Foreign Concerns Gazette/Year 444.5 - 445

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Category:Session Summaries
Economic News:
*"An Investment Starting to Pay Off" Alusian Capital Imports, Druz Migrant Worker Programs Begin to Show Fruit: First Factories Constructed Under Program Expected to Return Almost 10% Annually.
**King of Druz Comments Favorably on the Money Flowing Back From Subjects Working in Alusia: "They Can Finally Bring Honor to Their Clans."
*"Full Exposure" Deutschreich and Alusia Reach Historic Deal for Full Trade Relations.
*"Guns, Guns, Guns!" Aeldrum and Alusia Ink Contract for Aeldrum to Provide Major Maintenance and Supply to Alusian Navy and Ground Forces.
**Aeldrum adds Alusia to Bishant in Growing International Arms Trade.
**Publicly Traded Shares of Naval Manufacturer Mossag Industries Post Record Growth (Mossag is Majority-Owned by the Aeldman State).
*"The Bear's Market?" Ursa Arms Company (Led by Aeldrum's Count du Montreal) Estimated Valuation Doubles on Reports of Mass Mergers and Supply Chain Integration.
**Ursa Arms is Forecast to Beat Nebai Industries (Also Growing Strongly on Ethernet Construction Contracts) for 3rd Spot of Aeldrum's Largest Companies by Next Year, Behind Titans Mossag Industries and General Etheric Company.
**Telrion Mining Corporation Joins Top 10 Aeldman Companies on Strength of Quicksilver Demand.
*"This Season's Robes Are Crimson, But the Knights of Adarnum Are Going with Leather Jackets" Shantine High-Fashion Comes to Alusia, Aeldrum. Inside and Outside the Shantine Empire, Kirvan Clergy and Nobility Debut a Liturgical Calendar with Special Clothing and Votive Lines. Shantine Exports to Aeldman and Alusian Markets Estimated to Increase 75% by End of Year, Putting Bishant at Forefront of Growth in Consumer Trade.
**In Confederacy, Alusia, Anti-Establishment Trendsetters Proudly Wear Shantine Clothes, Carry Votive Candles with the Kataph House Emblem.
*"Aeldman Debt Markets Enthusiastically Pour into Raising of Mass Sums For State-Led Industrial Organization." Aeldman State Now Carries Debt Just Under 11% of GDP, Up From 0% a Year Ago.
**Monsieur Emiir Assures Financial Observers That New Industrial Conglomerate, Not the State, Financing 100% of Aeldman Interest.
*"Who Leads, Who Lags?" Despite Significant Gains in Church Tithing, Imperial Taxation and Bank Receipts, Imperial Economy Overall Lags Aeldrum, Alusia.
**Alusian Investment Programs Drove Non-Government Economy to 96% of Pre-5 Year Plan Levels, on Schedule to Enter Net Growth for Ordinary Alusians By Next Year.
**Aeldman Economy Soared on Ethernet Construction Contracts, Trade Concessions, Arms Sales, Industrial Reinvestment to Colonies, But Experts Warn that Low-Hanging Fruit May Soon Be Plucked.
**Bishant Retains Strong Lead as 2nd Cosmic Economy, But Shows Worrying Signs of Economic Growth Falling Behind Record Population Growth.
**Thalranese, Confederate Economic Growth Comparable to Imperium, with Thalranese Slightly Ahead.
*"Still Out In the Cold" Fialta Imperium Shows Least Gains from Cosmic Trade of Any Great Power.
**37.5% of Alusian GDP Comes From Trade. Our Reporters Note Disparities Between Official Alusian Import/Export Figures and Evidence from Key Alusian Trade Partners, Suggesting Alusia May Overstate Its Ratio of Expert to Import.
**27% of Aeldman GDP Comes from Trade, but Aeldrum is Largest Trade Partner by Economic Returns for Every Other Great Power.
**25% of Shantine GDP Comes From Trade, but Shantine Tariffs Mean 38.5% of Imperial Revenues Depend on Commerce.
**19% of Fialta Imperial GDP Comes From Trade Outside the FDC Zone. Despite Warm Trade Relations with Alusia, Three Quarters of Imperial Gains from Trade are Driven by Aeldrum.
