses in territory and leadership.

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Protestors have continued for a fifth day in the Syrian city of Sweida, despite government forces being sent in to patrol the streets. The protesters are upset over the living conditions and loss of government supports, in a nation where 90% of the population lives in poverty according to the United Nations.

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Asia

Indonesia is testing a domestic COVID-19 vaccine, the “Merah Putih” or “Red and White”, on human subjects as part of an effort to improve vaccination rates in the largest South East Asian nation. If successful, the government plans to increase domestic vaccination rates and donate the vaccine to other nations.

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The Quad alliance is seeking new “dialogue members” as the organization creates a united front against authoritarian regimes. Initially set up to counter increasing aggressiveness from Beijing, the Quad is also working on efforts to combat COVID-19 and how to work better with organizations like Association of South East Asian Nations.

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The International Labor Organization released a report detailing continued abuses of Uighur and other Turkic and Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, China, by Beijing. While denying the allegations, Beijing continues to claim the local government is promoting vocational training, language studies and “de-extremism” despite ongoing allegations from locals and human rights groups and international agencies. As covered in an earlier study posted on Global Affairs Weekly, some of the Uighur militants who crossed into Northern Afghanistan did so in response to Beijing’s activities, and some Jihadist groups are also citing the CCP’s policies and actions in Xinjiang as a rallying cry for regional militants.

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February 7, 2022 · 6:49 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of February 6, 2022)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of Feb. 6, 2022.

Global News

Hackers stole 320 billion USD worth of cryptocurrencies from Solona and Ethereum. They accomplished this by exploiting the bridge of Solona and used counterfeit Ethereum coins, which were used to exchange for real coins.

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Coral reefs may die out even if the world limits global warming to Paris Accord pledge levels due to marine heat waves. If global temperatures rise even 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels, an estimated 99% of coral reefs unable to recover from marine heat waves, while 2 degrees will affect all coral reefs. It usually takes 10 years for coral to recover, assuming nothing else happens to them, from these heat waves. But climate change and increased carbon levels in the ocean is increasing the number of such heat waves and rapidity of their occurrence.

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The future of the Winter Olympics might be one of indoor artificial snow, as climate change makes winters warmer.

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Americas

Native American tribes will receive $590 million from Johnson & Johnson and three other US drug manufacturers based on a settlement reached last Tuesday. The settlement is the latest in ongoing efforts to hold drug companies in the United States accountable for the opioid crisis, which has hit Native communities the hardest.

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The Colombian Amazon rain forest is under threat from deforestation and wildfires, which risks the country’s efforts to fight climate change.

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Argentina is joining the Belt and Road Initiative in exchange for trade and investment and recognition of the Falkland Islands by China.

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Africa

The French ambassador to Mali has been given 72 hours to leave the country in retaliation for criticism and remarks by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian about the Malian transitional government. Originally the military junta agreed to have elections this year, but went back on its agreement with France by scheduling elections for 2025. The junta is also relying on Russian mercenaries to fight domestic Jihadists, a move criticized by Western nations and some West African countries, as mentioned in stories from last week’s edition of Global Affairs Weekly.

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The European Union has slapped targeted sanctions against members of the Malian military and transitional government over their involvement in coup against the prior Malian government and breaking the deal to hold elections in February by moving elections to 2025.

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Afrigen is the first African company to produce a local COVID-19 vaccine on the continent. Starting with the Moderna mRNA sequence, the company’s scientists developed their own processes and made a different vaccine as part of their research into next generation vaccines that will be locally produced, have longer shelf life, do not need refrigeration and could attack the virus at both the genetic level and on the protein spikes the virus uses to latch on and infect cells, as referenced in last week’s edition of Global Affairs Weekly.

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Europe

Explainer: What does Putin want in Ukraine and what might be driving him.

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Russia and China have inked a deal worth 117.5 billion USD equivalent to ship more natural gas and oil to the world’s largest energy consumer, giving Moscow more connections to Beijing and decreasing dependence on the European market. However, the energy resources in this deal are not connected to energy resources headed for Europe and come from a different part of Russia geographically.

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Turkey’s President Erdogan has tested positive for COVID-19.

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Middle East

Recreational use of cannabis is gaining acceptance among the youth of the Middle East, despite authorities cracking down on it.

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Syrian opposition parties held talks in Qatar to work on developing a unified opposition to Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. While they might not have strength enough to oust Assad from power, these different parties may create the framework for democratic transition someday, assuming they still retain relevance to the Syrian people.

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Tunisia’s Supreme Judicial Council has been dissolved according to Tunisian President Kais Saied, despite lacking the legal authority to do so.

