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📝 🇺🇸 💵 Inflation creates its own debt issues.
Can the US grow its way out of $40T debt? Yes, if *real* GDP grows more than 5.5%. That growth was last hit . . . never?
📎 Smirkley
Can the US grow its way out of $40T debt? Yes, if *real* GDP grows more than 5.5%. That growth was last hit . . . never?
📎 Smirkley
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/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global
🇨🇳 🇻🇳 🇹🇼 China has completed the first phase of construction on Antelope Reef in the disputed Paracel Islands, creating a nearly six-kilometer-long artificial island in the South China Sea, Reuters reports. Satellite imagery shows a helicopter pad, buildings…
🇨🇳 🇻🇳 🇹🇼 According to PRC state media, Antelope will be used for commercial and civilian purposes – a similar tale told during construction of the other military outposts. It’s worth noting that in 2015, Xi Jinping stood in the Rose Garden next to then-President Obama and said, “China does not intend to pursue militarization” in the South China Sea. “Relevant construction activity that China is undertaking in the Nansha Islands does not target or impact any country and there is no intention to militarize,” he claimed.
Since Xi’s head fake, which epitomizes the notorious Chinese “say-do” gap, Beijing has built up multiple artificial islands as military bases, and has used them to press its territorial claims and confront its neighbors across the nine-dash line, in strict defiance of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
This time last year, Antelope Reef was mostly submerged underwater and barely visible unless you were steaming past at low tide.
New satellite imagery showcases what China can construct after 10 months of nonstop dredging: a nearly 1,500-acre artificial island with a deep-water port, 2,000-plus-foot quay capable of berthing warships, and the beginnings of a 10,000-foot-long military-grade runway.
Hardly recognizable today, Antelope Reef has become the latest, and one of the largest, man-made outposts in Beijing’s aggressive campaign to militarize and dominate the South China Sea.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/chinas-massive-new-artificial-island-in-the-south-china-sea-emerges-primed-for-militarization
📎 Ian Ellis
Since Xi’s head fake, which epitomizes the notorious Chinese “say-do” gap, Beijing has built up multiple artificial islands as military bases, and has used them to press its territorial claims and confront its neighbors across the nine-dash line, in strict defiance of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
This time last year, Antelope Reef was mostly submerged underwater and barely visible unless you were steaming past at low tide.
New satellite imagery showcases what China can construct after 10 months of nonstop dredging: a nearly 1,500-acre artificial island with a deep-water port, 2,000-plus-foot quay capable of berthing warships, and the beginnings of a 10,000-foot-long military-grade runway.
Hardly recognizable today, Antelope Reef has become the latest, and one of the largest, man-made outposts in Beijing’s aggressive campaign to militarize and dominate the South China Sea.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/chinas-massive-new-artificial-island-in-the-south-china-sea-emerges-primed-for-militarization
📎 Ian Ellis
🇨🇳 🇵🇭 🇹🇼 PRC South China Sea Construction: The PRC will likely use environmental monitoring as a pretext to enhance and automate maritime domain awareness and enforcement of PRC territorial claims in the South China Sea. The South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), an institute of the PRC state-run Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), announced on August 18 that the PRC approved plans for a marine environmental observation station in the South China Sea that would monitor the “Zhongsha Islands.”
The “Zhongsha Islands” is the PRC name for the grouping of the Scarborough Shoal, which the PRC seized from the Philippines in 2012, and the underwater Macclesfield Bank. The SCSIO said that the new station will establish a “three-dimensional marine observation network” covering the entirety of the “Zhongsha Islands” and collaborating with existing monitoring stations in the PRC-occupied Paracel and Spratly Islands. The SCSIO did not disclose the location of the new monitoring station but said it would include a “sea-based dual-core” and “land-based overall support.”