*"Warriors Who Need Peace?" Thalranese Marches draw 61% of GDP from Foreign Commerce.
International Relations:
*"Take Me Home, Holy Flames!" Kirvan cleric self-immolates on ground of the Abbey of Konira in protest of Fialta Imperial military presence. The Abbey of Konira was the original posting of Bishop Tarlo. Ruling Prince Ymres comments, "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the fire hazard caused by this protest."
*"Cautious Openness Platform" Deutschreich Parliament Passes Resolution of Friendship with Alusia. Deutschreich Politicians Declare: "We Are Ready to Meet the World!"
*"A Wary Accommodation" Fialta Confederacy Reaches Joint Peace-Keeping Agreement with Fialta Imperium, Thalranese Marches, Serene Duchy of Aeldrum, Orcish Directorate, Empire of Bishant and Empire of Alusia.
**Confederate Generals will have command, but up to half of boots on the ground will be foreign peacekeepers.
**Confederacy insists that only Confederate and Fialta Imperial military vessels (excluding transports) will be permitted to operate.
*"An Ultimatum Satisfied?" With Shantine and Aeldman Troops in Confederate Space, Powers Lift Sanctions on Fialta Confederacy.
*"Mutual Probation" Fialta Imperium Joins 3C Community on a Provisional Basis. Aeldrum and Bishant Express Willingness to Discuss Future Trade Expansion, But No Concrete Offers.
*"OnlyFlames Extinguished?" Alusia Blocks Shantine OnlyFlames Programming, Claims that OnlyFlames Has Been Linked to Violence Against Alusian Officials.
Military, Criminal and Disaster News:
*"We Surrounded Them, and They Just Kept Fighting" 15,000 Kirvan Radicals Believed Killed in Engagements Across Confederacy, Another 20,000 (Mostly Wounded) Captured.
**Confederate and Peacekeeper Forces Report 2,000 dead, 6,400 wounded in Heavy Fighting.
**Despite Crushing Defeats, Kirvan Radical Forces in Confederacy Estimated to Stand at 130,000, up from 70,000 Six Months Ago. Kirvan Radical Forces Show High Standardization of Arms and Tactics, Suggesting Organized Leadership.
*"They Don't Want Us Here" 3C Peacekeepers Recount Slurs, Aggressive Chanting from Hostile Fialta Civilians in Confederacy. Fialta Militia Groups Conduct Military-Style Drills in Sight of Peacekeeper Bases. Anti-Foreign Agitation Increases on Worlds with Peacekeeper Presence.
*"A Call to Arms: Action to Follow?" Thalranese Prince Gunnot Summons Privateers, Personal Fleets from Tar'Thalran to Join Thalranese Navy, Increasing Thalranese Naval Strength by 50%.
*"Aeldman Military Expansion Slowing Down, But Not Reversing" Aeldman Military Outlays on New Forces Decline 33% from Previous Six Months. Total Aeldman Military Spending is Estimated to have Increased 50% Since Last Year.
Culture and General Interest:
*"Slow Down to Make History" Half-elf half-orc aviatrix F.L. Farrago flies hydrogen-fueled fighter plane from Aeldrum to Lidenia, marking first known modern solo flight between two gate worlds and first officially documented flight in two centuries between two Aeldman gate worlds without using etheric drive. Farrago, "I did get quite a few hails asking if I'd lost my ship and needed help."
*"Where's The Soul?" Nebai Biologics Subdivision unveils first viable vertebrate clone, a monitor lizard named Larry.
**Subdivision chief clarifies that Larry is expected to enjoy a relatively normal lifespan in spite of his lack of a soul, but that more complex organisms will not be cloned until implications of soullessness are understood.
**Ethernet message boards swarm with claims of coverup. "The government perfected cloning forty years ago, they're just letting us see it now. That's why they killed Lidenia, he was going to tell."
*"Chess Champions of the Cosmos?" Alusian child prodigies routinely beat foreign grandmasters in exhibition chess matches. Saldanese child development scholar claims lack of cinema, regimented lifestyle support "grid-based thinking."