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Asia

India’s national budget plan for 2022 will focus heavily on infrastructure, housing, a spectrum auction of 5G mobile and 5G services rollout. The government also proposed a digital rupee and a 30% tax on profits made from cryptocurrency trading and nonfungible token exchanges.

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A year after the military took over in Myanmar following a coup, the country is on the edge of economic collapse. Almost half of the population is in poverty according to the International Labor Organization, with the economy being 30% smaller than it would have been without the coup and COVID-19 pandemic according to the World Bank.

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A journalist in the Indian-controlled Kashmir has been arrested under India’s anti-terror laws. The authorities cited “publishing anti-national content” without specifying what that content actually was.

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January 3, 2022 · 4:46 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of January 2, 2022)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of Jan. 2, 2022.

Global News

Five good stories for the environment for 2021.

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Economic and political reforms in China will have winners and losers outside the country’s borders. Here is an analysis of who might gain and lose from the Common Prosperity campaign.

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The Tequila Splitfin, a Mexican fish species that was extinct in the wild, has been conserved in captivity and is now being reintroduced to its native habitat. The effort was community drawn and supported, and provides a template for other communities to follow to preserve endangered species.

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Americas

Guatemala’s Valor Party is attempting to pass a bill that would give amnesty to imprisoned military, government and police members convicted of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and other nationally and internationally recognized crimes perpetrated during the Guatemalan civil war. Similar bills have been attempted but defeated, though the current president is the former vice-presidential pick for the 2019 election.

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The Mexican state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos will reduce exported oil to 435,000 barrels a day in 2022 and stop exporting by 2023, as part of the country’s effort to become energy independent. Mexico is one of the most prominent players in international oil markets.

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Several Latin American countries have higher rates of vaccination against COVID-19 than Europe and North America. While there are outliers like Brazil, many have been successful in vaccinating their populations. This in large part due to a combination of imported vaccines and the development and production of local vaccines.

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Africa

The United States has cut Guinea, Mali and Ethiopia from participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a program that provides duty-free access to the US market in return for meeting eligibility requirements like political pluralism and lowering trade barriers.

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In Mali, the military junta is proposing to stay in power another five years despite the timeline set by West African mediators. The move risks greater sanctions by neighboring countries.

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In a blow to the credibility of the Sudanese military’s transitional government and power-sharing agreement, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigned. While the military claims to be on track to a civilian controlled government by 2023, protestors in the country are not swayed and have promised more protests this year.

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Europe

The Conservative Party lost control of a seat they held for nearly 200 years in a by-election last Friday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The seat, in North Shropshire, was won by 6,000 votes by Helen Morgan of the Liberal Democrats party.

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Russia pivots to China for energy exports, as the two nations embrace closer economic and political ties. Gazprom will be finalizing an energy deal to build a pipeline from the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia to China, called Power of Siberia 2, with the capacity of 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually. This is the second such pipeline connecting Russian energy products to China’s markets.

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France takes over the EU Presidency for the next six months. Climate, member-wide digitalization, and “strategic autonomy” are the areas France will most heavily focus on during this period.

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Middle East

Iran launched a rocket into space, carrying three research devices. While this was a space launch, the technology to launch the rockets could also be used to launch missiles.

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More calls for the Tunisian government to release information on the whereabouts of Noureddine Bhiri, the deputy president of the Ennahdha party, after he was detained by plainclothes police officers last Friday.

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Bahrain has sent an ambassador to Syria for the first time in 10 years, following the lead of other Gulf States.

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Asia

Evergrande shares will be suspended from trading Monday as part of efforts to combat the company’s liquidity troubles. The company is the most heavily indebted developer in the world, with more than 300 billion USD in liabilities.

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 South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung, the front runner for Democratic Party, promises to work with the USA to develop nuclear submarines for the country. The ruling party’s presidential candidate also promises to work on mediation for the US and North Korea and to end Seoul’s use of strategic ambiguity in US-China relations by pursuing “pragmatic diplomacy based on national interest”.    

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EU is considering additional sanctions and arms embargo on Myanmar, citing abuses and escalating violence by the military. The country was taken over by the military after a February coup and has faced internal violence by the military against various groups including ethnic minorities and pro-democracy protestors.

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December 29, 2021 · 4:49 am

Global Tech Stories (December 28, 2021)

Here’s what’s going on in the world of technology for this Tuesday.

Explainer: What is Log4j and why does it scare cybersecurity specialists and what does it do?

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A tweet written by thought? No longer the stuff of science fiction as of December 23, 2021. A Stentrode Brain Computer Interface (SBCI) allows the user to write using thoughts.