The PRC may construct the land-based portion of the monitoring station on the nearby Paracel Islands because constructing directly on Scarborough Shoal — the only above-water feature in the “Zhongsha Islands” — would be unprecedented and potentially provoke a response from the Philippines.
https://understandingwar.org/research/china-taiwan/china-taiwan-update-august-21-2026/
📎 ISW
The “Zhongsha Islands” is the PRC name for the grouping of the Scarborough Shoal, which the PRC seized from the Philippines in 2012, and the underwater Macclesfield Bank. The SCSIO said that the new station will establish a “three-dimensional marine observation network” covering the entirety of the “Zhongsha Islands” and collaborating with existing monitoring stations in the PRC-occupied Paracel and Spratly Islands. The SCSIO did not disclose the location of the new monitoring station but said it would include a “sea-based dual-core” and “land-based overall support.”
The PRC may construct the land-based portion of the monitoring station on the nearby Paracel Islands because constructing directly on Scarborough Shoal — the only above-water feature in the “Zhongsha Islands” — would be unprecedented and potentially provoke a response from the Philippines.
https://understandingwar.org/research/china-taiwan/china-taiwan-update-august-21-2026/
📎 ISW
/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global
⛽️ While everyone is distracted by the manipulated oil price... diesel is trading at $183 per barrel. - WTI: $87 - Diesel: $183 People say oil is the lifeblood of our economy...But it's actually diesel. Diesel powers: - Most farming operations - Most mining…
⛽️🇮🇹 Italy Extends Diesel Tax Cut as Meloni Grapples With Fuel Prices
The ministries of finance and energy extended the tax cut by a day through a decree signed last Thursday, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. In July, the government cut the diesel price at the pump by €0.17 cents ($0.20) per liter and on Aug. 4 extended it to next Tuesday.
Meloni has faced political pressure to shield consumers from soaring fuel prices as she prepares to contest a general election expected next year. Government figures released Sunday showed diesel and unleaded fuel prices on Italy’s highway network at €2.203 and €2.087 per liter, respectively.
Over the weekend, the opposition called for more substantial help and a windfall tax on energy companies.
🔗 https://unwall.app/www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-23/italy-extends-diesel-tax-cut-as-meloni-grapples-with-fuel-prices?srnd=homepage-europe
The ministries of finance and energy extended the tax cut by a day through a decree signed last Thursday, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. In July, the government cut the diesel price at the pump by €0.17 cents ($0.20) per liter and on Aug. 4 extended it to next Tuesday.
Meloni has faced political pressure to shield consumers from soaring fuel prices as she prepares to contest a general election expected next year. Government figures released Sunday showed diesel and unleaded fuel prices on Italy’s highway network at €2.203 and €2.087 per liter, respectively.
Over the weekend, the opposition called for more substantial help and a windfall tax on energy companies.
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/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global
An Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft was spotted at Asosa Airport in Ethiopia’s Benishangul region, near the border with Sudan, in satellite imagery captured on 18 August.
The aircraft is likely one of Batot Air’s Il-76s that departed the UAE for Africa last week.
📎 Rich Tedd
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📢 🇮🇱 🇵🇸 Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi David Yosef declared that Gaza, Nablus and Jenin belong to Israel, while denying that Palestinians are a people or have any rights.
He added that God should “destroy all of Gaza” so Israelis can return and rebuild its synagogues.
📎 Europa
He added that God should “destroy all of Gaza” so Israelis can return and rebuild its synagogues.
📎 Europa
/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global
Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, promised a new sanctions package aiming to hit Iran's trade partners as a last ditch effort by the Trump Admin to force an Iranian surrender
China's Ministry of Commerce has already said they will not recognise the new sanctions package on Iran and will continue to trade with Iran.
@CIG_telegram
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This is 167% more than the official +15 tonnes reported by China's central bank for June.
This also follows an estimated +48 tonnes acquired through the OTC market in May, +380% above the +10 tonnes officially reported by the central bank.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank officially added another +20 tonnes of gold in July, its largest monthly purchase since October 2023.
Year-to-date, China has officially increased its gold reserves by +60 tonnes, bringing total holdings to a record 2,366 tonnes.
Therefore, China acquired an estimated +88 tonnes of gold through the OTC market in just May and June, more than the amount officially reported for the entire year so far.
China is buying far more gold than their official data shows.