*"What's Happening in the Nippon States?" Higher-than-usual migration of cash-rich Nipponese into Imperial space and rumors of a "broken seal" in the Veiled Halls spur speculation.
*"The Silk Baron of Yushan" Film premieres on the life and adventures of the late Xeros Mepatos, Shantine silk merchant who traveled to Celestial space and helped develop Yushan's domestic silk industry from Russian and Shantine silkworms. Relatives of Mepatos claim that stories of him buying a captured Brass Cities drone platoon and turning them into a living factory are greatly exaggerated, and that inclusion of fictitious Aeldman elvish associate is "pure tokenism." Ethernet distribution is expected to make "Silk Baron" historic hit for Highveldt Moving Picture Company.
*"A New Fire" Alusia launches WeFlame as Moderated Alternative to OnlyFlames, Patriarch of Ahlam Presides. WeFlame captures significantly lower audiences than OnlyFlames, Does Not See Significant International Consumption.
*"Excommunication!" Patriarchs of Bishant, Ahlam, Aeldrum, Highveldt, Brumaire, Korinth vote to Excommunicate Bishop Tarlo of Fialta Confederacy. Patriarch of Sevalne abstains.
**Tarlo asserts independence, commitment to Kirvan security, as Kirvan Protestors Demand Tarlo Surrender His Title and Estates to the Patriarch of Korinth: Counter-Protestors Form Human Wall Around Tarlo's Palace, Singing Local Hymns.
**"A Kirvan Schism?" Patriarch of Sevalne's Leaked Remarks to Sermayan Bishops Show Increasing Concerns About Tensions Between Assertive Shantine Leadership and Non-Shantine Clergy or States.
*"What is Fialta?" Confederate and Imperial Intellectuals Produce Mountains of Correspondence on Questions of Fialta National Identity, the Place of Foreigners, the Role of the Emperor and the Right or Capability of the Imperium to Transcend Old Traditions, Make New Ones.
*"The Wound in Reality" Aeldman merchants discover "Cultists of the Unnamed" performing ritual aboard ship deep in New South Saldan Exclusion Zone. Cultists claim to have been transported from planet Gnoll and tunnel through space and time by the Unnamed, a being that will unmake the cosmos. The cultists were taken into Aeldman custody.
**"Psychosomatic Hysteria or Omen?" Aeldrum Clinics Claim Dramatic Increase in Synesthesia Cases Following Public Spectacle of Unnamed Cult.
**"The Cultists Prove that Reality Has Holes that Need to be Closed – The Seamster Is Real, and It Will Save Us" Ethernet chatter explodes about "Noloth the Seamster" purported creator of Aeldrum Spires, Pin Jump. Dime novel "The Repairer of Reality" claims that Noloth is the cosmic answer to the Unnamed Cult.
*"From Ethernet Pulp to Respectable Idea?" Preeminent Salons on Aeldrum, Lidenia, Harwel, Welcome Discussion of Mysterious Noloth and the Origins of the Aeldrum Spires. Several Publishing Firms Confirm Forthcoming Books on "Spire Mania."
*"A Flying Car in Every Garage" Saldanese Engineers Claim They Are On Brink of Consumer-Accessible "Repulsor-Gas" Permitting Civilian Hovercraft.
*"We Want the Real Thing!" Outcry from Kirvan Faithful Across Alusian Cities at Stoppage of OnlyFlames Service.
**Thousands of "Pirate Broadcast" Systems Reported, As Alusians Pick Up Ethernet Signals from Shantine Empire and Bounce Them into Alusia Over Unauthorized Channels.
**Many Alusians Traffic in Recordings of OnlyFlames services. "Bootleg" viewership estimated to exceed WeFlames participation by 30%.
**Citing Religious Freedom, Alusian Clerics Play Shantine OnlyFlames as Part of their Sermons.
*"The Voice and Look of Tomorrow" Shantine votive and fashion items proliferate at countercultural showings of OnlyFlames sermons in Alusia, Confederacy. Polls indicate increasing number of Kirvans consider Empress Kataph a better moral exemplar than local heads of state.