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A team in Singapore has developed 2D artificial synapses for computing. This could lead to tech and devices that store and access information like the human brain.

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A team from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have created perovskite solar cells that self-heal and have a protective quality against humidity. This makes for more resilient and versatile solar cells, especially in areas of high humidity and rain fall.

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Wearable integrated electronics have taken one step closer to commercial viability thanks to efforts of researchers at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research. The secret ingredients are gold and water vapor plasma.

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The Metaverse is attracting the attention of Chinese internet giant Baidu. The company is experimenting with a virtual reality app, XiRang, which can only be accessed in China and might take six years to reach the market.

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December 14, 2021 · 10:14 pm

Global Tech Stories (December 14, 2021)

Here’s what’s going on in the world of technology for this Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs’s Eric Sheridan gives predictions on what he expects will come with the Metaverse. Great predictions that make the stuff of science fiction sound more plausible like interacting in real-time across the globe with avatars and many new ways to interact with the Internet.

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The National Science Foundation and Brave Software have developed an open-source tool to fight privacy invasive scripts. SugarCoat, targets scripts that harm privacy, such as tracking scripts, and replaces them with scripts that mirror the original scripts minus the privacy invasive properties. It was designed to be integrated with privacy focused browsers, like Firefox, Tor, and Brave as well as browser extensions such as uBlick Origin.

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From iPhones to the Mars Rover, these programs are in everything. Yet there is a new and dangerous flaw discovered in the LOG4J, a Java open-source library. Even if a patch is made, the ubiquity of this program will make this a vulnerability for a long time.

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Green Hydrogen could be the missing link for renewable energy and making the world carbon neutral. Here’s how.

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An Israeli firm developed a way to store solar energy and power homes at night. The secret lies with the use of air.

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Japanese company is creating power suits that move with the body and detects where the body needs assistance.

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December 13, 2021 · 7:07 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of December 12, 2021)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of Dec. 12, 2021.

Global News

Half a billion people were forced into extreme poverty due to healthcare costs from the pandemic last year, according to the World Health Organization and World Bank.

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The Taliban are costing Afghans the equivalent of a billion US dollars by restricting women, making economic recovery impossible. Before the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on women, Afghan women made up 20% of the workforce and 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP. While the Taliban promised to respect women’s rights and freedoms, they are unlikely to actually fulfill their international promises.

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Americas

Argentinians took to the streets to demand their government not renegotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the country’s debt to the fund. Many Argentinians view IMF programs as having caused or exacerbated their crises. Yet the country is also in the grip of a recession, and the refusal to renegotiate the debt could harm job growth in the country.

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The US Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection received a 38-slide power point presentation outlining several ways Donald Trump could have tried to retain the presidency after losing the 2020 Presidential race to President Joe Biden. Turned over by former Trump White House official Mark Meadows, the document detailed various strategies the Trump administration could have utilized, based on debunked and false claims of voter fraud and other conspiracy theories. Meadows had the document since January 4th, when it was presented to Republican members of Congress and the Senate.

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Canadian and US trade authorities are engaged in a dispute over proposed US tax credit for electric vehicles. The Canadian government fears the credits will undermine domestic production of electric vehicles in Ontario and risk the North American auto industry.

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Africa

The Rwandan government is working to decarbonize public transit with electric motor bikes. While the government seeks to convert a quarter of the nation’s micro buses, 20 percent of buses, and 30 percent of motorcycles to electric by 2030, the lack of charging stations nationally is posing a problem to widespread adoption.

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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he is self-isolating after testing positive for the Covid-19 virus. Despite having mild symptoms, Ramaphosa encouraged all South Africans to get the vaccine and follow Covid reduction strategies.

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The Malian military government announced January 31st as the day they will release a timetable for democratic elections in the country.

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Europe

Engineered Arts, a robot building company in the United Kingdom, has developed a robot with the most advanced facial expressions of any to date. Ameca, the robot in this story, can be programmed and customized in its actions.  

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Serbian protestors blocked roads in various cities including the capital Belgrade for the third weekend in a row. The move is aimed at drawing attention to environmental issues originating from lithium mining, and demands of the government to prevent any company from creating mining operations in the country.

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The G-7 issued a joint statement calling on Russia to deescalate tensions over Ukraine and warned of severe consequences should Putin launch an invasion of the country. The Russian government contends that NATO expansion threatens Russian sovereignty and domestic security.

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Middle East

Judge Tarek Bitar, head of the investigation into the port explosion in Beirut in 2020, demanded the arrest of former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, after an arrest warrant for Khalil was issued in October but not carried out. Its unclear if Khalil will be arrested, he is connected to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah, and the government is wracked by political infighting and stalemate since October.  