📎 KobeissiLetter
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📝 Concerned Citizen: He was the original creator of the "Happy Merchant" caricature.
📎 Ryan Sánchez
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Video by Ron Haviv | Licensing @FreedomNTV Desk@freedomnews.tv
📎 Oliya Scootercaster
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🇺🇸 🇪🇨 🌟 US special forces bolster Ecuadoran anti-narco ops
US troops are carrying out joint military operations with Ecuadoran forces against narco-trafficking gangs near the Colombian border, Ecuadoran officials have confirmed.
Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa is one of US President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Latin America.
US forces have for months been supporting his military against the drug traffickers that have turned what was once one of South America’s safest countries into one of its deadliest.
“We are with the 7th (Special Forces) Group of the US Army…we are working together in the fight against narcoterrorism,” Juan Jaramillo, governor of violence-plagued Esmeraldas province, said Wednesday.
He declined to say how many US troops were deployed in the area or since when.
Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo on Thursday announce the arrival of two warships and three US Black Hawk helicopters to control parts of the coast, including the port of Manta, a trafficking hotspot.
The operations are being conducted under the auspices of Trump’s Shield of the Americas anti-cartel alliance.
The coastal province of Esmeraldas has seen a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion rackets carried out by drug trafficking groups that ship cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru through Ecuador’s ports to world markets.
https://insiderpaper.com/us-special-forces-bolster-ecuadoran-anti-narco-ops/
US troops are carrying out joint military operations with Ecuadoran forces against narco-trafficking gangs near the Colombian border, Ecuadoran officials have confirmed.
Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa is one of US President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Latin America.
US forces have for months been supporting his military against the drug traffickers that have turned what was once one of South America’s safest countries into one of its deadliest.
“We are with the 7th (Special Forces) Group of the US Army…we are working together in the fight against narcoterrorism,” Juan Jaramillo, governor of violence-plagued Esmeraldas province, said Wednesday.
He declined to say how many US troops were deployed in the area or since when.
Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo on Thursday announce the arrival of two warships and three US Black Hawk helicopters to control parts of the coast, including the port of Manta, a trafficking hotspot.
The operations are being conducted under the auspices of Trump’s Shield of the Americas anti-cartel alliance.
The coastal province of Esmeraldas has seen a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion rackets carried out by drug trafficking groups that ship cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru through Ecuador’s ports to world markets.
https://insiderpaper.com/us-special-forces-bolster-ecuadoran-anti-narco-ops/
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Insider Paper
US special forces bolster Ecuadoran anti-narco ops
US troops are carrying out joint military operations with Ecuadoran forces against narco-trafficking gangs near the Colombian border, Ecuadoran officials
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fed-owns-over-50-all-bonds-maturing-between-10-and-15-years-now
📎 Barchart
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Media is too big
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Fed Chair Kevin Warsh led a 9–3 vote in July to hold rates at 3.5%–3.75%. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari was among three dissenters who wanted an immediate 25-basis-point hike.
The shift comes after CPI inflation had fallen to 2.4% in February, before the war. It has since risen to 3.5% in June and 3.4% in July.
Kashkari now says the Iran war is becoming “a big driver” of inflation as energy costs work through “every facet of the U.S. economy.”
“The longer that goes on, the less confident I am that inflation is going to return to target,” he said.
With the Trump administration expected to announce a new phase of financial pressure on Iran Monday, Kashkari added: “For five years we’ve been saying inflation is going to return to target in the next year or two. It just keeps getting pushed out. Eventually we’re going to have to do more.”
📎 Drop Site News
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Forwarded from Noticer News
New opinion from Ray Pistol on One Nation's immigration policy betrayal, and why it must be punished for it.
"One Nation is delusional if it thinks it can win an election without the support of its radical patriot base"
https://www.noticer.news/punish-one-nation-immigration-rug-pull/
Follow: @NoticerNews
"One Nation is delusional if it thinks it can win an election without the support of its radical patriot base"
https://www.noticer.news/punish-one-nation-immigration-rug-pull/
Follow: @NoticerNews
Forwarded from Geopolitics Watch (Deigo)
@GeoPWatch
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