🇮🇱⚔️🇹🇷 Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the recent Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian Abu al-Duhur airbase:

We will not tolerate a Turkish military entrenchment/buildup in Syria that threatens Israel.

We clarified the message clearly: Don’t.

Apparently they didn’t hear it well enough, so we made sure they understand it better.

🔗 Benjamin Netanyahu

🇹🇷⚔️🇮🇱 Republic of Türkiye Directorate of Communications:

Israel's election campaign has fallen under the sway of an irresponsible security-focused populism and a threat politics that is growing ever harsher.

The Netanyahu administration's effort to construct Türkiye as a new figure of threat is part and parcel of this cheap politics.

This threat politics and escalation of tensions, pursued for the sake of domestic political rivalry, carries serious risks—not only for Israeli society, but also for regional and global peace and stability.

Türkiye, as yesterday, stands today as well on the side of the oppressed against the oppressor; come what may, it will steadfastly continue to defend peace, justice, and stability in our region.

🔗 Clash Report

🇸🇦🇾🇪🇾🇪 Saudi Arabia has a tough choice to make: accept the demands of the Houthis and lift the economic blockade or continue escalating the conflict and risk its oil infrastructure come under repeated attacks

The truce had held until last month when KSA tried to prevent an Iranian commercial aircraft from picking up a Houthi delegation planning to attend the funeral of Ali Khamenei. In response for the Saudi airspace violations and bombing of the Sanaa airport, Ansarallah declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports, attacked Saudi tankers and launched missiles and drones at its oil infrastructure.

That has left Riyadh weighing tough choices: whether it should escalate against the rebels, risking more Houthi assaults on its oil facilities, or push for a new truce.

Either option would prove costly to the kingdom. Before the ceasefire, the Houthis fired regular missile and drone barrages into Saudi Arabia, undermining Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to promote tourism, finance and trade.

The Houthis — whom Riyadh believes are being encouraged by Tehran — are now threatening to close the Bab al-Mandeb, which has become a vital route for Saudi oil exports since Iran throttled shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Its closure would deal another blow to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to ease global energy prices.

But meeting the Houthis’ conditions would also come at a huge price, with the rebels demanding that Saudi Arabia pay salaries in areas it controls, give them access to oil revenues from Yemeni government-controlled areas and pay compensation.

The Houthis also want Riyadh to allow them to use airports in their northern strongholds, as well as the free flow of shipping to rebel-controlled ports. Saudi Arabia fears this would lead to Iran increasing military support to the rebels.

As a result, observers expect Riyadh to mobilise the Yemeni factions it backs to take the fight to the Houthis, in a bid to pressure them back to the negotiating table on more favourable terms.

That perception, analysts say, has caused the Houthis to launch a pre-emptive offensive on Mocha and other regions, including Marib and Hadhramaut, frontline provinces home to Yemen’s oil resources.

🔗 https://archive.ph/imXD0

🤖 Opinions of AI are much more positive in Asian countries where the technology is being described as a public utility made available open-source.

In the U.S. views are dismal as also seen in data center backlash and its no wonder as the main message is that AI will be used as a tool to eliminate jobs and consolidate power within a small circle of oligarch-run companies whose leaders seem to hate and fear the general public.

🔗 Murtaza Hussein

🇺🇸🗳 Pete Buttigieg, Jon Ossoff and Gavin Newsom would win the U.S. presidential elections when pitted against JD Vance and Marco Rubio according to an election poll

The Trump Admin and the GOP's wider unpopularity among Americans and especially their supporters after failing to deliver on almost all the campaign promises made in 2024 is harming the presidential prospects of Trump's closest aides.

According to the poll, the only candidate Vance and Rubio could defeat is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, while Rubio would also defeat Kamala Harris.

@CIG_telegram

📢 🇺🇸 🗳 Trump says Democrats will impeach him, and they don't know why, if the GOP loses the midterms.

📎 Disclosetv

🚜 Farmers are selling their pre-purchased fertilizer at double what they paid instead of planting a crop.

Let that sink in. It is more profitable to sit out the season and flip your input costs than to put seed in the ground.

Soybean farmers lost $100 an acre last year. Corn farmers are looking at $50 to $100 losses this year. So what is the response? Switch from corn to soybeans.

Soybeans make their own nitrogen. They do not need the fertilizer corn demands.

The problem is we are already oversupplied on soybeans. More soybeans on a flooded market just drives prices lower.

Fertilizer prices have gone through the roof. The Strait of Hormuz disruptions made it worse. Farmers who locked in fertilizer early are reselling it instead of using it.

That is how broken the commodity food system has become.

🔗 AcmeAcres.us (@idahobeef)

🇪🇺🇺🇸 EU slips further behind US in race for critical minerals

Washington and Beijing are beating Brussels in competition to secure components used in defence and green technologies

The EU risks falling further behind the US in the race to secure critical minerals, as the west seeks to counter Chinese dominance in essential components for defence and green technology, European officials and industry have warned.

The US has invested heavily in the past two years to ensure it has access to rare earth metals and other materials used in strategic technologies, especially those for which China dominates global production.

Washington has announced about $40bn in provisional funding for mineral projects since 2022, and taken equity stakes in a range of domestic miners. The US government has also lobbied in favour of American companies winning tenders for mines in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

In the past 18 months, Brussels has chosen dozens of strategic projects to benefit from faster permitting rules. The EU and member states have committed about €6bn to minerals projects this year, but the industry warns it is moving too slowly to kick-start the sector.

‘‘I really admire the Americans because they take an idea and they run with it, while we Europeans hesitate, over-administrate, talk and lose time,’’ said Bernd Schäfer, chief executive of EIT RawMaterials, a group representing the EU critical minerals industry

Meanwhile, the US is also seeking to build a coalition of countries that could work together to build supply chains that bypass China via a Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (Forge).

But, given the US administration’s antagonistic approach to the EU under Donald Trump, the move is raising scepticism in Brussels.

The EU “cannot be fooled by negotiations” with the US, one official said. “We need to do what the US is doing by buying offtake, moving at speed, and using financial tools” to build out the supply chain of critical minerals, ahead of a new strategy to be outlined this autumn.

“We are looking at how to work more with like-minded partners — Canada and Japan,” the official added, while not ruling out further work with the US.

The US under Trump was “erratic and unpredictable across the whole spectrum. You cannot just expect it’s all going to be OK,” said one former official in reference to the Forge initiative.

🔗 https://archive.ph/QCbwk