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Syria to host the 2024 Arab energy conference. This event signals renewing ties between Syria and the country’s Arab neighbors after years of civil war in the country.

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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will meet with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan as part of the first ever visit to the United Arab Emirates by an Israeli prime minister. The two leaders will likely focus on deepening economic and security ties.

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Asia

President Moon Jae-In of South Korea announced that North Korea, China, South Korea, and the United States have all agreed in principle to an end to the Korean War. While all sides agree that the war should end, Kim So-Young, sister of North Korea’s head of state Kim Jung-Un, demands that the United States gives up what she alleges is a “hostile policy” towards North Korea. This prevented any talks from happening between the two countries.

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As the Afghan economy collapses, drug production has increased with meth and heroin making major gains in production despite promises by the Taliban to ban them. While produced locally, many of these drugs are bound for markets overseas. The Taliban also used drug money to fund their insurgency and is now faced with the problem of how to deal with the market that many Afghans rely on due to economic conditions.

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Australia, Japan and the United States have agreed to jointly fund and laying undersea fiber optic cable to boost Internet connectivity for three nations in Polynesia. The agreement is the latest in the investments by Indo-Pacific allies to invest in the telecommunications of the Pacific.

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November 29, 2021 · 4:04 am

Global Affairs Weekly Stories (Week of Nov. 28, 2021)

Here’s what’s going on in the world for the week of November 28th.

Global News

Explainer on the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus

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NASA launches spacecraft Tuesday as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission. The idea is to alter the trajectory of Dimorphos, a moonlet around 160 meters (525 feet) in diameter, by crashing a spacecraft into it.

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Neutrinos detected at the Large Hadron Collider.

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Americas

Peruvian president Pedro Castillo Terrones promises support to affected communities after the country suffered a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. This is the second earthquake after a 5.2 earthquake also struck in El Callao, Lima.

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Samsung will open a semiconductor factory in Austin, Texas by 2024. The project, set at $17 billion is following other companies pledges to build similar factories in the USA.

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 France willing to discuss autonomy for the island of Guadalupe, which is currently considered French territory.

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Africa

Despite reinstating the civilian prime minister, the military still faces protests in Sudan.

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Egypt is reopening the Avenue of the Sphinxes after years of excavations and restorations.

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Gunman kidnapped five Chinese nationals near a mine in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tensions have been high between the Chinese mining operation and local Congolese, though the gunmen have not been identified.

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Europe

Dutch police arrest couple attempting to flee the country after the couple left the hotel they were quarantining in. The couple tested positive for Covid-19.

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New coalition government formed to replace the Merkel government in Germany. The three-party alliance will focus on continuing existing commitments to fight climate change, business deals, and strengthening existing alliances with the USA and European nations.

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The new Omicron variant of Covid-19 is showing up in parts of Europe, leading to EU members imposing travel bans from Southern Africa. How fast the new variant is spreading is unclear.

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Middle East

UAE and Amazon will open an Amazon fulfillment center by 2024, in accordance to the country’s carbon reduction initiatives.

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UAE introducing 40 new laws aimed at areas such as family law and rights. These changes are part of the nation’s work towards a competitive edge culturally and socially on conservative neighbors like Saudi Arabia.

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A probe into the slumping Turkish lira has been launched.

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Asia

The Cambodian prince and former prime minister Norodom Ranariddh, died in France at the age of 77. The cause of death has yet to be released.

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Philippine naval vessels will travel to the troops stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal. Prior attempts last week were stopped by the presence of Chinese maritime militia and Chinese coast guard vessels.

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Tata looking into developing a $300 million semiconductor assembly and test site in India.

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January 4, 2016 · 3:44 am

New Project!

So yes, I have been away for a while and have not really been focused on writing.

So anyway, I plan on spending several weeks researching a new project topic.  The Silk Road Initiative, a project started by China to reinvigorate and intensify the traditional Silk Road for the 21st Century.  If this project succeeds, it could mean economic prosperity for billions and perhaps some unexpected geopolitical consequences.

For this project, I intend to analyze the social, political, economic, and environmental aspects of the project.  Will the increased trade be one way?  Will the newest environmental technology from the West make its’ way to India and Central Asia along this new Silk Road?  Will China and other Asian participants include non traditional members such as Latin America and Africa?  I want to address these questions and plan on doing so by March.

I will be posting updates and drafts of what I learn, and a references page will be available.  I think I could also post some facts about the historic Silk Road, such as the earliest trade goods and the major players from different periods.  That could give a good comparison with this new project and how things have developed since the earliest times and also what types of trades each player in this road will be exchanging.

 

 

 

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